LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 172, 20 January 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Australian mails, ex Ki-erina at Auckland, will arrive her. J,!; : lorning by the Harawa. The 15ritis.-i census returns for 1011 show that lunatics increased from 122 per 1000 in 1001 to 101 per 1000 ii: 1011. The Town Clerk advises that the Morley Street rubbish dump will lie closed and the lfobson Street dumii op.ned a from to morrow.

Iho secretary of tie Xew Plymouth' *m and Life-saving Club acknowledges with thanks a donation of Ids lid from Mr A. s. Rrooker towards the funds oi the club.

An English confectioner handed to each of his mx) employees an original Christmas gift in the shape of an alarm clock to encourage them to lie punctual in getting' hi work in the morning.. The Salvationist-., have opened a cafin Loudon where coil'ce is served by converted barmaids, and hallelujah hymns are sung by converted cabaret arib.ts. A free lunch is given with Umperauce drinks.

I Major Sandford, who is in charge of | the New Plymouth troop of boy scouts *t present on tour in Auckland, wired from Te Kuiti yesterday (hat the scoi is were just leaving for Awakino. The weather wa.i still very bo!. The AVaitmno Caves greatly pleased the boys, who are all lit and as tou."h as whalebone. A troop of Cfl boy scouts from Xcw Pl.Miioiiih and some of the country districts, will jrn into camp on a site on the Kgiv.ont Road tomorrow, under Mr J. U. Sullivan. In addition to the sleeping-tents, a large marquee will be provided for evening lectures and entertainments. The ciuvip will last for nine days. A rather peculiar sight was to he s""n nearly all day yesterday from the New Plymouth railway stilt ion. Across ■the sea, apparently just a stone's throw from the station, ;]iung a light dry mitt more Mice an obscured horizon than anything else, which moved and lifted from lime to time. Speculations as to its nature and eause, were numerous'.

The following amounts are to be paid out t()-da,:~ Stratford Xgaerc JL'iSrw, l.owgarth f-'S'JT, Cardiff £U'i9. Akaroa is the largest borough to contemplate iiii electric light, installation. At it meeting of burgesses of the borough, a proposal submitted for u loan of £IW) for thii purpose of putting an addition il water service to the reservoir for electric lighting was approved, and U poll will by taken on February \i.

The imkil weekly mission of the Kgnvoiit Lodge, No. Hi, 1.0.G.1., ivus held last niglit in the (loud Templar lodgeroom. The usual order of business was gone through, after which the bvotliei":i took charge of the meeting and picvid.'d the sisters with art excellent programme, which was followed by light refreshments. Items were contributed by Uro. F. Boullon (encored); song, Sister C. K. I'eppercli; short address by Bro. Maunder; harp aolo, Bro. 11. Ricketts: song, Bro. Welch; v'olin solo, Sis-ter W. Hartnell. The- meeting was closed at 9.3') p.m.

The children of the town and district are awaiting the advent of Thursday next with keen anticipation. That the picnic to be held at Kawaroa l'ark on that day will bring pleasure to them is assured. The grounds will he free to all, and all picnic necessaries will also be .provided free. In addition to races and novelties of all kinds for the children's pleasure, special prizes will be given fur the best designed snnd-caalb, to be built on the beach immediately fronting the park. Thi-< should prove an innovation bringing joy to many a "sand-lark."

' A party of Mastertou fishermen the other Jay discovered in a local stream what appeared to be an animated bootlace. It was about two feet long, and moved about in the water in serpentine fashion. The specimen has been preserved, according to the Age. fn nil probability it is n gordius, a genus of long, slender, neuratoid worm, which is parasitioc in an insect until nearly maturity, when it leaves the inseot lives in the water. It is called the hair eel, hair worm and hair snake, from the absurd but common and widely diffused notion that it is a metamorphosed horsehair.

