LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 280, 23 May 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Rev. P. Hales has kindly consented to formally open the Jumble Fair of the W-C.T.U. this afternoon, at 2 p.m. A good show is anticipated, and the evening will be quite lively with "Grandmother's Portrait Album." The Prime Minister mentioned to a deputation at Napier 'that the Government was rather short of engineers just now, a number having left the Dominion. Unfortunately, added Mr. Mackenzie, the Government had not been able to pay them sufficiently to keep t'hem here. The New Plymouth Fire Brigade has decided to invite the Taranaki Provincial United Fire Brigades' Association to hold its initial demonstration at New Plymouth on the first Thursday in December. Members of the local brigade were addressed by Superintendent Hugo this week on the dangers of electricity when fire-fighting. According to a statement submitted at its last meeting, the Western Park Board is in credit to the extent of £4 14s. The Board possesses assets to the value of £37 18s 4d, while its liabilities are £lO 18s 4d. The borough subsidy of £l2 10.3 is due next month. The Tukapa and the Association football clubs have been granted the use of football grounds for the season, on the same terms as last year. Mr. iG. H. Buckeridge, New Zealand agent for Henry A. Lane and Co., Loni don, at Eltham, has received a cablegram stating that a shipment of cheese by the Waimana realised a price which will bring 7d nett f.o.b. The cablegram states that the market is very promising for New Zealand cheese, which is quoted at 73s to 755. Canadian production is short, owing to the lateness of the season. The butter market is firm, with an upward tendency. New Zealand is quoted at 114s to* 116s.

Roads throughout the King Country (says the Te Kuiti paper) owing to the recent rains are reported to he in a very bad condition. On the main road to Pio Pio some very trying experiences during the past week were endured by carters. After leaving the metal half loads could only be taken, whilst occasionally it was impossible to get through some places without having to further unload. A few days ago it took eleven horses to pull a ton and a half out of a bad hole. Stores of all kinds could be seen in heaps along the road. As showing the rapid advance of late years in the price of dairying land in the Waikato, a settler from the Hamilton district mentions the facts in connection with the sale of a large block of land which was fanned successfully for years by an ex-resident of the Manawatu. Seven years ago he sold it at £0 10a an acre, and made a handsome profit. The purchaser retained it until 4% years ago, when he found a buyer at £lO an acre, and the latter has now quitted .the estate at £lO per acre, having made £30,000 by the transaction.—Standard.

The following new books have been added to the Carnegie Library:—Lord Stanleigh, Philanthropist (Robert Barr); Vagabond City (Winifred Baggs); The Victory of Allan Rutledge (Alex Corkey), The Twins of Suffering Creek (Ridgwcll Cullum), The Breath of the Desert (Clayton East), Marie (H. Ridley Haggard), The Fruitful Vine (Robt. Hichens), God and Mammon (Joseph Hocking), A Breath of the Prairie (Will Lillibridge), Captain Warren's Wards (Joseph C. Lincoln), The Price of the Prairie (Margaret 11. McCarter), Havoc (E, P. Oppenheim). Fire in Stubble '•voness Orczy), The Ehodesian (two copies) (Gertrude Page), The Conflict (D. G. Phillips), A Woman with a Purpose (A. Chapin Ray), Fante (Annie D Sedgwick), The Lotus Lantern (M. I. Taylor), The Guests of Hercules (C. X. and A. M. Williamson), The Land Claimers (John F. Wilson). Harvard University, Boston, is planning for an electrical era. An alternating current transformer, with a capacity of 1,000.000 volts, a machine twice as big as any hitherto constructed, is to be installed in the university. This is the first step in a movement to provide heat, refrigeration, light and power for Boston direct from the coal-fields of Pennsylvania. Moderate egtimates place the date at five years hence when Boston will have done away with sooty chimneys, its coal-carrying'system, and its facilities for disposing of ashes, and when coal strikes will not worry the householder or business man. Boston will then be using electricity generated hundreds of miles away in the Pennsylvania coal-fields, where coal costs a few pence a ton. Since the great strike in Britain, states a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, American electrical engineers have been studying with renewed ardour the problem of replacing local furnace heating by electrical energy.

Pleas of not guilty were made by H. F. Callaghan, who was charged at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning with drunkenness, and, further, with having procured liquor during the currency of a prohibition order. In speaking on behalf of the accused, Mr. R. C. Hughes said that he had not been before the court since last August. Counsel added that, yesterday, Callaghan had felt a fit coming on, and before he could act upon medical instructions and procure whisky to allay the trouble, he had fallen down, only to be taken in charge by the police. In asking for leniency, Mr. Hughes said that accused had a wife and several young children to support. The Magistrate (Mr. A. Crooke) convicted and discharged Callaghan on the charge of drunkenness, and, in regard to the second offence, inflicted a fine of £2 and costs 7s, with the option of 14 days' imprisonment. One week was allowed in which to pay the fine. One first-offending inebriate, who made no appearance, was convicted and lined ss, or in default ordered to undergo 24 hours' imprisonment. Mr. G% H. Buekeridge, honorary organiser of the Farmers' Union for the Taranaki province, gave an interesting address at the annual meeting of the Waverley branch on Saturday. He referred in particular to the need for systematising the business of the farmer. "We export," said Mr. Buekeridge, "from 240,000,0001bs to 270,000,0001bs of meat annually, which experts say is worth Id per lb more than meat from the Argentine, but because the latter has a better system of disposing of its produce, they obtain Id per lb more than we do. Again it costs the Argentine farmer from £2700 to £4500, or an average of £4OOO per vessel, to freight his produce Home. The New Zealander pays £20,000 per vessel for frozen produce alone, and there is then space for other cargo." The speaker maintained that at least two millions a year could be saved to the country if the farmers would only systematise their business. In dairy produce alone he considered the farmers had lost half a million this year by the want of a proper system in the disposal of their produce. j

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About fifty head of cuttle wore shipped to Auckland by the Rarawa last night. The tender of a Christchurch firm, at something over £Boooj has been accepted for the erection of the new Anglican Church in Mastcrton.

