LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 251, 13 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Defence Rifle Club has been formed in Opunake. English anil American mails, ex Mali lira at Auckland, will arrive per Rarawa this morning. There has been exceptionally heavy sheep traffic north and south' from Taihape within the past few days, close on 120 double-deckers of sheep having been on the move. .Members of the New Plymouth Swimming Club taking part at the Eltham function on Easter Monday, are kindly asked to attend to-morrow night at 7.30 at the Municipal Baths. The second competition of the championship series will be fired by the New Plymouth Defence Rille Club at the Rcwa Rewa Rille range (Waiwakailio) 011 Thursday and Saturday of next week March 20th and 22nd. At a special meeting of the Borough Council on Tuesday night it was decided by eight votes to two not to rescind the resolution of Monday night not to appoint valuers to represent the Council on the Assessment Court. The Oamaru Mail states that a late arrival on Thursday cabled the sum of C2O to Australia for the purpose of jiaying the passage money of his wife and three children to Oamaru. On 'Monday morning he received a cable message announcing- his wife's death. According to the written statement of Dr. Morgenstern. of Eastern, Pennsylvania. U.S.A., .Mrs. Berton Perkins, a resident of that town, as well as three of her children, are endowed with two hearts each, beating normally on either side of their bodies.

It is proposed bv the Victorian Government to spend £BOO,OOO annually 011 main roads during the next five years—for construction £400.000 and for maintenance. £-100,000 —making a total of £4.000,000 over the live years. About half of this amount will be payable by mini icipalities. Twenty-six paintings belonging to Mr. John Talmage's collection were sold for £OO.OOO in New York the other day. A record was established when a small water-color sketch of Fluolin. on the Lake of Lucerne, painted by Turner in 1840 for the father of John Ruskin. was disposed of for 18S0 guineas. This is the highest price ever given at a public sale for a water-color. "T hate the Government doing anything that can be done by somebody else, because the Government always does it so much worse than anybody else. 1 have always been against too mueh State. lam afraid lam rather oldfashioned as ail iivli>T'" Sir Alfred Batenian. 01 i-i • iU>>al Commission, at the New Zealand Club luncheon in Wellington on Monday. To show the increase in the cost of provisions in Berlin in 11)11 and 1012, the Berliner Tagcblatt gives an actual middle-class housewife's expenditure 011 food for a family of four, excluding alcohol, in 1011. This expenditure was £BB l.">s. In li) 12, after making allowance! for the shorter summer holiday, the expenditure was £llO Os. The greatest part of the increase was due to the price of meat. 11l reply to a (pierv from Sir Rider Haggard 011 his wav to New Plymouth 011 Monday as to the price of dairying land in the district, a llawera Star man mentioned that a sale of a W:\iniatc Plains farm at £BO per acre had Iven recently reported, and that £(io to £7O per acre for farms in that locality were not uncommon figures.. Sir Rider ITagga rd expressed some astonishment at the answer, and went 011 to say that 110 English farm land would command such a pric-e.

Tlie Funnels' Co-operative Co. at I'atea is at pre,sent doing a big business } in- boned beef, particularly with Clasgow. ami during tti« past fortnight over J(10 tons have been forwarded, the value being about U-220H. The works are very busy just now, and every eare is exorcised by (lie management that the products are shipped away ill first-class condition. Mi. John Morgan, of Drurie Hill, one of Wangnnni's few surviving pioneers, is the proud possessor of a letter of acknowledgment from his .Majesty King Ceorge. Some little time back Mr. Morgan, whose skill as a black and white artist is well known, sent a beautifully designed card of greeting to the King, who h:>s iieen pleased to receive the token of loyally from one of his oldest subjects in this distant part of his Empire. The instinct of animals was recently demonstrated in a somewhat remarkable manner on a farm in the neighborhood of Mastert'on. The prolonged drought had dried up a running stream on the property, ami a number of cattle were famished for the want of water. A bull M-t to work on the bed of the stream, and with his fore feet dug away the metal until water was reached.' He thu« saved his own life and the lives of the remaining cattle, So:: ; ; oiial holies in the Dominion have ::antial credit balances. At the jo-sent time the Southland County Council h-is a credit at the bank of ,■£!;),Oi"l. so that were ample labor available for carrying out the works required in the various ridings there would be funds and to spare for the purpose. It is not usual at this time of the year tor the account to be in such ;t healthy condition, but frequent ellorts have, without avail, been made to satisfy settlers' requirements in the shape of roads, bridges, etc.. contractors being at a premium, and in many instances impossible to obtain. During the progress of a cricket match at Westport one of the players nearly lost bis life. One of the Murchison men hit the ball high, and it fell into the river, and several of the, players rushed after the ball, which was floating down stream. One player went in after it, and somehow lost his footing, with the result that lie was washed down to a heap of snags. lie managed to catch hold of a stake, but the suction was too much for him, and but for the timely help of his friends he would have been drawn under the heap of logs and drowned.

The master of the school at Taringamutu, near Taumarunui, on resuming duties after the last holidays, was informed that throe of his scholars were not returning to school because they had got married during the vacation. Tliey were native girls who had been in attendance only seven months, and during thai time had made surprising progress, as they had reached the second standard, although they did not know their letters when they began. They lived five miles from the school, and yet they never missed a day, wet or fine. They have married young natives working in the Taringamutu Company's sawmill yard. Bearding the matter of punctuality, one of the original settlers in the Hawera district remarked recently that he had learned his lesson in this matter when lie first came out to Xew Zealand sixty years ago. At that time he was working for the Provincial Government near Napier, and anyone not readv to begin when the whistle went at eight was put oil' for a quarter of a day, even if only five minutes behind time. A full day's wage was then ss, and where lie was flour was costing£2 10s per 100 lbs, consequently living was by no means cheap. At a meeting of (he local branch of the Society for the Pre vention of Cruelty to animal- this week, the Inspector reported that at a performance rceentlv held in Xew Plymouth a great deal of crueltv was practised against the horses used, tJir-fv fetlocks and hocks being badly cut with the ropes used, and that, tin' horses \v:>re cruelly spurred with long and heavy spurs. The commit', "e decided lo ih';r,v the attention of the public and the Porough Council to this id iaso of theie travelling performances in the hope that public feeling would be aroused again-t it. The Inspector also reported sever;;] ta-es of cruelty in wlih'h a timely warning had had the desired effect. Correspondence was received fro"' ladies at Mangamahume and ilidliii'st at which p'aces it was proposed to start children's branches of the Society. The secretary was asked to obtain information regarding the way such branches are formed and conducted. The appointment of a delegate to the Dominion Conference to be held in Wellington on Wednesday, April 30 was deferred (ill next meeting.