LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 246, 17 April 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Owing to the staff being away at Hawera camp, the parades for the New Plymouth and Technical School cadets are cancelled this week and next. Their next parade will be May 3, 1912. A conference of prison gaolers ha 6 been convened by the Minister of Justice (Hon. J. A. Hanan), to discuss matters relative to prison management. The conference will open in Wellington on Saturday. At a meeting of the directors of the New Plymouth gasworks yesterday Mr. E. Dockrill was appointed chairman, and a committee consisting of the chairman and Messrs A. M. Thomson and C. T. Mills was appointed to go into the question of administration. The Palmerston North Borough Council last evening resolved that the resolution of the Libraries Conference, that the Parliamentary library be made the nucleus of a national reference library, be strongly approved, and that the executive of the conference be instructed to use all the means in its power to have it carried into effect. The Conciliation Council continued its sittings throughout yesterday, and subsequently adjourned until this morning. It is understood that practically all the points in dispute between the carpenters and joiners and their employers have been settled, except those reflating to the j preference clause and the wages to be paid to "inside" or factory hands. Mr. Pi. McK. Morison was to have addressed the electors at Stratford last night, but owing to the inclement weather there was only a poor attendance. He announced that he would ac- : eept nomination for the mayoralty, and would definitely contest the e'lection,and if he were defeated he would take it as an indication that the electors did not desire bis services. After the nominations were in he would call another meeting and place his views upon municipal matters before the electors. " An effort is being made to push forward the raising of game by the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society. According to the annual report of the society, one hundred eggs were purchased, but hatching results proved very poor. However, sufficient birds are now in stock to breed, from when the proper eeason arrives, and a small game farm will be established, and eventually birds will be liberated in fair numbers. The society is indebted to Detective-Sergeant Bodd'am for"presenting it with two brace of young birds as a nucleus for the game farm/ Californian quail are now very plentiful all over the district, and pheasants are reported to be fairly numerous. At tlie meeting of the Stratford Borough Council on Monday, Dr. Paget arrived in the council chamber bearing a lump of stone. At a later stage, when it was reported that a contract for the supply of metal had been let to Mr. Chard, he asked, "Is he supposed to supply me with boulders, and is he supposed to blow them out of the river into my garden." This jagged rock weighed about four pounds, and he found it on the road just outside his gate, it having been blasted out of the river. At the time there came a regular fusilade on his roof and into his garden, in which one of his children and other children were playing, and his gardener was also working there at the same time. This blasting was very dangerous, and he was pleased to know that an undertaking had been given that it would not occur again. The mayor said that immediately it came to his knowledge that' blasting was going on, he had seen Mr. I Chard, who told him it was done witlilout his knowledge, and he had undertaken that it would not occur again.

"The next time I live in a residence in Wellington it will not be iu a Ministerial residence," said Sir Joseph Ward at Wellington on Monday evening, on the eve of his sailing for Australia on holiday bent. A voice: No. no. Sir Joseph Wand: "Yes. I want to say why. It is because a few people here are so lost to all sense of decency that they won't allow a public man to rest in his own home." (Applause.) He would recommend public men in this country not to live in Ministerial residences in the future. He wanted others to be saved from people who showed such a contemptible spirit. He was not speaking of the people as a whole, but only of a few. Most of the residents were above such contemptible conduct. In conclusion, he said he was not going away with feelings of enmity or illwill against anybody. "I want to say au revoir, but not goodbye," he concluded. "For the present, farewell." If everything went well, he hoped soon to be back and to find hia friends as happy and- as they—and himself—were at the present time. The annual report of the Acclimatisation Society states that Mr. W. F. McAllum generously leased, for a small rental, part of the old Frank! ey Road tannery property as a site for a hatchery. One of the buildings has been turned into a hatching house, and all the necessary appurtenances for fish culture erected therein, and during the past season two hundred thousand ova were hatched and liberated in various streams in the district as under:—Stony River, 8(500 rainbow; Waiwakaiho, 13,000 rainbow; Warea, 1000 rainbow; Waiweranui, 1000 rainbow; Inglewood district, 10,000 rainbow, 7000 brown; Tariki, 2000 rainbow, 3000 brown; Egmont Village, 2500 rainbow; Te Henui, 1000 rainbow; Huatoki, 3000 rainbow, 3000 brown; Mangorei, 3000 rainbow; Mangamahoe, 3000 rainbow; Baker's pond, Frankley Road, 125 r »r»inbow; Te Henui, 3000 brown; Keri, 5000 brown. The society is now in a position to hatch on a large and comprehensive scale. In a few years all the streams in the district should be fully stocked and kept so. The report adds that the fishing season has been rather disappointing, owing to so much bad weather. Fish have been fairly plentiful, and it is pleasing to note that fishermen report having caught rainbow trout in streams thought to be bare of them. The discovery of the North Pole fell to the Americans, and the South Pole is the prize of the Norwegians. This is made very clear by the return of the Terra Nova, as on January 3 Captain Scott was I'so miles away from the Pole, whereas Captain Amundsen had reached it in the middle of December. The question of luck enters largely into such matters, but there is no luck about the superiority of Crescent Blend Tea. It has won its way into favor through sheer merit, and this position it will always maintain.—Advfc. For Influenza take Wood's Great Peppermint Cure. Never fails. 1/6, 2/6.

