LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 206, 28 February 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. IT. M. I'urdie, of Waitara, has oflei'ed land up to ten acres fur experimental purpose* under the Board of Agriculture, the Field Inspector to choose tlm plot. The Kaupokomii Dairy Co. lias decided to take up £ofl() worth of shares in the I'a tea I'rce/.ing Works. Shares in the latter to the vaine of .C2SS we re taken up by shareholders at a lueetliu* of the company. Jn tlie list of prize-winners in the dog section at the Tarnnaki A. and I'. Show, the name of Mr Jack Rock's "Woodluigh Mitry" was omitted as having won tirst piize in the novice bitch class in fawn pugs.

The children and parents of the Ngaere school held their annual picnic at the hast End beach yesterday. The day was not ideal pieknieking weather, but nevertheless all seemed to enjoy, the outing.

The road roller ordered by the Taralniki County Council will probably be shipped from London on .March "24.' The Kgniont County Council's road roller has arrived, and is being fitted up at the stilt ion yards preparatory to being forwarded to Ojmnake. The actual dressed weight of tlm cow that was utilised for the weight-guess-ing competition at the recent show was 49(Jlbs. This was :;iicssed by; Messrs, K, A. Crigg, A. R. Greenwood (Urenui'i, und C. Hoskin (Bell Block), who will divide the prize-money (£10) between them.

A retired widower, with an income of £IOOO a year, is advertising in a. Wellington paper that he wishes to correspond with a well-connected liul.v, of independent means, over middle age, with a view to matrimony. As if a lady with independent means would be single when past middle age!

By the success of his pedigree lfolstein bull, King Fayne Segw, who annexed the championship in the llolstoin bulls for the second year in succession at the Taranaki A. and P. Show, Mr. N'ewton King wins outright the challenge cup donated by th.e New Zealand llolstein-Kriesian Association.

Money has been flowing into the office of the New Plymouth Borough Council during the last few days in sums BUflifiient to turn the ordinary naoncygrubbcr green with envy. Yesterday was the hist day for paying borough rates without incurring a penalty of 10 per cent., and during the day about £3BOO was paid in, bringing the total since Monday up to i"000.

Messrs. KreUschman and Heoll', dele gates from the Hawaiian and Australiai Agricultural Association, are iuvestigat ing the roHOurces of New Zealand wit! a view to future operations, the condi tions in Hawaii, owing to Oriental im migration, having serious drawbacks ■They interviewed the Premier, am have visited the various northern dis tricts (says an Auckland message), Tliei are so much impressed that they de filled there was no need to go to' Aus tralia. They will return home by th Makura on March 14. They confident!' advise members of the Association t( «ell their Hawaiian properties and tak. up land in New Zealand without delay

There were, 104 bankruptcies last year m the Auckland and Taranaki districts under the control of Mr. W. S. Fisher! V™:" 1 ' Ass'ftncc. The returns show that 87 persons filed petitions to be adjudged bankrupts, as compared with 83 in the previous year. Seventeen bankruptcies were 011 creditors' petitions as against 18 in )912. The Auckland' filings in IJIS totalled fi'2. The total assets declared by bankrupts in the two districts last year wore £72 494 as against £;>2,022 in the. previous year, CSt ' ltPS ,lealt with mi ' lis(Hl P, ' , w afiainst >'» 1012. Proved debts 111 1913 totalled £O4 097 as against £48,873 in 1012. Last TM r' the dividends received by creditors '(ex*n'olmts to preferential and aecuied creditors) amounted to £9577 as against £7715 in the previous year.' Professor Cardston, who is organ!*™, the. band carnival to take place from March 23 to 28 next, has arrived in New J 'ymoutli and is busily engaged in making arrangements for his "March of the '<inpiie. Rehearsals will be commenced 111 the Brougham street hall oil Mondav, where Professor Cardston will he pleased to interview parents of children who wish to take part, «t 4 p.m., and adults at 7.30 p.m. The dancing will include all the latest pantomime work, living stat uary, all the national dances of the world, and skating scenes. Tuition in these is absolutely free. About 100 children and 80 adults will lie required, and if is to be hoped that this opportunity to learn attractive dancing and assist a worthy object will ba readily taken advantage of. There was some fun yesterday afternoon, at the racecourse, during the sale of the calves presented to the Society. Nine of these were put up, and as a result of the bidding the Society will benefit to the extent of £3O 14s, the gross amount of the sale, Mr Newton King having auctioned them free of commission, in order to assist the Society. The first prize winner realised £3 12s (id, and then the bidding livened up a little. The seeond prize winner realised £3 15s, the third i' 3 7s (Id, fourth £4 7s tid, and the fifth £4 10s. Tile others realised £3 15s, £1 15s, £1) Bs, and £2 3s lid. The last two created some diversion. The former passed through the hands of nine persons at sums ranging from £1 to £1 5s before lieing ultimately knocked down for £l, and the latter, a very small specimen, was sold to four people for 10s, each before being finally sold for 3s 6d and presented by its owner to a small boy who seemed to hardly realise the good fortune that had come his way.

