LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 115, 1 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

.'. I)lUiag(' to tilt' (l.stf'ilt of f-'SoO-WJIH (loilf to the' seven-roomed 'house- in'.'Gill street, Wli'ic'li was .partially gutted, by- -lire, 011 Sunday morning.. . ' • i 'Late last-night 'Mr. W. .Anibury received telegraphic;advice from Vp'ollington that i'is Excellency the Governor wou)d bo at' New "Plymouth to address tthe farmers in the Good'TernplarHttll at 11 o'clock on Saturday morning.

There is a man in ,a country township, whose name is Burst. It.is a slight misfortune that would not have attracted much attention, if he had not called his two children. Annie May and Ernest Will The motor-ear manufacturers in Britain are' perturbed at the American invasion by which they are threatened. The'suggestion hrts been made that they should form a gigantic pool to resist the Americans.. ' '

The other morning a bulldog, attached to a chain and held by his owner, on seeing his reflection in a plate-glass window in Christchurch, dived at his supposed rival, breaking the glass. The dog received only alight cuts on the head. It would seem that the much discussed opossum bids fair to outclass the familiar white rabbit or guinea pig as a family pet. During the past week a Dunedin firm which deals in opossums 'sold some three dozen of these animals to enthusiastic youngsters, and had large orders to lill. The prices paid averaged from 10s to 12s. One of the most successful farmers in South Canterbury states that owing to the late harvest and the present weather conditions, the area in grain this year will show a material fallingoil, but that the outlook for the sheepfarmer is bright. In the Geraldine district the lambing is half through, and it is estimated that the increase will in all probability average fully 111) per cent., about SO per cent, better than last year. The clip, too, it is said, will go from lib to 21b better all round, while the wool is strong, sound in staple, and clean.

The New Plymouth Boys' High School magazine has improved with age, not that it has any claims to longevity. It is now quite a bulky little volume, and what is important, its increased quantity has not impaired its quality. It is most attractively set out, and its pages are interspersed with a number of excellent photographic views of the school, the boarding-house, the agricultural plot, and the senior and junior football fifteens. Most interesting and instructive is the page devoted to agricultural notes, which sets out clearly that the work done in this department of the school is of the utmost practical va!u.- from an educational as well as a prari.ical point of view. The boys who intend to take up farming when they leave school will, in this course, 'have a solid foundation to work upon, as their practical work outside is supplemented by lectures on the theory of the science. Articles are also included dealing with the library and its additions of new books, the cadets, the debate, and the preparatory school, while in a lighter vein come the "Boarders Notes" (bustliii:; with quips and quiddities) school new-', (containing an interesting review of the term) the Camera Club, old boys' no::-cs, a trip to Karatonga (disclosing the experiences of an old boy) and "Casual TVr-plipetions" by Mr. A. Hemptou. Football has a big cut in, twenty-one pages be'ir: filled with reports of matches and an a>■■■omit of the Napier trip. All things considered the magazine in this, its second number, has firmly justified its claims for existence, and a large measure of support, and it should do much to bring the manifold advantages and activities of the school before the notice of parents with children just coming of school age.

The ■recent Fitzroy Fire Brigade Bazaar resulted in a profit of £55. This evening a benefit entertainment will be put on at the. Empire "Picture Theatre in aid of the new .Mountain House. An excellent programme of pictures will be submitted.

Tlie vital statistics for New Plymouth during September are as follow, the figures for the corresponding month of last year being given in parenthesis:—Marriages 5 ((!], births 24 (31), deaths 13 (21). Nearly £4OO has been subscribed towards the proposed memorial at Godalming, England, to Mr. ."Jack" Phillips, the chief Marconi wireless operator on the Titanic, who was a native of the town. . We learn that Mr. W. J. Neilson is installing a new cheese plant in his Koyal Oak Cheese Factory at Omata, owjng to his receiving a large increase of milk. The improved prospects for cheese seem to bo having their effect locally. Two children and a woman with u baby in her arms were tossed out of a trap while rounding the Post Office corner yesterday morning. The girth gave away, resulting in the overturning of the vehicle. None of the occupants was injured.

