LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 160, 6 January 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Schnapper wore plentiful off tho lia>t Knd bathing reherve on Sunday. In less than an liuur tv.u men in a boat secured 05. We have to thank the Wcstport Coal Company and the local agents of the National and' tlie Commercial Union insurance companies for calendars for 1014. Tho sheep-guessing competition at the . East End carnival on New Year's Day was won by .\lr W. Tuson, of ••Lepper- ' ton, whose estimate was 91>/jlb, while tho sheep weighed Ollbs. A Ilawke's Uay resident at present in Wanganui stales that stoats aro exceedingly numerous in some parts of the district. Some of these rodents, ho says, have appeared quite close to the townships, and poultry roosts are exploited in preference to rabbit burrows. A large number ot entries have already been received fpr the produce section in connection with the Taranaki Agricultural Society's Show. The secretary wishes farmers and others to note that all entries in this class will close with him at his office, Currie Street, at 5 p.m. to-morrow. Major l'\ W. Sandford telegraphed to the Daily News last night that the Now j Plymouth Boy Scouts, who are in Auckland in his charge, are all well. They are seeing two shows each day, and, excepting the Exhibition, ull are givin" them 25 per .cent, off the ordinary charges. The boys will go to the sugar works at Chelsea to-day 'Tuesday), and h ill leave for the Thames on Wednesday. Most people liavo heard, read, or • known of a dog suckling kittens, of a cat mothering chickens, and even of one of the feline species allowing two young rats to take up their residence with her litter and similar anomalies. On a Kaikoura farm there is stated by the ,Press to bo a mare which has taken com'plete control of a well-grown calf, and exercises parental duties as if the, calf were one of her own progeny and species. At the request of tluo High Commis- < | sioner for New Zealand, tho London i iV'ounty Council Education Committee '• 'decided recently to take into their service, oil the "unattached" staff, for one Ivear, a lady teacher from t'he Dominion {'who wished to go to England for that period and secure a position in an in- ' fan Is' school. The committee agreed 1 to pay £OO for the year, in view of j the special circumstances—the usual ' (scale being £OO. A passenger to Xew Plymouth from , Waverley by the Wanganui through train on Saturday afternoon, left his [ carriage at Hawera for a cup of tea. , Lingering too long over this innocent j refreshment, he was badly "left," and [ the train steamed away without him. He had left his portmanteau in the car- ' riagc, and consequently, when ho landed in Xcw Plymouth by a later train, he ' was more or less stranded, and was unable to go on to Auckland, as he had , originally intended. , The bag has not yet turned up, and its owner has been j severely hustling the Railway Departmciit and the police in his efforts to find it. Perhaps the most interesting feature 5 I'of tho January Life, which is just to ' 'hand, is a photograph and an explanat lion of tho origin of tfhe epitaph which was written for the memorial cross to sCaplain Seott and his fellow heroes. It seems that when Captain Scott was leavl ing for tho South Polo Dr. Alcxaniler • keeper, Warden of Trinity College, Meldiourne, gave him as a memento a little ivolumc of Browning, in which he wrote .'the concluding lines from Tennyson's i Ulysses: "To strive, to seek, to/find, 'but - not to yield." The little .volume was i .discovered in the' tent with Captain l 'Scott, and the members of the search - party, considering the lines a most apc propriate epitaph, carved them on the .1 cross which stands on Observation Ilill. A meeting of the East End Bathing i ( Reserves Committeo was held last night to receive the statement of accounts in '' connection with tho Xew Year's D.iy * carnival. The gross takings amounted to £IOB Ids, aud the expenditure to £37 ' lis Id, leaving a credit balance of £7O ISs lid. The question of erecting a cotln;u on the reserve was discussed, and ; plans as submitted by a Xew Plymouth builder were referred .to the Building Committee to report on. Various mat--1 leys, in connection with the forthcoming - ba/aar, to be held in February, were also arranged. The secretary was ' authorised t» write to the Railway Dc--1 partment requesting an explanation as i to why the first inward train on Xew ' Year's Day did not stop at the crossing, 1 as promised by the Department. , 'ls there snobbery in our small towns? 1 The following paragraph, taken from a lllonic paper, giving a visitor's impres--1 sions of New Zealand, may be of inter--1 est to our readers:—"Life.in New Zea- | 01and presents many remarkable aspects, ' !,l>ut what will, perhaps, strike a visitor ' 'most is the peculiar snobbishness to be [/found in its villages. In some of these | I,'little communities many of the residents have never 'been distant for more >!than a few miles from their own doorsteps, and to their environment is no '.doubt due tho eaddishness and small'nmidedness that is so noticeable. To '•'» onlooker the self-snfiiciency of tlvase rural inhabitants is truly diverting. Thev are as a rule divided into little sets or cliques, and it would be quite derogatory for Mrs. .Tones of No. 1 to speak to Mrs. Brown of Xo. 2. A little experience, of t'he world would ho injlvaluable to these good people in showing them Irow very small they really are." Mr Edward Elliott, of the ''Smart Set." was the first to introduce into the colonies • the form of entertainment known as the "Revue," which is a burlesque on all the topics and peo>)'e ol the day served up on the staire in n novel'form. With regard to this, the fallowing cutting appeared in a recent U-uic of the Sporting and Dramatic lieview:—"With the Revue "Come Over ir«re"' in the air at present, a magazine has been asking the question as to I whether it would bo possible to find subjects of general interest te write a Revue round alisolutelyAustralian or loci! Mr Edward Elliott, of 'Smart Set' fame, can settle that problem satisfactorily, lie has proven that it can be done, ami done well, too, when he produced his lu'vnc 'Kia Ora' in Amkland and Well-, j ington early this year so successfully, making it stand good wit'h the livencss of his topics. Mr Elliott has the distinction of boing tfie pioneer of colonial Revues, having introduced that style of entertainment into South Africa' afid Rhodesia, as well as Australia and Xcw Zealand. With pleasing memories of Mr KlHott's Revue, presented in Aucxla.ul with a whirlwind of amusing novelties, one could easily conjure up Its possibilities when backed Hp by a good chorus, I treble the number of performers, handsome scenery aud castumes, and up-to-date effects, incidentals which aro >» enormous expense. With the vowe Revues are having just now at Home, in America, and on the Continent, the writer who shines at Revues BVauld rapidly come iat* feis m* [j "

