LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 273, 10 April 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

"Our Death Duties Act," said Mr. 0. P. Skerrett, K.C., in the Court of Appeal, "is substantially a scissors and paste combination of the English statute, though the draughtsman has, wherever he could, modified it in favor of the Crown and against the subject." | It is not generally known that wh»H nominating a candidate for the Mayoralty, a cheque for £lO has to be lodged, and in the case of candidates for the Borough Council, Harbor Board and Hos- | pital Board, the sum of £3 each has to I be deposited, but if 1 any unsuccessful candidate fails to poll one-eighth of the total votes polled by the lowest successful candidate, his deposit is made forfeit to the district fund. An Orange exchange deals touchingly with toothpicks:—A chap in a local hash foundry, after backing his plate up for' the third time for "some more o' that corned junk, please, missus," started to pick his'teeth with a fork. The "missus," after watching him for some time, expostulated, "Look out you don't swallow that there, fork, young man," and, taking a hairpin from her hair, said, " 'Ere, use this—you'll find it safer." It is stated on good authority that business is dull in Wellington at present, and that the retail shops are still doing a very restricted trade compared with the bustle of five years ago, during the land and building boom. The city now requires few new buildings, and it is very difficult to sell a large residenee at anything like cost price. Maay ' old residents say that tiroes have not been so dull for years past, and the outlook for the coming winter is not encouraging. A girl giving evidence in a, White Slave case in the courts of New York ! was secretly threatened while in the ! witness-box, and fainted. She had just taken up her position in the box, when , there was a hiss from the back of the court. The girl turned round. She , gave a little gurgling cry and fell back into the arms of a police officer in a dead faint. When she recovered she said that the man in the audience had made a special "sign" with his fingers, indicating that if she gave evidence against the prisoners she would be murdered.

A poll taken yesterday on a proposal to adopt the system 01 rating on unimproved values in the Borough of Napier resulted:— For the proposal 397, against 2CC.

The accused men were Italians, and the court was crowded with their fellowcountrymen. Speaking at the reception tendered in Sydney to the Empire Trade Commissioners, Sir Eider Haggard sounded an emphatic note of 'warning in regard to Australia's vast empty spaces. "Vast as may ho your cities," he said, "splendid as may be your commercial resources, it is to the land you must look for your wealth and strength. If you do not nurture and people your land, then the country must decay as the Phoenicians, who depended upon trado alone, decayed. People your land; bring people to your land, and so grow great and worthy of the destiny which this vast country offers, and be a prop of the Empire, of which you are one of the brightest stars." Miss Reska Fronnett Ospovat, a young Russian Jewess, of Queen's-gate, Kensington, London, who sued Miss Florence Ann Wilson and Mrs. Isabella Grenander, trading as F. J. and L. Wilson, milliners and dressmakers, of Hanover Square, in the law courts recently for damages for wrongful dismissal, said she was previously at Harrod's Stores, and was engaged by F. J. and L. Wilson for five years at £lO per week and commission. Her commission, she stated, had been: IfllO, £309; 1911, £307; 1912 (three months), £340. Her sister received £SOO a year for managing the firm's dressmaking business. While making an aeroplane ascent, her finger was struck by the propeller, and one joint had to lie amputated. After this she was told, she asserted, that she was useless to the linn, and was dismissed. "American imltKtry is not free, as it once was free," say* Dr. Woodrow Wilson, the new 'President. "American enterprise is not free; the man with a little capiful is finding it harder to got into the field, more and more impossible to compete with the big fellow. The lines of endeavor have been narrowed and stiffened;- the present organisation is meant for those at the top and to exclude those at the bottom, to shut out beginners, to prevent new enterprise in the race, and to stop competitive enterprise. The middle class is being squeezed out of the order of things; sharing prosperity to some extent, it is not originating it, and no country can afford to have its prosperity originated by a small controlling class." The source of the whole trouble, says the President, is to lie found in the high protective tariff, which has encouraged the growth of trusts and monopolies and stifled the ambitions of the small man and the small business. Tho following brief sketch by a member of the party which conveyed the body of the late Mr. Bingham from the upper reaches of the Manganui-o-te-ao river to the Main Trunk line a short time ago. will bring to mind familiar scenes and a trying ordeal, but to the great hulk of people beyond the ken of such things, it will convey in some degree the significance of "the bush." A correspondent of tlie Waimarino paper relates, inter alia:—"lt proved a heartbreaking task wading knee-deep, sometimes deeper, down the boulder-strewn

