LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 255, 27 April 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

_ The Lepperton dairy factory heads the list this season for the highest average grade among the factories grading at Moturoa. This factory has had a remarkable record under the management of Mr. W. Roberts, being last year sec- 1 ond on the list for Taranaki, and the previous season top for the whole Dominion. Owing to illness in her family Miss Hunt, instructress in millinery, will ba unable to meet her students next week at the various centres. She will, however, be able to meet ladies who desire to take up millinery at Toko next Saturday morning. Arrangements are well forward fqr classes at Cardiff, Ngaere and Midhirst. The monthly congregational tea took place last night in the Whiteley Church schoolroom. Opportunity was taken to tend.er a welcome to Mr. and Mrs. Peat. Mr. Peat is the newly-appointed circuit missionary. After the tea a con* gregational meeting was which it was decided to recommend the trustees to purchase a new organ for the Whiteley Church. The old pipe-organ has been in use for the past 50 years, and now it is proposed to purchase a really «p-to-date instrument. The matter will be discussed and decided upon at a meeting of the trustees. During last year the following members of the Fitzroy Fire Brigade received | the association's decorations: —Fireman i G. Lamb, 5 years medal; Captain Griffiths, 2 years bar, making 9 years; Lieut. Parkin, 2 years bar, making 7 years; Foreman Bellringer, 2 .years bar, making 7 years; Branchman Sturmey, 2 years bar, making 7 years; Fireman Aroa, 2 years bar, making 7 'years; Fireman G. Kibby, 3 years certificate; Fireman E. Kibby, 3 years certificate; Fireman Hall, 3 years certificate; Fireman Old, 5 years medal now due; Fireman Tanner, 5 years medal now due. The sagacity of a dog belonging to Mr. Geo. Cornford, one of the buyers for the Gear Meat Company, was strongly in evidence last week. Mr. Cornford had been drafting fat sheep and had sent a dog belonging to himself on with the drover with the sheep. The sheep were paddocked at Awahuri. During the night the heavy wind blew part of the fence down, and when the urover went "to get the sheep in the morning they were all missing. They were found some time afterwards a mile or two away, and Mr. Cornford's dog minding them. Although the mob was a fairly large one, and the : dog had been in charge all night, he | had not lost a single sheep. At Weraroa Experimental Farm, Levin, the New Zealand Government has two I champion cows, as proved by their records given below. An exchange doubts, if any other cows in the Dominion have achieved anything as consistently good as the figures below indicate. On Friday. 19th inst., Dominion had been in milk 220 days, and had given a total amount of 10,5271b5, with a test of 3.6. Her return for one day last week was ; 6311k, and the amount of butter-fat 1 i 594.972. Manola, who has been milked i for 205 days, gave 501bs of milk on the [ same day, with a test of 3.5, and a but- [ ter-fat record of 595. For the 2G51 j days her total yield has been 17,0001b5. The following are the contributions to I be levied from local bodies in the TaraI naki Hospital and Charitable Aid Board district, for hospital and charitable aid [purposes for the year 1912-13: Countv of Taranaki, rateable value £1,97G.0G0. amount payable £823 12s 2d; St. Aubysi Town District, £93,720, £39 Is; Clifton County, £956,232, £398 8s 7d; Egmont County, £1,303,773, £SOB 4s 9d; Borough of New Plymouth. £1,207.875, £503 5s 7d; Borough of Inglewood, £143,810, £59 18s sd; Borough of Wnitara, £180,532, £77 14s Od. " Owing to extraordinary expenditure incurred in connection with the new hospital and the Old People's Home, tlie rate is ( slight increase oil that of the previous year.'

The monthly meeting of the W.C.T.U. was held at the, Good Templar Hall on Wednesday last. A report was given by the delegate attending the .New Zealand Convention. It. referred to the encouraging extension of the work and the increased membership throughout the Dominion since last year, upwards of 100 new unions having been formed and about 1000 new members added, showing that the work of the Women's Christian Temperanee Union is becoming better known and appreciated. The "Jumble Fair," arranged for May 23, was discussed. It was decided to accept all sorts of saleable articles for the home, as well as wearing apparel, jam, pickles, home-made bread, etc. A picture-guess-ing competition, entitled "Grandmother's Album," with music, will furnish amusement for all during the evening. A charge of sixpence will be made at the door, which will include tea for those who attend in the afternoon.

