LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 253, 24 March 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., a first offending inebriate was convicted and discharged.

Fiau Bertha Krupp, the heiress of | the great Krupp ironworks, will be the heaviest individual contributor to Germany's war tax on wealth. Her share of the levy will be £300,000. The council of the Chamber of Commerce met yesterday afternoon to consider the shipping question. As a result, a committee was appointed to meet I *- presentatives of the Harbor Board and the Employers' Association. With the s.s. Hawke's Bay, the New Zealand Casein Company, Ltd., shipped 450 sacks of casein, making a total export to date of 3134 sacks for this sea-, son, against 1342 for a similar period last season. To date this year the company's extraction plants have treated 17,920,0001b of skim-milk, against 7,080,0001b to the same date last season. The Premier was delimited with his excursion to Hokitika Gonre on Saturday. He expressed great surprise at the extent of the Kokatahi district and the quality of the land. He described the boat excursion through the Gorge as providing a scenic view much superior to anything to be seen on the W~uganui River, and the whole of the bush surroundings as very fine.

At a meeting of the executive of the National Schools' Defence League, it was reported that in three or four months members of the League had secured 40,000 signatures; to the defence pledge cards. A report was adapted suggesting the appointment of an organiser for the defence of the national schools was a necessity, The renort also set out the pronosaU of the Bible-in-Schools League, and commented on them categorically. In New York, according to Mr. L. T. Reichel, of Wellington, who is in America, a large company lias just been formed for the purpose of importing meat from New Zealand and other countries, and this should do much to reducn the price of beef, which is retailed here at 35 to 45 cents per lb, land) being about the same. "The Wilson Administration appears to be popular, and so far as I can judge the country seems to be prosperous," adds Mr. Reichell. Owing, it is said, to the ascendancy of the Red Fed. section in the Typographical Union, a number.of compositors in the Government Frintiinr Office have resigned from membershiq. It is pointed out that to engage in a strike, as the union is invited to, would not only mean the lo3s of their positions, but the further loss of their contributions to the superannuation fund. A number of members considered the safeguards in the rules in this connection had been broken through at the instance of the Federationists. A choice had to be made and had been taken.

The Dunedin correspondent of tlie Lyttelton Times states that Mr. IT. F. Wright, of Roslyn, a well-known climber, has returned to Queenstown after five weeks' climbing and exploration in the Wakatipu hinterland witT different parties. He scaled thirteen peaks, twelve of which had never been ascended before. On eight occasions he acted as leader. This record of high climbing is probably the best for one season so far in New Zealand. . The chief scenes of operations were on the Recs, Dart, MatukHuki (Lake Wanaka) and Arawata divides. Mr. Wright speaks enthusiastically of this country from a scenic point of view. Peak's involving ice and rock climbs of from 4000 ft to 6000 ft, and glaciers almost as fine as those in the Mount Cook district were met with. Mr. Wright spent a month with Captain Head and party, taking part in their alpine work at the head of Lake Wakatipu.

A meeting of the Council of the New" Zealand Jersey Cattle Breeders' Association was held at Palmerston on Thursday. A letter,was received from the Department of Agriculture with re fcrence to the amendment pf the Stock Act of 1!)0S, concerning branding—.lt wan agreed that the Council do not take advantage of the Act. Twentyone new members were elected to the Association. 11 was agreed that all cows with authenticated yearly records be published in the forthcoming products:-' of the herd book, each cow to lie numbered and to be entitled to liavc the allix "A.R.M.' - attached to its name and progeny registered. It was decided to hold the next annual meeting at Wauganui on July 15. It was resolved to give a gold' medal to the cow coming first respectively in tiie different classes under the authenticated yearly tests carried out by the Department of Agriculture, a silver medal to each respective cow coming second, and a bronze, meda! to the third. Two medals were allotted to the Taranaki A. and P. Association, and one to Mr. F. S. Mcßae, in the register merit class.

