LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 123, 11 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The charges for press telegrams from New Zealand to Great Britain have been reduced to 7%d per word. A batch of alleged King Country slygrog cases (will be heard at the Magistrate's Court, New . Plymouth, next Thursday. The Diocesan Synod at Christehurch yesterday rejected a motion in favor of allowing women to vote at parish meetings, and in the election of Synodsmen.

The Timaru Herald appeared on Monday as a twelve-page paper, the first twelve-pager outside the chief centres. We congratulate the Herald upon its enterprise and the district upon this evidence of its prosperity and progress. The debate at Stratford last night on the question of State Control v. Prohibition was won by the New Plymouth team, who supported Prohibition, by 873 votes to 850. The umpires were Dr. Carberry and Ma-. Tyler, and Mr. 11. Spence acted as .referee.

Millions of fireflies which were recently driven from the marshes near Aetna, Ind., U.S.A., by a thunderstorm, alighted on a tank containing several hundred gallons of nitro-glycerine at 'a powder mill, and caused a stampede among the workmen, who feared an explosion.

"New Zealand is the only country in the world where there is no color line," said the Hon. Dr. Pomare in the course of a speech at the re-union of the Christchurch High School Old Boys. "If war were declared to-morrow I am certain that you would And pakeha and Maori fighting together in defence of the Bri-

tish Empire." The Recreation Spc-rti Ground hat been booked for Thursday afternoon, 21st November, for a grand gymnastic, military and equestrian display in aid of the Central School funds. A strong committee is in charge, and a great elfort will be made to make the display something to be remembered. Full particulars will be published later. A measure now in preparation is a Fisheries Bill, which is intended to give the Government some control over the whaling industry. It is considered that the number of vessels engaged and the conditions under which whaling is being carried out make it-necessary that some power should be taken to control the industry.

When a presentation of a medal, sent by the King of Italy, for bravery at the Messina earthquake, was to-be made at Hull, it was found that the intended recipient, a steward named Harry Hall, had lost his life while on the voyage Home to receive it. Hall,'it was stated, had been-washed overboard from the steamer Vigo in the Bay of Biscay and frowned.

The teaching of the young is an oxpensive item, and it is surprising tho amount paid out each month in salaries to teachers. Pay day is certainly an important event each month, and it will doubtless interest our readers to know that no less a sum than £60,000 a year is alone paid put by the Wanganui Board in salaries (says the Chronicle). This amount is exclusive of 'salaries paid for technical education, so that it will be seen that the education of our youngsters runs into money.

The duo-car has not yet arrived in New Zealand, but according to a writer in the English motor journal is the vehicle for the million in the future. Consisting of a little chassis made of cycle tubing with cycle wheels and engined with a motor of moderate power and. seating two persons, it is practically a motor cycle and side car in one. There are a good many of these in use in England now, and when the price comes down to somewhere between £OO and £7O complete, perhaps even lower than this can be managed, we shall probably, according to an English authority, again see this form of motoring almost superseding the motor-cycle.

"It is generally accepted," said Dr. Hight, speaking in Christchurch, "that if wages rise 10 per cent, and the general level prices 10 per cent., the worker is in the same position as before. That is not so. A rise of 10 per cent, in prices may be brought about by a rise in commodities that do not enter into the working man's consumption. The commodities actually consumed by him may actually have fallen in price or they may have risen less than 10 per cent., anil with his rise he may be much better off. On the other hand, the price of his articles of consumption may have increased more than 10 per cent., and he would be correspondingly worse off."

Complaint is- made in the current issue of the New Zealand Railway Officers' Advocate of the long hours stationmasters, clerks and cadets have to work on some of the Main Trunk .stations. The Advocate urges that a reorganisation of the hours of station duty generally is urgently necessary, especially in the Auckland district. It' is quoted that at Tauinarunui the stationmaster id scheduled to work 72 hours a week, and the goods clerk 54. The shift clerks do 61 and 53 hours, and the No. 1 shift includes 7Vs hours' Sunday work, for which no payment is made. One cadet works 51 hours weekly, hours from 3 p.m. till 12.15 a.m., with half an hour for tea. The average overtime of each member of the staff works out at between two and three hours daily throughout the year. Similar cases are cited at other stations.

The trouble of dairy farmers just now seems to be heigthened by the scarcity of labor, and in this connection in Kltham recently a farmer spent an unenviable and unprofitable time. Assisted by a friend he scoured the town, visiting'hotels and boardinghouses and hunting to the bitter-end clues of innumerable "wild goose chases" in search of a milker. The writer heard him remark: "I'm giving good wages, thirty bob and found, and can't get anyone. It's a bit better than when 1 was a young 'un, eh? Don't mind kicking in myself, but when the wife has to go into the shed, it's over the odds! Look here, if I can't get a man soon I'll put the whole lock, stock and barrel on the .market, and have a clearing sale!" Finally, as the hands of Father Time pointed to ten, the searchers after men boarded their motor car and hied them away home, the while heaping anathemas on labor and theirluck, and with visions of leaving "blan-ket-bay" at 2 a.m. preparatory to a .start being made on the herd.

Light rail ways iire being very frequently mentioned -in the House of lieprcsentatiyes this .session (says the Dominion). During the discussion on questions yesterday, Mr. H. J. 11. Okey (Taranaki) strongly advocated the construction of light lines-. He declared that it was a mere \vante of public money to build standard lines in outlying districts which might be efficiently served by light feed-er-lines. Mr. Okey added that in other countries light railways were laid along wul-lines in country'districts, and the ordinary road-bridges were used to carry •the permanent, way. Jfe <lid not *ee wihy similar methods should not be adopted in opening up the Xew Zealand back-blocks. Mr. ,1. A. Young. Waiknto, tifeo agreed that to lay light railways (or tramlines as 'he preferred to call them) along road-lines would be valuable assistance to settlement in country districts. The proposal -was supported bv Messrs. R. Scott and O. J. Anderson, the latter of whom_ said that there »«] mam' districts in whicb light railways would pay, and would do good work. '