LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 220, 15 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At a brief sitting of the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning, John Poletti, who recently figured in a collision, was fined ss, with costs 7s, for driving at night without lights. Messrs. E. Coleman and Sons, contractors for the new public offices at N>ew Plymouth, have demolished the old cottage adjacent to the police-sergeant's residence, and have also made a start with the work 'Of shifting the latter building from the site. Voting took place yesterday in connection with the loan proposals of ike St. Aubyn Town Board to raise £SOOO for the purpose of the improvement of the streets in the district by re-grading, forming, metalling, kerbing and making footpaths and culverts. The voting was as follows: For the proposal, 28, against 5, informal 1. Mr. Justice Sim made an order in the Supreme Court on Wednesday confirming an alteration in the memorandum 'of association of the Cape Egmont Cooperative Dairy Co., Ltd., the effect of which is to enable the company to carry •n a general store in conjunction with its other business. Mr. Quilliam appeared for the company. With about nine months of the present yeair gone, New Plymouth has only had eight calls of fire since the end of the last yearly period on June 30th, 1911. The first summons was received on September 9 and the last on February 19. New Plymouth indeed enjoys an enviable record with regard to the smallness of its fire loss, and no small amount of credit is due in this connection to the members of the local volunteer fire brigades, For the year ended June 30, 1911, New Plymouth had eleven calls, involving the modest loss of property to the amount of £4OO. At Hawera, for the same period, there were six calls, and a total loss of £3600; at Palmerston North no less than 48 calls, £3300 worth of property .going up in flames. Feilding, with ten calls, lost £1226 worth of property as the result of fires, while Hastings' quota of eight calls cost the insurance companies £590. At Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, the number of calls received ran into '■l67, 253 and 75 respectively for the period named. Eight years' detention at Burnham Industrial School has apparently certainly not done at least one of its inmates much good. When Charles Sydney Ross was told by the presiding Justices of the Peace (Messrs. Medley and Bellringer), at yesterday morning's sitting of the Magistrate's Court, that his period of unauthorised liberty was to come to an abrupt end by his recommittal to that institution, he spiritedly exclaimed: "I would sooner go to gaol than go back there again. I'll only clear away again." His appeal making no impression on the Bench, the boy—he looked as if he would soon desert his "teens" for his twenties —added with more dramatic effect, "It is 110 good; I will not stay there. I would sooner serve the rest of my time in gao!." One of the Justices was moved to inquire the reason of his great abhorrence of Burnham, and the answer came in almost piteous tones: "As soon as I get back they will stick me into •the detention yard, and set me sawing wood. They will kiclc me around as they like. Going back will only mean coming back," and then, forseeing his fate, his voice acquired a more defiant ring as he finally announced, "You can't keep me there. I have been there too long for that." A Justice: "How long?" Boss: "Going on for eight years." He was then removed from the dock, the order for recommittal beinw made. Boss is the youth who visited New Plymouth on Wednesday in the capacity of a circus linnd, only to be recognised and finally captured, after a 50 yards' sprint, by Constable O'Neill. He escaped from the Burnham Industrial School on August 19 last year.

A Japanese lady has scored a grandmothership at the age of 28, while her own grandmother is alive at the age of 92. The price of kerosene to merchants has advanced a halfpenny a gallon, making a rise of three-farthings in a month. This is attributed to the rise in freights, and to the strikes. Mr. C. J. Billington, of Pongaroa, an experienced butter and cheese-maker, states that the returns for cheese last season gave to the farmer £1 16s 3d per cow better results than butter did.

Owing to the unseasonable weather the garden party which was to have been held at "Overdale," Mr. 11. Cock's grounds, yesterday, in aid of the Park Tennis Club, has been postponed till Thursday next. The Acting-Postmaster advises that cable messages for United States and, Canada may be accepted via Pacific at deferred rates from the loth inst., rates in all cases to be half the ordinary rate, but strictly confined to the United Slate* and Canada. Alaska is excluded. The old family physician being away on a much-needed vacation, his practice was entrusted to his son, a recent m,edical student. When the old man returned the youngster told him, among other things, that he had cured Miss Ferguson. "My boy," said the old doctor, "I'm proud of you; but Miss Ferguson's indigestion is what put you through college." A well-known farmer in Featherston, who has a plant, on his property for the making of concrete fencing posts, says that these can be made for about half the cost of Wooden posts, with a further advantage that the former are everlasting. The cost of a 9ft jarrak post is about as, while a concrete one could be made for about half that amount. The Wairarapa Times says: A local gardener tried an experiment with nitrobacterine on his potato crop this season and obtained some wonderful results. One lot of seed was treated with nitrobacterine and gave a return of 15 tons to the acre, while another plot adjoining, which had not been dressed with the culture, only produced three tons of tubers to the acre.