A remarkable tribute to the prosperity of the Old Country in the last two years was paid by Lord Rochdale, \vli» is spending a few weeks in New Zealand, in conversation with a Wellington Post reporter. ''The general prosperity in trade has been simply extraordinary," the visitor said, "Why we have never bad so few unemployed in the memory of man. 1 believe that last year in nearly every trade every man that was really employable at all was in employment. I know this: That in Lancashire thousands of pounds worth of valuable machinery stood idle for mere lack of labor to operate it. No, I do not think emigration was the cause, or much of a contributing factor. It was simply our extraordinary prosperity. We seem to be over the apex of the boom now, and things are a little quieter, but still we are doing well. And I understand you are also enjoying great prosperity." 1 may sn.y that I was surprised—agreeably' surprised—to see the. advance of Australia. 1. had no idea it was such a fine country, with so much fertile soil and such a wealth of vegetation. You know, the idea in England is that Australia is something of a desert, and that idea needs dispelling."

Women's Christian Temperance Union —The monthly meeting of the above will be hehl on Wednesday next, March 2,">, in the flood Templar Lodge Room, at three o'clock. A general meeting of the Seaside Committee will be lield at the Malvn tea kiosk, Moturoa, on Thursday evening, for the purpose of electing officers to carry out arrangements in connection with the regatta to le held on Anniversary Day.

The death occurred on Saturday, at Masterton, of Mrs Kibblewhite, an old settler.

A sharp shock of earthquake, the tremors travelling from east to west, was felt in New Plymouth just after midnight. Several valuable sheep were killed and others badly wounded, as the result of worrying by dogs, in paddocks near the abattoirs on Sunday. The Timaru Borough Council reports that receipts from motor dues during 71 days amounted to £736; from the Bay tennis courts £53, and from the bathing-sheds £584. —Press Association. In a case at Greenwich Police Court, a medical certificate was put in stating that a man was suffering from neurasthenia. "It is a disease I have suffered from all my life. It is a disinclination to work," said the Magistrate. Jlr H. J. Turner, a well-known and highly-respected "W>nganui citizen, died suddenly on Saturday morning, aged 05. The deceased, who has been 45 years in the Dominion, took part in the Maori war, and had resided in Wanganui for 15 years, latterly being in the evele business. Some years ago he took an active part in public affair 3. Sergeant T. Griffith, who 'has been in charge of the Hawera police station for four years, is retiring on superannuation on March 31. He has been in the service for about 38 years, with the exception of a broken period of seven months. The sergeant received an injury to the left eye while on duty at Jhe fire which destroyed Mrs Mav's boarding-house, and this has led him to retire from the service. His successor has not yet been ji^nointed.—Star. The following incident is vouched for by a local auctioneer, says the "Northern Advocate." At a small settlement not' very far from Whangarei, church services are held in the dining room of a settler's house. On a recent occasion the clergyman was conducting service, and after announcing the hymn he started to read the first verse. He got to the end of the first line, when the cockatoo, which had not been removed as was the usual custom, made his presence known by the remark, "What rot! Get us a cup of tea." Cocky was immediately removed and service continued, but not with the solemnity which is usual.

Tasmania is passing through an unusually dry season. Thero was no rain during January, and the injurious effects of the summer sun have, says the Australasian, been aggravated by the frequent drying winds experienced. In many districts the grain crops have been much below the average, and unless rain falls within the next few weeks, the unarketable value of the apple crop will be considerably lessened. ]'' odder is becoming scarce, and Hobart householders' are being warned by the corporation to economise as much as possible with the water supply.

It was stated in the Sydney Central Police Court recently that there n;\> .'luavtcr.-i of the city in which the criminal element holds considerable sway. The respectable portion of the community is afraid to give evidence in cases in which residents of these areas are charged, because, in the words of the police, "to go against one of them is to go against the lot." A Russian wharf laborer was charged with assaulting a police constable and with being drunk. The, Magistrate asked why the man who had assisted the police, to put the handcud's on the Russian had not been called to give evidence. "There is a reason why the man was not called," a sergeant informed the bench. '-lie lias a business in the locality, and hud we called him he would have had to give evidence against the people with whom he docs business. To go against one of them is to go against the lot. The man referred to was one of the few in the district who had the tenirity and pluck to come along- and assist the constable when he saw that ht was in difficulties. Rather than call him as a witness under those circumstances, I would lose the case." "As long as that state of things exists, I cannot see how the police can do their duty,' commented the Magistrate. "I know that it does exist, and the sooner it is done away with the better. If someone does not stand up for the police, their lives in these localities will not he worth living, and they will not, or there will he no incentive, for them to do, their duty." The. police state that the manner' in which certain parts of the city arc patrolled is altogether insufficient. The heats are too long.