LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 248, 10 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Ilawera Acclimatisation Society'l has paid out £SO for hawks' and shags' feet during the past twelve months. t Mr. A. dill's Zanzibar secured the championship for harness horses at the Cambridge show, and also first for buggy horse under 15 hands. Collections were taken up in Wangaiiui on Saturday in aid of the District Nursing League. The amount realised was £270. —Press Association. The Waverley Town Board is taking the initial steps to secure a water, drainage and lighting scheme. Last week it adopted the unimproved values rating principle. Australian and English mails did not connect with the Main Trunk yesterday on account of the s.s. Maheno being delayed in Sydney. Mails will probably ar- | rive here on Tuesday evening. Farmers in all parts of the Auckland province are awaiting rain anxiously. Reports from the various centres, state that the grass is disappearing rapidly, while country settlers are badly in need of heavy rain to replenish theij- supplies. A convention at Nelson,-states a Press Association message, passed a resolution urging the Government to found a State farm or a similar institution where wastrels, confirmed drunkards, and such people could he .sent, and to give the Magistrate power to commit them. .The case of J. P. Cureen v. J. •!. Hills, a claim for specific performance in an exchange transaction, and alleged damages £2OO, was concluded in the. Palmcrston Supreme Court on Friday,-with evidence as to the value of the bouse in Palmerston. for which- plnintiq was to exchange a farnr at - Pohangina. His Honor, Sir Robert Stout, C. J. reserved judgment. During last month 93 cows, 51 bullocks, 7"calves, 501 sheep, 200 lambs, and 107 pigs were slaughtered at tlife New Plymouth abattoirs'" for local consumption. Compared with the corresponding month o£ last year these figures slrow an increase of 2 calves and 7 sheep, and a decrease of 0 cattle, 9 lambs and 9 pigs. Three cows, 1 bullock, and 4 pigs were condemned. Nineteen bulls were slaughtered for export, representing a decrease of 15 head. Two bulls were condemned. Fees and rents totalled £l2O, a decrease of £3 14s.

According to accounts received at Sal-, onika (now occupied by Greeks and Bulgarians)' the Greek army lias 'been received with boundless enthusiasm by the Greek inhabitants oi Macedonia. A pathetic incident is reported from Goritza in this connection. An aged Greek notable ..of that place, whom the weight; bf years had prevented from going to welcome the Greek troops, called his children to his bedside and asked them as a last favor to let him have the jov of seeing a Greek soldier. Two men in full uniform were brought into the sick room and a dramatic scene occurred. Raising himself with a last effort, the old man embraced the soldiers and kissed their riiies, but the excitement proved too much for his feeble frame, and he fell back on his bed dead. The Wavtara Mail says that Master Leslie Sampson (eldest son of Mr. W. Sampson) was the victim of an unpleasant experience on Thursday night. He was proceeding to his home along Quefti street, and. when almost opposite the power-house he was grabbed fiom be * , hind. A hand was placed over lit.s mouth, and his assailant then eariied him into the centre of the road, where he gently sat on him, still keeping his hand over the boy's mouth, "f.es'? carried the usual office boy's bunch of keys, and these seemed to be the object of the assault, but the lad was not going to '■die" without a struggle, and he clung tenaciously to the key-ring. After a bit of a mix-up. during which his key-chain broke, "Los." managed to find his voice and he called lustily for help. The ruffian, realising that the game was not worth the candle, immediately released his "prey" and lied, leaving the boy with a few marks on the face, but otherwise unhurt. When Mr. Sampson was informed be made a good search for the mail. hilt, without avail. Hardwood will soon become an object for museums, judging by the rapidity

with which it is becoming scare (says the Wellington Post). Other industrial timbers, Australian and Xew Zealand (and especially kauri), seem to be becoming equal! v precious, judging by the ever-increasing prices. 'Timber sleepers are becoming a thing of the past in Wellington at anv rate, for the City Council now appears committed to a concrete policy. For the Brooklyn line duplication some 2000 sleepers will be required, and of these 1200 are already made. The city engineer has abandoned timber for tramway sleepers because of the difficulty in getting supplies and also to their cost. Napier tramway construction is hung up for the same cause—want of wooden sleepers—although there is shingle enough piled up near the breakwater to make (sleepers sufficient for a Continental railway. Then there are the tram rails themselves. These, through pressure of work in the iron trade of England and delays through strikes, are very glowlv coming to hand.'and the work on the Brooklyn line is accordingly belated. j

