LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 198, 10 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

the local hospital nurses have been faring rather .badly lately. Three, were down with ptomaine poisoning and another two with serious ailments. During November 430S persons arrived in the Dominion as against 5248 for the corresponding month of 1911. The departures numbered 2055, compared with 2054 in November, 1911. Surely the burglar Who visited a house in a Melbourne suburb recently made the easiest coup on record. He found a note pinned on the door telling him where the key was, and then—what matter that the doors and windows were all locked! Of course, the note was written by the mistress of the house, who was out. for her husband, who was expected to come home. Meantime, Bill Sykes happened to pass- that way. co'dected £lO worth of jewellery, and annexed some land deeds', and put the key back under the stone mentioned in the note.

The "Gay Follies," who will open a two nights' season in New Plymouth tonight, had an excellent house at Stratford last night, and the performance was received with the heartiest appreciation. It is full of bright and spakling turns, ranging from grave to gay, and in general character much resembles the delightful entertainments given through New Zealand some time ago by the '•Scarlet Troubadours." The company includes some of tlie best vaudeville artists at present south of the Lino, and is under the management of that seasoned expert Mr. W. Lowe, who has probably forgotten more about the profession than many have ever learned. Mr. Lowe will be remembered as a one-time crack New Zealand athlete.

Lord Stratheona, Canada's ex-High Commissioner, is ninety-two years of age, and is still bard at work. "I have not smoked for the last seventy years, Mid I do not believe in smoking," he said . Jlcn-tly. "I certainly think that people eat. j;oo much, and that it may be injurious.'for them to do so. For many years I nave only had two meals a day—breakfast and dinner. Doctors will tell yon that it is not enough, but it has been enough for mo. I eat very little, meat: —practically none—and the diet agrees with me. Exercise is decidedly a most important factor of good health and longevity, but I have a great deal of correspondence to go through, and I cannot always find the time for strolls and walks. As for sleep, I make a point of not sleeping longer than six hours * day."

Tim operators of the Empire Film Compa»y propose taking sets of views of Mt. Messenger and the, Mokau Eiver on Sunday next. Tlie views will subsquently be shown in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.

The llarawa will leave Onchunga for New Plymouth on Sunday, 19th instant, returning on -20 th instant in lieu of the usual running. The alteration is due to the fact that the ,1. ('. Williamson Company will be passengers by her, and it necessitates their arriving'in New Plymouth on Monday in order to stage their comic, opera' the same evening."

With the object of giving a fillip to swimming in Tnglewood, a contingent from the New Plymouth Swimming Club journeyed to that town yesterday afternoon and gave an exhibition in the local baths. "Turns" were given bv ladies and men's polo teams, while Mr. W. Lints and other members gave an exhibition of fancy diving. Swimming races were also included in the programme.

Following on the paragraph in yesterday's News, all persons, except tliose in the possession of platform tickets, were refused admittance to the railway platform last night until several minutes after the arrival of the mail train 4 In consequence, incoming pns-cngers made their way out of the station with much greater freedom of movement., and trampled locs and crushed headgear were not in evidence.

A charge of having sold a packet of cigarettes to a boy under sixteen years of age was preferred against a Celestial named Ah Chong, of the firm of Leon Tung, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M. In pleading guilty, the accused stated that the boy had told him that the cigarettes were for bis father. Tn view of this circumstance, the Magistrate merely convicted and discharged the accused, remarking that he hoped it would act as a warning to him in the future.

Prussia'?! long-threatened project to tax bachelors is now before the Diet (says the London Observer of November 17). It is proposed to put an income surtax of from 10 to 20 per cent, on all unmarried men. whose incomes exceed £l5O per annum. The scheme has the backing of the Conservatrrei, mnL m likely to become law. The prompters say that the insidious growth of the ham't of remaining single among German men requires to be checked, and that the time has come to confer special obligations on matrimony and fatherhood.

