LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 10, 12 June 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The survey of the New Plymouth tramways commenced yesterday. A Foxton resident has sold his establishment after forty years' business experience in that town. The amount taken at the Wtikato Winter Show. on the opening day was £l3B, as against £52 10s last year.' • "Rabbits are fast dying out in the Wairarapa, thanks to our inspectors;" said a settler to an Age representative, the other day. , • • , The opening of the new post office at Awakino takes place to-morrow' evening. The Hon Mr. Rhodes, PostmastejGeneral, will perform the ceremony. • As against the popular fiction that there is a prejudice against the Englishman in Canada, the Vancouver School : Board has decided in future to employ none but British subjects. ManHo, Japan's most beautiful and cleverest geisha, has become engaged t« a student at Tokio University, who has paid £IOOO to free her from the claims of the tea-house owner by whom she was employed. Leonvavollo's new light opera will be produced for the first time in England at the London Hippodrome about Note** ber. It is expected that the composes will personally conduct at least the first twelve performances. The rural authorities at Booking, Essex, have decided to house the engineman in. charge of the new waterworks in an old Tudor cottage which stands near the pumping station. The cottage was built about the year 1470, and is still in a fine state of preservation. , During the five days of the Waikaco Show, the attendance, and consequent!) tin? takings, were well ahead of any previous year. The last day gave the largest takings, totalling over £2OO for' the day, and bringing" the gross takings to close on £7OO, which is well over £IOO ahead of last year. . The total contribution by the public for the Captain Scott fund, including the amounts received by, the London Daily Telegraph, is. £55,760, of which £12,000 is specially "ear-marked" iy donors for supplementing, as may be necessary, the Government's provision for the relatives of Captain Scott and his companions.

A young Swiss, 20 years old, committed suicide at Schaffhauseri by shooting himself, with a revolver in a cafe because of his fear qf military service. It wasstated at the inquest that he communicated his intention to his younger sister, aged 18 years, who offered to replace him secretly, but the. young man refused the bargain. Everyone who has any active ponnection with the Winter Show, be he president, judge, steward, exhibitor, or Pressman, has a word of praise for the Society's new secretary, Mr. A. L. Humphries. The duties of a secretary are arduous in the extreme, but Mr.' Humphries has tackled it in the right sjiirit', and is making a decided success of the' position. A visitor to the "News" office last evening showed us his muddy clothes, "but," he went on, "you should see my bike!" He said that he had been leading his bicycle along Gilbert street on to the little footbridge between the park gates and Oarrington road, but found the bridge was not where it ought to be. It has subsided, as he did, into the bed of the stream. Pending attention by the Borough Council's staff, he has placed some timbers across the approach to the bridge, to protect other pedestrians. As he inferred, the bike had a very bad time. Morey and Son write us re the local in yesterday's issue complaining of blocking the footpath.in front of their store. Messrs Morey and Son apologise for causing the inconvenience, but at the same time congratulate themselves on being the cause of it all. On Tuesday (the opening day of their sale) there were no fewer than 12 go-carts on the footpath while the delighted mothers were busy inside the store getting their share of all the good things that are going. The firm wonders why anyone should complain, when Morey and Son are bringing people into the town from all parts of the district, thus giving our town a city-like appearance.—Advt. It is reported that an epidemic of measles is prevalent in Wellington. The trouble is greatly increased by the carelessness of some of the convalescents, who venture abroad before the infectious period has passed, thus spreading tfte disease. Many of the adults who are smitten with the malady are amazingly ignorant about the effects of tile disease, and resolve to let the illness run its course without resorting to medical aid. The law, unfortunately, does not allow of the prosecution and punishment of the_ persons who travel about in public vehicles before the infectious stage has passed, and the only hope of safety for the public seems to be in the good sense oi the measles patients.

A golf ball whizzing through the air over Hagley Park the other afternoon barely missed a member of the Domain Board (says the Christchurch Press). At a meeting of the Board on Wednesday, the question was asked, "Who is responsible?" It was suggested that the man who hit the hall would be, in the event Of an accident. A member: "I don't know about that." It was remarked that it would be rather difficult to obtain damages from the Board—the liability was not on the Board's shoulders Another member (confidently).- "There is only one chance in a million that a golf ball will hit anyone in the park." This consoling opinion was backed up by the i statement that even if the ball did hit ' somebody, the result would not be fatal !