"I have no hesitation whatever in saying that the ordinary working man is not required to keep books showing his. receipts and expenditure," remarked Mr. Justice Cooper at the Auckland Supreme Court when discussing a section of the Bankruptcy Act, which sets forth that a man must keep, "such books of account as are usual and proper in the business carried on by him." "The man wha works day by day or week by week for wages," be added, '"cannot he held to bo in business.'' Speaking in regard to the case of a painter who simply took up small sub-contracts and sold practically only bis own labor, his Honor said that assuming lie was required to keep a ledger and cash book the jury would have to determine what standard of bookkeeping would have to be complied with. As far as his Honor could say. such a man was obliged simply to keep such a record of his transactions as would enable the olljcial assignee to ascertain his position during three years prior to bankruptcy. Regarding the employment of night porters in hotels, a recommendation was made to the Wellington Licensing Committee at the quarterly meeting that all hotels should keep night porters. Dr. i McArtlmr said that this was outside ; their province. The police had reported 1 to him that there were sixteen hotels in < the Wellington district that kept night porters, and if the other's did not employs 1 filiem the committee had no power to 1 order them to do so. It was thought ' that this rule should apply to country" 1 hotels as well, and .that the committee j sihould make a Jaw for the country. Mr. 1 'fonng asked who made the recommcnda- J lion, and was informed by the clerk that it came from the Wellington Cham- ' ber of Commerce. Mr. Young: They have nothing to do with hotels, Dr. •tlcArthur remarked that the suggestion originated as the result of a fire at -| .'llarton hotel, where there was no • - j porter, but the committee had no to interfere with the internal nirnts of those hotels that d" , night porters. Mr., You' ' nave seems to be to look a' ca . rft travellers. Dr. derstood those genth, nioll rm ,y her themselves pretty well. - . ..j

Tile lust shipment of cheese from the Kolii (near Waverley) factory realised lils per cwt. 011 the London market. The Manawatu Flaxmill Workers' Union has decided to strike a levy of 13s, as a nucleus of a defence fund. The dearth of domestic servants is being acutely felt in the Masterton district. As iiigli as 25s per week is being offered in wages. A. grandson of the hist Kiiy of Delhi has started in business at Bomba - ', ,:ml advertises his readiness t> i-a'i at tin* bungalow of any person re,i:.vi);f. his services as watch and «!<»;< :apuirer. Mr. J. 1). Rockefeller, jwnr., announce* that he is giving £2,000,000 for the establishment of a charitable institution which will be devoted to the work of reclaiming victims of the white slavt traffic. A brave act of a four-year-old boy, named Hobby Lees, -is 1 oportsJ from Dopble Bay, New South Wales. An infant fell oil' the jetty into the water, and Bobby waded ill up to his chin and pulled her to the bank, where she 'ay unconscious until his mother and it medical man arrived and attended to Lho child. Thirteen is claimed bv Dr. Woodrow" Wilson, the President-elect of the United States of America, as his lucky number. "It is curious how the figure thirteen has followed me through life," he said; in an interview, "and it lias never brought bad fortune." The following are a few of the thirteen conjunctions in Dr. Wilson's career: Thirteen letters ill his name, thirteen letters in his wife's name (Eleanor Wilson), he was thirteen years at Princeton University and tliir-j----teen years President of the University, thirteen is the sum of 1912 (the year of his election), and he comes into his own in. the year 1013. On August 13 last he occupied seat 13 in a Pullman ear, and the train reached its destination at 13 minutes after the hour. What's wrong with Thirteen now? The Republicans say that Woodrow Wilson is wrong' with thirteen—because he -beat them! Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second Groups) are notified that subscriptions will be due and payable today (Monday),'at the secretary's office,. Currie street, from 9 a.m. to 12.30, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.—Advt.