LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 292, 2 May 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On the motion of Mr. Quilliam (Go■i: and Quilliam) probate of the will ihe late James Provo Millar has been Tnted by the Supreme Court to Mr. J. i'. Millar (junior), the executor named in the will. Thirty-two births, seven marriages, and fifteen deaths were registered in the New Plymdhth district last month. The figures for the corresponding month of last year were: Births 36, marriages 14, and deaths 9.

A cablegram from Fremantle states that Mr. Nevin Tait, who is a passenger bv the Omrali. announced that Madame Clara Butt and her husband, with a strong company, will arrive in about a week for a six months' tour of Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Tait lias also arranged for visits from Messrs. John McCormaek. Ilarry Lauder and Harold Bauer.

Mr. 0. IT, Saunders has arranged for the re-appearance in New Plymouth of Mr. Alfred Boothman, Australia's premier dramatic elocutionist. Mr. Boothman will appear at the Empire Picture Palace on May 7, 8. and !) in Edison's latest masterpiece "Foul Play," taken from Charles Reade's famous story, to he followed by an adaption of Dickens's" immortal work -'Oliver Twist." }

Authority has been given, says the Hawera Star, for Senior Cadet companies in uniform, in. charge of any officer, to visit 11.M.5. New Zealand when she is at New Plymouth. The cost will be home by the Department of Internal Affairs. It is hoped that a similar priv-i'-'ge will be extended to veterans, and <"nit:iin Stevens, of the Hawera defence oiric, is now trying to arrange for this.

The secretary of the Uruti Nursing Association reports as follows:—Miss Kelly,, district nurse, is now away on her annual leave. She will resume duty on May 7. Mr. J. Smith, of Uruti, has donated £1 towards the nursing cottage. The delay in the starting of the building of the cottage hospital is due to the slowness of the official staff at headquarters in Wellington, who arc in possession of the plans, etc.

Mr. It. I'oiciitaii's well-knpwn-,. mount '"Barney" met with an accident while following the hounds at Oniata yesterday. "Barney." who was carrying his rider. stood-off too far in taking a fence, landing on the top wire. As a result the horse was taken into town with, a ruptured'kidnev. It was attended to bv Mr. Mace, the club's honorary veterinarvsnrgeon. and is doing as well as can be expected. "Rarnev" is one of the best hunters in .the province and to loss him would be lio small misfortune. The Dangers of Life in the Baekblocks. —Mr. A. W. Bone had an exceedingly narrow escape from a dangerous accident on April 23. He was proceeding along after dark 'oil a valuable horse along the track just before the Grand Circle, on the Uruti roiid. Suddenly lie felt his horse going over, and he jumped, landing safely oil the track. By' dint of -much scrambling and a great expenditure of matches, he located his horse caught in some scrub on a narrow papa shelf away down the cliff. It was, impossible to get the horse out from either above or below. Every day someone scrambled down and fed the horse, the settlers meanwhile working hard excavating to make a track up. After about five days this was accomplished, the horse being rescued quite unhurt. Tliis is the track which the settlers have been working so hard to get deviated 1 and tunnelled through. It is really only a shelf cut in the cliff, and is so shockingly neglected that in places it would be bard for even two ducks to pass one another in safety.—Own correspondent. The Manaia postmaster, Mr. H. Dixon (the Witness reports) was the victim of a very cowardly and unprovoked assault at the hands of a grtng of rowdies at an. early hour oil Tuesday morning. Some time in the vicinity of midnight on Montlav night Mr. Dixon, and no doubt many other residents, were awakened by a noisy demonstration in the Octagon! the actors in the scene being a group of six or seven me i and a horse. Among other performances they amused themselves by pulling the horse—a sick, weedy looking animal—around hv the tail and general v making things 'lively. Tn a little while they took the animal towards the nost office and proceeded to put him on the lawn for refreshment. Mr. Dixon had been a spectator of the pro-' cecdings from Ins window, went down as he vvas partially dressed, and objected |to the proe>nding. Ilis objection was received with a volley of abuse and obscenity, and on attempting to push the horse out through the gate he was struck a violent blow on the eye bv one of the gang. and at the same moment received a blow on the side of the head. Fearing further violence he retreated towards bis house, followed by the howling and cursing mob. and was fortunately able to get inside and shut the door in their faces. Going out the back way he aroused Constable Car.roll, but by the time they hn-d got to the post office all but one of the rowdies ha 1 disapnearcd. This me tlu v seized, Mr. Dixon then going indoors, but it appears that while being taken to the police station lie released himself from the grip of the coilstable and escaped. So far no arrests _ have been made. Mr. Dixon's eye is. badly contused and painful as the result of one of the blows he received, andit is to be hoped that his cowardly as-, sailants will be brought to justice.

