LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 293, 3 May 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A settler last week at Raetihi dug 21 tons of potatoes per acre, which he sold at £8 per toil in Raetihi. A resilient spring button, which relieves the strain on the trousers, the buttons and the braces, has just been patented. ■'You cannot expect to be treated like .vi'/olly lambs when you behave like wild >.:<ists," said the North London magistrate to two prisoners. Wellington exhibitors have booked 5800 square feet of space for the Auckland Exhibition, for which they have paid £659 4s, and this sum has been remitted to Auckland. America's total annual expenditure on electrical service apparatus and supplies is calculated to be more than £400,000,000, according to the Society for Electrical Development of New York. The Herald states that no fewer than 1600 pigeons will be shot at during the forthcoming meeting of the Wanganui Gun Club. Over a thousand birds have already been collected in Wanganui. During the absence of the grave diggers for a couple of hours, a pair of robins practically completed the building of a nest in the side of a newly-dug grave in Narborough (Norfolk) churchyard. The Baroness Claudine Succhi, at one time a noted ballet dancer—owning jewels, the gifts of numerous sovereigns and princes, worth more than £IOO,OOO —recently died at the age of 70 yearß in the poorhouse at Milan. The new traffic bridge over the Waitara River is now almost completed. All that rema,ins to be done is the plastering and painting. Sdme work is yet required at the approaches. The bridge will probably be ready for the opening ceremony in about a fortnight. Life is not very joyful in the backblocks. Mr. Frank Armstrong, who has rwided at Akitio for the past 38 yeais, was only able to get a road to his property two years ago. This is all the more astonishing when it is remembered that Mr. Armstrong pays over £IOOO a year in rates and taxes. Last week a well-known resident of Woodville, Mr. Rowe Fennell, entertained a large party of children, in accordance with his annual custom, at his residence, "Toronto Cabin," on the occasion of his birthday. Over 100 children sat down to tea. Mr. Fennell, as usual, received many presents. It has been stated that, within the recollection of the oldest residents in the district, the level of Lake Takapuna has never been lower than it is at present. On Saturday Mr. A. Harris, M.P., stated that at a spot near his residence on the shores of the lake a stone wall, built either by the hand of tliie white man or the Maori, had beep disclosed, which could only have been erected when the level of the water was lower than it i» to-day.

"It seems to me preposterous that a working man earning, £2 14s a week should have to pay £1 a week in rent for a house," was the remark of Mr. W. S. Fisher, the Official Assignee, at Auckland on Monday, when a laborer and gardener was explaining his position to his creditors. Bankrupt was telling them that he could not get a house about Remuera (where his work mainly lay) for less. One of the creditors said he was only paying 9s a week, and another creditor said there was plenty of houses at the low end of Kyber Pass road for 12s and 14s a week. Bankrupt said he had never succeeded in getting one. People did not cater for the working man nowadays in the house line. Tho result was that frequently two or more families had to take a house conjointly.

Signora Toselli, formerly the wife of the present King of Saxony, had her first interview with her son, Bubu, since her separation from Signor Toselli, the child's father. Special arrangements were made by the guardians of the child for this interview (which took place at Rome on March 13), as it was feared that Signora Toselli would kidnap it. They refused to allow Bubu to be taken to the Hotel Elvezia, where Signora Toselli is staying. She refused to go to the residence of Signor Toselli's parents. Finally a meeting was arranged at the residence of Professor Giannattasio, "who was present throughout the interview. In order to prevent any attemp to kidnap the child, Signor Toselli's parents and their servants waited iii the corridor outside the room in which the former Crown Princess of Saxony was caressing Bubu.

