GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 320, 9 July 1912, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

As a result of the immigration campaign, in ten yv.vs 2,100,000 immigrants have enter. <! Umula, 800,000 from Britain. 700.W0 from the United States, and half a, million from European countries. One province, Ontario, received half a million immigrants during the period. An Oamaru young lady had a novel ex,...il r.-c the other day. Having washed her hair, she tried to take the water out of it by running it through the family wringer. She turned the handle till lier head came in contact with the rubber rollers, the hair in the meantime clinging close to the latter. She found it impossible to extricate herself from the entanglement, and cried with a loud voica for assistance. First aid was forthcoming, but even then there was a difficulty in separating the hair from its mix up in the wringer.

The Clerks' Union of Xew South Wales has compiled a log for shipping clerks which is being served on the companies concerned. It claims weekly wages of £5 10s for freight clerks, £5 for pay, receiving and delivery clerks, £.i for checking and transhipment clerks, and £3 for manifest clerks. Overtime rates of from 3s to 5s an hour nre also claimed, the week's normal working hours being set down at 41. Preference to unionists is demanded, and freedom from calls to do wharf laborers' or storemen's work.

It is astonishing how long a well-built iron vessel will hold together, even after years of exposure on an open sea-beach, and much battering by big seas. It is now over thirty-four years since the iron ship Hyderabad, laden with railway rolling stock, was piled up on the Horowhenua sea-beach. The hull still hangs bravely together, though it has been battered by the elements all these years. The Hyderabad was, however, an exceptionally strongly-built ship, and still remains an interesting memento of an almost forgotten incident of the bygone rears.

"I think the Government should do something in respect to our salt-water fish," said a witness before the Cost of Living Commission at Auckland. "At certain times of the year kerosene tins full of roe are found in the sheds, each representing hundreds and thousands of fish. It is not right to allow the fish to be taken out of the water at this time "of "the"year. The fish in and around the harbor are dying" out" fast. In England the, fish supply is very important, and we in New Zealand should look" after our fish as well—declare a close season, I mean."

A young man named G. B. Ward was charged at the Magistrate's Court, Te Aroha, with neglecting to attend Territorial parades. The defence (the Auckland Herald's correspondent reports) was based on religious grounds, the defendant pleading that the rules of his church, the Plymouth Brethren, forbade fighting and the use. of arms. In answer to the Magistrate, he said he would not fight in defence of himself, his home, or his mother, even if someone -were assaulting her. He was ready, however, to serve with an ambulance corps, provided they were not armed. The magistrate dismissed the information, each side to pay its own costs.

An ex-New Zealand Dairy Commissioner, Mr. J. A. Ruddick, writing from Canada, says:—"When I left New Zealand twelve years ago I little thought that I would be. eating New Zealand butter in Canada, and yet this is what we are doing at the present time. We are using it in our house, and we find the quality excellent. It is retailed at Is 8d per lb. The butter which is being sold in Montreal, Ottawa and other eastern cities is imported from London, but the western eities get their supplies direct from New Zealand. I have not lost my interest in New Zealand and New Zealand affairs, and you may be sure I watch the development of dairying there with great interest."

Rough sketches of localities have often been used by litigants to assist the Magistrate in understanding better the evidence placed before him, but last week, during the hearing of a case at Ashburton, arising out of a motor cm- accident, counsel placed before the Court a painting representing the artistic work of the plaintiff, i" which streets, houses, hedge*, motor cars, pedestrians and a trap wera all shown. The art critic would 'have found in the painting much faulty work, especially with regard to perspective (says the Guardian.), but it served the purpose intended, and also helped to relieve the dullness of Court proceedings. Once during the hearing it went astray, and his Worship, observing it on the Press table, where it had been laid, commented on the aesthetic tastes of reporters and their evident love of art.