LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 227, 13 February 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Business circles in Oamaru are perturbed at a rumour that the Government will close the local Customs office and work the Custom business through the Post Office.

Mokai residents in the Taupo district failed to get their letters one day recently. The bags were under a tarpaulin in a railway truck, and a spark from the engine set them alight, andthey were consumed in the flames.

"Civis" writes suggesting that wastepaper baskets should be placed in the private box lobby at the Post Olfice as receptacles for the unseemly collection of "waste" that accumulates with the distribution of each evening's mail. The Taranaki Agricultural Society has written to the Education Board, asking it to declare a holiday on the second day of the Autumn Show.. The Government is also being approached with a view to the Government buildings being closed on Thursday afternoon.

A site has been suggested for the bovs' new shelter shed at the Courtenay street School. The building which will be located in the boys' present asphalt playground, will be of corrugated iron, and will be 42 feet by 10 feet, with a ten foot entrance. A portion of the structure will be retained as a wood shed.

Mr. Jack London has seen some of the leppers' hells of the world, and he visited Molokai, one of the Sandwich Islands, expecting to add to his experiences of the human inferno; but, to his surprise and delight, he found it nearer to being a leper paradise. All its denizens are always as jolly as sandboys. Gloom, care, anxiety, and, apparently, suffering, there are none. Does an ulcer show itself in an islander's foot? The resident surgeon excises the diseased portion, washes' out the wound, and drenches- it with carbolic acid, and in a few weeks the leper is again on his feet, running races or riding steeplechases! People who are sent away refuse to be banished from the leper island. A happier community Mr. London has not seen. and. even as it is with all its risks, he would prefer it as a place of residence to hundreds of better-famed places that he knows.

A dramatic rescue was effected fit Sydney's most popular surf-bathing resort. Manly, last week, and the incident had some features which should prove both interesting and instructive to those? concerned in the initiation of systematic methods of life-saving at' local watering-places. A bather who could not swim was caught by a strong curlent and carried far out to sea. Two members of the Manly Life-saving Club, Mr. S. Kiddington (who recently visited New Zealand) and Mr. D. Fitzgerald. Went out with a belt. Riddington dived for the drowning man, secured him, and handed him over to Fitzgerald, who was in the belt. At once, to quote (he Sydney Sun. "the crowd on the beach grabbed the life-line like madmen, and dragged the unfortunate bather and his rescuer under water for fully forty yards." As a consequence both Fitzgerald and the man he bad saved required medical attention on being brought to shore. The incident empha" sises the necessity, insisted upon by all experienced in life-saving methods', of handling the life-linn with caution. Coolness and deliberation.

A Company. New I'ivmouth Territorials, will commence shooting practice at the ficwa Itewa range on Saturday. It is understood that a large number of cases for failing to render personal service are pending against local Senior Cadets and Territorials.

A young man was admitted to the Waikato Hospital from Tc Aroba, having swallowed his false teeth in bis sleep. Ell'orls to recover them failing, they had to be forced into the stomach to prevent choking.

Consequent on the money-snatching act in New Plymouth on Tuesday night, the lo'al shopkeepers yesterday sold several shooting phees. One townsman provided himself with a. brace, one for home and one for carrying about With him.

A man who has already made move than one appearance in the halls of justice was arrested by Constable O'Neill last night and lodged in the cells. As a sequel he will appear in the Magistrate's Court this morning in answer to allegations of drunkenness, a breach of" a prohibition order, and possibly of assault.

Terrified by the sight of a troupe of elephants belonging to \Ynth Bros.' Circus, a mob of horses stampede,! from their paddock last night and scattered in all directions. They raced fur into the night, and so far their owner (Mr. M. Jones) has not been able to recover them. Any information as to their whereabonls will prove very acceptable to Mr. Jones.

At least one dairy farmer in the Eketahuna district (says the Express) has ascertained, by practical demonstration, the value of systematically testing cows! Last season he joined the Cow-testing Association, and es a result of the in' formation elicited he was enabled to 'cut out the ."'wasters" from his herd. This year he is milking seven cows less and there is only a difference of about .CI per month in the size of his creamery cheques.

Tin- "Faro-motor, a remarkable! implo•niont, to prevent motor 'bus and taxi-cab accidents, lias been invented by 'Mr. Tlios. Farrow, the chairman of Farrow's , •Bank. Ltd. The instrument registers j •the number of miles at which the vehicle is travelling-, and may be placed in such a manner that the figures are plainly visible to the public and the police, while on the reverse side the same figures are shown to the driver and occupants of the 'bus or taxi-cab. Should the vehicle bo travelling above the speed limit a loud gong is set in motion, and continues to ring until the speed is reduced. Tf the driver ignores the gong the Faromotor exhibits "red" or "danger" figures. At night time the instrument is illuminated by electricity. ' An untoward incident caused sonic ex■eilenient among patrons at the Theatre Royal last night. In changing a spool the operator of the cinematograph machine accidentally brought the ta« 0 f one of the films into contact with" the cone of the lantern. The film immediate y burst into flame, causing much smoke to issue from the operating compartment, somewhat to the alarni B of the audience, who made a hurried exit The outbreak, which was confined to the him. was promptly extinguished by the operator by means of a hand fire-ex-tinguisher, supplemented with a bucket ot water. .Someone sounded the fire alarm, quickly bringing the Fire Brigade to the Theatre, but their services were not ronnirod. Practically no damage was done, the interior of the operating , nox being quite fire-proof.

Scottish engineers have perfected plans tor the manufacture of paper, on,a lame ■•■(• ale. from bamboo. On a site near Ka»\ (■lapan) a factory has been installed with every requisite to-deal in the first place with .100 tons of pulp per month, but with room for any development. Tn this (■use the pulp will be treated in Formosa m pupped in rolls or sheets to the paper mills at Kobe, just, in the same way ag the wood pulp of Xorwav. Sweden, Russia and Finland is shipped to the United Kingdom to feed the British paper mills Tt is hoped that in the Far East bamboo P»lp will enable Eastern mills to compete with the British and American imported paper of the finer qualities. The process of manufacture from bamboo is a more expensive one than that from wood Tt is thought that experiments might cheapen the process, and the supP v of cane is practically inexhaustible .Moreover, the bamboo is a plant that can readily.he cultivated. If.any particular species is considered the' best for paper-making purposes it can easily be grown hi any quantity. Asia, Africa America and Oceania all have forests of it. _ For paper-making, the cane is cut up into small pieces, of one or-two inohes then boded with sulphate of lime, bleached by electricity, washed, machine rolled and pressed into tissue form, and dried by steam.