Three of the world's greatest art collectors have, died in Xew York during the last few months, J, Piorpont Morgan, Benjamin Altimui and <!eorgc. A. Hearu. All three have left tin ir art collections to the Metropolitan Mu.-,e.u:vi in Xew York, which has thus suddenly been enriched by pictures, porcelains, tapestries and other art objects worth tens of millions and perhaps even a hundred million dollars. It is hard to estimate the money value of these three great collections,-but Mr. Morgan -alone is supposed to have spent more than fifty million dollars on the pictures and art' objects that have already come into the possession of the Museum.

A remarkable instance of the way '.'. which rents have increased in Kidney is that of a fruiterer's slum at Circular quay. Three years ago the shop was let at a rental of lifts a week. On the expiration of the lease, tenders were invited, and the then lessee was the successful tenderer. The rout was fixed at £l3 10s a week. That lease expired !a?l week, and the former lessee was to go. The man who has secured the lease of the shop is going to pay l'2t a week- Harbor improvements at the (piay are said to be the cause of the rise' in the rent of the shop in question. The building is owned by the Harbor Trust.

Enterprise and energy rightly directed ever deserve reward, and especially is that so when thorn is expenditure of effort by individuals on behalf of a community. Tliis applies very distinctly to tlm luemlkvs of the Xew Plymouth Tourist and Expansion League ■ who are. evidently, a "real, live, up-to date" boily of gentlemen. They are of the order if citizens who lielieve that when one has "something good" it pays to advertise it. Xew Plymouth has "{rood goods," and the members of the Tourist and Expansion League tell the workl of the fact in an exceuilingly well-produced booklet, the title of which is --"Xew Plymouth: the Holiday Centre of New Zealand." From its less than half a hundred pages, embellished wilfc some fifty excellent illustrations, the reader learns a very great deal about Nature's bestowals upon Xew Plymouth unit Northern Taranaki. The beauties and attractions with which the northern and western portions of the great dairy province have been endowed have not been glorified in the booklet an atom more than is their just due.—Waimate Witness.

. Am interesting page in the past or the Hutt Valley was unfolded at the meeting of the. Hutt County Council on Tuesday last, when Mr. James lirmvn, "father" of Upper Hutt, wrote enclosing a photograph of the first bridge erected over the Hutt river, fifty yardu below (he present structure. The photograph (slates, the "Wellington Post) also shows the stockade that was erected nt the Hutt at the time of. the native trouble. All the settlers wwc enrolled as militiamen, and they occupied the stockade until the. troops arrived from Sydney by schooner. They landed on l'etone bench, cross the sandhills, passed up the huiks of the Hutt river, and took possession of the stockade at three o'clock in the morning. The bridge and stockade were erectod bv day labor, e.irl the tradesmen were paid ;">* a day and the laborers - 2s (id. All the timber foithese two works was cut in the Hutt Valley by hand, and that was supposed to he the hardest work that any mini could do. yet 2s Cd per day was the wag'c paid.

A young man named Arthur Albert, Rakor was charged before Jlr. V. V. ' Frazer at (lie Auckland Police Court on Wednesday afternoon with having | made a false declaration in obtaining: :i i marriage certificate. The offence consisted of a declaration that the age of the girl was twenty-one. \»herrns she was only ninelecii. Evidence' allowed that the ffirl had ipiarrelled with her mother, who refused to g-ive her consent until a fenced apologised to her. ami threatened to institute the ])roeeeiUn«s unless he did so. The mother paid she would have given her consent to the marriage had she heeu asked, and h:\cl the young people agreed to the ceremonv taking place in the particular church in which the girl had been brought up. Comic! i-o;,i«!iileri Dint the 1 rouble was due to e. difference of religious faith, and a; (!••• nrvus.'d was assured Il,e motor world not pive her eonsent. he considered hj" v.ms acting honorably in marrying I 1- sirl in the manner'adapted. Accused pleaded guilty, and was committed to Ike Supreme Court for sentence, lie was allowed his lihertv on condition (bat lie reported himself at interval* to the police, the Magistrate remarkmr- tl.a.i. tho offence was bnnlly one for '"im-isomnent, and tluit the vot'ii.T ii\:a Iwrl gone the wrong way about doinf (he honorable thing.

Kodaks iiid nil Kodak Supplies from the Daves' Pharmacy—where the Todaks are.