LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 201, 4 May 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The North Taranaki Hunt Club will meet at Mr. Wheatle'y's, Lepperton, on Thursday next, instead of at Mrs. F. Sampson's property. A •sub-committee of the Agricultural Society will wait on the Taranaki County Council on Monday with regard to the suggested acquisition of the county reserve at Waiwakaiho for show grounds. To-morrow night, in the Baptist Church, the Rev. F. Hales will begin a series of addresses having for their object the study of the religious movements and personalities of the nonChristian world. The subject for tomorrow night will be, "Jesus and Buddha." The contractors for the erection of the Waitara bridge are pushing on with the preliminary work. The manufacture of the big ferro-eoncrete piles on the site is being followed with interest. Already about 20 of these fine "sticks" have been prepared and laid out to dry. It will probably be three months before any of them will be seasoned enough to drive. "I'm speaking a piece now. M 7 hen I'm finished you cnn speak all the afternoon if you like." This was the mild remonstrance of a councillor at the Clifton County Council meeting yesterday, when interrupted by a confrere across the table. A little later the offending councillor got his own back by abruptly stopping during a peroration and asking. "How many are talking at this table?"

There are at present over 1000 pupils J attending the Napier Technical College I per week. \ The total area of land leased in the Dominion on renewable lease under the Land for Settlement Act is 200,465 acres, witli a capital value of £1,315,542 at time of leasing. Settlers in the bush districts along tin? Main Trunk line complain that they have not been able to burn their bush this season owing to the very wet summer. Settlers are consequently considerably handicapped, as the land will lie idle until I next year, when a burn may be procured. The Trade Review, referring to the growth of imports, expects to see a reduction within the next two months. This, in the opinio* It the Review, "is desirable, and would Ttwist materially towards easing the money market. In the meantime lending institutions are 1 getting fairly high rates for their funds, | and can afford to take their choice of the securities offering." The Rev. J. W. Burton commences tomorrow evening, in the Whiteley Memorial Church, a series of "Sermons to the Thoughtful." These addresses will be delivered fortnightly through the winter, and will touch questions that arise in the minds of thinking men and women. A syllabus of subjects has been drawn up and published. The question to be dealt with to-morrow evening is, "What evidence have we that God is?" A committee of Fitzroy ladies has been set up for the purpose of preparing the bazaar to be held in November in aid of the fire brigade funds. The personnel of the committee is as follows:—President, Mrs. W. H. Griffiths; vice-presi-dent, Mrs. Jenkins; secretary and treasurer, Mrs. Hawkins; committee, Mrs. Parkins, Mrs. Bellringer, Misses Colson (2) and Griffiths (2), and Mrs. Kibby. Weekly sewing meetings are to be held. The water front at Waitara presented a very busy appearance yesterday, when three steamers were berthed at the wharf. They were the Claymore, which had arrived from Onehunga and was unloading a general cargo; the Pitoitoi. and the Wairau, which had just arrived from New Plymouth, and was awaiting an opportunity of proceeding to Mokau for a load of coal. The last-named vessel was visited throughout the day by throngs of people, her unwonted appearance—she is a schooner which has been converted into a steamer—together with her unenviable record, exciting their curiosity. Reporting to the New Plymouth Harbor Board yesterday, the harbormaster (Captain G. Holford) stated that several shipmasters visiting the port had commented against the local signals. Theit contention was that the signals were not discernible at a prudent distance from the port. Captain Holford added that in his opinion, owing to the high background, it made it very hard owing to the smallness of the arms to distinguish the signals even under the best of conditions. To his mind the flags similar in some respects to the system hitherto adopted would be more effective. He added that he was submitting some local signals for adoption. Flags would have to be procured, but the semaphore arms could still remain for guiding shipmasters when inside the port. An indignant ratepayer wrote to the Clifton County Council asking whether he was not fairly entitled to compensation for damage to his property caused by the metal contractors, who did not appear to be troubled by that "something we call a conscience." The contractors, he slated, appeared to think that they had a perfect right to come on to a man's place, cut his fences, erect their camp, and let their horses go to graze without so much as asking "with your leave or by your leave,"' and then when the job was finished "they take their hats and walk away without even the common politeness of saying,'thank you.'" The council disclaimed any liability in the matter, and referred him to the contractors, against whom, it was pointed out, he had his remedy, as he could impound their cattle, and proceed against them for trespass. The following reply has been received by Mr. F. C. J. Bellringer, chairman of the Hospital Board, from the Hon. G. W. Russell, in answer to his application for greater representation for local bodies at the conference to be held at Wellington for the purpose of discussing the Local Government Bill:—"Thanks for your wire suggesting increased representation at