The beauties of Mount Egmont in its summer robes- will be witnessed in Auckland this week, the cinematograph 'film taken by the local Empire Film Company being shown at the Lyric, Auckland's best Theatre. This film and films of other Taranaki subjects are also to be shown in other parts of the Dominion. They should help considerably in advertising Taninaki's scenic attractions. , The Ruabine which arrived in Wellington yesterdav brought to New Zealand two Clydesdale stallions purchased in Britain by Mr. Kenneth Mcintosh, of Kaiapoi. One of these is Crandalc, a two-year-old,.which is described by the newspaper. "Scottish Farmer" as one of the best stallions ever exported from Great Britain. The other horse is Resolution,'' a three-year-old, which secured second prize at the English 'Royal Show at Dojicaster last July. Both were landed in excellent condition! ... -

At a meeting of .the Teachers'' Institute at Inglewood oft 1 Saturday, Mr Cutler read a paper on "School Conditions in England and Wales." In buildings and equipment the Home schools, he said, are much in advance of those in New Zealand. -The classes ore much smaller, a class, of 50 being a rarity, while herein the large towns classes of 70 and 80 fire quite common. There are no pupil teachers, each class being in charge of- a fully qualified assistant. In some of the subjects, notably, drawing, the methods are in advance of local ones. The salaries are slightly lower than here, but on the other hand this is counterbalanced by the difference in. the cost of living, equal in most cases to quite £SO. Mr. C. Robertson, who was a heavy loser by the fire on Sunday morning,-. his effects not having been insured, is not without friends in the town. At a special meeting of the executive of the Taa-a-naki Garrison Band last night, it was decided to hold a drawing-room entertainment and picture show on Monday next at the Theatre Royal as a benefit for Air. Robertson. The suggestion has already been warmly approved by a number of citizens, several monetary contributions having been made, whilst the Theatre proprietary have met the Band in a,generous and broad-minded .manner. Mr. Robertson is himself a useful member of the Band. The executive will be glad to receive- any further assistance- towards this desirable object. Thomas Ryan pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court -yesterday morning to charges "of drunkenness ' and using threatening behaviour. According to Sergeant Haddrell. Ryan liiul '•pitched into" a Maori during Saturday afternoon, 1 providing a free entertainment for tlie usual crowd of street loungers. The accused, who pleaded hard for another chance, and said that he was suffering from catarrh of the throat, .rind a very little drink—he had only had two glasses —affected him. He came from Awakino. On the charge of drunkenness he was-convicted and discharged, and for the other offence was fined-£1 with costs 7s, with the option of 14 days' imprisonment. A fortnight was allowed him in which to pay the fine. For some time past the Veterans' Association has on various ceremonial occasions felt the want of a flag. By m-eans of subscription among members, a seven-foot Union Jack has been procured, and it will be handselled this afternoon at the parade of veterans at the funeral of the'late Mr. E. T. Morshead. The secretary of the Egmont County Council has written to the Taranaki County Council suggesting that as the latter body already has a tollgate near the northern boundary, of the Egmont County it should place an "almost prohibitive tariff on motor and traction engine traffic." In support of its request, the Egmont Council points out that if this is done the necessity for it to erect a tollgate, say at Warea, in the Egmont County will be obviated. The- council explains that it is moving in. the matter on account of the report, ejl intention of a firm to utilise an engine and trailers in the cheese traffic.

The suffragettes have not forgotten the late Sir Campbell-Banncrman's advice to keep on '•pestering." The story of the latest escapade in which one of their number figured comes from Chines, in Kairnshire, Scotland. The heroine of the adventure thought it would be a good joke to post herself to Mr. Winston Churchill. She therefore went to a local post office, and affixing a card to herself, addressed to the First" Lord, requested the authorities to have her duly delivered in accordance with the regulations. The postal Officials were not unnaturally in a bit of a quandary as to what their duty was in such a case, but as the freakish one insisted, and there were regulations by which the officials were bound, the latter found themselves obliged to comply with the request. The human parcel was accordingly taken to its destination. Mr. Churchill, however, was absent when it arrived at his residence, and as his secretary refused to "take delivery," the postman and his charge had no alternative but to depart, tho latter greatly chagrined at having failed to give Mr. Churchill quite so much annoyance as she intended.

In the Supreme Court at Hamilton last week E. Johnson (formerly engineer to' tlie mko County Council) sued Charles Manuel (Chairman of the Council), for tioO damages for alleged slander. The il \ iy JTf for P h ' l " m '> who was awardca tdis- damages.

