LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 205, 18 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

St. Andrew's Church.—The Rev. Dr. W. G. Black will occupy the pulpit tomorrow morning anil 'evening. "The Hero of Khartoum" will bo the subject for the evening. Mr. J. 11. Russell, of Dannevirke, who has just returned from London, says in ail interview that he entirely corroborates the remarks by Bishop" Averill at tic opening of the recent Diocesan Synod at Napier when, in cil'eet, he said the workers of England haij been most shamefully treated, that there need not be any surprise that there was such a clamor by the working people, and that until some satisfactory solution had been arrived at they must expect to hear of labor troubles in England.

At yesterday s meeting of the Harbor Board the secretary .of the New piy. mouth Tourist and Expansion League wrote enquiring; the largest draught" of steamer that could be accommodated with safety at the wharf, at Moturoa. the reason for his making the enquiries was that the League was endeavoring to arrange with one of the largest shipping companies to run a direct steamer from New Plymouth to Sydney and back at Easter time, and in making the applications it would be necessary to state the size of the boat that could be accommodated. The secretary of the Board explained that at the present time a vessel drawing 22 feet could be berthed at the port.

According to a cablegram appearing in tlic Sydney Sun. the Board of Health in Sacramento bus recommended the prosecution of Dr. W. V. Fraser, of that city, 011 a charge of having falsified a birth certificate. The case is one possessing .some remarkable features. The fraud is alleged to have been perpetrated two years ago. in connection with the birth of an illegitimate child, of which a ehaulVeui' and his schoolgirl sweetheart were the parents. The allegation is that the infant was substituted for another as the heir of Mr. Charles Slingsby, a member of a wealthy English family. The Slingsbys are now in England with (lie child, and are engaged in a legal fight with other relatives to establish the legitimacy of the child with Lhc object of obtaining a large fortune.

"I think people would be wise if the;? waited before selling wool at this end in view of the possible shortage throughout Australia," remarked Mr. W. D. Lvsliar during the course of an interview with a Xew Zealand Times reporter the other day. East year, lie said, there was a very heavy shortage of sheep ill Australia, and it was expected that til ere would be a deficiency of from 300,000 to 500,000 thi.s year. I .:\st season, one squatter informed him. lie put 110,000 ewes to the stud and e\'|iected SO.OOO lambs, but he only marked. -10.000. He expected to get 4500 bales of wool from his sheep, but in 11)11 he only shore 3200 bales and last year from 2SOO to 3000 bales. "The actual position is not known yet. but there is every prospect of the price of wool being much higher than at present."

Australian mails ex Makura at Auckland w'H arrive per Rarawa thin morn i»g-

Yesterday was the 47Ui anniversary of the eonnnencemeu t of General Chute's famous march from Wailii to New Plymouth.

A donation of £j has been received by the New Plymouth Fire Brigade from ■Messrs. Archibald Clark and Sons, on account of services rendered at the recent fire on the linn's premises. A cablegram to the Australian papers states that there was a tragedy at one of the variety theatres i a Wigan. Lancashire, on January -I. A juggler's comic assistant was supposed to rush across the stage, drinking from a jug. Ori Saturday's performance he did not drink, but staggered, and fell, and the audience, thinking it was new business, applauded the performer. lint after the applause had died down lie did not get lip, and the juggler rushed to his assistant's side. There was no movement in the body, but yet for a moment the principal in the act did not think anything serious had occurred. lie tried to make his assistant get up and then it dawned upon him that he was trying to stir a dead body. The curtain was immediately rung down. Heart failure was the cause of death.

We are getting nearly every day some fresh revelation of the wicked ways of the Government, and particularly of .'Mr. Lloyd (ieorge. -,'s seen by mournful owners of property twivs the Westminste; Gazette). 'I lie hitcsi wail comes from Sir llerewald Wake, a lineal descendant of the '"last of the Saxons." He complains that through the machinations ol the Liberal Government and Mr. Llo.vi George's wickedness he cannot afford a motor car in order to travel from his place in Northamptonshire to the annual rent-audit of his property of the manor of Waltham Holy Cross. Tie will soon have to walk the distance, and., indeed, before long he may not be. able to afford a pair of boots to walk in. The picture of a landowner having to tram]) barefooted to a rent-audit in a distant country is one that really ought to soften the flinty heart of the' Chancellor of the Exchequer. But to Sir Herewald Wake is generous even to Mr. Lloyd George, and all ''gutter politicians." Naturally, lie says, they cannot bear to think there are other people who have whiter skins and bluer blood than they possess themselves. No wonder the "last of the Saxons" goes to bed every night in terrible anxiety for the future of the country.