LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 295, 6 May 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A first-offending inebriate was yester day convicted and fined us, in the Magistrate's Court.

School children who won swimming medals at the recent sports held at the municipal baths, are requested to call at Mr. Bonnet's, jeweller, and procure their well-won trophies.

A telegram states that the charge against live territorials of ducking "a reporter named M'C'ann, at the Sutton Camp, Otago, was adjourned at the Police Court for ten days, owing to the absence from town of counsel for the defence.

Bain fell on nine days at New Plymouth last month as against 21 davs in April, 1!)12. The total rainfall for the month showed a reduction to 1.32 in. from 5.80 in. in 1012. The mean temperature. 58.03 degrees, was about a degree lower than in April, 1012. As a sequel to the Oringi Camp incident, the offending reporter has been called upon "to attend the orderly room" to-day to answer a charge of having "absented yourself from camp without leave at about mid-day of April 2"), and remain :d absent until the termination of the camp at 0.30 o'clock in the evening of April 2(i."

A conference of Territorial officers will be held at Oringi on May 10. Captain A. C....C. Stevens will represent the group officers in the Wellington district at the conference. A further conference will be held on June 10, convened by the G.O.C. at Wellington, which will include Brigade officers, and Captain Stevens will again act as representative.

The New Zealand Film Company which lias just been formed in -New Zealand comprises Messrs. J. Fuller and Sons, Haywards Ltd., and the Greater •T. D. Williams Ltd., the three big film Arms of New Zealand. As these people hold the buying rights from all the leading picture manufacturers in. the world they now command absolute control over the moving picture business in the Dominion. Consternation was felt in Waverlcy on Friday morning, when it became rumoured that the Mapourika had been wrecked on the Westport bar with a loss of twenty-two lives. Throughout •he day residents with relatives in that part of the world sought anxiously for fuller details, and it was not until evenin" when the whole business was proved a hoax, that their minds were set at rest.—Patea Press.

A letter has been received by His Worship the Mayor (Mr. Geo. W. Browne) from the Judge's Associate (Mr. W. Bothamby) stating that in reply to his letter of April. 28 he had to inform him that the Hon. Mr. Justice Edwards, in response to a telegram received on Wednesday from the Hon. Mr. Samuel, M.L.C., hod replied that he would arrange to adjourn the sitting of the Supreme Court at New Plymouth, and I that he would later on inform the Hon. Mr. Samuel and the Registrar of the [Supreme Court the exact date fixed.

A meeting of the committee of the Taranaki branch of the Royal New Zealand Association of His Majesty's Veterans was held oh Saturday afternoon. Colonel Ellis presided. A letter was received from the secretary of the Hawera branch (Mr. C. S. Mahoney) stating that 20 free railway passes had been issued to members of his branch to visit the Dreadnought at New Plymouth., He suggested thai arrangements be made whereby the members of his branch' could join the local veterans, so that ; ••U- sould visit the battleship New Zea-' land together. The suggestion was favourably received. The question of conveying the veterans to the .battleship and the time will be fixed later. When definite information is received from Wellington on the evening of the visit to the New Zealand, a smoke concert will be held, at which the Hawera visitors will be the guests of the local veterans, and'a sub-committee was set up to make the necessary arrangements. The Egmont Lodge 1.0. G.T., met in their lodge room la.st evening at the usual hour under the guidance of the Chief Templar, Bro. C. W. Hartnell. This being the first meeting for the quarter, the routine business was short. Kindly remembrances still come to hand from those who attended the Grand Lodge here. The Lodge Deputy reported that Brother Laughlin was still on the sicklist. After recess, the following were elected as officers for the quarter just commenced:—Chief Templar, Sister Mrs. Legg; Vice-Templar, Sister B. Connettj Secretary, Sister White; Chaplain, Sister Mrs. Bruce; Marshal, Bro. Reid; Financial Secretary, Bro. Hayden; Treasurer, Mr. L. Pepperell; Guard, Bro. Cottam; Sentinel. Bro. Ricketts; Reporters, Bros. Pepperell and White. The installation will take place at next meeting. The programme for the quarter's meetings as submitted by the sub-committee, was carefully considered arid adopted with slight amendment. The proposal from the Grand Lodge to put a national organiser in the field forthwith was conj sidered and met with liberal support.

