LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 173, 9 December 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Says theMastcrton Age:—"A Featherston railway ganger took some 'mountain dew' as a cure for a cold. He then used language to a guard on the railway, which was neither polite nor edifying. The Bench fined hjm £3 and costs. The cold is quite better now." The "Ambulance Saturday" campaign, in Wellington, postponed from the previous week owing to the wretched wither, was favoured on Saturday with a glorious day, and a. willing corps of lady collectors made a successful raid on the pockets of wayfarers. The total amount collected was £224. The Works Committee will recommend the Borough Council to-night, "That, the Electrical Engineer be irstructcd to life everj- endeavour to expedite the work at the power house to enable efficient lighting to be.- mailable before Christmas, and that he be authorised to engage such expert labor as may be necessary for this purpose." The combined Citizens and Band Committee invite ladies willing to assist with the collections on Band Saturday, the 21st instant, to meet them at the Town Hall on Tuesday evening, at 8 p.m. The committee are making strenuous efforts to improve the finances of the Band, and we trust that the young ladies of New Plymouth will come forward to assist one of our most valued institutions.

The Works Committee of the Borough Council recommends:—"That Mr. M. Jones, having failed to comply with the requisition served upon him by the Council (on the recommendation of the District Health Officer) to pull down tiie stables sitiute on part section 646, New Plymouth, the Borough solicitors be instructed to take, such steps as may be ncr-essary to obtain an order from' the Court to have such -buildings pulled down."

At a conference last week between representatives of the Taranaki Education Board and of the Technical College Advisory Committee there was considerable discussion regarding the best means to be adopted for increasing the usefulness and efficiency of the college. Mr. Isaac (Director of Technical Education for the Dominion) who was present, addressed the meeting, giving a good deal of valuable information as to" the methods; employed in other schools. It was decided to continue the conference at a later date, prior to the issue of the syllabus for next year's work.

There is at present at large in the town a gentleman of strongly egotistical tendencies who is busily engaged in distributing some of his own type-written eilueions, portions 'of which are distinctly objectionable when placed promiscuously as they have been, in the hands of children. So far as adults are concerned these • documents are simply amusing, but we most certainly strongly object to their being placed in the hamta of young people. We cannot very well quote the objectionable, features of this person's productions, but an evidence of his peculiar temperament may be gathered from his statement that he is "a military, athletic, moral writer, orator, humorous, original, pliilanthropical prodigy, but," he adds, "as I bave lost 32 years of my life through not being' put on the -right track of God at the start, I can only be an amatur. Now, had I been what I know I could have been, I would haye bepn one of the wonders ef the human race." Tin's is a harmless enough pretension, apart from its almost pathetic humour, but it is a sufficient indictment, without the extraordinary contest, to suggest that the powers that be should take steps to have the author's sanity tested. A new Roman Catholic convent has been erected at Pahiatua at a cost of £I4OO.

Influenza is rampant at Raurimu, and the mills are working short-handed through the men being laid up. Every home seems to be infected by the microbe.

During the hearing of a case in which two women were concerned at Yarmouth, each unrolled, from a paper parcel a handful of hair as evidence of the treatment reecived. Each said the 'hair was pulled from her head by the other. There is a young man in New York, Irving Berlin by name, who is known as the "Rag-Time King." Three years ago he was a waiter in a restaurant there, earning £3 a week; now he has an income of £20,000 a year, royalties on his rag-time melodies.

The Teport of a conference between committees .representing tflie Borough Council and Taranaki County Council will he tabled at to-night's meeting of the Borough Coined. The conference agreed that the ascertained valuation of the Omata riding of the count}' should be £142,672, and that of the portion merged into the borough £18,281. The excess of expenditure and liabilities over income was shown at £4O Os fid. Proportionate amounts of moneys received from the date of merging were" agreed upon, each body to receive an amount in ratio of the value of the area now controlled by it. It was decided to recommend the (jovernor-in-Couneil to apportion the public debt as follows: - County Council, £11,563 9s Id; Borough Council. £lO9.

Wrote a Constantinople correspondent at the beginning of hostilities:—"With the little Balkan armies we shall soon make an end," is the generally expressed belief, for the troops which for days have been pouring through the city by land and water give the impression of an instrument not so finely pointed, perhaps, as Eur'opean armies, but overwhelming by its colossal proportions and apparently endless reserve. That is the prevailing impression created, too, in the minds of the people. The immediate rights and wrongs of the case do not concern them in their diplomatic niceties. Somewhere, they conceive, some external irritants, which have long tormented the Empire's skin, have become too troublesome; now the giant has turned in his sleep, and will reach out his hand slowly, as becomes his bulk and ancient dignity. Presently the arm, now stretching from the uttermost parts of the Empire to Constantinople, and thence to the Bulgarian frontier, will have extended far enough. The fingers will open, and "these little, irritating people will be crushed wholly and for ever," unless Europe wills otherwise, and then, as the Turkish press points out to-day, localisation of this war is thought improbable. When passing through Bucharest the Crown Prince stated that he was travailing through Roumania without fear, as if ho were in his own country. "What's the good of advertising New Plymouth outside; it can't do any good; it'* just a waste of money"—so a""stick-in-the-mud" exclaimed the other day. He hadn't any tickets on tourists even if they could be attracted hither. There is one New Plymouth citizen, however, who entertains a different opinion. That is Mr. Chas, Ahier, just back from a trip to England. His native land, tile Island of Jersey, caters largely to the tourists, and with what success can be guagsd from the fact that three.- English and two French ships arrive there daily during the tourist season. A careful estimate of the value to the island of each tourist showed that it could be placed at £7. Allowing for the difference in the purchasing value of money, Mr. Ahier calculates that each tourist to New Plymouth should represent a spending value of £lO, "We are altogether too slow here," added Mr. Ahier; "we should get a move on. Don't depend upon us older men; the race i?. to the young and vigorous. After what I have seen I woald not appoint any man ever forty years of a»-o to any public position' The older men should be retired at once, if the communih- is to mike any material progress, if J had my way, the municipality would appoint one of its smart voting men. with powers of observation and judgment, to talo a run through Britain." America and the Continent, and rrive him £:,£,() as expenses. Why, the ideas he would gain, and give the town the benefit of would be worth thousands, and give TaranaM's capital the impetus it'so sorely needs."