LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 72, 12 August 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The secretaryship of the New Plymouth Horticultural .Society ilias been relinquished by -Mi'. A. L. Humphries. A wireless message states that tilie Manuka will arrive at Wellington from San Francisco early on Wednesday. The Palest Farmers' Co-operative Freezing Company put through their works some 44;i(> head of cattle and 15,120 sheep during the year that has just closed. At its meeting on Friday the Egmont County Council, following tlie example of the Taranaki County Council, decided to appoint a general overseer of works. The Masterton A. and P. Association is strongly advocating the claims of Wairarapa for a North Island agricultural college. A deputation is to wait 011 the Prime Minister on the subject. v On the run down from Lyttelton on Saturday the steamer Warrimoo was in wireless touch with Coeos Island, which was picked up at 0.40 a.m. The distance is 4341 miles. This is claimed as an Australian record.

The monthly service for men in St. Mary's Church yesterday afternoon attracted a, large congregation, when the Ilev. A. ll.' Colvile. M.A., preached on "Hindrances: Bo they really hinder?" The address was delivered 111 a clear, convincing manner, and the subject matter was very interesting. A Rose Sihow will be held in the Good Templar Hall on October 31 under the auspices of the New Plymouth Horticultural Society. The society's annual spring show will be held in the Coronation Hail on December 5, and a chrysanthemum and dahlia show in April next. A committee has been set up to arrange a schedule for the forthcoming show. That the Brotherhood is now firmly established in New Plymouth was evidenced by the attendance at yesterday afternoon's meeting. The speaker for the afternoon was Mr. J. J. Elwin, who discoursed interestingly on New Zealand in the early sixties. Mr. Ehvin handled his subject in an entertaining manner, and .his remarks W'ere followed with close attention.

Cows to tlie munbcr of 100, 113 bul--112 piga were slaughtered for local consumption at the municipal abattoirs during July. Compared with the corresponding month of last year, these figures show an increase of 33 in the number of cattle slaughtered, 5 calves, 131 sheep, and 8 lambs, and a decrease lOff 10 in the number of pigs. One cow, 1 bullock, and 0 pigs were condemned. At its last meeting the Waimate West County Council resolved to write to the various local bodies affected, asking their co-operation, and also the Parliamentary representatives of Taranaki, announcing their intention of waiting on the Government to urge the construction of the. proposed Te Roti-Moturoa railway. The Parihaka Road Board is also backing up the County Council's recommendation.

Dr. Bulkley, of New York, declares that a diet of rice, bread and butter, and water is the best cure of skin diseases and unhealthy complexions, and is more efficacious than medicines. He advocated the use of chopsticks as an aid to digestion. The successful use of rice by the Chinese and Japanese is due to the fact that they eat with chopsticks, which bring to the mouth only two or three grains at a time.

Thomas Falconer pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court on Saturday, before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., to being found drunk and to having committed a breach of a prohibition order. According to the police, the accused, who had already been convicted once that week for obtaining liquor .during the currency of a prohibition order, bad property out in the country. The magistrate convicted and discharged accused on the first charge and ordered him to come up for sentence when called upon on the second offence, Falconer promising to leave the town that day. A Japanese doctor never dreams of asking a poor patient for a fee. Whenever a rich man calls in a doctor, be does not expect that he will receive a bill for medical services; in fact, no •such thing as a doctor's bill is known in Japan, although nearly all modern practices are in vogue thero. The strict honesty of the people dors not make it necessary for the doctor to ask a fee. When lie has finished his visit to the patient, a present is made to him, just as much as the patient can afford. The doctor then smiles, bows, thanks bis patient, and tlie transaction is settled. The Vossiche Zeitung 'lias received news from Cairo that Lord Kitchener will shortly arrive in Berlin to have an operation performed on the leg which he broke in India in 1303. It is stated that the leg has recently been giving the British Agent-General some trouble, and that he has decided to undergo treatment by a German specialist. Lord Kitchener's accident occurred while he was riding through a tunnel near Simla. A native scared his horse, which crushed him against the wall, breaking a leg and throwing him to the ground. He was allowed to lie there unattended for a considerable time, as the natives were afraid to render him aid.

In a general way, the great need for the Opunake railway has long been felt, but it is doubtful '-whether the settlers themselves have been, as a body, aware of the full strength and comprehensiveness off the arguments in its favor. With a /by-election pending in Egmont, it is, we think, specially desirable that the strength and clearness of the ease should be steadily kept in view, so that the construction of the railway be insisted on, not only as a local necessity, but a matteir of large public policy. It will be fair, too, t-o remember that Mr. T. Mackenzie (being a. Minister) was, as member for Egnipift, the prime pr-ocurei of the which 'hos so cogently proved the Shsc for the line, and shown not only its local eharae'tei', but its national character.—Hawera Star.

