LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 221, 16 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is stated that the British Admiralty have ail eye oil New Plymouth as a future naval base, everything depending upon the .permanence of the oil deposits and the success of the iron industry about to be commenced. Mr. E. C. Isaac, inspector of Technical Education, will deliver a lecture on certain technical subjects at the New Plymouth Technical College this morning. The well-known beauty spot at Ngaere, recently owned by Mr. C. Saunders, has been purchased by Captain Allen, a recent arrival from England. The foundation work in connection with the Agricultural Society's new winter show buildings in St. Germain Square is completed, and beams are now being placed in position for the structure proper. Operations have been considerably hampered, however, by bad weather.

Mr. H. E. Fookes, hon. local representative of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of London, has received advice that the Associated Board's (R.A.M. and R.C.M. London) gold and silver medals for last year's work have been awarded as follows: Advanced grade, gold medal, Phyllis E. Perry, counterpoint, 150 marks (teacher, Mrs. B. L. Levi, L.R.A.M. and A.R.M., Dunedin); silver medal, Jessie M. Jones, pianoforte, 159 marks (teacher, Miss Yorston, Dunedin)_ Intermediate grade: Gold medal, Francis L. Hawke, harmony, 135 marks (teacher, Miss Hart, L.A.8., Wellington); silver medal, no candidate has qualified to receive this medal. The i Victor Harriss Memorial gold medal has i been awarded to Evelyn L. Dowling, New Plymouth, violin, 134 marks. A correspondent writes as follows: "Curious that we never hear anything about the overcrowding of the Central school these days. Why has this agitation died down so completely? It is, as I rather suspect, because the committee got the wind that the cry about insanitary conditions was likely to result in Vogeltown getting a school of its own, and thus reducing the attendance, together with the grade, of the Central school. Apparently it is numbers before health." From inquiries made a News reporter learnt that no reply has been received by the Central school committee to its request to the Education Department to send a health officer to report on the condition of the building. He was also informed on good authority that the committee had virtually dropped the matter. Most of the employers of laborers in New Plymouth have been cited to appear before the Conciliation Council on Thursday, March 21st. They have been cited by the New Plymouth Laborers' Industrial Union of Workers, who are asking for an award for laborers. It is understood that the union's demands met with considerable opposition, the employers as an offset suggesting the Wellington Country Unions' award, which has been adopted in several districts throughout New Zealand. The union, however, views this offer with disfavor. The Employers' Association is taking the matter up, with the result that a meeting of its members together with others interested will be held. In the event of the two' parties being unable to agree the union will, in the ordinary course of events, cite the employers to appear before the Arbitration Court.

The High School swimming sports in Pukekura Lark have been postponed till! next Thursday afternoon. j The motor generator ordered by the 1 Empire Theatre has arrived at Wellington by the Turakina, and is due at New Plymouth early next week. In connection with the fishing and oyster industry at the Bluff, it is stated that three firms operating there pay out wages amounting to £20,000 annually. A farmer in Southland recently threshed a crop of oats which returned the excellent average of 100 bushels to the acre. This made the twelfth crop taken from the paddock. The chairman (Mr. H. Trimble) and the Chief Inspector (Mr. Ballantyne) of the Education Board have visited Vogeltown in connection with the petition of residents to establish a school in the district. If their report is favorable a school will, it is understood, be run as a side-school in conjunction with the Central school.

It is reported that £6B 10s per acre for a farm of 67 acres near Manaia, with | £ 10 a head for the cows, was offered and j refused. This is probably a record price ' —cash> down—offered for dairying land in any dairying district in the Dominion. A few days ago a 220-acre farm, very highly improved in the Okarawa district, brought £65 cash. The last of the opeivair cinematograph displays at the East End Bathing Reserve has been held this'year as far as the Surf Club is concerned. The much postponed entertainment on Monday evening last did not recoup the club for the outlay involved. Given fine, mild nights the pictures were a success, but on the whole the weather this summer has been too cold and' unseasonable. In October last the Education Department arranged with the Public Works Department to erect an addition to the public school at Whangamomona. Not a hand's turn has as yet been done, however, and the teacher has telegraphed to the Education Board regarding the matter. The present building is very overcrowded. The new. portion is to be a movable structure, so that it can be shifted forward, as the railway formation progresses.

