LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 158, 21 November 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Australian mails, ox Manuka, at •Wellington,, will arrive here this evening. The Stratford School will hold its annual picnic at either Te Henui or Moturoa on the first Thursday in February. _ The Dannevirke News states that there is a municipal muddle in that town. Special -meetings of the Council have been held to investigate various' departments of the office work. Mr. C. K. Wilson, M.P., who passed through Taumarunui to Te Kuiti on Saturday morning, incidentally mentioned that out of £OOO,OOO voted for backblock roads, etc., £IIO,OOO had been voted .for the Taumarunui electorate. Mr. E. Maxwell's motion, embodying proposals to reorganise the office stall' of the Taranaki Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, was before yesterday's meeting of that body and, after a short discussion, deferred for further consideration at the next meeting of the Board. The New Plymouth Seaside Improvement Committee will hold its usual picnic'at Moturoa on New Year's Day.. A meeting will be held this week to' complete the arrangements. Already the services of the Garrison Band have been secured, and arrangements are bein<* made for special train facilities. The picnic will be run on the same lines as last year. Chinamen in the Dominion are. generally speaking, not slow to recognise in a practical manner the benefit of our public hospitals. A case in point cropped up at yesterday's meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board, when the following letter was read from a Chinese resident in Waitara:—"Please find enclosed postal note for one guinea towards your hospital funds. Yours in 'faith, hope and charity' ." Whilst clearing a portion of land at the Maori pa at Manukorihi (Waitara) on Tuesday, one of the natives discovered a splendid specimen of a Maori axe. The axe was eighteen inches in length by four inches wide at the blade, and is made of pure greenstone. The axe is supposed to have belonged to the late Wi Kingi te Tlangitake, the latter having had it handed down to him by his greatgrandfather, a noted rangitira who took part in the Maori war. It is valued at from £IOO upwards, and must bo several centuries old.

A writer in an English paper calls attention to the rapid growth of Japan as an industrial competitor. He writes: "Even the toy-makers of Bavaria are beginning to cry out. Our cheap clothing people will know the Japanese as rivals not to be despised. Taking advantage of the revolution in China they, in the first half of the present year, increased their exports of hats and caps hy five times the quantity for the corresponding period of last' year. While there is reason to believe they are losing their grip of the silk trade they are, as has already been indicated, intent upon doing a greater trade in cotton goods—one of their firms is extending its mills by 30,000 spindles, and in this department they have 1 at the moment agents 'spying out the laud' in India. Indeed, they are beginning to 'nurse' our dependence with some assiduity. While they -have been taking coal to India, they have been taking pig-iron to Japan, where there is a much-increased activity in shipbuilding and similar trades."

The office of the Taranaki Hospital find Charitable Aid Board is now open on Thursdays and closed on Saturday afternoons for the usual weekly holiday. The Postmaster-General states that the telephone business of the Dominion is increasing very rapidly. The figures for the last three months were just 100 per cent, greater than for the corresponding quarter last year. During the course of a speech at Waahi yesterday in connection with the tangi for Mahuta, .Sir James Carroll suggested that the name "King" should die with Mahuta. It was.a mattlr to be discussed by the chiefs assembled. Telegraphic advice was received by the Town Clerk yesterday from Mr. Black (consulting engineer to the Borough in connection with the proposed tramway scheme) that lie will arrive in New Plymouth next Tuesday evening. The High School Board had a lengthy and important deliberation in close committee yesterday afternoon, and as a result several resolutions were passed with regard to the staff. The board will hold its next meeting on December 11. Accounts amounting to £259 Is 4d were passed for payment. The .High School will break up for its annual holidays on Friday, December 13. The ceremony will be held in the Good Templar Hall at 2.30 p.m. It has been the custom in the past to give only one dux medal to the whole school, but this year a dux medal will be awarded to one of the boys uml another to one of the girls. The New Plymouth High School Board has decided that the boarding-house fees for next year shall ho £-15, redueahle to £4O if paid within 30 days of due date. A corresponding increase has been made in the weekly boarders' fees. At present the boarding fees are £3O, mineable to £35 2s. The board has made a grant of £5 to the High School Sports Committee. 'Mr. Hartnell, of the engineering staff of the YVaitara Freezing Works, informs the local paper that he has discovered a new method of treating crude petroleum, which consists of taking the crude oil and then mixing same with certain proportions of sawdust and shavings into a briquette formed by pressure, applied either by hand or maphi.no power. These briquettes are then in a form that can be used as patent fuel and can be safely stored_ on ships and in places convenient for firms* or steam raising purposes. Mr. Hartnell has been experimenting with this method for some time, and he believes he has discovered a good commercial article.