LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 188, 28 December 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thus the tiundagai Independent:— "The locusts are plentiful; the flies awful; the mosquitoes savage; the pumpkin beetle is ravaging vines; the rabbits are breeding; the caterpillars are hatching out; the money market continues tight; and Willis'still runs the country. God save Australia." In future the officers in charge of telegraph offices at the four chief centres and at Xapier will be known as superintendents; similarly the assistant officer in charge will be assistant superintendent; and in the case of the four chief centies there will be one second assistant superintendent. Officers at present known as check clerks will in future be called supervisors and assistant supervisors, as the case may be. The tomato blight, which is phiviuohavoc with the plants at Petone/has made its appearance in Ilawke's Bay. and in one instance a 7-aere field is reported to be absolutely devoid of fruit. So far it is not known whether the cause of the trouble is a disease or a pest, or whether the failure of the blossom to fertilise was occasioned bv peculiar weather conditions prevailing at tin; moment. Major-General Edward Bethunc Di-rector-General of the Territorial Forces m hngland, and famous as the commander of Bethtine's Morse in the Boer war caused a stir at Bristol on December 1!) amongst a meeting consisting principally of employers. General Betli"ime condemned their readiness to cry stinking fish." He wanted to rouse public opinion -against the lazy devils who payed golf :l ]| ,|. ly an(l j gnoml tlu . ir duty to their country," According to the local paper a Taumarunui business man saw an advertisement of a supposed pill cure for rheumatism. lie got his chemist to write for a supply, and in due course the goods ailived, price !is fid p Pr box. On opening the package the buyer was staggered to find that tI)P supposed box of " pills was a rounded piece of wood, and an inspection of the rest of tlie chemist's stock of the supposed specific revealed that they also were wood, the cure evidently hailing from the land of wooden nutmegs. Settlers on the Waimarino Improved Farm Settlement, which lies between Owhango and Raurimu, have just had a gratifying concession made them. The Minister for Lands has decided to supply 200 empty heifers to the settlers about the end of January next. The terms of payment will 1„> similar to those adopted in the Rangitoto Settlement, near Te Kuiti. deductions from butterfat cheques paying the value of the stock oir in three years. The settlers are also to he granted their leases or licenses, as the case may be, and this will help them in financing for any further supplies t'hey may need.

An almost perfect skeleton of a moa,10ft. high, was ■ unearthed at Motueka, in the Nelson district, on Friday, December 13.

At the races yesterday afternoon two men were arrested by Detective Sergeant Boddarn and Constable Fitzgibbons on a charge of assault.

The seasonable gift of a case of fruit from Messrs. Webster Bros, found a ready appreciation from the staff of the Taranaki Daily News. Yesterday morning an old lady named Mrs. Crombie, of Waitara, fell in stepping out of a doorway and fractured her leg. She was conveyed to the New Plymouth Hospital. The Hospital funds will benefit to the extent of over £ll as a result of the

sacred picture concert given in the. Theatre. Royal on Xmas evening. The amount will carry a subsidy of 24s in the £, equal to a contribution of nearly £25.

At Temora (X.S.W.), a very peculiar accident happened to a woman the other day. She was seated in her husband's office at a foundry, reading a newspaper, whilst a storm was raging. The railway station was suddenly struck bj lightning, and Mrs. 'l'ratt was, at the same moment, hurled from her chair to the floor, and remained unconscious for an hour. The shock is attributed to wearing two steel hat pins.

There- was a record crowd in New Plymouth during the holiday season, and shopkeepers report record business. It was withal a very orderly and abstemious crowd, too, for roll call at the Police Court yesterday morning was answered by only itwo first offenders, both of whom were convicted and discharged by Mr. Hickman F. Russell, the presiding J.P., and ordered to pay 2s and Os 6d respectively costs incurred by the police on their behalf.

An instance of the temptations that lie in the path of a public man was given by Mr; W. T. Wood at a social in Palmerston Xorth given in his honor lately. He stated that when he was a member of Parliament a man offered him £4OO if he would do him a certain service through the use of his political power. : Mn Wpod's reply was: "Xo, I take no money from anyone; do not speak to me again," and, he added, he had not spoken, to that man since.