A London cablegram states that Mr. Asquith and Mr. Churchill have started for the Continent 011 a visit of inspection of Malta and Gibralter. The Hon. <1 Fowlds will address a public meeting, uj which ladies are specially invited, in the Good Templar Hall on Saturday night, when he will expound exhaustively the platform and policy of the United Labor Party. His Worship the Mayor will preside. It is stated that Mr. Masscy's expenses in connection with his unsuccessful case against the N.Z. Times, both here and before the Privy Council, will run into nearly £IOOO. Law is expensive. The cause of the action was a cartoon which Mr. Massey held reflected upon himself. Inspector Hugo is on an official visit to New Plymouth. Last night he inspected the Fitzroy Fire Brigade. Today be will confer with the Fire Board on matters relative to the improvements necessary in the direction of fire prevention, consequent upon the extension of the borough boundaries.

At a meeting of the New Plymouth Trades and Labor Council last night, the following resolution was carried unanimously: '"That tins council enters a strong protest against the present unsatisfactory condition of the electors' roll for the borough of New Plymouth, and that the council be urged to take effective steps to bring the roll up to date.

Workmen engaged iu excavation work in Russell Terrace, Wellington, near the tramway terminus, last week, came across a tree embedded in the clay, about 50 feet below the surface of the roadway. The timber—which is either manuka or rata—is in a wonderful state of preservation considering the great number of years it must have been undergrouai. Wanganui is well provided with theatres. In addition to the Opera House and the Lyceum a new picture theatre, named the King's, was opened on Monday night. The King's Theatre will, when extensive additions have been completed, hold 1500 people. Yet another theatre, IJis Majesty's, is about to be commenced. This will accommodate about 1400 people. An accident of a serious nature happened to Mrs. Wright, of Rahotn, on Friday evening last (says the Times). When Mr. and Mrs. Wright were returning home from Opunake on that evening, and when going down the small cutting just past Mr. J. C. Hickey's gate, the horse stumbled and fell, throwing Mrs. Wright on to the metal, which caused a compound fracture of the col-lar-bone. Mr. Wright returned to Opunake, and sought Dr. Barron's assistance. After alleviating the pain, the doctor immediately ordered the patient to the New Plymouth hospital.

The value of a horse is at most times inclined to be a variable quantity, determined largely by the perspective of the buyer, and his relative position to the horse, as owner or possible purchaser. A witness at the Supreme Court in Auckland added a little information on the question of values, as they affect gift horses. An employee of his brought a horse to him one day and remarked, "Boss, T have a little old crock of a black horse over here that a friend of mine gave to me. He said I could have it, to kill for the pigs or keep it for the kids to ride. 'But look after the saddle, as it is a good one,' he said." The Minister of Education (Hon. J. A. Hanan), in the course of his reply to the deputation from the Educational Institute, made some remarks on the resolution regarding the inadequacy of the present staffing of schools on an average attendance of 401-5055. The Minister said there was evidently some misunderstanding of the provisions of the Amendment Act. There was no reduction in the staffing of schools—as a matter of fact, in some instances the staffing was actually increased, as under:—42o to 450, one assistant; 480 to 500, one assistant, less one pupil teacher; 300 to 400, one assistant less one pupil teacher; 500 to 510, one assistant. The deputation expressed itself perfectly satisfied with the statement, and hoped that it would be made public. Archbishop Redwood was presented last night in Wellington with addresses from the Catholics and Hibernians, and a purse of sovereigns from the Catholic laity, to commemmorate his silver jubilee as Archbishop. The ceremony' took place at the Town Hall, which was packed. Colonel Collins, C.M.G., presided. Among those present were Bishops Grimes, Cleary and Verdon, the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), Justice Chapman, the Prime Minister and several other members of the Cabinet. Archbishop Redwood, in his address, said that he hoped within two years the foundation would •be laid of a new cathedral. The funds collected up to the present amounted to £18,300. The first portion to be erected would accommodate about 1200 people, but eventually the cathedral would hold 3000.

Mr. J. 'Stewart, the well-known crosscountry horseman, who has just returned to Wanganui from a visit to Australia, was much struck with the barrenness everywhere noticeable on the other side. One may ride, he says, for hundreds of .miles and see no signs of verdure, the land being, as "bare as the pavement. On one station he visited no less than 7000 cattle had to be shot to prevent them dying of starvation, and everywhere he heard pitiable tales of loss through the drought. His opinion is borne out by ■Mr. H. D. Morton, M.L.A., who in a letter to the Sydney Telegraph gives a gloomy picture of the West and Southern •Riverina. He says that in the country between Temora and Wentworth—a zigzag line of between 300 and 450 mileshe failed to discover a blade of grass, and whether rain fell or not within the next month or two there must inevitably be great losses and great shortage in lambing. The droughty conditions are so bad that even rabbits show signs of deterioration from the long dry spell, and one is struck with the absence of bird life, except for the predatory crow, •who will shortly play havoc with the lambs. The sheep he saw on the journey •were very weak, and scarcely able to drag themselves off the track as he and his party motored along. Their one hope of sustained life lies in rain, for there is no possibility of removing them elsewhere.

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