LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 294, 8 June 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Another five casks of petroleum were shipped to Auckland by the Rarawa last night. To-day being the last day of the Winter Show the exhibition will remain open until eleven o'clock in the evening. The services in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow will be conducted in the morning by Mr. H. T. Peat, and in the evening by the Rev. J. W. Burton. Subject, "Afraid of Facts." Questioned on the subject of the High Commissionership yesterday morning, the Prime Minister (the Hon. Thos. Mackenzie) said that the position is fixed until Parliament meets, and there will be no alteration before thei. Miss Beckingsdale, who for fifteen years has been a missionary in India, will give an address in the Baptist Church to-morrow at 3 p.m. The same lady will speak at the social meeting to be held in the church on Monday night at half-past seven. In keeping with Show week, Mr. C. Carter has a novel advertising device on view in his premises in Devon street. A barrel, bearing the legend, "Give us a turn," is kept continually revolving by an interesting and clever mechanism. Two dummies are seated on either end of the barrel, with hands clasping the handles. A meeting of the New Plymouth Building Society was held in the Town Hall last evening, Mr. S. W. Shaw presiding. An appropriation of £3OO in No. 1 group was drawn by Mrs. A. Bentley, and one of £l5O by Mr. C. Nodder. An appropriation of £l5O, also in No. 1 group, was sold for £22 10s. In No. 2 group, an appropriation of £3OO was drawn by Mt. J. B. Roy, and two of £l6O were sold for £3O 10s each. In the course of his report to the Clifton County Council yesterday, the engineer, Mr. C. F. Dowsett, urged the council to take some definite and prompt action in connection with bridge renewals and repairs. His frequent iteration, he added, did not help to reduce the council's liability in this respect. One bridge was labelled dangerous, and at least six others should be similarly labelled without delay. No action was taken in the matter. When discussing a bridge earlier in the meeting the question of raising a loan for the renewal and repairing of bridges in the county was raised, but nothing definite was decided upon. A point of unusual interest cropped up at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning during the hearing of a case of drunkenness. The accused was an inmate of the Old People's Home, and the secretary of that institution deposed to having taken the man, who had been making himself objectionable to his fellows, outside, beyond the bounds of the Home, in order that he might be arrested by the police, who were in waiting. The old man could not, he added, be arrested on the Board's property. "This is an extraordinary position," commented the Magistrate (Mr. A. Crooke, S.M.). "It would be much simpler if we could get the police to come on to our own property and arrest offending parties," was the secretary's rejoinder. "He was not voluntarily taken out of the grounds, was he ?" queried Mr. Crooke. "We took him there, sir, as we could not keep him in the Home for the safety of the other inmates," was the reply. "Have you any, right to turn him out of the Home J" asked the Magistrate. To this the secretary replied, "He was breaking our by-laws, and we are not bound to keep any man." "It would make it awkward for you if you turned •him out and he got run over," commented Mr. Crooke. "We generally put them into safe hands," remarked the Secretary, and no more was said about the matter. The accused was convicted and fined.

There was a disturbance at the Old People's Home on Wednesday night, when one of the inmates returned in an unusual and bellicose condition. As a result, the individual in question, George Albert Wadham, appeared in the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning in aaswer to charges of drunkenness and having committed a breach of a prohition order. According to the story unfolded by Mr. C. Lepper, secretary of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, the accused was one of a party of the inmates who were escorted to the Winter Show on Wednesday afternoon. When the time came for the return journey Wadham appeared to be under the influence of liquor. He was placed on board the conveyance along with the other inmates, but while the secretary's back was turned he took French leave, and wended his way hotel-wards. Subsequently he turned up at the Home several hours overdue in a condition which was described as "mad drunk." There he created a disturbance, and engaged in a pugilistic encounter with one of his fellows. He Was then conducted outside the bounds of the institution, and, as had been pre-arranged, was arrested by the police. This was not the old man's first lapse from grace; he was always upsetting the Home, so much so that the authorities had decided not to take him back into the institution. In a rambling statement accused said that he had obtained liquor, and this had sent him "clean off" his head for the time being. "If the people did not know me," he added, "they would think I was really crazy." He assured the Magistrate, however, that there was no danger attached to his outbreaks, as he only got irritable, worried and cross. He denied being the aggressor in the fight; the other man had hit first. On charge of drunkenness his Worship inflicted a penalty of 20s with the option of seven days' imprisonment. A similar penalty, with the addition of 7s costs, was imposed for the breach' of the prohibition orde.* the same default being fixed. Wadham said he had no money, and the Magistrate ordered the sentences to run concurrently.

The Island orange crops this season I have been extremely prolific. It is stated | that a Wetter sea-son has not been experienced for many years. A hermit sheep, recently caught on the Mako M.iko station, Tokomaru Bay, had a flef'.-u weighing 471bs. Two locks of the fleece measured respectively 21 and 19 ineliew. The gnaraitl.ee and donations fund of the exhibition to bo held in Auckland next year now imounts to £10,280, and it is expected t!"it £20,000 will be reached before the lit.t doses. A fallow passenger on the Titanic with the late Mr. AV. T, Stead states:—"l am afraid nobody knows how he died. He was one of the very few who were actually oil deck when the iceberg struck. I saw him soon afterwards and was thoroughly scared, but he preserved most beautiful composure. I deem it a privilege I shall prize for the rest of my days that I had the opportunity in the last hours of his life to hold conversation with a great Englishman." It is stated that Mr. Stead was at one time named as the sole heir to Cecil Rhodes' £8,000,-' 000, but that the former's pro-Boer attitude during the South African war caused the Empire builder to alter his will. "There is a danger in our midst in this fair land of Australia," said the Dean of Newcastle (Very Rev. Dr. Gold- ' ing Bird), at the Empire Day service in Sydney last month. "It will not," continued the Dean, "be an alien foe who will pull down our standard. It will be men like you, and men like ine, who will cut the hope that lets the flags iall down, and lie idle in the mud. It is that cursed luxury and self-indulgence that are eating out our lives and making strong men feeble and young men old before their time. Have . your races and play your games, but at the same time play the game in the real sense. Be clean, be true, be upright. Remember that Empire Day stands for God first, and—if country comes second to King—for God, for 'King, and country."