A large number of people have taken advantage of the fine weather prevailing tc visit the mountain. The northern hostelry has been well patronised, about sixty people answering the "roll call" on Boxing Day. All the rooms in the building have been engaged up till the 14th January, but anyone desirous of making a stay can be accommodated at the old house. Several people made the a scent,-from both sides, yesterday. The atmosphere has been clear except in the afternoons- of the past two days, when smoke from distant bush fires lias caused a murkiness..

The following letter appears in the Ohristchurch Press:—"To the EditorSir, —My husband was a Waihi miner for sixteen years. We had made a very comfortable home there, and he was receiving good wages. We have a small family,.and the children were well educated and everything was going on very satisfactorily until such time as ticmple and Parry started with their advice to the miners to strike. What is the result? We are all more or less ruined by listening to the harangues of thei« men. LMy husband, being a member of the union, was obliged to strike, but I am' glad to say lie took 110 part in 'slanging' the willing workers or opposing the constabulary in carrying out their arduous duties. lam thoroughly ashamed to own, but it is the truth, that some of the women there were the greatest offenders, and their language was of the very lowest and foulest that I have ever heard, and I was bred and brought up in a large mining district in the Old Country. Here we are stranded in Christchurch. My husband has got some work to do, -but not the good wages he earned in Waihi, and I have got some needlework and washing to do to keep our family going, but we have lost our home, furniture and garden, which took us sixteen years to make, all through the meddlesome interference of Semple, Parry and others.— Yours, etc., A Miner's Wife of Waihi."

Mr. A. S. Biss, of Wellington, who lias returned from a brief business visit to Sydney, expresses surprise that more New Zealand news is not published in the Sydney papers. "The only things 1 noticed during the time I was there was a notice about somebody's death, and t.he lion. .T. Allen's departure for England, It is not right! I met with more of the commercial and business people in Sydney than I ever have before, and they all agree that the news service from Xew Zealand is wretched. For instance, I met several men interested in the sugar trust case who were anxious for news about the case, but could discover nothing or next to nothing about it in Sydney papers. Some wool men I met told me that they had spent pounds in cabling to Xew Zealand to ascertain the results of our first wool sales, which were not reported in the Sydney press. lam given to umlersiand that a good deal of news is forwarded, ibut a good deal of it is never printed. As a matter of fact, lam inclined to think that tliev do not want to give Xew Zealand any publicity. What is always published, however, are the reports about there being heavy weather on the coast. Captain Rolls, of the steamer T came across in, says that he is always being questioned by tourists as to whether they are likely to experience any of the heavy weather the Xew Zealand coast is noted for, showing that the reports of bad weather have created the impression on the Australian mind tfcat ftne weather is a rarity in Xew Zealand."

XMAS SUITS AT THE MELBOURNE. If anybody asks you to buy ANYTHING that men or boys wear, anywhere else but at the Melbourne, say "NO," because from now on to Xmas we present a clothing distribution in Taranaki of sucli colossal magnitude that you can multiply your purchase savings almost beyond computation on practically every male merchandise need. We have 110 wish to pose as pessimists, yet we cannot wholly ignore the warnings uttered by our leading financiers; so, to use an old expression, we are "taking the bull by the liorns" and reducing stocks in anticipation of the quiet times ahead. Our stocks of splendid new high grade suits are exceptionally heavy, even for this time of the year, so that in addition. to offering special price inducements to buyers wo can offer unlimited choice of selections. Don't allow yourself to bo "rushed" into paying tall prices elsewhere while the Melbourne presents values like the following: Special men's Kaiapoi tweed suits, 20/0; pure Pctone tweed suits, nice dark patterns. 355; Pctone saddle tweed suits, dark grey, 39/6: nobby Roslyn boxed suits, medium weight, nicely finished, 35/-; handsomely finished striped suits of Cheviot tweed, 40/6; real indigo Behvarp boxed suits, will aot fade, 59/0; men's brown and green striped worsted suits, very finest finish, cut and make, 50/6 and 65/-; stylish indigo Venetian, indigo coating and indigo check vicuna suits, 65/-, worth five guineas; boys' Kaiapoi Norfolk suits, 13/9 to 1.8/0; bovs' varsity suits, 7/11, 8/9, 9/6, 10/9, 11/6 to 10/6 , young men's suits of brown, green and mixed worsteds and Cheviots, three-gar-ment, with extension button knickers, 29/6 to 39/6, sizes 13 to 18; fine Petonc Norfolk suits, 14/6 to 21/-; splendid se'action,