Oalifornian quail are likely to become a great menace to the fanner in the Auckland province, according to a writer in the Auckland Herald. The birds are very prolific breeders, averaging two sittings of 15 to 20 eggs each time. They are very partial to clover and other small seeds, and will easily eat a dessertspoonful of them in a day. This at about 2, to 3s Gd per pound is rather expensive feeding for such birds. A young man named Mortimer and two friends were out shooting near Newnes, N.S.W., when the former picked up his gun, but in doing so it slipped from his grasp and fell into a crevice, carrying another with it. Both weapons exploded, and one charge struck Mortimer in the groin, at the same time exploding two cartridges in his pocket. He died almost instantly, and at the inquest a verdict of accidental death was returned.

A pony race meeting at Fitzroy (Victoria) last week was full of incidents of an unusual character. A galloway and a pony were fatally injured, and 'both had to be shot on the course. Three injured jockeys were despatched to the hospital in an ambulance. A horse, together with its owner and rider, were disqualified for twelve months, two protests were lodged and dismissed, and the programme had to be increased to eight ewnts, owing to the large entry of ponies. A few days ago a human skeleton was found at Rockford, near Oxford (Canterbury). At this place there is a rock in the Waiwakariri washed on all sides by the river, occupying about a square chain in area, the summit of which stands well above flood-water mark. Recently the river had formed a spit, making the rock approachable. Mr. W. Farrelly, out Of curiosity, went to explore this rock island, and the first object that met his gaze was a human skeleton. It had evidently been there for many years.

In conversation with a Dunedin pressman, a leading butcher referred to the great scarcity of pigs that at present exists throughout the Dominion, and advanced an ingenious, but doubtless correct, explanation of the shortage. Last year an, exceptionally dry season was experienced, he said, and the output of milk was much smaller than usual, with the result that dairy farmers and dairy factory owners who kept pigs found themselves short of food, and were forced to kill off the old pigs and go in less for breeding; hence the shortage. For many years the district from Kopuaranga (formerly known as "The Camp") to Woodville has been familiarly termed "The Forty Mile Bush," but with' the gradual disappearance of the forest, the term has become somewhat a misnomer, and is no longer held in favor by many people. An instance of this occurred at a meeting of boxers in Pahiatua last week. A .proposal that the Association should be called the "Forty Mile Bush Association" was defeated by a large majority, it being decided that the new society should be named the "Bush Association," the same as the governing football body is styled "the Bush Union."—Pahiatua Herald. Returned travellers bring very different accounts of Siberia from the popular idea with regard to it generally. It is supposed to be a desert waste, ice: bound and snow-covered, whereas it is a country with stretches of beautiful soil. "As good land," said one who had been there to an Auckland Stat representative, "as what we are passing through now (this was between Marton Junction and Hunterville, on the Main Trunk line). It is a region of enormous possibilities in the future. Besides its rural wealth, there are untold mineral resources which, some day, must bring about its rapid development. It will yet," said this much-travelled gentleman, "play an important part in supplying the world's food requirements. Coal is there in millions of tons, and there is a huge area of timber untouched. H Siberia only had railways," was the concluding remark, "there is 110 part of the world that I would sooner steer my barque for, knowing what a hive of industry its huge areas must be some day. At present the population is only about two persons to the square mile."

A pleasing feature of the Supreme Court sessions, which concluded this week, was the improved ventilation of the courthouse. Owing to the conversion of several fixed windows into t'.i' 1 adjustable pattern, and the addition of several ventilators, which work was carried out'by the Public Works Department, under Mr, Davis' supervision, the building has lost its old-time fustiness. The doors can now be left open without creating a draught. As showing what can be earned at shearing in a short time under favorable conditions, it is stated that at Kimo, on the Murrumbidgee rivor, near Gundagai, New South Wales, 44,000 sheep, the property of various owners, have been put through tlifa season in 24 days, the actual working time amounting to nineteen days. During this time only about four hours were lost through wet sheet. The ringer in tiie shed shore 2054 sheep, the cheque for which was £35 8s lid. The shearer at the bottom of the list, who did not start until two days later than the ringer, was credited with £2O 0s lOd, upwards of £1 per day, actual working time, for 1070 sheep. Of course, from this must be iVrlnetod living expenses. Nineteen shearers w.-re engaged, and they put through in one week 14.600 sheep, and in one day 3470, oil which occasion only one man shore less than 150, and his tallv was 130. The highest tallies were 2T..5. 230. 23<>. 220, 213, 211, ISO, 184, 170, 17!, 173. The wool classers earned close on .li'JO.