LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 17 June 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Australian and English mails, ex Maheno at Auckland, will arrive here by the Rarawa to-day. There will be one delivery, of letters to-morrow morning, and only, a minimum stall' will be kept on at the post office. ' ''

The veterans' banquet to-night will be held at the Foresters' Hall instead of the Brougham Street Hall, as previously announced.

Mr. Merrett, of Cliristt:huix'Ti,:i.s getting out an iiii-übiitor to hold 3000 eggs. It is worked In- electricity, and a hell rings in the house when the temperature rises above or below a certain point. The eggs are. turned automatically.

Mr. F. T. JSellringer has been appointed head executive officer in connection with to-day's warship arrangements, and Mr. T. C. List, deputy: Both will wear red, white and blue rosettes. Members of the general committee will wear blue rosettes, and ticket-sellers on trains and elsewhere, and members of the catering committee, red rosettes. °

It is understood that a Palmerston company is being formed to work the marble deposits at Tiikaka Hills, Sandy Hay, Nelson. The marble is described as being free from Haws, and of blue and light grey, and variegated blue and white shades, and, of great tensile strength. It is intended to: use the marble for monumental purposes, as well as for building.

■ A feature at the entertainment at the Empire Picture Palace-last evening was the performance of the orchestra under the direction Of the brilliant Violin soloist, Mr. Clerald van Nock. .Mr. van Heck is not only a master of his own particular instrument, but is a gifted and widely-experienced orchestral conductor. The result is a real musical treat for Empire patrons.

The native trap is generally a very uncertain vehicle, liable at any time to deposit its occupants on the broad highway. A ease in point occurred yesterday, when two natives bad an experience with a rickety seat and a restless horse. The animal quickened its pace, and the seat on which Kingi. a wellknown cripple, was sitting, shifted suddenly backwards and precipitated the Maori on the road. PortunateU- >"> sustained only minor injuries.

The poll taken at Martinborough last week on the proposal to raise a loan of £4500 for installing electricity was carried by a large majority, .. There is now very little of the hull of the ill-fated Star of Canada appearing above water, near Gishorne. The recent; heavy seas have caused a further subsidence, and it is probable that the next rough sea will send the hull out of sight altogether. Three hundred ducks were shot by a party of Featherston sportsmen on the Wairarapa Lake one day last week, it is considered by those who are in a position to judge that wild duck are more plentiful this year than they have been for many years. Sportsmen, it is said, arc correspondingly numerous. The guard on a railway line, not a hundred miles from Hawera, is, like Rudyard Kipling's sailor, "a man of infinite resource and sagacity." The other day he dropped his ticket clippers overboard, and, until he could recover them on his return trip, had perforce to punch the tickets with a nail. Asked how he came to have a nail on hand, he explained that he carried it in case he should lose a button from his trousers. What would he have done if he had struck a double event that morning?"

The- usual weekly meeting of the Egmont Lodge, No 112, 1.0. G.T., was held in the Lodge Room on Monday evening, at 7.30 p.m. The programme for the evening was a debate "Is Tobacco' Beneficial or Not to the Human Race?" Bro. F. R. Pepperell led in the negative, and Bro. L. Pepperell in the affirmative. A very: interesting debate ensued. After a careful judgment, Bro. Hartnell decided that the negative had the better of the debase, and the affirmative had the honor of paying for a little refreshment supplied for the occasion.

Any self-respecting boarding-house-keeper would object to having one of his lodgers running round the corridors in scanty costume, but it is quite another story when the disciple of the Simple Life turns round and lands his host two on the face, with jight and left, and departs by means of a fire-escape to an adjoining roof. This amazing incident occurred at a late hour on Saturday evening at the Coffee Palace, the star actor being an ex-inmate of an asylum. He seemed quite satisfied to remain among the chimney-tops, but the police thought he would be safer in a comfortable cell, suitably padded. The Taranaki Arts and Crafts Society are holding their first exhibition of sketches in the Brougham Street Hall on Monday, June 23rd, till Saturday the 28th. The works of art in oil, water, <i.nd pastel by artists in various parts of the Dominion will be exhibited, as well as craft work of various descriptions. Admittance tickets are Is/ which carry with them a chance in an art union to be held on Friday the 27th. We trust this, effort on the part of the local art' society will prove successful. All the proceeds after paying expenses will be devoted to the purchase of pictures in connection with the art union. This arrangement will afford an opportunity of acquiring a good work at" a smail cost.

In conversation with a reporter in Wellington oh Saturday, the Hon. W. Fraser (Minister for Mines) foreshadowed a possible reduction in the price of State coal. It was the cost of production, the Minister stated, that had brought about the increase. Until the price was raised the coal was being sold at a loss. At present the coal was brought down a steep grade by ordinary engines, which could only (with safety) take small loads. A central rail, similar, to that on the Rimutaka incline, is being laid on the steep portion of the line from the mine at Point Elizabeth, and when this has been completed it will be possible to bring out full loads of coal. The line will be completed in this way, the Minister anticipates, in four or rive weeks' time, and he stated that lie would then be prepared to consider the question of reducing the price of coal to the public. A marvellous recovery from serious injury was told to a.Dunedin Star reporter last week by an elderly man now resident in Timaru. and formerly of Dunedin. He fell from the top of one of the poles 25ft high while working for the electrioal engineers in Timaru in February last. The injuries sustained m this fall were: Pelvis broken in three parts, five ribs broken, one bone gone clean through one of his kidneys, breastbone broken, left arm smashed in three places, and skull fractured badly through striking the edge of the ker-bing. The patient was for five days lying, unconscious in the Timaru Hospital, and was then told that he would be unable t<r leave the institution for six months, if lie could possibly live. Four local doctors attended him, and very little hope was held out for his recovery. He remained 11 weeks in the hospital, and was then able to walk, although all that was practically done was to bandage him alt over. He was 12st 01b when'lie was taken into the hospital, and his weight went down to !)st when he left. In two months he has regained over 2st weight. Undoubtedly the case is one of the most remarkable of its kind, and the subject has, no wonder, somewhat baffled his medical attendants and friends.