The New Plymouth Brotherhood opens its winter session at the Good Templar Hall to-mornw aftennon at 3 o'clock, when the Rev. M. K. Gilmour, a missionary and explorer, accompanied by a native" teacher, will deliver an address on "The Life and Customs of New Guinea." The Rev. J. W. Burton, who has himself been a missionary for ten years in Fiji, will take the clmir. The new Brotherhood hymnals, which have arrived, will be used on the occasion, and a collection on behalf of the general funds will be taken up. Mr. Frederic will assist the Brotherhood as soloist during the afternoon. REGENT CIGARETTES will please the inhaler. Smoke them and share in the Great Free Gift Scheme. Write for Free Gift Catalogue to Regent, Box 331, Wellington. Forty Free Fifts. I Only when tea is absolutely pure do you get the highest stimulating power and the least waste. Purity in tea is. secured by the utmost care in every branch of the industry, from picking of the leaves to marketing of the finished product. Crescent Tea is a high grade, pure Tea. It is rich and strong, and uniform in flavor. Sold in three grades at 2/-, 1/10 and 1/8 per lb. 7

A cablegram from London states that Dalgety and Co. have declared an interim dividend of 8 per cent. The children's practices in connection with the Fire Brigade ball will commence this afternoon in the Good Templar Hall, at 2.30 o'clock. The local agents of the Xorth.;i'U Steamship Company, Ltd., adivse that the s.s. Rarawa, which is bar-bound at Onehunga, is expected at New Plymouth on Momluv. She will leave on the return trip to Onehunga on Tuesday evening. The Young Women's Christian Association in Dunedin has just concluded a ten days' campaign in aid of the fund for the new building. The objective was £SOOO, but the total collected amounted to a little over £3OOO. Included in this amount was an anonymous donation of £250 received to-day. The services in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow will be conducted by the Rev. M. K. tJilmour, who has been for twelve years a missionary in New (iuinea. Mr. Gilinour will ,have an interesting story to tell of his work there, and Madiu, a native teacher, will also speak at each of the services. Warm shirts for boys at the Melbourne. Just arrived, a big shipment of warm dark union shirts, sizes 2 to 9, prices 2s 4d to 2s lid. Also in stock plenty of warm worsted jerseys, with button shoulders, 3s fid to 4s lid, and heavy all-wool saddle knickers, 4s f)d to Gs fld. An Ohingaiti correspondent informs the Mangaweka Settler that one day last week Mr. John Trevena, an amateur in the, butchering line, in the presence of thirty spectators, killed and dressed one bullock and one sheep in the space of thirty-two minutes. I'he weight of tne former was 7C9lbs and the latter 871bs. Both animals were dressed and finished equal to anything to be seen in the large I centres.

Mr. Ernest B. Davies, chemist, and London qualified oculists' optician, announces elsewhere that he will shortly open in Devon street, in premises opposite the Empire Picture Palace. Mr. Davies (who was for many years proprietor of the "Davies' Pharmacies," Wanganui) has just returned from England, and has brought with him one of the most complete lens and spectaclemaking plants in Australasia. The shifting sands of progress lave been responsible for the disappearance of one of the early land marks of tbe town, in the shape of the stone psnapet on the south side of the culvort which spans the Huatoki Stream in Devon Btreet. The wall was erected, together with the culvert, in 1875, by the laic Mr. Henry Hooker, and the marble tablet chronicling this fact, is to bo returned to the relatives of the deoased gentleman. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Richard Shaw Burke, a miner on the west coast of Tasmania, I has been cleared uup by the capture of an octopus 12% ft long and 3ft across the back. When the monster was opened a shirt similar to that worn by Burke was found in its stomach. Burke was lost on the poast several months ago, the general opinion being that he had been swept off a rock close to where the octopus was killed. An interesting petrol economiser for use in motor cars has been invented, which, it is claimed, goes far towards overcoming the fuel problem, which has become so acute in consequence of the high price of petrol. It is stated that by ijfs use a saving of at least lo per cent, on the average fuel consumption can be obtained, while increased power and flexibility of the engine are other features claimed for it. Several of the "econoniisers" arc already in use, and it has been decided to conduct an exhaustive test of a car fitted with the device, so that motor car users may be able to judge of its utility for themselves from the record of the trial. The "economiser" is produced by a patent power jet and atomiser. The mechanism is very simple, and can be fitted to any make of jet carburetter. It consists of a widemouthed jet which is almost filled with sensitive wire stands. These wires vibrate as the petrol passes up the jet and break up the spirit so effectively that an almost perfect mixture is obtained and consumption reduced accordingly. A series of trials which have already been carried out with a taxicab fitted with the device show very satisfactory results, twenty-four or twenty-five miles per gallon have been recorded on each day'« run, while the average consumption of the car was one gallon to every twentyone miles.