LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 298, 9 May 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Owing to an outbreak of measles, Wellington College has been closed till the end of the month. It is notified in the Gazette that after December 31 next the present issue of duty and postage stamps will be displaced by new issues of all denominations.

The total estimated population of Xew Zealand on March 31 was 1,124,100. The nett increase during the March quarter, excluding the Cook and other islands, was 9121.

At the Theatre Eoval last night, a magnificent picture of the Dreadnought Iving in Wellington Harbour was shown. Those who are unable to visit the ship during her stay at Moturoa would do well to see this picture during the few nights upon which it is being screened. Reports from Dunedin state that onions advanced 15s in value last week, the wholesale price now being £5 los per ton. Circumstances indicate a further rise. The value of potatoes fell last week by about 103 per ton. Large orders are being booked in the South for delivery at the North Island next month, and it is anticipated that prices will harden this month.

In discussing the potition for re-open-ing Carrington street, the Mayor of Inglcwood remarked at a meeting of the Council on Wednesday evening that a certain resident had built a cow-bail on the Council's property, backing on to that street. ''We asked him to remove it," said Mr. Young, "and he did, and also our fence across the s'reet." The Council did not appreciate such excessive zeal. Julian Hawthorne and Dr. William J. Morton, bearers of two of the most honored names in America, are in gaol because they lent the prestige of their names to schemes for defrauding mining investors. After a trial lasting seventy days, "both were found guilty, and both sentenced to a year's imprisonment. Hawthorne is the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famous American novelist, and Morton is the son of the famous physician who discovered the value of ether as fin anaesthetic. Morton, who is past 80 years of ago. declared that all his life he had expected a great calamity to befall him. "If every man, woman and child who hud been saved by ether from pain and suffering paid the Mortou family its due. it would be one of the wealthiest families in the world," he said, as he was being led away to his cell. Julian Hawthorne is about 07, and inherited much of his father's literary talent, which he had degraded by writing seductive mining literature at the intsancc of a shady promoter.

Tim latest reports from the Mangaone Oil Company's well at Tane indicates tbat the well is now down to a depth of 1850 ft, and the formation is soft sticky papa. The gas which is now issuing from the well burns freely, and is said to he tin- best i|iia!ity gas which the well has vet emitted

The Territorials who are charged with "ducking" a reporter at the Sutton camp on April I!) are Sergeant James Carr l'ighy, Sergeant Thomas Atkinson Bunbury, Sergeant Cecil .lames S. Nicholson, Sergeant Herbert Thompson, and Private Robert Kirkness. The reporter is Charles Macau, of the Otago Daily Times stall'. The case was called at the Dunedin I'oliee Court on Monday morning, and adjourned to the 14th hist.

A visitor who has just returned from a trip to Waikfireinodiiii says that the lake is lower now than ever before known by the oldest resident of the locality. It is fully 18ft liin lower than its best wafer level. The boat jetty, which is about lift high, now stands' high and dry. Jt is not now possible to take a boat up to the Aniwanawa Falls as the inlet is a river rushing over exposed rocks. Jn Lake Waikaremoana there are large tracts of the bottom exposed and islands are now joined up to the mainland. It is supposed that the fall in the water level is due to the low rainfall during the summer.

Typhoid is raging at (lisborne, and medical men are having a busy time attending to the numerous cases they have in hand. Among the suD'ereis is Mr. G. Darton, borough overseer, who is in a private hospital. Mr. Darton was several times a borough councillor, and five years ago contested the general election against Sir J. Carroll and Mr. W. L. Clayton in the interests of Labor and Prohibition. He was defeated in the second ballot by Sir James., 'lne prevalence of typhoid at (iisborne. is said to bed ue to the tearing-up of the ground in connection with the new sewerage system, during which old cesspits have boon exposed. For such a loyal country as ours is (says the Auckland Star) the New Zealanclers arc very casual about some of the little, observances which, though apparently insignificant in themselves, mean so much. After a concert, for instance, about 1 per cent, of the audience has the good manners to remain standing while the orchestra plays its usual bar or so of the National Anthem. At Victoria Park the other morning the number of men who stood stolidly by with their hats clapped tight on their heads while the band was playing "God Save the King," was appalling. Some of them do it through ignorance, some through self-consciousness, and the rest no doubt have reasons of their own, but many of us have yet to learn that a man never loses in respect by showing it to others—especially to his Sovereign. Four members of Parliament put their popularity to the test at the municipal elections, and with one exception had every reason to be satisfied with the result. The exception was Mr. George Laurenson, the member for Lyttelton, who was somewhat badly beaten in the election of Mayor of that town. Mr. J. Vigor Brown was re-elected Mayor of Napier with a handsome majority, and out of seven candidates he easily headed the poll for the election of three members of the Harbor Board. Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh, member for Wellington South, was returned to the Wellington City Council and Wellington Harbor Board, after stilt' contests hi each instance, while Mr. C .E. Statham, mem-li-.t for Dunedin Central, had the compliment paid him of being' returned i>y a large majority at the head of the poil in the election of three members for the central ward on the Dunedin City Council. ■ '

An extraordinary story of a daring robbery of which Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, was lately made the victim by a young woman at Cannes has just been published. Mr. Churchill is reported to have lost not only £SOO, but also some highly important and confidential naval data. The robbery was perpetrated immediately after Mr. Churchill had won some money at cards. The young woman, who is suspected of being an agent m some foreign Power, and two aristocratic-look-ing men by whom she was accompanied, paid great attention to the Fir*t Lord, and while chatting to the woman Mr. Churchill placed a bundle of notes in his right hip pocket. He went away a few minutes later, and it was not until he returned to his yacht that he discovered the loss of his money and a pocket-book containing notes on British naval matters that would be extremely valuable to any foreign Power. Scotland Yard oflicers are investigating the case.

