LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 49, 16 July 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Newspaper contributors are not always as frank as one who informed a Hawke's Bay paper not far removed from Dannevir'ke that after the wedding ceremony the party adjourned for "a feed." Rugby football is a serious sort of pastime in the Waikato. In a match played at Hamilton one player had his nose broken, another sustained a fracture of the log, and a third had his knee twisted. It is computed that at least 40 new motor cars have-gone into the Masterton district during the last six months. The roads being in good order, farmers are abandoning their buggies and dog-carts for the comfortable cars. Referring to junior cadets, the report submitted to the annual meeting of the Taranaki Teachers' Institute brought under the notice of teachers the apparent indifference which characterises the administration of the junior cadet movement. For many years this movement had done a great deal of good for the senior boys of the schools, but lately very little interest seemed to have been taken in it. and the latest move, the demilitarising of the junior cadets, would not, it felt sure, meet with the approval of teachers. The peerless purity and excellence of CAMROC had made for this Dry Ginger Ale a Dominion-wide reputation. It is "the real Mackay," and has a flavor all its own. In addition, it is as healthful a beverage as nature can make it. All hotels and stores. 4

The euchre party and dance that was to have been held on Thursday, 18th inst., at Bell Block, in aid of the funds of the Taranaki Circular Road Eace, has been postponed till further notice. Mr. Saunders, of the Empire Pictures, has kindly extended an invitation to the inmates of the Old People's Home to attend the Empire Theatre to-night to witness the splendid programme he is now showing. At the Stratford Borough Council meeting last night it was decided by six votes to three to add to the loan schedule a sum of £6OOO for the purpose of reconstructing Victoria Bridge, in Broadway, to the full width of the street.

H. F. Caliaghan was yesterdaybrought before the court on a charge of having been found helplessly drunk in Devon street. On the application of Senior-Sergeant Haddrell, the presiding justice, Mr. J. S. S. Medley, remanded accused for a week for medical attendance.

The Westport Harbor Board decided yesterday to oppose the Railway Department's proposed scheme, estimated to cost £2700, for the installation of the electric lighting of the railway work and wharves, as the board is considering a large scheme, to include the lighting of the whole of the works, including its floating basin. | The Westport Harbor Board decided yesterday to take the necessary steps to construct out of revenue a patent slip 300 ft in length, 50ft in breadth, and estimated to cost £27,500, the work to be completed in two years. Four applications were received'for the position of night signalman, and Captain Whalstrom, of the s.s. Putiki, was appointed. At the Stratford Borough Council meeting last night some discussion occurred on the fact that certain matters discussed in committee at the previous meeting had been made public property the following morning. The Mayor expressed his regret at the fact, and several councillors rose to protest that they were not responsible. Before the culprit could be ascertained by a proieess of elimination the Mayor stopped the discussion with the expression of a hope that there would he no further leakage in future. Word has been received that the late Mr. Eugene O'Connor, who represented the Buller district in Parliament, and was the initiator of the movement to establish the Westport Harbor Board, has left the bulk of his estate, estimated at about £20,000, to establish a home in .Westport for destitute children and i destitute old people of the district, the j trustees being the Roman Catholic

Bishop of Wellington, the member for the Buller district, and the Mayor of Westport for the time being. On the death of his relatives the annuities now left to them also come to Westport for the above home. All of Mr. O'Connor's valuable.library is left to the Westport Free Public Library.

The Egmont Lodge, 1.0. G.T., met as | usual in the lodge room last evening in •rood form, in spite of the rain. Bro. Cr. Hayden, C.T., presided. The business of the meeting was only ordinary. The secretary read a letter of invitation from the 1.0. R. to attend an open function of their Tent this evening at 8 o'clock. The lodge deputy urged members to accept this very brotherly invitation from I a kindred society. The treasurer asked j the lodge to make, in their next quarterly programme, an open night for the con- ; sideration of no-license and prohibition j matters, to which the No-License • League should be especially invited. The lodge heartily endorsed 'the proposal. I which it is hoped- will lead to more ') united action among temperance people in New Plymouth. The entertainment programme was "Conundrums," original or selected. The latter were the more numerous, the former the more entertaining. "Why is Latin taught, and why do the wisest people want to leave it out?" This double-barrelled question was asked and answered by Dr. Truby King recently, in an address to the women's meeting in the Y.M.C.A. at Christchurch. He said that Latin was taught in the Middle Ages because it was the one language "by which the scholars of that day could get back to a past civilisation 'which was greater titan that of their own time. Hundreds of years of darkness and medievalism followed the advanced civilisation of old Rome, but about the time of Elizabeth the light began to dawn again. Then the learned men looked to the language which contained the records of old civilisation. The position to-day was essentially different, Our civilisation had reached a much higher standard than that of Rome, and there were translations of the old records and books. The very purpose which had inspired medieval scholars *to go back did not now exist, so why waste human energy and time on what was of no practical use in modern life? While the study of dead i languages was a proper thing for cer- ! tain people, there was no reason why the average person should waste his time and energy over them, when there were things much more desirable, interesting and profitable to be done. A pitiful glimpse of the petty and disheartening conditions of poverty under which many country clergymen live and work is opened (says the London Daily Mail) by twenty appeals which were evoked by a four-line advertisement hj a Coventry doctor,.stating that he wa'

