LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 25 August 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A telegram fromi Kltham states 'that cable advice has been received which intiittated that a consignment of cheese from a northern faotory realised 7>5, practically equal to 7'/<d per pound net, A London cablegram reports that the harvest in the United Kingdom will be practically completed ill a week's ilime. All the wheat recently gathered is in splendid condition and tit for iunncdiaite use. , ... Tlie Taumai'umii police, in giving evidence in sly-grog cases last week, said that fav more, drink came in on the sly than what came .properly labelled and notified. They said that- a well-organis-ed scheme existed; one person brings the liquor in and another distributes it. The person chosen for distributing i't was usually somebody who came a good deal in contact with t>he public, his movement being thus not so much open to suspicion. The usual foittnightly meeting of the Loyal Egrnont Lodge, I-0.0.F., JI.U., was held last evening, R.G. W. 11. Wood presiding, as N.U. Bro. Orompton has left with the Expeditionary Force. Two other members, Bro's. 11. U. llcCiahey and F. Shirley, are also members of the force. A resolution was carried unanimously that a small levy he struck to pav the contributions of the who had volunteered for active service. All members present spoke in favor of the resolution as an indication of brotherly feeling that should exist amongst the members. .Some people may have noticed the announcement that iIjSOS/MX) approximately has been spent up to date on the transcontinental railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlic, states the S'yducy Herald. When Australians realise what these figures mean they will have something ito think about. They mean that llie money estimated for tlic whole railnay is already half spent. There, were 1005 miles of railway to be built between Kalgoorlic and Port August;!. Up to llie present 100 miles of rails have been laid; or, if the earthworks lie taken, an additional la miles -'-0j in all—have been completed; The origin;! 1 estimate for this cost of the whole line was £4,1)00,000. The figures published ,-liow that nearly half of the money has .already gone. Ist is, of course, true that a certain amount of materia!, such as rails and sleepers, has been bought for use on parts of the line which have yet to he undeut-iken. But when all allowance is made for the stocks in hand, it is perfectly clear that the Irans-eonti-nenlal railway is going to exceed bv an enormous amount the estimate of the cost. It is impossible to give definite ligures, but the Commonwealth will iprotably be lucky if the line is finished for a penny under £7,000,000-

To-day is the anniversary of the landing of the first military settlers in New Plymouth, which took place in 1893. A recent Berlin message to a London paper said tile Kaiser's entertainments in »onnection with his forty-four Jtiojai residences, his private saloon train, the Imperial yacht, and his racing schooners iiave grown to such an extent that he j has decided to entrust thejii to a "com-.missary-general." A bureaucratic otl'icial has hitherto been in charge of th.Kaiser'e provisioning department und wine cellars. Herr Conrad Uhl, one ol the best-known hole! managers in Germany, is to bo the new "OomjnitißaryGeneral."

The usual weekly meeting of the mont Lodge, No. 112, f.O.G-T., was iievi last evening in itfce lodge room of t:i«; Good Templar Hall. After the roait.m business, which included the initiation of ''two friends®, a very enjoyable programme was rendered by the following: Song, Sister Mrs. Olds; pianoforte solo, Sister Gladys Wai ; recitations, Sister Legg and Bro. Rev. C. H. Olds; violin solo, Bro. Way; aol'>, Bro. Arnold, Ae> lian harp solo, Bro Rickets. Accompanists were Sisters Mr*. Douglas* and Way. Bro. Welch gave a five minutes fliMress on "Good Templary as applied to individual action." Light refreshmei;'. i concluded the meeting The Inglewood RecoTd has something to say about the telephone service in Inglewood, and the remarks arc not corn- | plimentary. The paper says:—"lf there j is any service on the face of the dominion earth to equal thalt of Inglewood, nothing short of 'half a ton of gelignite will serve dny "improving" purpose. We ,do not blame the local 0. in C. for this, as a glimpse at tho staff rcmindk one more of a full age "weaning home" than a telephone exchange, and t'he state of efficiency is exactly what would 'be expected from inmates of the latter institution. Tho old saying tells us tfliaifc if you liavo one boy you may have n boy, if you have two boys you have only half a iboy, and if you have three torn you have no boy at all. Judging on these lines we should imagine that there are fully fifty boys in t'his telephone office. Inglewoodians are like charr , "slow to anger and of great mercy,' otherwise the briok edifice at the corner would have been dynamited long 'c-a ■ this. It is very satisfactory to realise i that the telegraphic work is distinctly the reverse, being at any rate, so far as

press matter is concerned, exceedingly satisfactory; but to touch the telephone is to ensure "curses not loud, hut deep," and everlasting, securing occasionally a jovial "What oil! What's the row!" To fill in time one roads the instructions, one of which tells you, "Not to jerk the handle," just when you're feeling inclined to turn it with a meat axe with tJie boy's head underneath." Women's Christian Temperance Union, —The monthly meeting of the above will be held on Wednesday next, August 20, in the Good Templar Lodge Room, at 3 p.m.—Advt.