"Got any baccy?" "'For sure! Here's some Sweet Slice GOLDEN EAGLE." "Just wlvat T smoke, and there's none better; it doesn't burn the tongue." 4

rem »»iing in the Dan. recovery 81^''11 Woll °" tl,c wa >' to

Nineteen boroughs in ,

A London cablegram states that fl>» Peninsular and Orii.nt..i <• " ' v'.'r March hi tr , . " C( ' 101 arson on K.i&rs.s.'LV 1 "'! he believed to be empty for the pleasure of heipmg to put the lire out a|S The wire standards for use on Mount J-gmont as a guide to climbers leS the crater liaye now come to hand md as the season is over sn fn- „ i« concerned, it is not proposedto™!! ve t Jjmftxed until the J

7,fi lyS . t i le Londo » Express:—"A Xew a' lll fanner at Waituun, driving in LTt T eal ' With two headdoJn' j ni n ]ltly I)ptwep n six and a dozen hares, who are so fascinated by the glare of the lamps that they become stationary targets." ' e on'his ? aylei f'' Avl '° cnl 250 men on m, Essex farms, some time ago introduced a bonus system to encourage his employees to invest their savings In the farms. The sum of £3700 now fwllV™' 01 ' Tf' aml t],e amount tor the year just closed to be paid in Soo. 8 ' proflts ttnd interest came

erv ' ce Commissioner Gazettes a notice tlint the public service entrance examination, formerly known as the Civil Service Junior eI animation will he held on or about No- \ ember 18th and following days. The C' . r er 7'' e ., se " ior . ox «'"inations, form?rl> the Civil Service senior examination will be held about January sth hnd following days. J ' Tlie i . ls ?'tr Taruna,d Hunt Club held a meet at Mr. Clemow's, Omata, yesterday .afternoon. Fully 100 huntsmen, inI eluding a number of visitors from Wa- | nganin, Stratford, and elsewhere, folj lowed the hounds, and some good runs nsued. There were two "kills." The I lust run was marred somewhat by the j rain. The hunt w t is hospitably entertained at afternoon tea by Mrs.'ciemow I " ml the evening a dance was held at j Omftta. Earlier in the dav members of the club were the quests of Messrs. Chaney and A. 11. Stamlish at luncheon at the Criterion Hotel, New Plymouth. , A party of settlers, Messrs H. and C. Larsen, T. Henry and J. Hayes, ail experienced backwoodsmen, explored the Okoke track recently to judge of its 'suitability as a highway betwefen the jUruti road and Urenui. They declare i the present track is perfectly unsuitable for a dray track on account of a tremendous gorge, one of the worst they had seen. A sheep track could be made through, however, and as an expensive bridge has been built over the Okoke stream this remains the only means of utilising it.—Own correspondent. So severe have the ravages of the flax grub been this season that a well-known Tokomaru flaxmiller has had to commence importing flax into Tokomaru, the very centre of the large industry in this district. _ Besides two truck loads arriving 1 daily, a contract has been let for a thousand tons to come from Linton.What the grub must mean to flaxmillers can easily be gauged by the fact that the flax land owned by the flaxmiller concerned is 1100 acres. At the present time the grubs are so plentiful that they can be picked up in handfuls.— Standard.

A very interesting discovery of fossilised bones was made by a party of Waverley residents at the Caves Beach on Sunday. When investigating the papa cliffs what appeared to be the remains of a log uncovered by a slip was noticed projecting from the cliff face. A small piece was knocked off with a well aimed pebble, and the party were then much amazed to discover, on examination, that their find was a fine specimen of fossilised bone. A rope was procured from the shelter-house, and one of the dauntless ones was lowered a distance of 20ft over the cliff. He returned with several good-sized pieces of the fossil. He-stated that the, bones visible were evidently portions of a large skeleton that he had been able to trace vaguely in the rock formation. The most curious part of the business is the enormous size of the bones. The largest piece secured plainly showed the bone structure and substance. Its diameter- was calculated at about six and a-lialf inches. A snmple is being despatched to the curator of the Wellington Museum for his inspection.

| The credit of Austria at the present time is interesting in view of the changed conditions in the Balkans. Austria is suffering from financial embarrassment, mainly because of her enormous expenditure on military preparations. The Vienna Corespondent of the Economist, writing under date March 17, stated that the Hungarian Minister was in urgent need of money, and a loan of 300 million crowns was about to be issued, while Austria was in need of 150 million 'crowns. The most remarkable fact about the Hungarian loan was that interest at the rate of 4y a per cent, had to be paid, whilst past loans were contracted at 4 per cent., and the promise to pay in gold was also given. The floating debt of the Dual Monarchy is enormous. The amount of Hungarian treasury bonds in circulation is 5"23 million crowns, that of Austrian treasury bonds 255 millions, to which must be added Salt Mine bonds, bringing the joint floating debt to .900 million crowns. Some of the money borrowed by Hungary will be spent upon the establishment of a cannon factory.