LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 230, 17 February 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The directors of the Kaupokonui Cooperative Dairy Co. have decided on taking the necessary steps to increase the capital of the company to £45,000. It is proposed that this he done by the creation of 15,000 new shares of ,£! each. It was stated at a meeting' of the Canterbury Typographical Union b.st week that one of the life members o" Hie union. Mr. (!. S. Porter, would r:.:ael: his hundredth birthday on Marc!' ! :s, thereby earning the distinction ui ive.iij; (he oldest living compositor. At Friday's meeting of the Egiuoni County Council, Cr. Willcox moved (,h;>t application be made to the fiovernineni, through Messrs C. A. Wilkinson ami TT. -T. Okey. M.P.'s, for a subsidv For the Main South road between Otrniak*: and Xew Plymouth. The motion was carried, Cr. Maxwell remarking that.it would do no harm, but would probably be futile. At a Nelson picture performance, one evening recently the manager wan informed that a person among his audience had a parcel in his pocket which was urgently required hv a doctor who was performing a serious operation. !■'' order to facilitate matters the programme was stopped, the light turned up, and the person being found after ; j. search, the entertainment proceeded. The functions of a jury were thus outlined by his Honor Mr. Justice Den niston at the Supreme Court at Christchurch. "No barrister should make an address to a jury," lie said, '•'whieii In would not make to !he T :i lyy. Any tiling thai is addressed to a jury that would not be addressed to a -hrdg' m inferentiallv an insult to the jury. A. jitrv is a body of judges sitting to ''V the facts of a case just as, in the. absence of a jury, a Judge sitting alone is a Judge of the facts of the ease. jtirv. just in the .stint-! way .1 should he open to no appeal to oilier than judicial feelings, and counsel has no business to make such an appeal/'

Some consternation has been caus'vl among the clergy in England by the outspoken criticism of the P.ishop of Carlisle (Or. Diggle) in his Kew Year pastoral. Tn referring to the way i>. which some of the clergy under his charge neglected their duties, he said: "T (i or three of the clergv are approaching the brink of exposure for their habits. Others seem afflicted with incurable indolence. The less they have to do. the worse they do it. Others are dull and listless. They get through Sundav, but; Sunday does not shine through them. Their ministry is not ministry, hut mechanism. They do not visit sympathetically. They bike little loving interest in their people, an! consequently their people take little loving interest in them, except to write to uie when vacancies occur, and say how dearly thev would like to see them promoted. Their churches are shut from Sunday to Sunday, and on Sunday the;.' are empty." Although the bishop was referring specifically to the clergy in his own idocese. the English clergy as a whole are indignant at the want of worldly wisdom displayed by him in speaking so plainly.

A shark sewn icet diki whs r-;i]tlni-eii yesterday by a party who were sclmapper fishing oil' Moturoa. Tlic Kaponga Dairy Factory Company during lasi month despatched 207") cases of cheese through tlic Moturoa grading works, (he <lovernment grader's test being 01. and only four eases were placed in the second grade. The sapage o'l from No. fi bore has been collecting for some time past in the crock and yesterday, it was acci-' dentally lired by some person. The oil blazed furiously for about an hour, sending np dense volumes of black smoke. The fire lirigade ra.iti> up the Moturoa Hotel, only to ascertain that their s"rvices were not required, the oil burning itself out without doing any damage. The past week has been a ferv good one to the North Kgmont Mountain House. Yesterday was a fine day at the mountain, ami fully (10 persons mede a pilgrimmage to tlic hotel, twelve automobiles ami numerous other conveyances making the trip, 'lite house is practically full, the visitors iuc-ludinir Mr. Xorman Worslev. Mr. and Mrs. Ardiie Clarke and Mrs. Cooper, of Wanganni. Some ladies who attended a school picnic at Moturoa and Saturdav had an tuiplea-aiit experience. While in bathing, their underclothing was appropriated by an elderly man who is supposed to be of weak intellect, lie secured t.heir uarmenfs and, retiring into the lupin's, donned them under Tiis own clothes. IT' 1 was seen from the lircakwater by an officer of one of the steamers and (lie iiolice were communicated with. The man wis ea light and the garments were returned, but: ow ing to his mental attitude no .proceedings will be taken. An undefended divorce case was being heard in Wellington last week, when Air. T. M. YViiford. counsel for petitioner. asked his Honor Mr. .Justice Chapman if it had ever struck him that a large number of marriages that came into the Divorce Court were marriages before the Registrar. "Xo," said his Honor, ''that has not -truck me. There are several on (his occasion, but I think the majority id' marriages in New Zealand are before the registrar." A couple of minutes later the petitioner mentioned that there were no children of the marriage. "Xow that." said his Honor, "is a very common feature of these cases." Mr. Wilford remarked that it showed what a tie children were —a real bond of friendship.