An exciting incident occurred in Lower Queen street, Auckland, on Saturday night. A man was arrested for drunkenness near the Thames Hotel by Sergeant Parsons and Constable Atkinson at about 9.45 o'clock. They conducted him to a taxi-cab at the Waverley Hotel corner and placed him on the back seat. As the sergeant was entering the car after him the prisoner jumped out at the other side, and made off at a run across Queen street, with Constable. Atkinson in pursuit. Half-way across the street the mail is stated to have drawn a revolver from his pocket, but he kept on running. Not deterred by the production of the firearm, the constable dashed after Uie man, and, at the tramway inspector's box, seized him by the arnu from behind. All the chambers of the revolver were loaded, and a box of cartridges was also found in tho tnaa'i possession. At the police «tation the acetified, whose maimer was •trange, is stated to have asked tho constable to "blow his brains out and be done with it." He also told a storr of people following him about.

Tlio ten son fur Stewart Island oysters opens to-morrow. Tlii' personnel of tin- Maori Laud Board is to lie altered from March SI, mill will in fill nrc consist of tlii> Residcut Judge and tlic Regis', ivr of Llic Court.

The swimming races wnich were to liiive taken place at the Municipal Rutin l«*t night were postpone.! until next (!nli night, owing to the co!i! wei.thcr prevailing. The I lovernnient is acquiring the Orakei liloek, near Auckland, from Hie Maori owners, and the Mayor of Auckland lias suggested that the land (Hllll acres) should he handed over to the City Council nt. tin; price it costs for Hie purpose of laying it out as a model suburb. •Mr H. 1!. Jenkins, of Kltliam, lias disposed of the patent; rights for the United States and Canai j of the Gano milking-machine, lie Living received a cablegram from Chicago which brings to a conclusion negotiations lie had entered upon when i,. America for the sale of certain rights, h.s price, £20.009, haying been agreed to.—Argus. A little daughter of Mrs Paulsen, of the Terminus Hotel, New Plymouth, met with a serious ace dent ou Wednesday last, as a result f which she is now in the New Plymouth Hospital. A horse belonging to one the guests at the hotel, who was having lireakfait preparatory to setting out for the show-, grounds, was tethered on a lawn in the hotel grounds. The child ri'.u out close to the animal, wtlieh lashed out and kicked her in the side. Dr "VVylie at- | tended her, ami ordered Uer to the hospital.

Mr. It. (I. Wells lias joined Mm ranks of the "cinema authors." lie has accepted a fee of £51)1)1) a year from a •firm of film manufacturers to allow liis stories to be reproduced in picture form, and has promised to write some special plots. A beginning is to. be .made with "The Invisible Mali'' and "The Country of the Blind." Mr. Wells has been reproached by some of bis lit,erary friends for yielding to tin: blandishments of the picture producers, but ,as a mutter of fact his own writings ,justify him completely. He foresaw long ago the time when novels would lie seen and heard, not read, and lias (introduced the perfected kinematograph into several of his tales. It is described, for instance, in one of the chapters ,of "When the Sleeper Wakes." The iiiitthor believes that the' picture play is igoing to threaten the supremacy of the novel during the next decade, and he is enthusiastic about the new branch of kis work.'

