LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 188, 7 February 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

This being Leap Year, there are 29 days in the present month. A potato grown in Lincolnshire (England) weighed five and a-quarter pounds. The Public Trust Department intends erecting buildings at the corner of Caledonian and High streets, Hawera. The New Plymouth Borough Council has purchased two sections on the Beach road, Fitzroy, for a public pound and other purposes. ' , It'is reported that several actions for alleged slander are pending at Petone, in regard to individuals who persist in circulating damaging statements. Messrs. Coleman and Sons, contractors for the erection of King George's Hall, the Agricultural Society's new building; made a start with the work yesterday. An effort is being made by the members of the Pukekura Park Board to have the tea kiosk in Pukekura Park opened every day in the week, Sundays not excepted.

A witness in a Court case at Hawera made the unusual statement that he had not had a single loss in calves for five years, and he attributed this to careful feeding with new milk. Patriotism of the proper kind does not seem to reign in every part of Wanganui. The VVanganui East Borough Council accepted a tender for pipes from Germany, although the Wanganui Spiral Pipe Co.'s tender was £IOO lower. Waihi shares are still going down, and are now quoted from £2 -Is to £2 2s 3d. A special article in the Auckland Herald, purporting to be the result of an examination of the mine, is written in a decided minor key. A hairless horse from the Makuri district was purchased in Pahiatua by Mr. G. Wirth, of Wirth's Circus, at what is stated to be a good tigure. The horse was quite normal except for the peculiarity that it had no hair. The latest phase of the trouble over the question as to whether the premises occupied as a laundry by Gan Fun in Devon street east should have been pulled down or not is a letter received by the Town Clerk, from Dr. Chessen, Dis-1 trict Health Officer, enclosing a copy oi the report of Mr. A. H. Kendall on the building. In a footnote, Dr. Chesson states: "It certainly appears unfortunate that any permit was granted for the renovation of any portion of the building, and in any case the rear portion appears to be in a very unsatisfactory condition." He added that he would refrain from giving his recommendations until he had personally inspected the building on the occasion of his next visit to New Plymouth a few weeks hence. If the statement made to a Daily News reporter last week by the secretary (Mr. G. F. Dewhirst) of the Inglewood Co-operative Bacon Company, is to be taken as a criterion, pigs in Taranaki are remarkably free from disease. According to him only a quarter per cent, i of the pigs slaughtered at the Inglewood works are found to be suffering from disease. In proof of this he turned up figures which showed that during the past four weeks 490 pigs had been inspected by the Government veterinarysurgeon (Mr. Godfrey), and of these only one had been condemned. This, explained Mr. Dewhirst, was by no means exceptional. Since the company had started operations five Government inspectors had handled its output, and each officer had remarked that the district' was the healthiest that had come under his notice. Questioned further,' Mr. Dewhirst said that one of the contributing factors to this satisfactory state of affairs was that nearly all the pigs supplied to the factory were skim milk-fed. There was only one cheese factory in the district his company was drawing from. Its territory extended as far as Toko and Douglas, Midhirst on the south, Waitara on the north and New Plymouth on the. east. _ The one cheese factory was at Tariki. Clean styes, he added, doubtless also contributed to the healthiness of the pigs. Speaking in another connection lie said that to a large extent the very low percentage of disease among the pigs was a reflexion of the soundness of the cows engaged in the dairying industry in Taranaki. The almost entire absence of disease was a sure key to the fact that our cows, upon the skim-milk of which the pigs were fed, must be very clean and healthy. There was a great talk at one time of pasteurising the skim-milk at all the factories, but apparently, with the advent of such a low percentage of disease, it was, in the opinion of Mr. Dewhirst, not likely that the system would be generally adopted.