Local Government Conference. Regret impossible to increase the numbers already arranged for. You suggest five representatives from your district. If same proportion of increaee were made all over New Zealand, the conference would consist of about three hundred representatives. Only a thousand pounds was voted for the entire expenses of the conference, and it is not intended to have more than seventy persons attending, as it is considered that number will be large enough for all practical and useful purposes." At yesterday's meeting of the Clifton County Council Mr. G. Bertrand wrote drawing the council's attention to the existence of a cattle disease in the township of Urenui, called there "The Long Paddock Disease." This, he said, seemed to affect mostly wandering stock, and was now almost chronic, having existed for over 20 years or more. Still, the cattle seemed to thrive on it, especially if they managed to get into any good grass paddock near the roads. He trusted that the council would take sharp and immediate measures to arrest the spread of this violent disease, as by so doing it would confer a benefit on the suffering settlers in the township. The council decided to inform the writer that steps were being taken to cope with the nuisance. As a matter of fact, offenders will be given an example of what they can expect as proceedings are now being taken against two settlers in another portion of the county for allowing cattle to wander. While in Christchurch, Mr. Mackenzie's attention was drawn to the criticism of the Local Government Bill by the North Canterbury Board of Education. "The Local Government Bill," he said, "is a framework. We do not say that it is like the laws of the Medes and Persians, unalterable. I am very familiar with the great advantage that education boards as constituted have been to the education system. They have been of far more value than some of our politicians realise, and the board is quite right in pointing out how necessary it is that the control of education should not be in the hands of men who have not specialised. However, the education boards will be able to make their representations when the conference meets in Wellington to discuss the Bill. People have been calling out for a Local Government Bill, something has been prepared for their consideration, and the Government hopes to get the benefit of the assistance of many men who have devoted themselves to local government work." The boy stood on the frozen deck, And wished that he was dead; The wind blew round his naked neck, The rain heat on his head. ;l He caught a cold—a killing'cough, And said, "I'm done, fo>- sure!" Bnt now he's wH. his cold is off, Through Woods' Gv-it Peppermint Cure. " * 14 We cannot speak too li'Mily of Roslyn 'all-wool blankets, rugs. t<veods, worsteds, suits, football jersrvs. ■flannels, pi a i d'li,"- n"d uiv' ■ ■•wp.ar, "Delta" finish, for men and wo>-- • and children. —Advt.

Yesterday the New Plymouth High School broke up for the term holidays. A demand has sprung up in Melbourne for groper, and a firm of merchants at the Bluff has received an order for 2000 cases. A fairly large shipment sent over recently realised sixpence per pound in the Victorian capital, which is a better average price than retailers obtain for it in Invercargill. Mr. Frederick Pirani, one of the defendants in the < -ise in which Thomas Stagpoole sues Frederick Pirani and Co., Limited, for alh jed libel published in the Feilding Star, has applied for a change of venue on the ground that "the said action cannot be fairly tried before a jury at Palmerston North." The Otago Daily Times, in closing its Home Relief Fund with £1543, says:— "We cannot refrain from observing that the monetary help provided in Otago is at least three times as great as that furnished in any other provincial district in New Zealand, and that alongside it, the measure of the assistance rendered in some parts of New Zealand has been mean and contemptible." The general tone of the press throughout New Zealand surprised and pleased Mr. If. J. Patten, an American visitor, who has left Auckland for Vancouver, via the Islands. Mr. Patten expressed the opinion that the tone of the newspapers in the Dominion is higher than that of the ordinary American papers. He thought the New Zealand press less inclined to indulge in sensationalism, more careful as to detail, and in the habit of endeavoring to get at facts. The Wanganui Harbor Board last night agreed to Messrs. Mannington and A. Burnett being representatives of the country and town respectively on the commission to be set up to define the rating area under the Wanganui Harbor Empowering Bill. The Bill, which is to authorise the raising of £2. r >o,ooo for harbor improvements, was defeated last year, owing to country opposition to the inequitable rating area. The two representatives are to appoint a third I as umpire. Discussing the New Zealand political I situation, the London Times of March 23 | says:—"lt is possible that Mr, MackenI zie's succession may produce a rapprochement between the moderate section of ■ his party and the Opposition. . . Such a movement would probably be endorsed by a majority of the electorates in the event of-another appeal to the polls. We hope it may be tried, not because we lean to one -or other of the parties, but because no other solution seems likely in the long run to save the country from the three-party deadlock, which perplexed the Federal polities of Australia for nearly ten years. . . . Whether it is practicable at present or not, it suggests a line of cleavage to which events have been pointing for some time past, and they may force it some day if it does I not come now."