Certainly the Canadian railways a,re being vigorously pushed forward, but whether the present system or systems of financing them is or arc the best is well open to question (says the financial writer of the Sydney Daily Telegraph). The Dominion and State' Governments have themselves constructed a number of lines which no company would take in hand, and they are not bv any means profitable investments. Other lines, which were of doubtfo! -vu'iiiiig capacity, have been "guaranteed," and those guarantees now exceed £SO 000.000, but are not reckoned as pari <.f !l;e debt. Beyond that, the railwpy companies have been given 32,000,0(10 acr.<« of land contiguous to. the railways, mid then there have been substantia! cash subsidies. Up to June 30, 1010, the Canadian railways had cost £355,410,842, ami probably the total now is nearly, or nnsK £400,000,000, that being apart f» .»< he cash value of the land grants. In VW3-10 the gross revenue of the Canadian railways was £35,757.007, and the working expenses £24,750,008. leaving a r t revenue of £11.007.050. which wa < tot i high return on £355.000,000, T'vse fin'ires are exclusive of the Canadian -electric railways or tramways. SKIN DTF^ASTSS, including eczema, pii:';-ips rashes, boils, chilblains, ringworm -Vingles. ulcers, and old sores hav I heir remedy in Rexona, the rapid lr:-lei\ Sold in triangular pots at Is fid and 3;. Obtainable everywhere.

in pusuanee of liis progressive policy regarding i.liu general health of children attending the public schools, Mr. Carmichael (New South Wales Minister for Public Instruction) has caused to he prepared Koine thou,sands of charts illustrative of the neglected condition of teeth, and setting out various matters connected with the care of teeth, These charts are to hi; hung on school walls, and are intended to lie used by doctors in the course of tlieir special instructions and demonstrations of dental hygiene. The Minister fully recognises the good work done by the Dental Institution ill the making of inspection, etc., and proposes to bring the dental work more into touch with the general scheme of medical inspection.

Last month, for the first time in nine years, the C/.ar, accompanied by the Czarina and the Imperial children, paid a visit to Moscow. They had a splcn-, did reception at the station, and drove through the gaily decorated city to the Kremlin amid the pealing of bells and the cheers of the people. Recently, in anticipation of the visit, the police made a great raid in the poorer districts of Moscow, and arrested no fewer than 2000 persons, -men and women. A force of 1000 policemen, with a large number of detectives and officials, assembled at 11 p.m. in the courtyard of the Prefecture of Police. Two hours later they were despatched in various directions, surrounded the lodging-houses and shelters, and effected what probably constitutes a record "round-up."

Jewels from the Forbidden City of Lha-ssa, the ancient capital of Tibet, form part of a collection of precious stones now in London, which is one of the finest ever brought out of the East. They have been collected by M. Jacques Cartier, and include enormous earrings of carved turquoises set in pure gold, the workmanship of which is equal to that of the best period of Italian art. Much of this jewellery was taken from idols in Lliassa. M. Cartier spent seven months in Arabia and India, and his other finds include a little bunch of pearls worth £60,000, an historic, flat oval emerald, bearing the inscription in Persian, "He who posseses this charm shall enjoy the protection of God," which has a great topical interest, for It formed part of the loot carried to Persia from Delhi,

gorgeous earrings shaped like flowers I with rubies for petals, and an emerald i weighing 129 carat?, worth £800 ; once tlw property of King Akbar. Referring to the ruses adopted by insects to escape detection by enemies, Mr. W. J. Rainbow, in-a popular s&iencc lec- | ture, delivered at the Sydney Museum j last month, said that many edible butj -terflies mimicked unedible forms and ' soft-bodied beetles that would be devourj ed bv birds simulated in general appeari ance hard-bodied beetles that were avoided. Another remarkable method of seekj ing protection adopted by some caterI pillars was malingering. Those that had !* acquired this habit pretended that they had been stung by a wasp by displaying, when such an enemy was hovering about, ' discolored patches on parts of their boI dies. By this means the wasps were de- ! ceived, and flew off in quest of a victim j which had not been stung, or which had not acquired the habit of appearing so. ) An illustration he gave of "alluring colj oration" was that of an Indian mantis j that attracts the insects upon which it 1 feeds by its flower-like shape and pink j color, the supposed petals being the flatI tened legs of the insect.

"I know from personal experience that every ship that comes south to practically any of the islands of the Northern Pacific brings with it one or two, or perhaps more, Japanese," writes Dr. Dorsey, who recently visited Australia, in the New York Independent. "And they are not poor, ignorant, uneducated Japanese, it is almost safe to say that there are no Japanese of this type. The men who are coming south are clever men, many of them university men, pretty well all of them soldiers who fought in the Russo-Japanese Avar. I know that in the Admiralty Islands, for instance, there is a Japanese who is quite a little rajah in his way. He has his steam launch and his little fleet, and he flits about from island to island just as though he were the Governor. There can he no doubt about it, that one of Japan's ideals is to gain sway over the trade in the Pacific.. That is a very laudable ambition, and we cannot object to it. Australia cannot object to it either. The only attitude that she can adopt is to keep away and see that no other end is in view, and, anyhow, to prevent Japan from grabbing all the trade."

Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second Groups) are notified that subscriptions will be due and payable today (Monday), at tlie Secretary's Office, Currie street, from !) a.m. to 12.30, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.— Advt.