Complaint is made in the Dannevirke News that, acording to a resident of that town who had occasion to travel by the express train from New Plymouth last Monday week, there were only two first-class carriages on the train. One was a "smoker" and the other was marked reserved. The ladies could hardly expect to be comfortable in the "smoker," whilst the only other firstclass carriage was reserved for a police seTgeant, a constable two handcuffed prisoners, a lady warder, and a female prisoner, who were being returned to Wellington. This preferential treatment of the Justice Department was (states the exchange) too much for those passengers who had paid first-class fares, and an indignant deputation waited on the stationmaster. That official was, he states, for a time obdurate, but the passengers persisted in demanding another first-class carriage, and this was finally accorded _ them. The complainant adds that the incident was warmly commented on by the travellers, and 'the remarks that passed were not complimentary to the management of New Zealand railways. The matter was brought under the notice of the stationmaster at New Plymouth yesterday by a Daily News representative. According to that very able official only one man made a fuss, and that was the Dannevirke traveller! Under the circumstances the extra accommodation would have been put «n in any case. It was impossible for him. however, to (ell until about five minutes before the train left whether another carriage would really be required. It was not, he adtbd, a question of "being obdurate" and then giving way. Tu postponing his decision he had "simplv followed a long established and unavoidable practice. As for the alleged preferential treatment 'of the Justice Department, the trouble was that the carriage referred to was the only one on the'' train with a small compartment suitable for the purpose. Otherwise a whole carriage would have had to be reserved.

"In spite of the so-called prosperity of New South Wales, there is a great undertow of poverty in Sydney, caused by the unhappy conditions of labor an;', its demand and supply," remarked the Rev. S. D. Yarrington, in an address in Sydney last week.

The new ferry buildings to be erected nt Auckland will cost close upon £75,000. It was remarked at a meeting of the Harbor Board that the new and costly buildings would not provide as much accommodation as could have been secured by the expenditure of, say, £4OOO to proper advantage.

The price paid for pea-picking in Nelson is Is per luilf-sack, and the average picker picks from live to eight half-sacks per day. In exceptional cases this lias been far exceeded. During this season one youth is reported to have picked fifteen half-sacks in one day, and a- girl is reported to have picked thirteen halfsacks on each of two successive days. A sensational railway episode occurred between Perth and Fremantle one day last week. While a train was running at the rate o£ about 20 miles an hour, the child of Mrs. Duval, who was sitting at an open window, sprang out of her anna and tumbled out. The distressed mother could not signal the guard to stop the train, but when it reached Subiaco, a search party went back, The child, which was only two years old, was found uninjured, playing between the rails.

A suicide Club lias been discovered by the police in Kursk. The. club had for its motto, "Death is the cure for all ills,' f but as set forth in a little book of rules, candidates for membership had first to show that they had a substantial cause for wishing to die. A would-be candidate who presented himself with the weight of ten of more years of unhappy married life was received with open arms. Loss of fortune, incurable disease, and a record 'of ill-luck all round were also excellent qualifications for membership.

The whaler Hananui 11. arrived at Bluff on Saturday and left again on Monday. Her only capture was a humpback whale, which the crew would not have bothered about, so they said' but for the animal persisting in playing about the vessel. The Hunanui 11, has been operating in the locality of the Solanders, but sperm i,ind black whales are the prey which are being sought after, other species being considered unprofitable. Only one sperm whale was sighted during the trip, and this the vessel was unable to reach.

: An alarming incident occurred lately in the Khandesh district of Bombay. One evening a jackal entered the American mission at Dliulia, and. attacked two of the children, biting them badly. One of the ladies of the mission immediately rushed to the assistance of the children, and caught the jackal by the neck, while a female servant seized it by a leg, both being badly bitten by the animal. The lady then grasped the muzzle of the jackal, and continued to hold on till, attracted by the uproar, a male member of the mission rushed to the spot and brained the animal with his gun. A remarkable exhibition of antique watches and clocks is being 'held in Dundee. An outstanding exhibit is a mechanical watch bearing on its dial a representation of Moses striking the rock, and when the watch is in motion a representation of running water is produced. The watch, though it bears no name, is of French make, and is 18-oarat gold. The work is executed in high relief, Moses and the elders being in the foreground, while in the background are depicted the Israelites in attitudes of despair, and the All-seeing Eye looks down from a cloud upon the arid desert. A big increase has been made in the rate of interest upon loans to local bodies from the State-Guaranteed Advances Office. Unlfl. recently, the rate hasbeen fixed at £3 10s per cent., with £1 7s Od per cent, for sinking fund, and (id per cent, for contingencies; a total of £4 18s upon loans extinguished in 3G'/ 2 years. The Department has now raised the rate of interest, including sinking fund and contingencies, to £5 "5s per cent. The operations of the Department are to be restricted, as advice has been given to local bodies that when applications for loans are considered preference will be given to those from local bodies who have not already borrowed more than . £SOOO.

