LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 80, 21 August 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The High School broke up yesterday for the second vacation. The cases of two of the several Territorials who are being summoned for failing to render personal service will be heard at the Magistrate's Court tomorrow morning. There was a brief sitting of the Civil Court, before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., yesterday, when judgment for the t)kintiff by default was given in the following eases:— TT. Collier and Co. v. William Cleaver, claim £lO as, and costs £1 lGs 6d; same v. George Henry Thomas, claim £8 3s, and costs £1 Ss 6<L If Mr. Massey wants his reforms to have a really practical turn he will apply the proportional representation plan to the Lower House and create a purely advisory second chamber containing six or eight experts, including a fair proportion of lawyers. Such an arrangement would give New Zealand the basis of the best legislative system in the world—Lyttel ton Times. A tragic sequel to a libel case was discovered at Sunderland on June 29, when ! the 7..")0 train from Neweastle-on-Tyne arrived. A paper appeared on a carriage window bearing the words: "I'leasp remove me at Sunderland." Alfred S. Stamp, house agent, was found with his lips and mouth shockingly burnt, apparently with carbolic acid. He was removed to the infirmary, where lie soon died. Deceased was ordered, at the Durham Assizes on the previous day, to pay £25 for a libel.

A cablegram from London to the Sydney Sim states that, basing his calculations on the present rate at which lunacy is increasing, Dr. Forbes Winslow makes the startling prophecy that in 300 years hence there will 'be more lunatics than sane people in the world. "We are rapidly approaching a mad world," do- ; dares the eminent brain specialist. j "Every part of civilisation is advancing, I and insanity also is bound to advance! In I Soil there were .10,762 lunatics in the | world; now there are 135,000." ! The recent plea of the Rev. A. H. : Colvile for the formation of a branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dumb Animals in New Plymouth shows signs of bearing good fruit. Mr. Colvile has followed up his pulpit utterances by speaking to several influential citizens on the subject, who have written to Wellington for full information regarding the society. As soon as this comes to hand a meeting will be called to consider the advisableness of starting a branch in this town. Mr. Riddell, S.M., delivered his .reserved judgment in Wellington yesterday in the case of Philip Newbury against the Royal Choral Society of Wellington, claiming ten guineas/ the balance of a fee withheld by the society because Newbury did not attend a rehearsal prior to the performance of "Cavalloria Rustieana" list .Tune. Newbury claimed that he was prevented by ill-health from attending the rehearsal, and that it was not compulsory for him to attend. The magi-trpte said that there was nothing to show that the performance had suffered appreciably by plaintiff's absence from rehearsals, and his illness was a sufficient I'xcuse. Defendant's only rcmed;• would be by action for damages, and in (his ease no damage -was prove' .Tvdgment was given for the plain!,"!", w!•,)': costs.

I Dr. C. X. Johnson. L.D. . D.D.S., ediI tor of the Denial Review (Chicago) and I chairman of the appointed by tlie Chicago Dental Poriety to examine the teeth of scWd children in Chicago, who is on hi? ■•'■■> v back from the Australian Dental O -IVn/nee, held at Brisbane, reports Ci.' 1 iho Chicago Commission lias examin ! more than 30.000 children attending *}■■.• 'drools, and. is is claimed that the r- !i Ims proved that between 05 and 98 'i.'.r vnt. of the children were suffering fi.'-i.i dental trouble. Vrom what \v: hv ' ";>thel'ed in Now Zealand, he had e<-■■•'. that the percentage was just as here. Tn Chicago last year SOOO eh"■lr-M' "missed their grades" (failed in < • v-;iinations) chiefly on aeconnt of ill" -- entailing absence. A great proiv-.. . i . ;l of these cases were directly attr?' : d. to dental complaints. That enfp" ' a c-„-H- 0 f between £40,00,0 and ,-£n' 1 '"> in nutting these children tlirmir'' i ; ieir grades once move. Three ■' infirmaries had been established in C : ' -"-o, and just before he left, \h: .Tiilis: -■-enwald, a pnWic-spiritcd citizen, ha.' ■'•'.nteered to equip another seven infi''--' < V? for (lie treatment of the leeHi f. • poor. In addition, he had nfFi. i.iintain them (inclndin'.r the ; ■•■ ~f. salaries), -which will lTiea-p :<■ .rpeiidifurn of 10.000 dollars per ;i :. rFor Children's Haclrin.-r ' : .■ a; night,, Woods' Great