Mr. CUmrtes Duck, of Orangcvillc (N.i.W.) sold £tß as worth of green peas oil' lacred1 acred in the Sydney market, clear of all expenses. The commercial drpurtuK»it of the .Vlutauni Ensign lias acknowledged the receipt of the sum of sixpence from the Olli'.'ial Assignee at Dmiedin, being the lirf,t iiml only dividend in a 'bankruptcy estate. The postal 'expenses in connection therewith were: Proof of debt Id, notice of meeting Id, receipt returned Id, amount forwarded in stamps Id. The sixpenny dividend cost 3d, apart from the time involved and the stationery used.

The loading of the f:.s. Tongariro in the Waitara roadstead was completed yesterday morning, and the vessel left for Wellington late in the afternoon. The cargo taken aboard was as under:— Woo], 11)00 hales; tallow, 253 casks; oleo, 80 casks; pelts, 3(i cooks; canned meat, 5.7G boxes; hides, 125 sacks; beef, 5350 quarters: mutton, 3130 carcases: lamb, 8020 carcases; veal, <w. r > carcases; pork, 33 carcases; beef, 1313 sacks; sundries, 819 boxes.

' Some natives appear to have u re.markable faculty for tracing back their geenalogy, and it is apparently no uncommon tiling for tliem to trace back their ancestora for twenty-eight and ' thirty generations. To make a mistake I in their "whakapapa" is to lay themselves open to derision. The story is told of a particular native who appeared beforo the Native Land Court at Poverty Bay lately, who had carried out a wizard's injunction to adopt a diet of pumpkin seeds in order to obtain the necessary knowledge of his genealogy.

A new wharf is to be constructed at Wellington to provide ample accommodation lor thi> largest ocean-going ves'isels visiting the port. It will be 084 ft .long on tine east side and 764 ft long on tlie west, with the width of 180 ft overall. Provision iB miule for shed accommodation to handle large import cargoes, w'liich it is proposed to deal .with inside the shed by means of elecUric overhead cranes, while outside the ; shed it is intended to use semi-portable ihydraulic cranes. Two lines of railway track will inn down on either side of tho wharf, so that it nifty be used I'for export purposes if found necessary, < Strong opposition to the syndicalistic tactics displayed in the New Zealand strike was expressed at a meeting of tki Independent. Workers' Industrial Council, held on December 18 at Melbourne, and the following resolution was passer:—''That this Council of Victorian unionists, representing organised workers unaffiliated with the syndicalistic and socialistic Trades Hall Council, sends its heartiest greetings to tho Arbitrationist unonists of New Zealand 'who have been fighting such a plucky •Might against the syndicalistic ami reVo- '■ lutionary unionists for the right to work and the right to organise, and, '.further, we view with pleasure the dc'terniined attitude against this extreme section being taken by several Labor politicians and union leaders in the Dominion."

Prices were high in Auckland 50 years j'lgo when the province was excited by the alarms of war and the preparations against hostile natives. In an address to tho prisoners in Mount Eden gaol n few dnys ago, Mr. F- G. Ewington said that when he arrived in Auckland in !ISG3 as an orderly to General - Cameron, Leggs were 3s per dozen, butter was 3s J .'per lb, and milk lOd per quart. Horse (feed was dear, and ordinary good ;!draught horsas for the military realised

'£oo each. Three-roomed houses let /at lus per week.' Though commodities I wrc dear, land was offered as an inI ducemont to men in Australia to enlist j in the militia jind join the forces at I the front. Some of those who had rej sponded and received grants of land in the Waikato subsequent!}! became rich by the rise in the value of the land. Sweet pea growers "who are troubled ,by the slugs eating off the yeung plants as soon as they eomo through thesurface, should try the. following plan (given by Major ISurlinson, manager of !the training farm at Wereroa. Save all the old egg-shells and fill them with ,a compost of loam, etc. Plant a pea in each, and stand the shells in the Imeshes of a length of netting tacked ito a frame, and raised well off the ground. Do not let the shells touch ' the frame. The snails and slugs cannot cross on tlva wires, and when the (dans grow a little, they arc planted, shells mid all, in their allotted places: and the roots soon break through the 'shells. The mesh of the netting should just hold the shell, through which a small Vholc in fchn bottom will give thci necessary drainage. When in the netting protect from storms, etc.