LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 156, 30 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Taranaki Daily News will not be published on Monday (New Year's Day). Rust has made its appearance in oho or two of the cereal crops in the Manawatu district, but so far its ravages have not been serious.. An Eketahuna telegram reports that heavy rain on Thursday night blocked the culverts, and a violent thunderstorm followed, with vivid lightning. Several windows were broken by the concussions and a number of telephone® fused. A cablegram from Vienna states that children, while playing, found! a skull which is believed to be that of King Alexandra of Servk, which was stolen from his grave, and played football with it. Fragments have been recovered. Investigations are proceeding.

An Order-in-Council has been made and will be gazetted shortly fixing January 1 as the date of the opening of the shooting season for godwit or curlew. This date is in substitution for February 1, as requested by the conference of acclimatisation societies.

"Sunnyside," the New York undertaking journal, celebrated its fortieth anniversary on October 15 by issuing a souvenir number nearly as large as three ordinary numbers. There was a long array of special articles, reviewing the history of 40 years of undertaking and casket-making, and telling the story of the demise of man and his mourning and sepulture. Science is once more being utilised in supplying every-day wants. Asbestos shingles are now being manufactured in America with success, and the trade has grown enormously. The new products are of the lightest weight, and lireproof up to a temperature of 2000 and more degrees. They are proof against acids and weather, and last as long as a concrete building will. The political party game is not all made up of personal bitterness. The Hon. T. Y. Duncan has received the following note from Mr. W. C. Buchanan: "Apart from politics, I sincerely regret that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing my old friend at the gathering of the clans, whenever that may be. It is not to the credit of Oamaru to have shown so little gratitude for your long and faithfuhservice." Two veterans of the Taranaki war were discussing the old days in a train yesterday, and both convincingly alleged that the first hostile shot of the campaign was fired at Waireka. A gentleman whose historical accuracy cannot be doubted, offered to wager a Panama hat that the first hostile shot was let loose at the pah, Waitara West, near the site now occupied by the Waitara West dairy factory. The veterans were not convinced.

Home papers and letters contain distressing accounts of the drought in the North of Ireland. On several occasions prayers for rain were offered up in the churches throughout the province. In Belfast the water engineer stated that no matter what rain may fall now the restriction of the supply must be continued for a long time to come. In Derry the supply for manufactures lias been stopped entirely, with the result that many people are out of work, and only a limited quantity of water is available for drinking purposes.

At the Gore school the children of one family have put up what is certainly an unique attendance record. Annie Ro?s consistently obtained first-class attendance certificates for six years, Jack Ross maintained a similar record 1 for eight years, Molly Ross received her first-class certificates for nine, years, and David Ross has a ten year's first-class record to his credit. It would 1 be difficult to equal this Tecord anywhere in the Dominion (says the Matauro, Ensign), or, for the matter of that, in any other country, so that in the meantime the Ross family may claim a world's school attendance record. A humorous incident in connection with the Raglan election is recorded by the Waikato Times. It appears that the hall at Tuakau, through some mismanagement, was hired to two of the candidates for use on the same night. Both candidates put in an appearance and both laid claim to the building. An argument and a consultation resulted in the two appearing on the platform together, when Mr. Bollard explained the position to the audience, at the same time offering to occupy the chair while his opponent addressed the meeting, provided Mr. Bell returned the compliment. To this (Jie latter willingly agreed, and on Mr. Bell resuming his seat after delivering his views, Mr. Bollard, as chairman, called for questions, which, ho was sure, Mr. Bell would be pleased to answer. When the question list was exhausted, Mr. Bollard made 'his speech, the vacated chair being taken by Mr. Bell. Alternately the candidates occupied and reoccupied the platform, and the meeting broke up in good humor after a vote of thanks had been accorded each candidate by acclamation and tactfully not by a show of 'hands. Whether the hiring' fee for the hall was paid in duplicate, or shared by the opponents, is not stated.

