LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 289, 3 June 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The veterans are to parade this morning at 11.45 o'clock in the Recreation Grounds, in connection with the King's Birthday celebrations. Football and other outdoor sports were postponed in Wellington on Saturday, owing to the rehearsal parade of the Territorials in view of the review to-day.

The annual collection in aid of the Wanganui District Nursing League took place on Saturday, wihen, despite the very wet weather, about £350 was obtained. Some out-district amounts are still to come in.

The vital.statistics for New Plymouth for May show that during that month there were 25 births, 5 marriages and 12 deaths. During the corresponding month of last year there were 32 births, 6 marriages and 7 deaths. The Registrar of the Supreme Court has been notified that His Honor, Mr. Justice Edwards, will take all banco and chamber applications at New Plymouth on Monday, June 17, at 10 a.m. The court will open for ordinary, criminal, and civil business on Tuesdav, June 18. at a meeting of the executive of the Taranaki Agricultural Society held in Saturday insurances on buildings and fittings were effected to the extent of £I9OO. An insurance of £IOOO was also taken out for the protection of the public. It was decided to issue complimentary tickets for one day to inmates of the Old People's Home. All veterans wearing regulation caps on Wednesday will be admitted free. A hailstorm of unusual violence was experienced at Lepperton on Saturday morning. The hailstones, which were of extraordinary size, some of them being perhaps bigger than hens' eggs, were accompanied by large junks of jagged ice, which must have accounted for more than one window pane. The storm appeared to travel in the direction of and as far as Bell Block, gradually tapering off as it left Lepperton. The hailstones that fell at Bell Block were also quite large enough to break several windows. For some time past irregularities in the Wanganui Post Office have been suspected. Detective Siddels had the matter in hand, and after various tests concluded that a certain servant was guilty. He and a postal official accordingly hid themselves in the mail room on Saturday night, and after watching for nine hours saw James Moore the post office cleaner, enter and select documents from the mail matter. As he was leaving the detective intercepted him, and found correspondence in this possession. Moore was arrested, and will be brought before the magistrate this morning. Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second Groups) are notified that subscriptions will be due and payable tomorrow (Tuesday), instead of to-day (King's Birthday), at the secretary's office, Currie street, from 0 a.m. to 12.30, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. —Advt.

For Influenza take Wood's Great Peppermint Cure. Never fails. 1/6, 2/(5.

A Masterton syndicate has purchased 26 acres for tho purpose of starting a fruit-growing farm in Masterton. The English mail via Suez arrived in Auckland on Saturday and left for the south by the Main Trunk mail train last night. The New Plymouth portion of the mail will arrive by the express train to-night. A London cablegram of Saturday's (late states that Sir William Hall-Jones has retired, and Mr. Palliser is ActingHigh Commissioner pending the appointment of a successor. Sir William HallJones will make an extended tour of Britain before returning to New Zealand.

A meeting of all members of the Opposition is to be held in Wellington on June 4. In a circular letter, summoning the meeting, it is stated that vital issues are to be discussed, and members are asked to make arrangements to be in Wellington for some time as the conference is last for .several days. Yesterday there were persistent rumors in New Plymouth that the Rarawa had not reached Onehunga on Saturday. Inquiries made, however, go to show that the vessel arrived at Onehunga at nine o'clock that morning. The misapprehension was probably due to the fact that the Rarawa was' not posted, as usual, as having reached her destination.

As a result of a neighbors' quarrel which occurred at Panmure (Auckland) in June last year, an action for slander was commenced at the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Edwards. The action was for £2OO damages for alleged slander, and was brought by Mary Theresa Burnand against Robert Francis Searle, both formerly of Panmure. The jury found a verdict for £SO and costs. Says the Voice of Labor, Auckland l : — The whole town of Waihi is held up; no union man dare leave the town except by special permit issued "by the officials of the Federation; no union man ca* enter the town hut what his name, his business and all about him becomes an object of consideration by the revolutionary tribunal. Xo union man can visit his neighbor, enter any office, store or private house, or hold conversation with anyone without his action Tjeing reported to the revolutionary tribunal.

The meeting of the New -Plymouth Brotherhood yesterday afternoon was well attended in spite of the inclementweather. The Rev. J. W. Burton was in the chair and Dr. Home gave an address on "Social Diseases," which he characterised as being the most extensive and calamitous diseases of our civilisation—diseases which deeply affected the physical and moral welfare of the individual and of the nation, diseases regarding which there existed a lamentable and disastrous ignorance. The doctor's utterances, which were followed with intense interest, merit publication in full, and this will bo done in to-morrow's issue of the News.

In his speech at Opunake the Prime Minister said that in order to place the railways in a position to fully meet the increasing demands that had arisen, owing to the development of the traffic, for quicker transport and greater facilities, the Government had adopted a progressive railway policy having for its object the improvement of the lines themselves and this transport facilities provided. "It may be stated," he added, "that we are on the eve of some still greater changes. I will not at the moment say anything beyond this that the public may depend on having a thoroughly up-to-date railway service controlled by able men."