Correspondence is proceeding in Wellington papers on the price of butter. In answer to a writer signing himself "Consumer," who complained that the Government spends too much on the dairy farmer, "Producer" writes in the New Zealand Times: Does he Buggest that any public money spent in this direction is not well spent? Has he ever considered the paralysing effect it would have upon business if there was an extended depression of the cheese and butter markets? I fear he has not. The dairy farmer last of all is the one who should be selected for criticism such as that contained in this morning's letter. Dairymen as a class fully recognise and appreciate the advantages of (Jtate aid, but when the comparative expenditure and the value of the industry are placed' side, by side it is soon apparent that where the dairyman are receiving the pennies the country is gaining the pounds., Last year £ 10,000 covered the amount spent by the State on dairying. The dairy factories turnfed out produce to the value of nearly five million pounds' worth, over threefifths of which went out of the country, and the cash value was returned and distributed. Is that not a good bargain for the people, and does it not dispose of the argument that "the producer is flourishing at the undue expense of the local consumer?" Does "Consumer" imagine that dairymen are flying about the country in motor-cars at his expense? Let him go into the country and see for himself, or, better still, let him take up a farm at the ruling land values or rents. He would soon be convinced that dairymen require all the profits that are forthcoming in order to make both ends meet. There is no sentiment in business, and the dairyman is simply conforming to a human instinct when 'lie disposes of his goods in the market which in his judgment will show the best return.

MORE MELBOURNE SUIT TALK. The majority of men desire to get as much for their money as they possibly can. That is the basis upon which sensible people plan their expenditure. They have to, because it is easier to spend money in this day of "high cost of living than to earn it. You have probably decided in your own mind that you ought to get a good suit at a reasonable figure without the "frills" that are supposed to give "class," and that you are in the throes of weeding out the different "makes" that do not meet the ideal you have created about the kind" and "price" of a suit you want to buv. Then let us advise you not to be misled into paying a fancy price for something that you could have bought equally well, if not better, from the Melbourne at a very much lower cost. Remember this, that when you buy a Melbourne suit you purchase a guarantee of workmanship and material that invites comparison. Whatever we claim for it it will do—wear well, fit well, and give you all the suit comfort you desire, and plenty of service. Rut come and see our beautiful array of splendid high-grade suits, all tailor-made and ready to put on. Try one on. Go over its construction inch by inch.- Keel the texture, and notice the finish. Test the cloth and purity of the dyes. Take note of the high grade linings and the superb cut. Then, most important of all, note the low prices, ranging from -40/6 to 65/-. It will be a strange thing indeed if you do not become a. purchaser.

What is said to be the longest train to leave Palmerston pulled out from ibe station yards on Friday afternoon, sajs the Standard. It was fully a <juartar of a mile in length, and contained nirtltythree waggons, drawn by two engines. When the whole train had been put together the front engine stood in the middle of the Square while the luggage van was as far back as the Cook street crossing.

Mr. G. Y. Pearce, M.P., returned home on Saturday night from a. trip through, the Hawke's Bay district (says the Hawera Star). He told a Star reporter that in the vicinity of Dannevirke the country was looking line and green, but towards Hastings it was very dry, whilst on towards Porangahau it was green again. But they had had a remarkably good season round about Hastings all: the same, and had turned off more fat stock this year than ever before. At Porangahau the store sheep were bringing higher prices than similar sheep were reaching on this coast. There is an element of romance about Dick Arnst's wedding. After the assault committed on him on the morning of Boxing Day by some drunken revellers, Dick was taken to a hospital)- where lie fell in love with the nurse wlio brought him back to good health. He married' the lady on 24th January, and the Sydney Sun makes the announcement of the wedding thus:—"The sculling champion's thousands of admirers all over Australia will hear with surprise and pleasure that he is now a happy married man, having riiarried the nurse at St. Aubyn's Hospital who attended him in his sickness. Miss Amy Williams is the young, lady who \yon the heart of the big athlete in' such a romantic manner. SW is 'fair, pretty, and of good figure, and just, as', perfect a specimen of young Australian womanhood as could be found. Her manners are charming,, and she lias a lovable , disposition, which has won her hosts of friends. At the hospital ahe was a great, favorite. The ceremony took place at the residence of the Rev. F. B. Cowling Grafton street, WoollaKra. The proceedings were very quiet, the guests including only a few of the most intimatefriends of the bride and bridegroom."