Mr. R Fietclicv. lecturing on the "Tomb Palaces of the Egyptians," said that pyramids were, the most extravagant of all ancient buildings. The return they offered ,either in impressiveness or'the higher beauty of art, was comparatively poor in relation to the tremendous labor and expense incurred in their construction. The great pyramid of Cheops was computed to contain 85,000,000 cubic feet of stone. At the present price of 2s per cubic foot, this would cost £8,500,000 to-day, and the building took the labor of 100,000 men for 30 years. It was 482 ft high, and covered an area of 13y 2 acres.

Writing to his parents, who reside at Te TTapara, Mr. M. S. Edwards, formerly on the Oisborne Times and now on the Transvaal Leader, does not give a very bright picture of conditions in South Africa from the point of view of the man who 'has to work for his daily bread. Referring in particular to journalism, he says that although ne is earning a very handsome salary, the gilt is fairly taken off the gingerbread by the excessive cost of living. As examples of how prices go in Johannesburg to-day, Mr. Edwards avers that anything like good board costs 50s per week. For a bath Is Cd is the usual figure. In the matter of laundry work, twopence is asked for washing and ironing a handkerchief, and in respect of other garments the price is correspondingly high.

Recent harbor improvements at Wanganui appear to have awakened shipowners to the possibilities of a profitable trade between Wanganui and Sydney. The Union Company have steamers engaged between the two ports named and now the Craig line (of Auckland) is ''cutting in." The latter company's Tnga (the largest vessel which has entered Wanganui to date) arrived on Monday to load timber for Sydney. Tn view pt the large Australian demand for New Zealand white pine, which is plentiful in the Wanganui district, there should soon be a large trade between Wanganui and Sydney, especially as return cargoes, in the shape of coal, are available.

There are at present millions of fine ostrich feathers displayed in a great warehouse of the London Forth Authority at the back of Bishopsgate awaiting the. auction sale (writes a London correspondent), which will bring merchants from a'<l over the world. The feathers arrive, packed in large wooden cases, and are graded by the feather experts of the Port Authority before Wnsr'offered for sale. The present price °* feathers is about £SO per lb for the best South African (male, 'birds' wing), but prices have actually soared as high as £B2 10s. The small feathers used for the cheaper class of stoles may not go as high as a few shillings per pound. Consignments vary from 1501b to 201b, and the present sale may yield about £50,000. The grand tota'i of all the sales held in a. year amount to £300,000. Egypt and other African districts send ostrich feathers, but not to anything like the extent that South Africa docs.

Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., who celebrates his 80th birthday this month, is the only man now living who was with Livingstone during his travels. Sir John was Livingstone's intimate comrade in most "difficult circumstances through many months of travel, and thus had a more intimate knowledge of him than any other jiving man. As a young scientist- Dr. Kirk went up the Zambesi with Livingstone in 1800. He knelt with Livingstone beside Mr-Rob-ert's grave, "anent Shupanga's brae," on the banks of the fever-stricken African river. Dr. Kirk stood with him on board their boat while, savage arrows rattled on the deck around them. "You can see some of the arrows on the wall there," and he will calmly stop his narrative to point them out. He told how together Livingstone and he climbed mountains, crept along precipices by the Morumbwa cataract, shot rapids, stood in awe before '•'Sounding Smoke" —the Victoria Falls, where to-day the roar of the railway train breaks the thunder of the cataract which Livingstone was the first white man to sec. Sir John Kirk indicated that with the enormous issues at stake it was essential that Livingstone should make inefficiency and indecision impossible thing*, but that in securing those he never became in the least degree autocratic. ( 'Y\ ith the Africans," said Sir John, "he was kind and linn. He made allowance for their weaknesses and considered their wants. He was at the same time absolutely firm with Shis men when necessary. Mis personal power over the African was greater than that of any man whom I have ever known. How happy Livingstone would be if he could see nil that luis happened and is happening in Africa," Sir John went on to say. "Where' the slave market stood in Zanzibar—and how many times have 1! seen it thronged with captive Africansthere now stands a cathedral. And (he slavery is done away. How happy he would, be to see it!"