At the breaking-up of the New Plymouth Centra] School the other day, a boy named Jack SkeMey was awarded a prize for nine years' unbroken attendance. There are special circumstances in connection with the case which make the performance probably unique in the history of the Dominion. These circumstances are set forth by a correspondent, who states: "The boy commended school the second week in October, 1902, at College street, Palmerston North, gaining first-class certificates' for 11)03-04-05. In the month of July, 1900, the family left for Wellington on a Saturday. The Monday following he started school again at Clyde Quay, where he obtained a first-class certificate for 1906-07. Again the family left for New Plymouth during the Xmas holidays, and he started at the Central school immediately upon resum-1 ing and again obtained a first-class certificate for 1908. In the month of July, 1909, the family again left, this time for Auckland, leaving on a Friday night, and obtaining the boy's admittance into the Beresford l street school on the following Monday morning. During the Christmas holidays of the year the family again returned to New Plymouth. His full attendance was proved, and the first-class certificate awarded by Mr. Dempsey, of the Central school, where he has continued up to the end of this year, thus completing nine years of school attendance without loss of timequite a unique record, I think, and worthy of being made known." The services in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow will be conducted by the Rev. J. W. Burton. The morning subject will be "Life's Real Values," and in the evening the sermon will be on "The Stained Past, and the Unstained Future." At l'l p.m. there will be the "Watch-night" service. The»,,popular Roslyn Writing Pads (copyrighted), 6d and Is each from all storekeepers.— Advt.

In the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. .1. S. S. Medley, J.P., a first offending inebriate was convicted and discharged.

It is a singular fact that five out of the eight members of Parliament who visited Greymouth on the Timber Commission were defeated, viz., Messrs Stallworthy, Jennings, Field, Arnold and the Hon. T. Duncan.

An Australian has solved the problem of .rendering houses both fly and wind proof. Hi. method is to tack ordinary galvanised |]y netting on to .battens so as to <-10.-e in the whole of the verandah or windows. A Hy proof door affords ingress and exit. The- flies are thus kept out and the force of the wind entirely broken.

The daMy industry is reported to be niakin- r:;,id headway in the Ohura Valley, according to a recent visitor. At present there are two factories, but there is a general outcry for the railway, the first sod of which was turned .by the Prime Minister just previous to the general election. When the line reaches the Valley it is stated that the dairy industry will increase rapidly. The drawback at present is the lack of roads in consequence of the lack of metal in the district, and for six months in- the year the roads are almost impassable. They are rather worse now than usual for this time of- the year. Tn fact they are almost as bad as in the middle of winter, owing to the abnormal amount of rain that has fallen.

Last evening Mr. B. Russell had the misfortune to lose the. St. Paul—Mistletoe mare whioh he recently purchased at Havvera, but had not yet raced. The unfortunate animal was in a paddock at Vogoltown. when something caused it to jump a picket fence, and in so doing it got badly staked. The animal made its way to the yard at the rear of Messrs. Sargood & Co.'s premises, and presented a sickening sight. A passerby noticed its condition, which was so serious that the owner was communicated with, and it was decided to destroy the horse. It wandered about, and in some inexplicable manner got on to the roof of a shed at the back of the warehouse, walking several times to the edge near the street. It then returned to where it had climbed up, and slipped down to the ground. Mr. Jones then put the beast out of its agony. ''Being a farmer myself," remarked Sir William Russell, in an interview in Sydney last week, "the thing that most impressed me was the slack way in which farming is done in England. For instance, on any ordinary farm in New Zealand—and I suppose 'it is the same in Australia—you will see one man driving a team of three, and in some instances four, horses with a two-furrow plough. In England you almost invariably see three horses with a single-furrow plough, a man guiding it and a boy driving the horses, so that with more labor they do just exactly half the work. I saw the same sort of thing with reapers and bindr ers. In consequence of what I may term the dilatory methods of the men on the land, 'heir labor costs them nearly as much as ours does, though farm hands receive no more than half the wages paid out here. The farms in England are very neat—J might almost say very pretty. Their stacks are incomparably better built than ours. That may be accounted for by the fact that their climate is not so good. They are perhaps more precise than we are. We go in for more roughand< ready methods., I have some diffidence in criticising the methods of English farmers, because my experience as a farmer is. purely colonial, but these are the things that struck me."