Speaking at a meeting of the Kanpokonui Dairy Co. the other day, Mr. Curtis contended that l'ateu was not the port they must look to with their everincreasing trade. There was a proposal to start freezing works at Stratford, and if this were done it would be very convenient to ship their meat straight from the trucks into the Home liners at New Plymouth. It would save transhipping and humping about. In a year or two he believed Home liners would call at New Plymouth, and even now they were quoting slag at 5s a tun cheaper in consequence of u direct shipment coming to New Plymouth. Mr. Powdrcll: The National Dairy Association can still sell at le.-s than that. Mr. Curtis: I suppose it is rubbish. Mr. I'owdrcll: It is poor argument to "suppose." Mr. Curtis, continuing, argued that if the freezing works at Palea were such a good-proposition, why should not the farmers take up the shares individually. If the works are started at Slritford he would probably take shares, but lie. protested against the company being put into the Paten concern. He wondered that the people of Paten didn't rush the shares if it were such a good proposition as they were led to believe. Mr. D. .1. Hughes expressed the opinion that all their produce must soon concentrate in New Plymouth. Mr. Powdrell: Not if you have lo pay lis 4d extra. The produce that went away from New Plymouth by the Corinna was nivt unsatisfactory. Mr. Hughes: T was not aware of that. Continuing, lie explained that he was not hostile to Pa tea, but did not believe it could ever be made satisfactory. Clearly it Was responsible for quite a few grey hairs on More than one man's head who had tried to grapple with it. An unusual incident (says an exchange) happened on the North Island Main Trunk train. A prison warder, with three prisoners who had been sentence*] to jnvereargill, entered a carriage, in which there were some homereturning bandsmen. Two of the prisoners were quite young, one was a huge Maori, and all wore the gaol regalia and carried their ordinary clothes with them in bundles. The bandsmen noticed that the warder grew more and more nervous, and began acting queerlv. Then he disappeared unaccountably, and was lost for nearly two hours—vet the prisoners made no attempt to escape; on the contrary, they sent for the guard and got 'him to look for their missing custodian. He was found by the guard and brought back, hilt it wn's ■"tieed that he behaved even more queerly than before, and several times went out 011 the platform. Kadi time flic prisoners got one of the bandsmen to watch guard over him, fearing that he might attempt to jump from (lie train. The climax came when the warder -uddenlv took a lit—then the prisoners did nil in their power to relieve the man, attending to him as anxiously as though they were ilia keepers, and in Die end they called for the guard and got him to send a telegram down the line for another guardian, fearing that the warder would get into trouble if they did not do so. A police sergeant came aboard somewhere about Oliakune and took charge of the prisoners and the warder until Palinerston North was reached, where another police oflicer came aboard mid escorted the prisoners to Wellington, while the warder was taken to the Palmcrston Hospital. So impressed were the bandsmen that they decided to make representations to the Minister of Just ice in order to securo some remission of sentence to the men, which, it the facts are as stilted (hey surely deserve. Warder .McDonald, the warder in question, lias been committed to the I'orinm Mental Hospital. A FAMOUS AXXI'AIj TiKIHTTION

SAL!'..' 'I lie Melbourne's annual reduction and Muckraking sale is an event that attract- buyers from far and near. These sales are not the usual kind where low prices obtain on special lines only, but are noted for the genuine reduction on all poods in (lie company's stores with but one exception, namely, women's • hilling stockings. Every visitor to the store may see the regular sellin" price (marked in plain figures) and note how much (he usual prices have, been reduced. There is no attempt at deception. The plain figures in black and white are there for all to see. Genuine solid savings are to be made on regular everyday goods and tho people know it. Hence the widespread popularity of the firm's great annual reduction sale. Reduced prices on everything. from Saturday, February 28 to Saturday, March 81. " '