LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 79, 22 August 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

, Wellington odlvises tliat thi», Welling-ton-Brindiiii d'esp&tch of July 10 arrived in London on the l£>tlh inst., tfhrce days l&t«.x TheSPost Office notifies that the weekend service for cable messages haa been, temporarily suspended. Deferred messages are subject to a very delay.

Intimation, 'has been received froim. ■England that ibhe shipment of pig-lead and white-lead has been completely stopped on account of tllie' British. Government requisitioning all the lead produced for wa.r purposes, Glais> from) Belgium, which t imported iareelv by finms m New Zealand and AaistaUia, ihias also been hung up indefinitely through itihe war. *

Goods to the value of £6,526,620 were imported through the various ports of New Zealand for .tlie three months en'led March 31 last. Over tlliiree and a half million pounds' worth canie fron th,e United Kingdom, and only £177,070 worth from Genmany. This was a -Iccreaße from ■tie corresponding sum few last year, when New Zealand bought £190,270 worth of goods from Ceriums The Dominion usually buys more giood? from her tiban from any other Buropea'i country. In Kawhia, as eisewfhere—amongst Natives as well as amongst, Emo~eans — there, is a spirit abroad which impells people to forgive and forget past t|uarrels and differences, and to make friends again on account of the great national trouhlo which is threatening us. To settle the ownership of a valuable horse two Maoris recently had a law ease wM<fl» was n'ot settled at last Court day. The litigants have no'.v decided the question by handing the ho«-je to the Defence Department to help to fight tire country's battles against the common enemy.

J That the war has not upset the fmanI arrangements or the courage of the I Auckland daiiying companies is proved I by the fact that some of the companies | in the Wttikato are offering an advance of from, Is to Is Id per pound for the new season's supply of butter-fat (savs the Herald). Tuiis is one of the many indications 1 tdib.t iwlhiile temporary dia-location-of some industries cannot be avoided the producing interests of New Zealand must nrovide openings fOT increasing employment during the period ■of it'he war. The banking dnstiftiuitions may 'be relied upon to support stable indtastiy, and while the seas are open 'the producers of New Zealand should bo able to largely increase their export of f food to Great Britain,

The present is not a good time fo - launching a joke, as a farmer who reBides near Danncvirke discovered to >h\s cost. The farmer 'referred to walked into an hotel at Dannevirke, and noticing a number of young men sitting down went to the bar and called for a lage." beer in broken English. Raising the glass (to his lips, he intended evidently to pledge tQie Gemmaii' Emperor, but had hardly pronounced the word "Hoch" when he was thrown bodily out int-> the street. He wa& receiving a very rough handling, when the' landlo.nl interfered and .explained it wasi all a joke, -,i. fuct fftiait the culprit was desirous of explaining 'had he been given a moment's respite. An abject apology being forthcoming, the fanner went 'his way a wiser man.

Mr. J. B. Merritt, in a lecture at Oairnmi on poultry raising and, eggT'l'oduction, said it. appeared to l.im tlial the coming winter nionblis in England were going to be very bad indeed for those people who wanted eggs. Mr Merritt (says the Mail) based his argu-' ment on tlu> fact that England was .joying £200,000 per week for eggs imported from "the' Continent, where many of the ports Were now closed to the export trade on Recount of the war. This being so, Mr Merritt wanted to know why we in New Zealand could, not send the Home people some ejjgs. Why could we not send a consignment or two in the troopship* that were fitted with refrigeratimr ehanibers, oven if forwarded n.t cost price, and thus display our patriotism?

I The practical patriotism of farmers Mas shown on Monday (save the New Zealand Herald) at, the New Zealand Loan and: Meioantile Agency Company's foikekohe horse sale, when three horses ! were sold on account of the Patriotic i Fund., Mr l'irima Kena, of Glennwrray, , gave two houses. One realised £l4 10s j and the other a pony, which was valued at £3, w w sold and resold many timers bringing in £GS 155., and making a- total of £B3 Jfe for the two animals. Mr Ivan 'Motion, of P.uikelcohe, a)Jo gave a pony valued at £5, and agwijlf sales were .numerous, £'!.) 10s beting raised, securing a grand total of £11« 15s towards the fund. Nearly all the farmers in t'lre district took part. One theory for the disappearance of tha New Zealand birds before, the encroachments of civilisation on. the premival bush put forward by Mr Edgar Stead, in a lecture at Canteiitary College the other evening, was tCiat "native birds Iliad become subject to one or other of the numerous bird fevers so common among the birds of England. He was inclined to think that stoats an;f weasels had very little to do with the extinction 'iiit had taken nlaoc. in districts. It was a very well-known fact that disease amongst European* was a serious disease among native races. Similarly with disease of 'birds, Sparrows and 'other English birds, .through centuries of; life, 'had become to tn great extent, immune from diseases thov had introduced anion,,' the native Ibird*? of the country, which were more susceptible to them, and which felt more, disastrously the inroads of fevers evnd diseases which ''had no effect upon English birds in this country.

The Koman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Dr Cleany, in an address to a -large congregation at Auckland exhorted all Osilliolics to pray for peace. "The war," hie said, '-was urged on by a political clique 'in Germany, composed of arany official*. Tho British Empire found itself obliged l U defend its rights and tic rights of its weaker neighbour." He congratulated jtlus Dominion and 'tilie young men who ihad volunteered to g» forth and defend the. cherisilwxl rights of the British Emnire. There were two tilings he would suggest for Ms people to practise: Fii;«t, to ina-ke seme sacrifice and contribute aeeo.rd.in;>' to their means to tin heavy expenditure caawvd bv the ©recent wr; ■secondly, to pray that peace anight soon .lie restored, and that tho ymniK Jn<m wlio had gone to tin; front might, return safely.

'A very suect»sfnl clearing safo was held by Mr Newton King at Pimiho on Friday, when -Messm Bell Bros.' stock ur.d farm implements wei'e submitted to the hammer. There 'wan a. large suul representative attendance of buyeiu from all parts of tho district, and vimtors -were lotm in their praise of the quality and condition of ' the (toy stock (offered for aile by Messr® Bell Bnoa. There v.',ere 110 sensa,t!ionaJ prices paid for daily cows, t#fe highest price being £lB for a nice Holstein in full milk, buit other values were consisterttiy near this: figure, as may be imagined when the herd of liO liwul, which included a number ttiait had 'been in milk for four months, made the excellent average of £ll 7s 6(1. Springing teifers. made from £Ti 15s to £9. and 1 some choice Jersey ycarimf: faifer* made a record price of £4 12,* • • j •