Keen canvasing in view of the contest for the Auckland Mayoralty on April M has resulted in the placing of abou* 27,000 names on the city roll. They are honest folk in Carterton. A few days ago a working man lost £9O, including four five-pound notes. An advert's-roer-: was inserted in the local p.ipi'i- iuid th.-.t .paper stated next day: "This morning we had the pleasure of receiving itlie whole sum intact." A correspondent writes to a southern contemporary as follows:—Mr. Payn« becomes more and more a puzzle picture. He .says he will support Mr. M&asey. Now he is suing the leader of the Opposition for £3OOO. Does he mean that he wants Mr. Massey to support him? In answer to a questioner, who said thai he was from a fiaxmill, Mr. Robertson, M.P., at a recent meeting, said that )>• was in favor of an improvement of the living conditions at the mills. If the hands would kick for better accommodation, and a little less beer, he thought that they would (be a little better off. The Hon. G, Laurenson recently stated that the estimated Customs revenue for the year had been exceeded. The Department, after allowing for the remission of duties on articles of every-day necessity, representing £600,000, had estimated the revenue at £3,000,000, but that amount had been exceeded by £278,000. Vandalism is not confined to the towns. At Kumeroa recently two youngladigs had occasion to leave their bicycles standing by the roadside. They wore absent for only a comparatively short time, but when they came back to their machines they found that the tyres had been punctured in no less than twenty-eight places. A woman with seventy-nine previous convictions, and who had been confined in the Fapakoa Home for a year, appeared at the Magistrate's Court, Wellington, on Thursday, on a charge of drunkenness, but could only be dealt with as a first offender because" there had been no conviction against her within the past six months. She was remanded for medical treatment. The figures in last year's census returns go to show that there are 2630 Chinese in the Dominion, including 88 females, 30 of whom are married. The number of children under 14 years of age is 71, which is made up of 41 females and 30 males. It is interesting to note that almost 80 per cent, of the female Chinese population of New Zealand are under 14 years of age. I The fact that it is not always freezing in the Antarctic will come as a surprise to a good many persons. A Sydney lady has received a letter from her son, who is a, memiiber of Dr. Mawson's expedition, in which he states that the weather j was '-bright and sunny, just like Sydney," when the party landed on Adelie Land. Grim winter had not then set in. The writer proceeds:—"lt is a perfect heaven. The scenery is wonderful. The great icefield's resemble the ruins of a Celestial city." Some of the icebergs ' seen on the voyage were as high as the Sydney post office tower, and a mile in length. The writer had gained 201b in weight since he left Sydney. The Labor Department reports that there appears to be a demand for carpenters in country districts, especially in Marlborough and Taranaki, and they are difficult to obtain, at any rate, from Wellington (says the Post). Plumbers are still in demand, and it is almost impossible to get men to go to country engagements. Some applications for hands have been on the books for weeks, but the men are not available. There areno painters on the books of the Department. Building trades laborers are finding some difficulty in finding employment, but the difficulty is not yet pronounced. Before going to any woTk in the country men are stipulating on fares being guaranteed both ways. Seeing that some of the jobs only last three or four months the Department does not consider the stipulation unreasonable, especially in view of the fact that workin Wellington is fairly steady.