A somewhat remarkable feat stands to the credit of a New Plymouth dog, owner's name unknown. Yesterday morning a' business man discovered to his annoyance that a stray canine had sought sanctuary on his premises. He endeavored to chivy the animal outside, when, deciding the window was a quicker means of iexit than the door, it took a flying leap on to the pavement, two stories below. Dog-like, the mongrel 1 howled plaintively,' executed a series of evolutions, and then fled' precipitately. ( Despite the efforts of Mr. W. H. Fletcher and members of the surf club, the movement to form a branch of the Royal Life-Saving Society at New Plymouth has fallen flat, and it is not proposed to do anything further in the matter this season. Certainly there has not been that whole-hearted enthusiasm amongst swimmers as the aims of the society deserved, but then the weather has been wretched and so unreliable. Similarly htre has been a decided slump in all things natatorial. Surfing and sun-bathing have not taken on well this year, and swimming is at a very l<nv ebb, while beach-camping has not been indulged in to anything like the .extent during the last season. With one or two more seasons of the same ilk following in this year's train swimming would be almost a lost art.

While the authorities in many of the other centres have been invoking the aid of the law in their endeavors to force recalcitrant Territorials to toe the mark, New Plymouth has pursued a more pacific line of action. Those responsible realised fully the power of moral suasion. The result has been that although there were many ardent objectors to the compulsory element of the Act at the outset, practically all those eligible for service have, now" been sworn in, and not a single summons has had to be brought on at the Magistrate's Court. This position is eminently satisfactory, and added to that is the fact that (so a News reporter was informed by one'authority) the parades are on the whole being well .attended. Although many of the recruits have a good deal to learn in the direction of route-marching—the recent march to Bell Block would have made an old campaigner's heart bleed —the majority are displaying a ready , interest in their work, particularly the physical drill section, while quite a number are looking forward to the encampment. New Plymouth may congratulate itself that it has been happily spared from having any.pseudo-martyrs inflicted on the community. All things considered, this indicates a very healthy tone amongst the youth of the town, but it is only fitting that the sons of Taranaki, whose early pioneers responded to a man to the call of arms in the Maori war) should thus uphold the district's pr.estlge. _ This is an age of advertising. The spirit of competition enters largely into many phases of life. In the march to progress,, city is up against city, and town_ against town.- Sydney has its "million club," those two keen rivals, Auckland and Wellington, each pursue a campaign of negation when referring to each other, and indulge in self-adula-tion, while many other places have their own particular way of advertising. As regards New Plymouth, a line of advertisement that is at .present being seriously, though informally, discussed in certain quarters is the cinematograph. In the course of a conversation yesterday., a prominent citizen discoursed enthusiastically regarding the suggestion. With its many scenic attractions New Plymouth would, in his opinion, lend itself particularly well to being photographed for the delectation of movinijpicture audiences throughout New. Zealand. Hie idea is to blend the ,-industrial with the scenic, and give views |of all the familiar land-marks. He also suggests that at intervals in a picture hard facts and statistics about the town and its _ environs might well be sandwiched in. It would be necessary, he points out, for the Borough Council to stand sponsor to the scheme. At the outset it should be prepared to lay out say £IOO, for the first series. Subsequent series, he says, could be paid for out of the profits of the first lot. Something, he contends, must be done to boost the town along, and advertising by cinematograph is, to his mind, preferable to the distribution of printed matter and the like. The services in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow will be conducted by the Rev. J. W. Burton. The morning subject will be, "Burning but Unconsumed ; and in the evening Mr. Burton will deal with the question, "Cannot a man do without religion ?" MUSCLES IN KNOTS. JOINTS STIFFENED AND SWOLLEN. Lance-like pains torture and torment the victim of rheumatism, and he fears he will never get rid of the disease. Perhaps you have tried many so-called cures" and largely advertised quack remedies, but all without obtaining relief. Do not despair. There is a medicine that can and will cure you. Take RHEUMO. It is a positive antidote for uric acid poisoning. It relieves pain, removes the swelling, and clears the system of excess uric acid—the cause of all the trouble. RHEUMO is neither a liniment nor a pill, but a liquid medicine of marvellous therapeutic value. RHEUMO conquers Rheumatism. Sold by all chemists and storekeepers at 2/6 and 4/6 per bottle. 25