The Taranaki conipanieß of mounted rifles went through to Uringi on Sunday for the purpose of taking part in the annual encampment. Three trains took the troops away. The first one left at three o'clock, conveying about 80 members of the Pataa, Kail road, and Waverley contingents, and the next train pisned through Hawera at 5.25 with the North Taranaki troops, while the Hawera section entrained in another speeal at six o'clock. The New Plymouth train had 10 troopers, and .80 went from H'owera. including a dozen, members of the machine gun detachment. The local flection were under Captain Sutherland, who addressed them' before embarking on the necessity for strict discipline while on the journey. He said the Hawera Mounted Rides in the volunteering davs. had always borne a good name, and he hoped that the Hawera section of the Territorial scheme would uphold that reputation. There were a good many people at the stu/tion yards in the aft'ernnon to watch the troopers truck the horses. The stationmaater and his staff had a busy time on Sunday and they got the specials away up to time—"Hawara Star."

At yesterday's meeting of the Taranaki County Council Mr. H. R. Robinson, clerk to the Akitio County Council, approached the Council with regard to the creation of a special fund for accident insurance. He drew attention to the fact that local government legislation did not give local bodies power to create a special fund for the purpose. He asked the Council to canvass the support of the member for the district to urge an amendment to the present local government law, in the direction of giving power to local bodies to co-operate and create a special accident insurance fund where required over any area. In support of his request, the writer pointed out that under the existing law it had oven proved profitable for certain councils to take their own risks. It was decided to co-operate in the direction required, the chairman pointing out that he could see no reason why the necessarv facilities should not he afforded local bodies. 1 'No harm, he remarked, could come of it. Tt was also remarked that the attitude of the Government on the matter might be due to the fact that the proposed scheme would run against the Government Accident Insurance Department.

t The borough of Gisborne is extending J its electric light service, at a cost of £15,000. Pickpockets have been operating very freely in Wellington during the past week or two. A farmer at Rewa, in the Oroua county, is reported to have received a legacy of four millions. The Hamilton ratepayers have, by a large majority, carried a proposal to constitute the borough a fire district. The dairying industry is' becoming ' firmly established in the Waihi (Auckland) district. The home separator is largely in force. It has been stated by very old residents of Jlotorua that the Lakes have never been lower for the last 20 years than at present. A special prize is being given by Sir Walter Buchanan, M.P., for competition at the dog trials in Masterton next month, for the competitor in the local event whose dog puts up the best performance controlled in the Gaelic lani guage.

The local authorities of La Pranz,

Canton of Vftlois, Switzerland, have passed a law ordering all school children under the ago of ten years to remain at home after 7 D.m. If they are found in the streets after this hour the parents will be lined 2s for each child.

A Dunedin paper states that there is

a possibility of the price of cheese being increased slightly before the coming winter is over. It appears that many of the large factories that have buttermaking plants intend to make butter during the winter, thus causing a scarcity of cheese.

Spurious coins are in circulation in Christchurcli. A tram conductor told a Press reporter that he had lately-re-ceived several pennies to represent halfcrowns, and although the fraud was easy to detect in some cases, the "fake" was so cleverly done in some cases as to avoid suspicion.

The J. C. Williamson management announces the result of "The Blue Bird" essay competition as follows:—Miss Kate Hooper, Carlton Terrace, Wanganui, wins the £3 3s prize; Miss Amy Denton, Thompson Street, Wellington, wins the £2 2s prize; Miss Eileen Clarkson, box iOo, Hastings, wins the £1 prize. i' *".■'';

A mild suggestion was made to Captain Halsey, at Gisborne, that the hull of the wrecked Star of Canada would afford an excellent target for big-gnu practice by the Dreadnought, and he would be doing the port a service by removing such an eyesore from the very gates of the town. Captain Halsey smilingly replied that it would be better and cheaper to apply a charge of dynamite. The vessel was so full of holes that a torpedo would only tear another piece out of her, and he incidentally mentioned that each torpedo sent out costs a little matter of £4OO.

