GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 266, 2 April 1913, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

The New Zealand Dairy Association, Ltd., recently distributed amongst its suppliers the sum of £39,726 Os 2d. Tins payment (says the Auckland Herald) covered the butter-fat supplied during the month of February. The corresponding payment last year was £37,071 3s 2d; thus the increase for the month as compared with last vear is £■2654 17s.

The Dannevirke News says:—lt is reported that a wedding party was kept waiting in a neighboring town the other day for over a couple of horn's before the registrar could be unearthed. When lie was discovered he apologised for his inability to grant the necessary license, as the only forms lie had in his possession at the time were dog licenses.

The story of how the news of the deaths of Captain Scott and his comrades reached London makes interesting reading. The messages were sent from New Zealand by the All-Red route, that is by the joint Pacific and Anglo cable. "'The first cablegram announcing the fate of the southern party," said the manager flf the Central News Agency, "came through in just over a couple of hours. The telegrams were extraordinarily accurate, and the cable companies gave us an admirable service. We got the first news of the Terra Nova's return from the' lighthousekeeper at Cape Saunders, who telephoned the fact to Oamaru."

A strange story is told by a resident of Wellington, who is well-known, highly respected, and for years has been in business. Over a year ago he resolved to take his young wife for a trip round the world. Leaving a considerable amount of property behind him, lie settled up h?s a flairs, as far as practicable, and left power of attorney with his representative so that any liabilities coming due or overlooked could be liquidated. To his surprise, just as lie was bidding good-bye to a group of friends and stepping on board a steamer for Sydney, a constable appeared with a warrant for his arrest issued by a surgical expert, who demanded £ls 15s for an operation which he had agreed to perform for £5 ss. The money was paid, but the victim determined to seek his legal remedy on his return. Xow that he had returned, on seeking legal advice, he finds, to his discomfiture, that the time allowed for taking proceedings on account of false arrest or imprisonment lias elapsed.

"Dairymen are slaves," heatedly remarked a witness before the New South Wales Food Commission in Sydney. "I work fourteen days a week." It was a dairyman who was giving evidence, and the chairman (Mr. T. It. Bavin) smiled at the idea of a man putting two weeks into one. "I do," the witness bluntly continued, "and work longer hours than you." "I hope you do not," the chairman exclaimed. "Yes, and Sundays and holidays are all the same to me," the other answered. TTe milled that it could easily be arranged to take only one delivery on Sundays and holidays, as most people are away from home. Dairymen. he considered, were most oppressed people. When children were ill the first question asked was, "Whom do you get your milk from?" "It is," he went on, "the same when typhoid a«d diphtheria are about—whom do you get your milk from?" The butcher and the baker, the witness proceeded with some feeling, were never mentioned. The baker would touch the bread while lie had his pipe in his mouth, but the dairyman's hands never Ciune in contact with the milk.

Mr. Archibald Moston, Director of the .Queensland Tourist Bureau, who was for ten years Protector of Aborigines in Queensland, and who acquired an extensive knowledge of the aboriginal dialect, has given a somewhat alarming interpretation of the name of the Federal capital of Australia. Canberra, he says, means literally "the young laughing jackass." Mr. Mea ton's discovery was communicated to the Federal Minister of Home Affairs. Mr. King O'Malley, but that gentleman was not in the least perturbed at the news. "Supposing it does mean that," he said, "it is infinitely superior to the solemn owl which typifies the boodler, sitting on a decayed tree and croaking at progress. The jackass is a typical Australian bird, and is merry and hopeful and buoyant, and has a general attitude that conveys faith and future. Its antipathy to the snake, the reptile conveying the impression of crawling, meanness, hypocrisy and venom, may be taken as symbolical of the desire of Australia's Parliament to overcome evil." Fortunately, it would appear, Mr. O'Malley's spirited defence of the capital's name under the meaning given it by Mr. Meston was hardly necessary. Other experts in aboriginal language have declared that "Canberra" is a Corruption of "Caberra," also spelt "Kabura," "Kabbeva," and "Cobra," which means simply "head," and is gen' erallv implied by the natives as the name of a hill.