LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 143, 13 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Miss Ilogg is delivering addresses in the bush districts of the Masterton electorate on behalf of her father, who is still indisposed. The blight has made its appearance in several of the potalo crops in the Masterton district. This is said to 'be due to the changeable weather. Preparations are being made at Lyons, France, for an .elaborate celebration of the 150 th anniversary of the establishment of the first veterinary school in the world. Although 'big prices are being realised for butter at Home at the present time, recent cables advise that the demand is showing a tendency to fall oil'. It is anticipated, therefore, that there will be a slight drop in prices in-consequence. The discovery of a "second beach line" at Bluff City, 00 miles east of Nome, has caused great excitement on the Alaskan goldfields, and has given a new lease of life to prospecting operations in the Seward peninsula. December 7, 1911, will undoubtedly mark an epoch in Mr. W. A. Veiteh's life (says the Wanganui Chronicle). On that day the electors presented him with the expression of their approval, and his wife presented him with a son. A large whale seventy feet long has been washed ashore on the West Coast, .seven miles from Waiuku, and has been secured by two speculators. A waggon load of casks and boilers have been sent out for boiling-down purposes. The estimated value of the whale is £3OO. ' A New Zealand merchant states that according to information received, the margarine dealers and other fakers of butter at Home are making the most of the present high prices, and in some i cases are placing butter on the market that is not always what it is represented to be. At the Council meeting yesterday, when the question of road maintenance was under consideration, a councillor retaarked that the trouble would be all over when we get the flying machines. When that day comes lie expects to see parcels dropped at people's doors, thus avoiding roads and gates. The difficulty of getting men just when the foreman of a local body wants them was pointed out at the Council meeting yesterday. A member of a deputation said if two men had been employed at a particular time the road would not have got so bad. A councillor said that it was difficult to get men at a particular time, although some people might think it was an easy matter, and only those who have wanted them knew the difficulty. • Shareholders are reminded that the annual meeting of the Taranaki Petroleum Company will be held in the Good Templar Hall to-morrow, commencing at 1.80 p.m. At the conclusion of the company's business Mr. 11. J. Brown, chairman of the British Empire Oilfields, Ltd., will address shareholders, possibly outlining the future operations in connection with petroleum matters in Taranaki. Mr. Carter will make an important statement concerning his negotiations in England. Yesterday afternoon a group of men were seen in front of the Council Chambers, being intent on inspecting a traction engine belonging to the Transport Company. It had been brought along for the benefit of the councillors, who had to decide whether they would accept the company's offer to repair the damage caused by it, which they did. Foot-rules were placed on the wheels, the front ones being six inches and the back ,ones twelve inches in width. The weight of the engine and load is seven tons. •

The Mayor was on 'Monday appointed the Borough Council's delegate at a meeting to be held at Stratford on Friday evening to discuss the question of p," universal half-holiday for the Taranaki province. , It was also resolved to ask the Taranaki Employers' Association to appoint its chairman as a delegate to act with the Mayor. The question of the day to be fixed for the half-holiday was left to the discretion of the delegates, but the delegates were authorised to state to the conference that the feeling in New Plymouth was in favor of Saturday. At the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. 11. S. Fitzherbert, S.M., judgment was given for plaintiff by default in the following eases:—A. J. Burgess (Mr. Eov) v. 11. Eva, claim £1 Is 6d, costs ss; A.B.C. Boot Co. (Mr. Hutchen) v. J. Reillv, £1 4s Td, costs 6d; Thos. Walsh v. 1\ C. Sullivan, £1 7s, costs ss. In the judgment summons case, T. C. Moore (Mr. Johnstone) v. Edward W. Rabson, defendant appeared and gave evidence, after hearing which an order was made for the payment of the amount claimed, £4 (is, within seven days, or in default seven days imprisonment in tke New Plymouth gaol. At the Magistrate's Court yesterday, Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert, S.M., gave judgment in the case M. Jones v. J. C. Monteftore, evidence in which was taken last court day. There were two disputed items, viz., the hire of a motor-ear to Sentry Hill and the charge for hise of a racing sulky. The magistrate reviewed the evidence and held that Mr. Jones had acquiesced in defendant using the motor-car in the afternoon and so waived his right to charge. That item would be struck off. With regard to the £2 charged for the sulky, the magistrate said the evidence was that if the horse won at Opunake defendant would pay £2, if not, nothing. That seemed a reasonable offer, and as the horse did win, though not in the sulky, that item •would be allowed. He considered also that 5s per week was a fair charge for the time the sulky was retained, viz., eleven weeks. Judgment was accordingly entered up for plaintiff for £4 15s, with costs £1 12s. ' A syndicate has been formed at Mokau for the purpose of placing a house-boat on the river for the convenience of , tourists and those who enjoy the picnic parties on the water. Mr. L. Jacob is at the head of the company, and has arranged for the vessel to be built in Wanganui. She will be forty feet long, with a seven feet beam, and guaranteed to draw no more than nine inches with a three-ton load. She will be fitted with ; two 10-li.p. oil engines, manufactured by Stewart Bros., of Wanganui, which will give her a speed of 10 miles, and will be tunnel built and have twin screws. The seats may be removed to make way for cargo or be converted into sleeping bunks. She will be able to carry about 40 passengers, and the deck will foe covered with an awning. The vessel is being .built with a jarrah bottom and kauri sides, and will be installed with electric light, with head and searchlights for travelling at night. It is expected that the vessel will ,be on the river in time for the holiday season. The enterprise will be the means of the coast being connected with the King Country and the Waitomo Caves. An ideal trip for tourists will be from New Plymouth over Mount Messenger to Mokau 'by motor-car, thence up the river to Totoro, and on to Waitomo. It is expected the rapids between the mines and Totoro will 'be negotiated. It is expected the enterprise will prove of service in opening up settlement in the Mokau, and New Plymouth people will no doubt give it the encouragement it deserves.

