LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 259, 2 May 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hobart advises that a wireless station will be open at Hobart from May 1. The Education Board will hold a special meeting on Wednesday next to discuss the provisions of the Local Government Bill. Messrs. Levin and Co., of Wellington, have forwarded the generous donation of £SO towards the fund for the erection of the new Mountain House. The town clerk is in receipt of a telegraphed communication from the Secretary of Public Works, inquiring if the Council Chambers would be at the disposal of the Opunake Railway Commission on the 15th inst.

A gold medal valued at £2 10s Ims been donated by Messrs. Wright, Stephenson and Co.* Ltd., as a special prize for the New Plymouth Winter Show. The allotment of the prize will be made by the Agricultural Society. According to official estimates prepared in 1909 the cost of the construction of the Opunake line by the various routes would be as follow: Stratford, 20'/. miles, £220,000; Hawera, 20 miles" £183.000; Eltham, 23 miles, £173,000; Te Roti, 22 miles, £153,000.

The Maketawa Dairy Company, with an average grade of 93.S (Mr. Johnston, manager) is fourth on the list of factories grading at Moturoa, and Tarata (Mr. A. Corney, manager) only two points lower, viz., 93.6, is eighth. The average grade this year is much higher than was the case last year. The Tariki cheese factory (Mr. McElroy, manager), with an average of 91.72. is second on the list for cheese factories grading at Moturoa.

Factories in and around Inglewood have disbursed the following amounts for milk received during March, the figures for the corresponding month last year being given in parentheses:— Moa, £4321 3s 2d ( £3293 4s 7d); Maketawa, £1240 9s 3d ( £llll ]os 2d); Lepperton, £793 19s 5d (£534 lis 3d); and Tarata, £304 17s 10 (£33G 13s 4d). The Tariki cheese factory has paid out £696 8s 2d for the four-weekly period, as against £950 9s lOd for a five-weekly period last year.

Country residents are warned against a pseudo sailor, who is at present going the rounds of Northern Taranaki, posing as the seller of smuggled goods. His stock-in-trade mainly consists, we are told, of suit lengths,' and the like, which he offers to an unsuspecting clientele at seemingly bargain prices. As a rule customers are, it is alleged, badly taken m. He usually prefaces his story with the information that he is a sailor who has left his ship at Waitara. Several cases of alleged victimisation have been reported to the News.

The statement of a southern paper that a flaw has been discovered in the legislation for the registering of barmaids appears to be well founded. It is held by high legal authorities that what is called a private bar is not a "public bar" within the meaning of the Licensing Act, which provides that no unregistered barmaid can serve in a public bar. Hence, if this view is correct, unregistered barmaids may 6erve in private bars, and the legislation which was designed to gradually eliminate barmaids would be ineffective. It is probable that amending legislation will be introduced. Some excitement was caused in Petone on Tuesday through a local resident and a Chinese having a difference in one of the public streets. It appears that the Chinese asked the European to read something that was written on a piece of paper, whereupon the European pocketed the manuscript and started to walk away. The Chinaman then became excited, and, shouting and waving hm arms, made for his hawking cart, and returned to the white man with a butcher's knife in his hand. The European armed himself with a piece of iron piping, and things looked dangerous. However, a young la-dy stepped in between the combatants with wonderful courage, and after admonishing both parties, peace was restored. : j Yesterday, owing possibly to the amount of goods traffic requiring to be hauled, and also perhaps to the wet weather making the rails grcasv, and so rendering traction more difficult, the majority of the trains were running late. The twenty to eight train from New Plymouth was nearly half an hour late in reaching Inglewood, due to a lengthy wait at Lepperton for the Waitara train, and this lime had further increased by the time it reached Hawera. The morning train to New Plymouth was also a few minutes late, owing to having to wait at the Tariki station to cross the late train. The 5.30 train to New Plymouth, however, easily eclipsed all records for unpunctuality. Nearly an hour late in reaching Hawera, it was 50 minutes overdue at Inglewood. Here a tedious wait of half an hour was experienced, as the passing place of the 4.20 south train from New Plymouth had for the nonee been removed from Lepperton to Inglewood. The train, however, ultimately reached New Plymouth at 0.40 p.m., an hour and ten minutes late. Passengers for 'Waitara by the train were dreading a lengthy wait at Lepperton, but the authorities ran a special up to meet the train. It is such delays that cause passengers to make sarcastic and unfeeling remarks about the New Zealand railway service in general and the offending' train in particular. For Chronic Chest Complaints. Wood's Great Peppermint Cure. 1/6, 8/6,

Eight long-sentence prisoners were taken to Wellington yesterday, owing, it is reported, to the New Plymouth reformatory being overcrowded. The Louisa Craig, the well-known Auckland-owned barque, has just put ug ! a record voyage from Melbourne .to Kak para, competing the trip in six daya A r ' W ' Martin > the sole controller of Dr. Sherman's method for the treatment of rupture, which is fully referred to elsewhere, is at present in New Plymouth, and may be consulted free ol charge at the White Hart Hotel.

