LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 263, 29 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Yesterday was the fifty-third anniversary of the Battle of Waireka, A motor party, on an urgent errand, came down from the Mountain House to New Plymouth the other day in forty minutes The Borough Council will meet on Monday night for the purpose of conferring with Mr. F. Black, consulting engineer, with reference to tramway matters. ,' Cinematograph pictures of the classes at the London County Council's open-air schools arc to be taken for public exhibition and reproduction as an educational subject at Home, in the colonies, France and America. "Nowhere in the British dominions have men been so free from corruption or from selfishness and aggrandisement of their own peculiar interests as in the Parliament of New Zealand," remarked the Hon. O. Samuel at the veterans' banquet on Thursday night. He added that our Parliamentarians might differ in polities, and bitterness .spit•> su'.d venom were imported into discussions in the House, when it was a ease of party against party, but never did they fori;:-:; that in their hands rested the honor of the people of New Zealand. At the Veterans' gathering on Thursday night, the chairman remarked that he doubted if in any other part' of the Dominion a more interesting lot of warriors could be found than they had with them that evening. Some of them h,id served in the Crimea, in India during the Mutiny, and through the Taranaki wars. At this, one old soldier, who had seen more than eighty-three summers, jumped up and exclaimed: "And hedad. o'im one of them! I was in the trenches in the Crimea. T had a go at. the Sepovs and then the Maoris, and, bedad. I'm not dead vet!" The interlude was much enjoyed. One of the best, and certainly the most novel, of the "turns" given at the Veterans' banquet on* Thursday evening was that bv Mr. Vinsen, who with drum in front and stick in hand imitated a bandmaster "licking into shape" his inefficient cornet and trombone players, as well as other instrumentalists. His mimicry was such that a person in an adjoining room would hardly have known that the instruments imitated were not really being played. His other impersonations were equally clever, and brought down the house. This young man should be, able to make good on any professional stage.

It transpired at the conference of the New Zealand Poultrymen's Association on Wednesday (says the Auckland Star) that comparatively few people in the Dominion make their living solely by poultry-rearing—probably only about 100. ' Most of the poultry-raisers, it was pointed out, ran the industry in conjunction with other occupations. Tt was further stated that the last census of poultry showed that the hen and rooster population of the Dominion was about three and it-half million, an _ increase of ltalf-a-million on the previous census. Of this number probably less than a million were in lots of over a hundred, and the balance were held by use Violdcrs in small numbers.

A meeting will shortly be held under Hie auspices of the Pukekura Park Board to make arrangements for the annual Park Saturday collection. The jealousy of a Berlin milliner, who denounced her lover, a member of the gang, to the police, led to the capture of twenty-live burglars, whose operations extended over three years. Uniforms have been served out to Technical College Cadets. The tunics are similar to the ordinary Territorial tunic, kit the breeches are of the ''shorts" pattern, with the putties reaching above the knees. Germany, according to Herr Heinrich Ilcnimer, now in Wellington, is capable of holding a population of eighty to a hundred millions, and although amazing results have been obtained in intensive cultivation, the limit of her agricultural development lias not yet been reached. There are, he declared the other day, another nine million acres of land which could be brought into cultivation. Emigration had virtually ceased, and Germany did not want'colonies to absorb her surplus population. What Germany wanted was open markets, and the real problem was to find outlet for her manufactures. These were steadily improving in. quality, notably surgical and mathematical instruments, and certain classes of machinery.

A rather amusing incident, in which a well-known Wellington hotelkceper figured, occurred on St. Patrick's Day. It appears that he had gone to some trouble to secure a small hox of growing shamrocks from "The Ould Sod." These he tenderly nursed until the 17th, when he eut oft' all the leaves to adorn the bar. As he could not find a suitable bowl to put them in he procured a N soup plate, which he half-filled with water and floated the shamrocks on the top. Presently a German wharf lumper came in and demanded "a pindt." While the landlord turned his hack to draw the beer, the customer's wandering gaze alighted on the soup plate. Stretching out his hand he grabbed the lot, transferred them to his mouth, and ate them. Mine host soon noticed his. loss, and in outraged tone said, "Here, I don't mind yez bavin' wan of thim shamrocks, but yez can't have the lot." "Shamrogs! vas dey?" said the astonished Teuton, '•'.l tought dey vas vater-creeses." There are class distinctions amongst milk-vendors. At least that was the impression left by a witness 'before the Food Commissioner at Sydney on March 19. He was a vendor, getting his milk from one of the companies,' and selling it at 5d per quart, spot easily "We get the trade all right," he said. "That's why the sixpenny fellows go 'crook' on us. because we are taking the trade from them. Some of them say they have daidies, but they have not." He went on to say that he delivered milk in Alexandria, "amongst the poor people. They are the best customers; the money is always there. We generally find it in the jug." He concluded by saying that he found milk-vending better than fighting. The Commissioner ventured the opinion that fighting was a good paying game at present.' That, however, did not seem to shake his faith in his less strenuous occupation, for he reiterated, "Yes, it's better than fighting." Mr. FT. Graves, of Hawera, was motoring, in company with Mr. Valentine, of Manutahi, to Alton on Thursday afternoon, and when rounding a bend in the Alton Gorge, in order to pass a dray, he drove his car too close to the side of the gully, and the car commenced to topple over. A large toi toi bush arrested the downward progress of the car for a moment, but the strain proving too great the bush gave way and the car turned a, double somersault, landing at the bottom of the gully with Mr. Graves underneath, Mr. Valentine being fortunately thrown clear and escaping with a few scratches. Willing hands were quickly on the scene, and lost no time, in extricating Mr. Graves from beneath the car. Tn the meantime Drs. Simmons and MacDiarmid were hastily summoned, and arrived in record time. On examination it was found that besides having several ribs broken Mr. Graves had also sustained a fractured collar-bone. The sufferer was placed on a stretcher and taken to the Ball Road Station, and afterwards conveyed by the mail train to Hawera, where he. was at once taken to a private hospital. Eyewitnesses state that Mr. Graves had a miraculous escape from instantaneous death, as he was struck by the steering ; wheel and pinned by this to the ground. -—Pa tea Press.

j Sir William Hartley, the celebrated i jitta manufacturer, stated the other day: "We can successfully claim that profitshaving has worked well with vis both in London and Liverpool. We do not say that our particular form of profit-sharing is a cure for nil labor troubles, but we do say that the spirit is an absolute euro. Our interests are mutual; each renders the same indispensable service to the other, and it is open to both myself and my employees to look at all questions at fill times from the point of view of'the other side. There are only J33 profit-sharing schemes in tlw United Kingdom, the great number of them being gas concerns. lam glad to say that the average of our profit-sharing is double tlie average of these 103 other concerns. P>oth my son and myself have given personal consideration to the claims of all, from the highest to the lowest, and whatever pleasure it gives to receive a share of the profits, it fiives my son and myself equal pleasure. Some people think that the Hospital Saturday and Sunday funds will suffer because of the Insurance -Act, but my opinion is that the contributions to these funds from workpeople should not suffer, because instead of the insurance payment being a tax upon them it appears to me to be a great benefit." Sir William then handed to each employee his or her share of the profits, warmly shaking each by the hand and giving to each a cheery message. To-morrow the Harvest Festival services will be held in St. Mary's Church. The preacher will be the Rev. G. Dent, vicar of Eltham.