LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 245, 16 April 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hon. G. Laurenson favore the idea that employers should maintain an ambulance in mills, yards, and the bush. On April 20 the Mangorei Co-operative Dairy Factory Company will pay out £2850 18s M for milk, as against £2312 17s 9d for March last year. The Gazette gives particulars of additional land to be taken in blocks V and YI, Hawera district, for the purposes of the Foxton-New Plymouth railway.

At a meeting of the Stratford Borough Council last night the Works Committee were instructed to inquire into the character and cost of road-sweeping machines suitable for use in the borough. Measles are again prevalent in New Plymouth. Out of a roll of 591, no fewer than 142 children were absent yesterday from the Central School, nearly all of the absentees being down with the prevailing complaint. As the time for receiving applications for names to be placed on the electors' roll expired on March 26, and the new ward embracing Vogeltown, Westown and Frankleigh Park was not gazetted until March 31, electors in that area will not be eligible to vote at the forthcoming mayoral election. While workmen were opening a sewer at Napier they repeatedly '•'struck oil." In one case quite a large spring was unearthed, the oil flow being about four inches in diameter. Naturally the adjacent landowners have been inundated with requests from anxious individuals for the purchase of surrounding sections. Two children, a boy and a girl, were proceeding home from the West Christchurch school, when they saw something white in a creek. Curiosity impelled them to fish it out, and the reward for their pains was a violent explosion, and they were burnt severely on the neck and clothes. What the explosive was is not definitely known, but it was probably a lump of phosphorus.—Pre6s. Mr. Saunders, manager of the Empire Picture Company, has kindly offered to assist the Central Scouts in their efforts to raise funds to enable them to be present at the great Baden-Powell rally at Wellington on May 24. On Tuesday, 30th inst., a benefit picture entertainment will be held. As the object is a worthy one, a liberal response on the part of the public is confidently expected.

IThe passengers, engine-driver and guard on the slow train from Waipukurau to Palmerston had rather a startling , experience one day last week. When .' the train had passed the Mangatera viaj duct, on the other side of Dannevirke, the engine-driver noticed the body of a I woman lying on the side of the line, and ) after sonic trouble managed to draw the guard's attention to it. The train was then pulled up, but by this time the body was left well behind. The guard went back, expecting to find a corpse, but found instead that someone had been playing a lark, as it turned out to be a j dummy dressed in woman's clothes. The guard took it back to the train, and on passing the first gully threw it in. The town clerk (Mr. F. T. Bellringer) is in receipt of the latest 'bulletin concerning the health of the once plagueinfested city of Auckland. It reports that during .March there were no cases, or suspected cases, of plague in the city, nor were there any cases remaining J under treatment. As regards rats, the I bulletin goes on to say that 541 were examined lust month, and of this number noue were found to be infected, nor were any of the animals "suspects." The date on which the last plague-in-fected area was found in the city is set down as May 31, 1911. Even although Auckland has been "clean" for some time past, the authorities are apparently unrelaxing an their determination to leave nothing to chance. At Opunake last week, the Prime Minister pointed out that the time for constituting the Opunake Harbor Board had gone by. The time stated in the Bill Was three years, from February, 1009, till February, 1912. He said the onus of an unworkable Bill did not rest with Parliament, but with the member for the district. If the Bill was not what it should have been, the member should not have accepted it. He read letters from the Department on the question of constituting a Harbor Board for Opunake, showing that, as the time had elapsed, it was necessary to submit the question of constitution to the Solici-tor-General. He could not make any' promises as to granting expenses to defray the cost of constitution until the matter had been submitted to Cabinet. The wandering cattle nuisance is one that is perennially cropping up at the meetings of Taranaki local bodies, and resolutions are always being passed which prove ineffective to cope with the nuisance, simply because they are not enforced. There is no desire to persecute the person iwhose cattle happen to get on the road accidentally, through a gate being left open inadvertently, but to prosecute the persons who consistently graze the road, and by the exercise of a little cunning dodge the ranger and contemptuously ignore all warnings, whilst the >former, more often than usual, has to journey to the pound for his cattle if they should leave the homestead. At Friday's meeting of the Clifton County Council the matter was again under discussion, when an excerpt from one of the foremen's reports was read, to the effect that it was useless attempting to keep a certain unmetalled road in order so long as a certain ratepayer kept his cattle on the road. This recalled councillors' attention to the fact that they had issued instructions to all foremen to forward particulars (day and date) when cattle were persistently allowed to stray, with a view to the Council prosecuting the owner, and it was decided to ask this foreman to supply details, when a prosecution will at once be instituted, and it is hoped that this will have a salutary effect. But the position is that foremen do not like having to supply such information. They like to live peaceably, and to be cause of a settler, who perhaps may be a neighbor, getting into Court does not tend to foster amity. The best remedy would be the appointment of a ranger, whose duty it would be to patrol the various roads, descending on them at unexpected hours. Vigorous impounding, impartially carried out, followed by prosecution, should see the. roads clear of stray cattle in a short time.

A Wellington telegram states that the voting paper* in connection with the return of a Parliamentary representative to the Victoria College Council have now been returned. Two candidates went to the poll—i Messrs. COias. Wilson and A. E. Atkinson. Mr. Wilson secured 18 votes and Mr. Atkinson 17, and Mr. Wilson is, therefore, re-elected. The Empire Picture Proprietary are determined to keep pace with the times, and to this end they have erected a commodious and up-io-date laboratory at the rear of the theatre. It is fitted up with all the latest appliances for developing and printing kinematograph films. Everything is on a large scale, and the staff will be able to put through the largest of films in the shortest possible time. Some of the processes to be utilised in the laboratory are entirely new, they never having been hitherto employed in the Dominion. Adjoining the laboratory, which has a length of 28 feet and a breadth of 12 feet, are a workshop and an office. As soon as everything is in working order Mr. Saunders intends going in for the manufacture of films on his own account. For a start he will exploit thoroughly the scenic and industrial features of the town and its environs, and later on he proposes to go to greater and more ambitious lengths. The first film will be confined to the Recreation Grounds, and it has alreadv been put through its initial stages. Mr. Saunders is also endeavoring to arrange with the Borough Council for the advertising of New Plymouth and ibs resources through the medium of the kinematograph.