prepared to give a bicycle in good condition to a poor clergyman in a country parish. The letter bears, too, unconscious testimony to the devotion to duty with which the bodily fatigue of long trudging in scattered parishes is borne, as only an incidental addition to the unremitting, monotonous work and the constant and deadening anxiety about the problem of obtaining the simple necessities of life which make up the lot of many a meanly paid country parson. There is a Welsh rector among the applicants whose stipend has averaged less than £l5O during the last five years, and who has nine children. His parish is fifteen miles from a town, and it is over eight miles in length. Another tells how he dreads the weary walking along the hard and dusty roads of the three parishes he serves in the heat of the coming summer. A curate of 56, with three children, on £145 a year; a lay reader, with a family of two, and £7O a year; a vicar of 5!) who has struggled to bring up a family of six—such are typical instances of the hard working men who carry on the work of the church for a hue pittance, and are eager for the chance of an old bicycle to save them some of the additional toil of weary tramping that their unostentatious labors entail. II- is THE RESOLVE

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The Russian Royal special train is tliei! heaviest and the must luxurious in ] Europe. When it was constructed it/ was devised' to stand a charge of dynamite, and it cannot he taken fast over most of the European lines, because their rails are too light. The train contains a small chape!, with an icon of peculiar sanctity; a library, a bathroom, draw--ing-room, dining-room and bedrooms. The servants' quarters are at the rear, and consist simply of an ordinary vanlike carriage, arranged with .sleeping bunks, as if on board ship. The train is so made that it can be changed to fit the Russian or the mid-European gauge. ■lt is stated on good authority (says the Xapier Telegraph) that the preliminaries in connection with the Xapier trams have been adjusted. The contracts have been signed, and all that now remains is for those who have undertaken the construction of the works to make a start. Already large quantities oE materials have been ordered by the contractors, and within the course of two months they should arrive in Xapier. A factor which seems to spell business is that a large quantity of rails have already been deposited at the Recreation Ground, in anticipation of the work commencing. The specifications state that the trams must he running in Xapier within a year from tlie time the. tenders were signed.

We are hearing a great deal just now about the cost of living, and probably not without cause, but old identities must wonder what would be thought nowadays if the prices which ruled half a century ago were still in force (says a writer in an exchange). I have before me a number of the "Maori Messenger," printed in Auckland in 1855 "for the New Zealand Government," and under Auckland Markets," I find the following quotations: Flour, fine. £35 per ton; seconds, £32 per ton; wheat, 12s per bushel; oatja, 8s per bushel; maize, 8s per bushel; butter, 2s Od per lb; fowls, 2s (id each; ducks, 3s 6d each; geese, 7s each: fresh beef, 8d per lb; fresh mutton, 8d per lb; tea, £7 per box; coffee, lOd per lb; candles, 2s Gd per lb; boots (Napoleon) £1 15s per pair; plough horses, £55 each; cart horses, £BO each; saddle horses, £3O each. How did the early settlers manage to pay these prices? Well, for one thing, they lived the simple life. There were no luxuries in those days. They lived in humble homes ; humbly furnished, they dressed plainly, [ they walked wherever 'they went, and they spent little or nothing on amusements. To-day the standard of living has increased enormously. We all want fine houses, fine furniture, fine raiment, line foods and drinks, fine entertainments and generally a fine time altogether, And then we wonder why it costs us so much to live, and costly commissions are set up to find out for us! Mrs. Gillam, wife of the vicar of St. Matthew's, Auckland, and a prominent member of the Ladies' Benevolent Society, in speaking to a Herald reporter on Thursday, said that her own cases in what is called the city south area number 30 a month, principally women who have been deserted by their husbands, while a few are prisoners' waves. "A woman called to-day, stating that her husband had deserted her. She had a little baby in her arms just two months old, and another child aged two years. Poor woman! She was absolutely penniless, and her baby was very, very ill. The husband had- promised to send her money, but be had not kept his word. One' other case is that of a man, an absolute loafer, whose life is unfortunately of the same helpless, hopeless disposition. There are three children. We have helped them so much and without effect that charity has had to be withdrawn. At the same time one cannot see God's children starve, and we give them the bread that is needful. Recently a woman was left with a baby only three weeks old. her husband leaving' four children with her. I think it is a blot on our civilisation and law that women and children should be treated in this way. In fact, 80 per cent, of our eases are due to wife desertion. This social scandal is on the increase and should be stopped. Husbands ought to be caught and returned to their own town, and there placed on public works and their wages withheld for the support of their wives."