It is understood amongst the Palmerston dairymen that the Wellington merchants are now practically unanimous in their intention to raise the price of butter another penny per lb. From a Home paper we learn that the dance that will in all probability be the rage of the London season will be the -"no-clasp waltz," which has been introduced by Oscar Ifagine. Toronto is about to make the exporijnent of running railless trolley cars. Xo track is laid for these cars, which, as they run along the street, can swing to one side in order to pass otker vehicles. The experiment is being watched with the greatest interest. Hastings has now a population of 7500 within the area which contained only 3000 persons twelve years ago. In and i\round Hastings fine buildings are now being erected, among which are a Mormon agricultural college (to cost £7000), Woodford House Girls' College (to cost £7500), and the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co.'s premises (to cost £0000). "They denied liability," said counsel in a recent Supreme Court case, "but that is nothing. You go to any of the carrying or shipping companies with a claim and they say- at once that they are not l-able. But no one takes notice of that." "It is very different from things at Home." replied Sir Robert Stout, the Chief Justice. His Honor related an incident in his own experience to illustrate his point. He was travelling from Switzerland to London. "Mv son had looked to the luggage, and had said to be, 'You will find it all at the Liverpool street station.' When I went for it there was one parcel missing. What did the company say? 'We are very sorry. AYhere are you going? I told them 1 should be one day in London and then go on to Edinburgh. They said, 'Very well, we will send it on for you. We are sure to find it.' It came to Edinburgh tho day after I arrived." Russia promises to become a very big competitor in the world's markets in course of time. A British Consular report states that Siberia's butter exports totals £4,000,000 annually. Of the total output, which is obtained from 2000 to 3000 farms, representing a capital value of only £1,000,000, European Russia, Germany, England, and Denmark take between them 50,0000 tons. At present the area of production of butter is a strip of country about 200 or 250 miles along the railway from Urals to the Obi and thence to the Altai mountains, surrounding which tract are vast stretches of country which a railway would immediately add to the comparatively insignificent area now devoted to dairying. Exports of other cattle products are placed at £2,000,000 annually, and at-) tempts have lately been made to intro- j duce Siberian meat into England and Germany. More recently a' shipping trade in game and poultry has been set! going, and the eggs supplied to other countries are increasing very rapidly in number.

Eugene Zimmerman, father of the Duchess of Manchester, and a millionaire discussed at the Business Men's Club, Cincinnati, says the New Yank World, the hard life of a millionaire. "Nobody loves a millionaire any more," he said. "Once millionaires were the popular heroes of the nation—the brilliant exemplars set up for youth to follow. But now everybody is throwing bricks, or malting laws to hurl at the rich. The millionaire, foU lowing the instinct of self-protection, has taken a back seat. It's awful. The millionaire daren't show his head in Government any more, for somebody is around* ready to throw something. All we can do these days is to vote. Is a millionaire sent to the Senate? Well, right off somebody accuses him of buying his seat. Is he given a Cabinet position? Well, no President dare do such a thing if he values his political life. A millionaire has no chances any more. Instead of sending successful men of affairs to Washingtoil, and to our State Legislatures, to make our lams, we are sending men who could not run a peanut stand—political incompetents who ca.n get the votes. The corporations are being hampered by two much legislation."