An unequable season, the result of the almost continuous drought, appears to be having a very serious effect on the fruit industry throughout the country (says the Whangarei correspondent of the New Zealand Herald), and particularly in regard to the approaching orange crop, which, during the winter months, is quite a feature of Whangarei's export trade. , One of the leading orange-growers states that all the formed young fruit is dropping from the trees, and, as far as some growers are concerned, the possibility of a crop of this fruit for the coming season is hopeless.

A good story is being told of & citizen who made an unofficial call to the bat-tle-cruiser at one of the ports, He is said to have rowed himself out to the New Zealand, and made fast his tiny craft, afterwards stepping aboard. An officer on duty enquired as to the visitor's business, and politely advised him to leave the deck. "Is Captain Halsey about?" he asked. "Well, yes, but he cannot be seen," came the answer, although the lieutenant agreed to take a message. "Just tell him," said the bcwhiskered old fellow, "that one of the owners was out to see how things were getting on. I'll be back." A Wisconsin college professor has formed a company to dig for £2,000.000, believed to have been buried more than 200 years ago by pirates on Oak Island, a short distance from Chester, Nova Scotia. Captain John Welling, who for fifteen years was first officei on a Government steam dredger, liaß charge of the work. An unsuccessful attempt was made by three men to recover the treasure in 1795. They abandoned the work after reaching a depth of thirty feet. Early in the nineteenth century another attempt was made to reach the J treasure, but after digging ninety-five feet and unearthing a large stone on which was carved: "Ten feet below is £2,000,000 buried," the pit filled with water,; and the work was abandoned. Rodman Law, an American, appeared recently in New York in the role of a human rocket. To oblige a movingpicture firm, and for a valuable consideration, Law was shot 3500 ft into the air from a rocket such as is used in fireworks displays, and descended gracefully to earth in a parachute. Law, according to the interviewers, felt a bit dazed, but soon recovered. Before playing the part of the human rocket, which is the climax to the blood-and-thunder moving picture series, the man ate an enormousmeal. The motive-power of the rocket was ordinary powder, and the steel cylinder in which Law made the flight was 10ft high and 3ft in diameter, tapering to a point as a rocket does. The charge of powder, the cylinder, Law, and the parachute outfit, brought the Weight of the apparatus well up to five tons. It waR estimated that the powder alone • weighed 8001b.

BLANKETS, RUGS, OVERCOATS. ADVANCE SALES. AT THE MELBOURNE.

At no other period in our whole history have we been enabled to offer such/ astounding values in staple goods as at present. Various reasons may be ad : duced to show the reasons for this happy state of affairs, wider buying scope—due to the increase in the number of our branches—and foresight in forward' buying when the price of wool was low. Our five Taranaki stores such a huge volume of merchandise that manufacturers and "jobbers" are eagercompetitors for our "spot" cash business, with the result that we buy and' sell at prices that make our competitors fairly wonder "how it's done." Just as we benefit by our 'spot" cash buying* methods, so does the buyer who deals at our stores, because the savings effected by us are in turn passed on to him, thus consolidating our goodwill and increasing our sales. The s savings on these offerings are fine examples of the benefits derived ,by shopping at the Melbourne. Three-quarter bed all-wool white colonial blankets, 16s 6d pair; large double-bed size, 19s 6d pair; singlebed grey blankets 8s 9d pair; rugs, 5a lid to 15s 6d; little boys' overcoats, 5s lid, 6s Od to 10s 6d; ladies' lovely raincoats, 22s 6d; men's rubber coats, 255; heavy tweed coats, 39s 6d; Hydrotite coats, 37s Cd; men's grey raincoats, only *2s 6d.

After the storm calms a calm. After a puff of Westminster REGENT CIGARETTE comes contentment to the smoker; Try them and share in the Great Free Gift Scheme. Forty Free Gifts, fc