A rather difficult problem has been perplexing the minds of the members of the Gisborne Harbor Board. It is proposed to send the dredge Maui to Auckland for ropaits, but the insurance risk is a heavy consideration. Upon the occasion of the Maui's last trip to Auckland the cost of a policy for £25,000 was about £6OO, whilst the Board took the balance of the risk, say £15,000. This expense was in addition to the cost of docking. At present the Board cannot get a policy over £"25,000 for anything less than £ 1050. The Board declined the tender for insurance, and a proposal

is now afoot that the Board shall hire a tug to take the dredge to Auckland, at the Board's risk. This is an item

which will cost at least £SOO. The filial war of extermination is now being successfully waged against tuberculosis, said Dr. Home, in his address to the Brotherhood yesterday. In the last decade it had diminished by from 25 to 30 per cent, in Britain and Germany. It waa a "respectable" disease, and therefore talked of everywhere. Notices describing and instituting means of suppressing it were placarded everywhere, with the result that in, say, fifty years it would foe as rare as leprosy. Tuberculosis carried off many people, but the sexual diseases were responsible for greater havoc. These were not "respectable" diseases, and were not talked about. It was considered wicked even

to mention them. "I maintain," said Dr. Home, "it is wicked for those who know about them not to mention them." The trials of the backblocks. One of the splendid women who are engaged in "breaking in" the backblocks of Taranaki had been on a visit to New Plymouth. Writing to a relative in the town, she thus describes her experiences on the return journey to her inland prison^ —"The weather was bitterly cold coming in. My horse utterly collapsed at . The poor beast found itself going deeper and deeper, so thought it would lay down to die. I got such a fright, as I was carrying baby. The horse, however, simply sank, and then remained stationery, and I quickly jumped off with the assistance of iny husband. I shook with fright for about ten minutes afterwards, as one might so easily have gone over the gorge that the road, or quagmire, skirts." It is not an uncommon thing for horses and their packs to stumble over the precipice at the particular point where the lady met with the mishap. The road is barely six feet wide and generally in a frightful condition. A slip, and it is all over with the horse. Is it any wonder that the backblockers are so insistent in their cry for more assistance in roadingT WINTER TOPCOATS. AT THE MELBOURNE.

There is no store in Taranaki so well able to supply coats of quality at such low prices as the Melbourne. If one but pauses to think, the reasons are obvious. In a nutshell, the secret of such low prices is buying for spot cash and selling for spot cash. It is apparent that a firm like the Melbourne Clothing Company, operating four busy cash stores in Taranaki, are distributors and buyers of greater magnitude than any other similar organisation; hence it would be a

strange thing indeed if the huge cash discounts earned, the concessions granted for taking large parcels, and the wonderful "jobs" secured through the potent agency of "ready cash" did not allow this famous firm to undersell all competitors. And they do undersell. Here .are prices that are so much below those ruling elsewhere for similar goods that people wonder and ask how it is done. Splendid dark grey raincoats, well tailored and dressy, 20/6. Handsome hydrotites, priced everywhere at 50/-, for 37/6. Splendid warm tweed overcoats, hard wearing yet dressy, 35/-. Nobby overcoats, the "Super Dreadnought," made of fine lustrous cravenetted dark grey worsted, splendidly tailored and finished, 39/6. Best quality Burberry coats, 49/6. Dozens of other lines, of course.—Advt.

Lucerne growing is recommended us a | means of wiping out Californian thistle, I The constant cropping of lucerne eventu- » ally kills the weed. ]

'Stamp booklets, each containing stamps to the value of two shillings, are now on sale lit the face value of 'the stamps, viz., two shillings. Those 'booklets "replaefc those that wero formerly sold to the public, and whicili contained stamps to the value of pno shilling and elevenpence halfpenny. They should prove a great convenience to tho public. According to an article in the London Daily Chronicle, the unrest which is now prevailing among the sailors in the navy, and which is manifesting itself in their desire to form a trades union, is due to the men's dissatisfaction with existing contritions in the service, especially as far as rates of pay arid punishment are concerned. The writer of the article says: "It is time that the nation and the naval authorities realise what will happen if tho Admiralty does not soon start to remedy the complaints of these 100,000 men. If the people do not compel the authorities to measure out justice, the rank and tile will form an association strong enough to demand redress by. methods with which the industrial history of the last year or two has made the country painfully familiar." There is nothing very definite as to the ) cost of the Imperial Trade Commission and who is to pay it (writes the London correspondent of the Wellington Post). Mr. Hareourt told the Commons: '"ln accordance with the offer which was made by the representatives of the dominions during the conference, they will pay the whole of the expenses of their own commissioners, and will ! contribute a proportion of the other expenses of the secretariat." Mr. Fisher, speaking in Australia some time ago, intimated that the commissioners would get £4 4s per day during the whole period of the enquiry, or about £llOO per year, and the dominions will also pay railway and steamer fares and hotel expenses for their representatives. It is highly improbable that the secretariat will cost each of the dominions any less than the sum they pay to their commissioners. No salaries will be paid to the United Kingdom representatives, but they will be paid travelling expenses, and will receive a "subsistence allowance" while they are outsuTe the country. A representative of tbe New Zealand Casein Company, speaking at a meeting of the VVhenuakura (Paten) Dairy Co. on Thursday afternoon, said that about twelve months ago the casein industry had suddenly come into prominence, especially in Denmark, The demand for the I commodity bad increased greatly, so that | the output per year hail now reached ' 15,000 tons, the market price being £3*2 j 10s per ion. lie entered into the process of manufacture from a scientific point of view, showing that the whey ! from it was in no way made injurious for feeding. In some respects, casein whey was 'better for feeding purposes than was ordinary skim milk. Casein went to build up bone. In the. whole milk it was. of course, in the right proportion, but when skim milk was fed three or four times more casein was fed t'han a, calf could digest. The object of humanising milk for infants was to take away the casein. He then-repeated the offer his firm had already made to take the skim miik, treat same in their factory, and pay the company £lB 10s 3d per ton for dried casein. 'Further, his firm would enter into a contract for four years' and would refund to tihe company the cost of installing the plant for the making of the curd. The offer was not accepted.—Press.