LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 186, 5 February 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

,It is said that a number of Wairarapa settlers have offered to send their motor care to run in Wellington for the emergensy of a tramway strike.

The opening of the mixed bathing season takes place to-night at the Municipal Swimming Baths. The baths will be available for this purpose between 7 30 and 9.30.

A veil-known settler in tie Wanganui district has recently sold his property which has been in the family for over 40 years. His chief reason for selling was the fact that the property had in late yeare become overrun with gorse. A returned New Zealander affirms that Queensland has outstripped the Dominion in its progressive land policy, and big areas are being secured,. The next step is the construction of a railway to open up. the Crown settlements, and townships are springing up like mushrooms. A great deal is heard from time to time about "poor natives." This evidently ie a misnomer as far as Hawke's Bay is concerned. A gentleman who has just been through the district states it is estimated that, every Maori, man, woman and child, has an income of £3 per week. r

A monster eel was captured in the Opihi river (says the Temuka Leader). The eel was discovered in shallow water, and was secured without any great trouble. It was found to measure sft 2in in length, and 18in in girth, and scale 331b. Suspended on a wall it looked like a fair-sized post. Another large eel was caught in the Opihi on Wednesday afternoon, and turned the scale at 291bs.

The use of profane language becomes a perfect habit with some men, and every second word is an oath. A few days ago (reports a Wairarapa paper) three men were talking within easy hearing of an accountant who was working on his books. He noticed the reiteration of an oath, and for curiosity Bake put a mark on the wall each time the one particular oath was used. He kept tally for 20 minutes and then totalled up the list—76 oaths. r

Travellers and explorers agree that the tallest tree in Australia is probably one of the Eucalyptus species, which was found on a spur of Mount Baw Baw in Gippsland, Victoria. Experts have aslf«Tl& rl 18 eight of the tree to be 326 feet. Its girth at six feet from the ground is 2o feet 7 inches. A tree of the same species discovered at Neerim, also m Gippsland, while only 227 feet high, has a «rth of 53 feet 7 inches at six feet from the ground.

Potatoes are coming' freely from North Otago (says the Dunedin Star) and so far there is no sign of blight. The reports from Canterbury are of an abundant crop, and other districts further norl.li are putting potatoes on the market in large quantities. Growers are wondering who is going to eat all these potatoes. An outside demand would be welcomed. Meanwhile, New Zealand housewives may feel reasonably assured as to cheap potatoes and also cheap broad during the coming year. VISITING CARDS.-When yot. run out of cards, Bend your order for more to the Daily News Printery. 5/6 for fiO, oar ,5/- for 100 (postage paid).

At a meeting of the Taranaki Winter Show- Schedule Committee two extra classes were added to the dairy section, the schedule for which, will be issued immediately. The school children's holiday is now at an end, as school commences to-day throughout Taranakh (The children will lu> sorry, but many of their parents will probably not.

Judging by the smoke that over-hung the town .yesterday settlers are taking advantage of the few days' fine weather to burn their feiled bush. Owing to the wet season there should not be the same danger from bush fires ' as was the case last year. The butter exported through New Plymouth during January was valued at .-£'60,373, and the cheese at £30,996, butter being reckoned as worth 105s and cheese at 60s per cwt. In the corresponding, month of last year the butter export was valued at £71,754, and the cheese at. £18,060.. There is an unusual number of Maoris in town just now on account of the sitting of the Native Land Court to-day, and taking advantage of this fact the local office of the Public Trust Department has been paying" out large sums to natives in the way of rents. On Friday 113 natives in the Waitara and Urenui districts received £6OO, and on Saturday another hundred received about £7OO odd.

> Mr. H. B. Irving was a visitor at the Wellington SupreW Court during the progress of the criminal sessions on Friday, and was present . throughout the trial of the man Hughes, who was sentenced to twenty years' hard labor. Mr. Irying has long been a keen student of criminology, and is a frequent visitor at the Old Bailey on the occasion of great criminal trials. He was called to the Bar in 1894, but never practised. In 1898 he produced the "Life of Judge Jeffreys," and in 1901 a volume of criminal studies entitled "French Criminals of the Nineteenth Century."—Dominion. Two Taranaki residents spent portion of their summer vacation on a walking tour. From Waitara they journeyed to Tongaporutu, then along the Okau and Mangapapa roads to the Tangarakau gorge. From that point they continued their journey via Whangamomona to Te Wera, where they met the train. The trip occupied four days, and they report having had an enjoyable and interesting time. They considered that the view from Mt. Messenger was superexcejlent, hut its glories 'faded into insignificance as compared with the Tangarakau gorge, which they prophesy will be one of the most popular scenic resorts of the Dominion when within easy reach of the railway line. They also returned home with a much better idea of the life of the backblocker, and his unbounded hospitality. Nest year they purpose going further afield.

Says a correspondent to the Wanganui Chronicle: "See the long struggle New. Plymouth has had, and unless I am considerably mistaken, New Plymouth is well on the road to reap the benefits of her harbor. . . New Plymouth will, in the near future, be connected with the Main Trunk line, and will thus draw on the natural preserves of Wanganui in that district. Why was New Plymouth so fortunate in obtaining this concession from the Government? Surely it was no more a Government stronghold than Wanganui once was; yet New Plymouth is soon to have this connection. with the Main Trunk line. Wanganui's claims receive scant attention in this matter. Now, where are we? No harbor and no direct railway communication with the interior. New Plymouth, what of her?— just on the eve of having, at anyrate, berthage for large liners (this position being largely due to tlie new dredge they obtained some time ago), and also just on the eve of communication with the interior. There's a big gap between the position of the two places, yet we find Wanganui dragging along with no particular end in view."

Writing to a member of the Mataura Ensign's'staff, Mr. Dolamore (who has just returned to Torquay, in Devonshire, from an extended tour of the Continent) remarks upon the universal employment of the New Zealand cabbage palm, veronicas (koromiko) and flax in embellishing the European pleasure resorts. "You see fine specimens of the cabbage palm everywhere you go," he remarks. "In Southern Italy and on the Italian and French Riviera they flourish cheek by jowl with the date and fan palms, while in the milder parts of Switzerland, where those heat-loving specimens would not endure the touch of frost in winter, the cabbage tree is entirely relied upon to give the semi-tropical touch to the landscape, and is extensively employed in every stage from babyhood to full stature. Where the climate is colder our familiar friend is carefully cuddled in tubs. The New Zealand flax is also largely and effectively employed by the Continent gardeners, and being a hardy and adaptable subject has a wide range of quarters. I noticed two specimens flourishing exceedingly in the region sacred to luturnia, the nymph of the springs that rise in the Roman Forum." » '