LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 250, 12 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Consequent nn the prevailing warm rf-in mushrooms ;ue pretty plentiful around New Plymouth just now. Shareholders of the Taranaki Petroleum Company have received a second iPvidend in connection with the liquidation. On Saturday night an old gentleman from Inglewood. aged 82 years, got to tke top of .\(t. Kgmont in the very creditable time of six hours. A protective serum for whooping cough is claimed to have been discovered by Dr. Nicoile, director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis. At a meeting of the Irish National Concert Committee on Monday evening, it was unanimously decided to extend an invitation to the inmates of the Old People's Home. Drilling plant for the Taranaki Oil Land A. and I). Company arrived in Welj ling-ton by the. steamer Indralcma on Monday, and should arrive here by the } Corinna on Friday next.

A meeting o? ladies will bo lielil at the East End beach marquee to-morrow afternoon, to make, arrangements for the afternoon tea on Easter Monday on the occasion of the East End Bathing Club's function Farmers and others interested are requested to note that Mr. W. D. Lysnar'a address on the "Handling of New Zealand Produce in Great Britain." will be held at Whiteley Hall on Friday evening. and not this evening at the Good Templar Hall, as previously notified. It is rumored that efforts are being made to sever the Auroa and Kapuni branches of the Kaupokonui Company, and start these branches 011 their own. Two residents at Auroa have offered to put in £ISOO and £3OO towards running their own concern at Anroa, and others are willing to substantially support Kapuni.—Manaia Witness. Keen interest was displayed in the Opunake Harbor Board election on Monday. over one hundred persons recording their votes. Although the country enthusiasm was not so marked, still the voting displayed more than passing interest. Tlie poll resulted in the following constituting the first Opunake Harbor Board: —Messrs. T. P. Hugh son. .Tames McFie. M. J. Maeßeynolds, T\. P. Malcolm. Arthur McKeown, and A. 11. Moore. —Star. Yesterday the children attending the Huiroa School, accompanied bv parents and friends, held tlieir annual picnic at the East End beach. It was distinctly disappointing to the youngsters that the weather was so unkind, rain falling continuously throughout the day. The East End ('onimittee had generously placed their buildings, etc., at the disposal of the picnickers, who found the bathing shed very useful for shelter. The following were successful at the theoretical examination held in connection with Trinity College in December last:-"Preparatory division, Dorothy lhia Dlanchard,. 97 marks (Miss Smith, E.A.8., L.T.C.L), Anne Margaret Thomson. !>4 marks (Miss Smith); Nona Katherine Dell, fl'2 marks (Miss Smith); Frances Eliza flood win. 02 marks (Miss E. Howling); Francis Eva Bishop, 8!) marks (Mrs. P. Iloby, Inglewood). The Tarauaki County Council, which decided some time aio to erect mile | !( w:s alon-r the Main South Road to the Ct.stni v boundary «t Puniho, approached the Government for some assistance in the matter. A reply has now been received from the Under-Secretarv of Public Works to (he eli'ect that as it did not seen that the work was particularly nec(ssary, and as the road was not a Government one, he regretted that the Government was unable to grant any assi-tance.

Public attention is drawn to the addition made to the advertisement nniiouncing Mr. Bedford's meeting This gives more information as to the charSfttiT oE the meeting'. Nevertheless Mr. Bedford is always worth listening to. On his former visit to New Plymouth lie had a packed house to hear him, and the new idea he is to bring forward this evening should awaken new interest. After his address, Mr. Bedford will answer any question in further explanation of his subject, "The Democratic Yote." Mr. IT. T. Twiss, Crown Lands Ranger for Taranaki, acting under instructions from the Lands Department, paid_ a visit to Patea 011 Friday with a view to jiscortaing whether there was a dema ml for farm workers' homes, as proposed bv Parliament last session, and also whether, in the event of such a demand existing, there would be the lic-tes.-arv land avadaole. Mr. Twiss mentioned to a Patea Press reporter that lie had received an offer of land in the neighbourhood of Patea, and this would be acquired for farm workers' homes, should there be found to be a demand for the same. •Is the Boss in?" said a well-known union secretary as he entered a Wellington soft-goods shop one day recently. '■There is Ho boss in this establishment," was the reply. "Well, is in?" giving the name of the proprietor." _ ''Yes, |h> |s. | happen to he that individual.' "Well, you're the boss, aren't you ?" said the secretary. "Oh, dear, no, 1 m not the boss. I'm only the fellow who has to find the wages' on Saturday night. 1 am not allowed to be boss in my own .sho;i. lam only permitted to pay the wages. Fellows like you are the real bosses, and the sooner T get out of busi--1 ness the better it will be for me.' The (irev Star tells a story of the earthquake. One young,man went to bed thinking hard upon the causes of tin' i•>' "in;i 1 igneous forces of the earth, and fully resolved that he would be "off back to Scotland if there was anv more of it." His mate, however, did not treat the matter of a "quake" so seriously. and also went to lied. About midnight a terrible rumpus occurred; the Scotchman jumped out of bed, knocked over the wnshstand and sundry | other things in his mad rush for the open. When the whole household had been thus rudely awakened there was a count of heads' and it was found that (let us call him Sandy) was outside in the middle of a cabbage plot, half scared to death, and yelling. "I'm off TTome!" After things had quietened somewhat, Sandy re-entered the house, and declared I that there had been another of those [,i r i shakes—a 'worse ynn." Sandy was reassured by the household that he must have been dreaming, and eventual! v was persuaded—though reluctantly —to go back to bed. Next morning, however, it leaked out that, his mate lind mwled into Sandy's room, and getting under the bed 011 "all fours" violently 11 limped himself against the bottom 'of Sandy's mattress, a practical joke which nearly cost Sandy his sanity. to sav nothing of the passage money to Dundee.