A Chinaman, resident in Hawera, applied for naturalisation papers. The Under-Secretary stated that "he was directed by the Minister for Internal Affaire to inform the applicant that it is not considered expedient at present to grant letters of naturalisation to persona of the Chinese race," Quite recently the Dominion's Labor Bureau received a communication from two remote districts in Saskatchewan, Canada, stating that ten families with growing children, the whole party numbering 30, were desirous of settling is New Zealand. Xone of them would b« requiring salaries, and several of them would be storting in businesses of various kinds, and others would engage in farming.

A very fine specimen of the Maori axe was found on the Ringway Estate (Southland) last week. It is fashioned out of a particularly fine transparent greenstone, and is an interesting relic, inasmuch as it possibly marks the route of some conquering band of natives from some other part of the South Island, perhaps those who drove the remnant* of the supposed lost tribe up towardi llanapouri and Te Anau.

A singular fatality is recorded in a southern prfper. A rural resident oi Otago named Allen went to a neighbor's farm to borrow a wire strainer, and found his neighbor trying to catch somt horses. Allen offered to help, and approached two that were in a corner ol the yard. He was warned by th« other man that he was going too cioet behind the horses. Just at that moment one of the horses reared up, and afterwards kicked out. Allen jumped bach and fell over, walked a few yards, and then again fell back. It is supposed that he died almost immediately.

Opposing candidates are always complimentary after the poll is declared. At Christehurch one of the defeated aspirants to civic honors fervently declared that he had been the first to shake tht new Mayor by the hand, and though they had had differences of opinion he had always found Mr. Holland a perfect gentleman. But here a voice interjected: "You said he was a liar a little white ago." After the laughter had died dowl the defeated one hastened to explain that in the heat of an election one very often said things that were perhaps regrettable, and which were afterwards regretted. It might be that he said thingt he might regret afterwards.

According to the Bluff Press, the muttonbirders have had a very poor season so far and in all probability there will be, for several of the parties, nothing over after the fares to and from the islands and the provision have been paid for. On some islands the returns have been only about a tenth of what they wort last season—on one island only thirty birds were obtained as compared with no fewer than 500 last year. It appears that the hatching season was very wet and all the holes in the exposed portions of th« islands—many of the islands are practically all exposed—were flooded and rendered useless. Therefore the percentage of mortality was a very high one. Supplies this year will be short and prices high. In several instances contracts were made for supplies and such purchasers will have a "good thing on"— should their contracts be fulfilled. It is to be hoped that the earlier reports to hand are not indicative of the stat'« of affairs prevailing over the whole of the Titi islands. The outlook at present wears a doleful aspect.

The inconvenience to High School pupils, and incidentally to commercial ■ men also, caused by the- late arrival at ' New Plymouth of the morning train ' from Stratford, was brought under the notice of the council of the Chamber of Commerce last evening. The matter wa« introduced by a deputation of one (Mr. E. Dockrill) from the High School Board of Governors, who said that the train, arriving at New Plymouth at 10.45 a.m,, was too late to enable scholars from Inglewood, down, to reach the school at the hour of commencement. The board thought the present time was a favorable opportunity for moving in the matter, seeing that the country now had a Minister for Railways who had expressed a desire to make local train services a feature of his. administration. The Chamber of Commerce had been approached for the reason that an earlier train would not only facilitate th» studies of country pupils, but would also prove a boon to the commercial community and to New Plymouth generally. As an instance of the serious effect that the present service had on the school, Mr. Dockrill said that he understood that up as far as Lepperton children, to the number of about thirty, were at present attending the Stratford High School. With a reasonable train service, however, practically all the9e would pursue their studies at the New Plymouth institution, As it was, they reached Stratford much earlier than they would arrive at New Plymouth. In assuring Mr. Dockrill that the matter would ho placed before the Minister of Railways at the first favorable opportunity, the chairman (Mr. S. Shaw) recalled previous unsuccessful attempts on the part of the Chamber to secure the desired improvement. He also made reference to another grievance which, he understood, was at present exercising the minds of the High School Board. He referred to the inability of students rlesiring to attend, for instance, cadet parades on Saturday mornings, to utilise their weekly railway tickets on that day. The tickets expired on the Friday, on which day the pupils had to return to their homes, or else purchase a new ticket.

MORE MELBOURNE MARVELS. Never before have the famous Taranaki stores—the Melbourne Clothing Company—been so fully prepared to fill the season's requirements in winter apparel for man and boy. Quoted here art a few examples, not because of their sterling merit, but merely to illustrate the force of the firm's fundamental principle of buying and selling for cash only, and the consequent savings accruing therefrom. The Melbourne are the largest buyers of men's and boys' apparel in Taranaki, and have reached this proud oosition by selling only dependable merchandise at prices below all competitors. 1 This advertisement is but the forerunner of a weekly list of bargains that will fairly stagger the average man or woman who has been accustomed to buying at the high-priced cash-cum-credit stores. Boys' braces, 3d pair; boys' celluloid collars, 'sd; boys' splendid quality navy worsted jerseys, 2s lid, 3s 3d to 4s 6d, according to size; men's knitted pants and shirts, 3s lid; superior ribbed pants, 4s 6d; warm plaiding underfinnnels, 5s fid; bushmen's ribbed pants, fis Od; children's black or"tan cashmere socks, size 2 to 7, all one price, 6d pair; men's ribbed stockings, Is lid pair; men's h<"i V y saddle trousers, 8s Bd. Marvellous values.