The Wellington City Council decided last night to reconstruct all the cars necessary, to provide a central aisle, and to remove the top floors of double deckers, the alterations are to be carried out at the rate of not less than one nci month, and arc estimated to cost £559». ine fishing season in Taranaki opened this morning. v "Taupo, New Zealand," writes Colonel Moore to a London piper, "is the most wonderful place on earth for trout. Two Irishmen, who v came for a month, caught a thousand fish. . . . The trout are magnificent this season)' I don't see how they can be otherwise, as the feed brought down by the rivers i» wonderfully good." At the Police Court in Dunedin last week James Henry Thomas was charged that he did exhibit in a 'window' of his boot shop a card with the intention of inducing persons to resort to his premises for the purpose of taking part in a scheme by which prizes were gained by means of chance. He was further cha-rg-ed that he did by the device of a lighted candle guessing competition dispose of a clock and biscuit barrel by chance! Mr. Haselden, S:M., gave a decision yesterday holding that a guessing competition was not a game of chance. Both charges were therefore dismissed.

The Lyttelton Times advocates the amendment of the licensing law by the placing of three issues on the ballot paper, viz., "continuance," "prohibition,"' and "State control," and that the elector should be given a "single transferable vote,!' that is, that he should be allowed to indicate his first preference and his second preference and that in the event of the issue to which he gave his firslj preference being' at the bottom of the count his vote should be transferred to the issue to which he awarded his second preference. Under this system many people who now vote "oontinuance,'\ "prohibition" being 'the only alternative, would give their first preference to "State control," and some who now . vote "prohibition" would bollow their;! example. It is the boast of th« prohibitionists (says- the Times) that nine-tenths of them are good Democrats 'believing in majority rule, and it is difficult to see how they can consistently oppose a method of deciding the fat* of the liquor traffic that embodies all the axioms of their political creed. It is stated that some interesting developments in the Chinese telegraphic service, which have already received consideration, may come into prominence when the affairs of the country are reduced to something like order. The progress of the organisation has been sadly, hampered -by .the-,revolution, and now it is highly probable that the financial crisis will still further delay the important improvements and extensionswhich have been submitted in outline to the Ministry for -Communications. For example, a proposal has been made for the provision of wireless communication between Pekin and Lhassa. At present communication is effected almost entirely via India, and on account of the great mountain ranges intervening between the capital and the Forbidden City the construction of a line of telegraphs would involve great engineering difficulties. The suggestion is that there should be two intermediate "wireless stations, one at Tachienlu and the other at Atang. Another important proposal is the establishment of a chain of wireless stations along the entire length of tlie China coast from the island of Hainan to the Gulf of Pechihli. This would be done by the erection of twelve wireless' stations, each with a range of 250 miles, and taking in all the important islands and lighthouses. Thomas Wolkowski, a Russian now resident in Sydney, has given to the Sydney Sun a story from his own experience, which reads more like romance than real life, He was a school-teacher, h- said in little Russia, in one of the provinces near the Crimea. He left that occupation after a disagreement with the village priest. The priest dropped in to examine the school one afternoon, and, finding one tiny girl backward is Biblical knowledge he attacked her with a heavy ruler, splitting her ear from top to bottom with a final slash. Wolkowski attempted to interfere, and had the temerity to quote Tolstoy's opinions on educative methods, with the result that he found it expedient to leave the village. He later became a telegraph operator, and in 1005 was stationed at Archinsk, in Siberia. A railway strike occurred, and during the strike period it fell to Wolkowski's lot to transmit a message in which was an announcement regarding the Duma, and a promise of redress if the strike were ceased. Three days later a military train arrived with troops under the command of an officer named Martinkewich. Martinkewich sought out copies of all the 'revolutionary telegrams" he had received. Wolkowski denied receiving any, and persisting in his denial he was stripped of his clothes and held down in the snow while the soldiers knouted him. After thirty blows he lost consciousness. The knouting continued till Martinkewich was satisfied that his victim -was dead. Wolkowski was left naked in the snow, bleeding terribly. The stationmastcr picked Wolkowski up and assisted him to his room. He was, still breathing, and recovered consciousness iu a few hours. He was taken to a hospital, but the doctor dared not admit him. Finally he was obliged to drag his weary limbs across the- border to Mongolia, where some friendly Mongolians nursed him till he recovered. He subsequently went to Japan, and from Japan went te Sydney.