American press writers, commenting upon the evils disclosed by the vice enquiry at Chicago, urge that the time has now arrived when the country must throw aside false ideas about propriety and tackle the question from the legislative standpoint. Seven States have now agreed to confer regarding the improvement of.the conditions of working girls %a the chief essential in reducing the white slave traffic, and more especially the. necessity, of establishing a minimum wages cale. These States are Illinois. Michigan, Towa, Missouri, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Indiana. The evidence given reveals a wide difference of opinion as to whether an augmented wage scale would be' quite as salutary as some investigators claim. The proprietors of big stores, where thousands of girls are employed at 32s per week, reject the idea of paying 48s weekly, as recommended by the Chicago Commission, and obviously, they contend, the minimum wage must vary in different States in accordance with the cost of living. To establish a minimum wage in New York, it is urged, would mean that the employers would discard girls and employ men, and so tend to increase the social evil.. Tf the big stores rejected female labor, the chief sphere of employment would be domestic service, and in the I'nitcd States domestic service, though highly paid, is not popular Avith American girls.

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 adduced to show the reasons for this happy state of affairs, wider buying scopedue 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 distribute such a huge volume of merchandise that manufacturers and "jobbers" are eager competitors for our "spot" casli 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 savings on these offerings are fine examples of the benefits derived by shopping at. the Melbourne. Three-quarter be<] all-wool white, colonial blankets, Ifis Cd pair; large double-bed size, lfls-Od pair: singlebed grey blankets Ss !)d pair; rugs, ,■>■- lid to los fid; little bovs' overcoats, 5s lid, fis fid to 10s fid; ladies' lovely raincoats, 22s (id; men's rubber coats. 255; heavy tweed coats, 3fls fid; Hydroti'.. ;onts, 37s Cd; men's grey raincoats, op.lv '2s C,H.

The present year is stated to have) been the best that the Christchurcli Tourist Office has so far had, the takings being, roughly, £IOOO more than those of last year, the previous best. A patriot who called at this office was petrurbed (says the (iisborne Times) because the wrapper on some eating chocolates he purchased on board 11.M.5. New Zealand bore the inscription, "Made in Gormany."

It whs stated in the Auckland Police Court last week that drinking among youths under the age of twenty-one is on the increase. Mr. V. Fnizer, S.M.. said that barmen employed in city bars should be of responsible age to discriminate between customers over and under twenty-one years of age. and between those who should and those who should not be supplied with liquor.

A fifteen-year-old boy, the proud possessor of an air gun, started shooting operations on the neighbor's fowls at Christchurcli, with the result that one feathered denizen gave up the ghost. A repentant lad appeared at the Juvenile Court, and for his misdeeds had the gun taken away from him, was fined 7s (id, and was ordered to pay the value of the fowl, 2s (id.

Mr. Harry Corson Clarke, who played Blackie Daw in "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford" in New Plymouth recently, has practically decided on a tour of Australia and New Zealand with a company of his own, producing a number of American comedies. He reckons on touring New Zealand in September. Corson Clarke is now in his sixth week at the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney, and is proving a big draw.

One of the oldest sights in Europe may bo witnessed in the little city of Odder, Denmark. There are 4000 people dwelling there, but they have never relaxed from their earliest declaration—namely, never to permit the driving of an automobile through the streets. Consequent-; ly a man in a business suit and a soft hat rides astride a black horse, which draws the motor car through the town. A heavy fine attaches to any person who attempts to violate the ordinance.

'■ 'Tis an ill wind that Wows nobody good" is an old proverb which has just been verified to the advantage of the Wellington Zoo. The silver jackal, •one of the many pets on board H.M.S. New Zealand, has lately developed a humorous hain't of biting at the bare feet of the sailors as they go round about their morning duties on the decks. Goodnatured as he is, Jack failed to appreciate the humor of this new trick of a spoiled pet, with the result that the silver jackal repents at leisure in the seclusion of the Wellington Zoo. When Mulai Hafld, Sultan of Morocco, succeeded to the Sultanate he found the sacred city of Fez infested by rats. Without any loss of time he at once nationalised all the cats of Morocco, and issued a command that many thousands of them should be marched into Fez for service. For some time a law has existed in Hong Kong making it compulsory to keep cats in every house, the.number varying according to the size of the house. Only a short time back the governor of the German colony of Togo* issued an order for cats to be kept in all hospitals, schook and prisons. On May 6, 1782, a remarkable series of demonstrations were begun in London by Mr. James Price, a distinguished amateur chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Mr Price claimed to have compounded a powder which would change mercury and other inferior metals into gold, and lie proceeded to "prove" his statement before audiences of "peers, baronets, clergj-men, lawyers, and chemists." He certainly extracted gold -from his dishes of mercury and presented a slug of it to'' Oeorqre 111., who "received it with gracious condescension." The University of Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of M.D:, and his published account of his studies had a wide circulation. But scientific men were incredulous, and .when Price was challenged to repeat his experiment under such supervision as would prevent the introduction of gold into the '• mercury, he declined. After some delay he promised to prepare a supply of the powder, nml aftm- a month's disappearance he invited the members of the Royal Society to meet him in his laboratory. Three men attended, and Pricecommitted suicide in thrir presence, a victim to deceit or self-delusion.