rivev bed, :it a rale of progress wliicb would take till 3 p.m. next day to convey their burden the half-dozen miles to the railway, but on the arrival of reinforcements it was decided to take a course through the bush. To do this it was necessary for one gang to continually hew a passage through the narrow undergrowth, and even then it was possible for only two men to do the carrying. So difficult' was the work that these had to be relieved at short intervals. In the darkness of night the work was continued by candle-light, and when these failed, by an improvised slush lamp, made with a pannikin of butter. Ncaring midnight the procession of toilers emerged from the heavy bush, and were soon afterwards at Pokakn railway station, where they were hospitably entertained by the porter in I charge, prior to the journey to Ohakune | by tin e»r!y-Jiiornit)g goods train." j

MEN'S WINTER WEARABLES AT THE MELBOURNE, LTD. With the passing of Easter, one's thoughts naturally turn to consideration of cold weather requirements. Men's clothing winter needs are specially catered for at the Melbourne, as the following items will testify:—Men's merino shirts and pants, 1/11, 2/6, 2/11; natural shirts and pants, 3/C, 3/11, 4/11; men's fleecy singlets and pants, American make, 2/11; men's knitted pants, colonial make. 4/fi pair (grand value); men's splendid quality all-wool Crimean shirts, 6/11 (special value); men's Mosgiel knitted sock?, three pairs for 2/6; men's warm Hoslyn all-wool socks, black or plain grey, 1/- pair; men's warm saddletweed suits. 3!)/fl; men's heavy saddle t trousers. S/fl; famous Oamaru saddle | trousers, 13/6; new Hydrotite overcoats. 137/6; mens' superior raincoats, 30/6 (very dressy); men's riding oilskins, 12/9; men's new oiled canvas coats, guaranteed waterproof, 37/6. Hundreds

The amount subscribed, to date fotf the General Booth Memorial Training; College in Wellington is £BSBI I A euchre party and danee will be held in the Brougham street Hall, to-night,, under the auspices of the New Ply mouth Defence Rifle Club. Prizes in thV shape of flour, tea and the like are of* fered. j

Mr. It. Campbell lias purchased thft Taranaki Hotel, New Plymouth. Mr. Campbell must come an easy first aH. being the man who has held the license* of the greatest number of hotels in the Dominion (says the Eltham Argun). He has in his time been landlord of over 30.

i Our readers will remember that during last winter the Rev. A. H. Colvile> held monthly services for men only. It i* liis intention to do so again this winter. The first of these services will be held in St. Mary's Church next Sunday at 3 p.m., when Mr. Colvile will give an address on "The Seventh Commandment in Modern Life."

A somewhat remarkable sheep was on* view in Paten recently. The sheep, which* was bred by Mr. P. McCarthy, of Hurleyville, turns the scale at IfiOlb dead' weight. The animal was n two-tooth maiden ewe of the Border Leicester breed, and grew phenomenally. Some idea of its remarkable proportions eait be gathered from the fact that across the back it measures some 22 inches, the width of the ordinary sheep being from 10 to 12 inches. The legs weighed no less than 301b each, most of this amount of course being made up of fat. The depth of the fat on the chops was ft inches, which is about six times that of the ordinary mutton chops, A curious feature of the carcass was the small amount of kidney fat. there being only some 2141b, as against 41b, which is the amount found in the ordinary sheep. A windfall of £BOOO in exchange for an out-of-date motor car has come to a Nebraska man named Brandes. He recently exchanged the car for an eightyacre tract of land in Oklahoma, of doubtful value, and thought so little of his bargain that he never visited the i property. A few days ago he received an offer by telegraph of £OBOO for the farm. 'Believing that a mistake had been made in copying the message, and that only £6B had been proffered, he sent a reply declining the offer. Another telegraphic offer followed soon, ,this time offering £7200. Brandes again refused the offer. In reply he received a message bidding £BOOO. He then made a more careful investigation, learned that oil had been found in the neighborhood of the property, and that the Standard Oil interests were seeking to buv him out.