A Wairarapa colonist who emigrated from the land of the heather many years ago, returned recently from a trip to Scotland, a saddened man. "You hear out here occasionally about the great immigration to Canada and the States. Travelling in the country parts of Scotland one can see two effects of it everywhere. Land that has been cultivated for scores of years is falling into disuse, and many of the farms held on lease from the lairds are falling back into the main estate for lack of tenants. What is the most pathetic thing of all, to my mind, is to note the absence of young folks in the country. In the cities you see them, but there are few left in the country on the farms. Old people seem to be doing the work everywhere. If you ask them where their sons are they will invariably tell you that they're doing weel in Canada.' It's very disheartening to go back to the old place." An ex-Dunedin gentleman now resident in Capetown writes as follows to a friend in Otago:—''The Dutch are having it all their own way, and are determined to run their language for all they are worth. They will not be satisfied until they have cleared out every Britisher in South Africa. There is still a very bitter feeling against the British, and it is worse now than ever it was. I have no faith in Mr. Botha or any of his clique; they are opposed to all immigration, for the simple reason that they are flightened that too many Britishers will come into the country. In the education system every child has to be taught Dutch, whether one likes it or not. But one of our biggest troubles ahead is the colored question. The blacks populate at the rate of about 20 to 1, and they all get education, and in many cases think themselves superior to the British. They, are a lazy race, and most of them live very cheaply. Another trouble is the colored servant question. They are most independent, and must be quite pampered before they will stop. Rhodesia seems to be the coming country. lam pretty certain it will not join the Union; it is strongly British. P]vcrvthiri;' in the farming, native, gold and tobaccogrowing lines is going ahead at a <*reat pace." "

WHY GO HUNGRY. If ynui stomach is weak, and you are suffering from indigestion, don't sacrifice your health and comfort. Eat all the wholesome food you want. Then take one of Dr Sheldon's Digestive Tabules after each meal. They digest you'r food, and thus nourish and'build you up, while the stomach is .recovering its' natural tone. Is (V 2s fid per tin. Obtainable everywhere.

Speaking at Eketahuna, Mr. J. G. Wi!I son stated that the dairy herds of New Zealand could be increased in value by £'oo,ooo by a universal system of individual testing. The Mayor (Mr. <l. W. Browne) will be formally installed at a meeting of the Borough Council next Wednesday morning, at ten o'clock. Opportunity will also be taken to appoint the standing committees. A decision, given by a.Court in Philadelphia, that a wife has a right to rifle the pockets of h r husband and take his last coin, has given rise to a considerable amount of controversy (states the New York correspondent of a London journal). The decision was made in the case of Mr. John Dorcas, who pleaded that he was forced to leave his wife when arrested for non-support, because she had habit <jf "going through" his pockets every night and relieving him of all the money she found in them. After hearing both sides of the case, the judge decided that, according to law, that that which belonged to Dorcas also belonged:- to .Mrs. Dorcas, and it did not make any difference how she got it. An interesting aside took place in the argument in the Kingsland cases, the King v. O'Shaughnessy, Haskell and Campbell, in the Court of Appeal on Monday (says the Wellington Post). Mr. I!. A. Singer, counsel for the accused, asked that, in the event of the letters being held inadmissible, the judges would not order a fourth trial, not only on humanitarian grounds, but because publication of the letters again and a«ain would prejudice O'Shaughnessy in the eyes of another jury. Mr. Justice Edwards merely smiled. The- Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout): 'lf you look at it from a humanitarian point of view, it is useless coming to argue it in the Court of Appeal." Mr. Singer: "There have already been three trials." His Honor: "That may be the fault of only one juror, who might be dull, stupid or a rogue. Would not the publication of one jury's disagreement prejudice another jury?'' Although the past five years has seen the ever ready fighting strength of the British Navy more than douhjed, those five years have been years of economy. The Dreadnought has saved the British people probably not less than £25,000,000 of past and prospective expenditure. The policy which it represents' has been a triumph of economy. When this famous all-big-gun ship was laid down it rendered obsolescent thirty-eight foreign battleships with mixed armament, which were at that instant not completed, mind, but actually still in the course of construction. By one stroke of statesmanship these thirty-eight vessels of the six other leading navies were, so completely outclassed that in 1015 they will hardly enter into calculations of 'naval strength. But for the Dreadnought Britain would have had to replace with mixed armament ships the battleships built under the Naval Defence Act and the Spencer programme, as well as to construct other vessels to neutralise these thirty-eight foreign vessels. The Dreadnought "cleaned the slate" and paralysed the Admiralties of the world, with the result that to-day Britain has twenty vessels of the new and world-recognised type complete or practically complete. Germany has nine, and the rest of the European Towers none.

At the Baptist Church to-morrow night the Rev. Frank Hales will deal with a subject which is engaging world-wide attention just now, "fs the Bible the Word of GndV" The services in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow will be conducted in the morning by Mr. H. T. Peat' (the newly-appointed circuit missionary), and in the evening by the Rev. J. W. Burton. The evening subject will be, "Why join the Christian Church?"