LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 26 August 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ovring to the effect of the trar crisis ; on theatrical business, there is likely to be a curtailment of the tours arranged for New Zealand if the war lasts much longer.

A- marvellous freak of nature is reported from Kihikihi, Auckland. A oow, the property of a local farmer, gave birth to twin calves, both 'being joined together at the back. The twiiu are well developed in every way. New Zealanders in England, the Defence Minister states, were expressing a desire to join ithe Expeditionary Force. They could not be allowed to join at present, but might be allowed to fill any vacancies tha.t occurred. All of them, Mr. Allen remarked, were very keen to serve. . /

An important sale of Crown lands timber has just been effected through the Lands Office in Auckland, states ( the Auckland Herald. The Kauri Tioni ber Company is the purchaser, and the price paid is £21,280. The timber purchased consists of 9,160j000 feet of kauri and 500,000 feet of mixed timber in tihe Omahuita State forest, near Hokiaiiga. At a well-attended meeting of the laranaki Circular Road jßaoe committee last night, it. was, after discnss>rn, decided, to indefinitely postpone tiuv race this year. This step has bee'i taken owing to the outbreak of war, itumlerous 'intending competitors having volunteered for active service. It yrns decided to "Write the Motor and Cycle plies Co.. donors of the challenge ciup, poii'ting out; the circumstances, and asking them to waive, itliis "ear,- the condition which states that t3ie cup must be competed for annually.

Sir .Francis Bertie, British ambassador, who has been stationed at Paris since 11005, has just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of. his entrance into the Government service. In honor of the event, his friends, associates, and subordinates presented him with some old Irish silver plate. He entered the Foreign office in 1863 as private secretary to the Hon. R. Bourke, afterwards Lord Connemara. He was ambassador at Rome in 1903. He has received the coronation medals, 1906-W, and the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Maurice and St Lazarus.

On Saturday (says the Reefton Times) a little fellow was on a spur close to the Reefton reservoir, and was suddenly assailed by birds which flew viciously around him, he was even touched by the wings of one. The father of the boy went up with a gun and ca.me across.the flock, which he instantly recognised as keas. His first shot brought down two as they flew around him. He eventually secured eleven. This is the first time on record that these 'birds have been seen in Reefton, and it is conjectured that they have been forced down by the heavy weather.

The Government of South Australia has offered a bonus of 24,300 dollars to the first person or body corporate that obtains from a bore or well situated in South Australia 100,000 gallons of crude petroleum containing not less than 00 per cent, of products obtainable by distillation. The oil must 'be stored at the bore or well from which it is obtained until the whole 100,000 gallons have accumulated, and the Minister of Mines will require samples of the strata passed through by the bores, taken at every fifty feet sunk, and a certificate from the Government Analyst showing the results of his analysis of samples of the oil.

The Peto-ie railway workshops have had a 'busy time during the past fortnight manufacturing special vehicles for j the expeditionary force. The work is i now completed, and the men who have been working at high pressure have au- ' plied, and received permission to have j a pnoeeisnion 'before ithe vehicle's' ar& ! ha nded over to Itihe Defence Department. I The mien, who will be in their working clothes, will draw the vehicles through tile streets of Wellington at noon today (Wednesday) headed by a brass l)an<l and accompanied by ladies who will be armed with collection bojcjs in which to take toll from the general publie. The proceeds will go to the Patriotic Fund.

Probably most public speakers (says the London Chronicle) have at one time .or another suffered the annoyance of being misreported. A peculiarly unfortunate instance is' recalled by Mr G. W. K. Russell in one of his book's. "A clerical uncle of mine," writes Mr. Russell, "took the pledge in his old age, and at a public meeting stated that his realson for so doing was that for thirty years he had been trying to lure ...'unkards by making them drink in moderation, but had never once succeeded. He pvas thus reported: 'The reverend gentleI man stated that his reason for taking J the pledge was that for thirty years be ■ had 'been trying to drink in moderation, but bad never once succeeded!'"

At lili e Court yesterday a first offenilfcr was convicted and discharged, l>ut ordered to pay 17s Gd medical expenses. The Vogeltown troop of Boy Scouts will march to Omata to-day, to pay an official viait to the Omata troop. Field work is the order of the day. At the Magistrate's Court .yesterday judgment for plaintiff was given in the ease of Hoskins (Mr. Weston) v. Ohas. Pearce, claim £1 lis, and costs lis. A Dunedin telegram states that the leading master butchers tlhere say itlhei'c is no immediaite necessity for an increase in the priqe of meat. The conditions certainly affect the trade, tal not to such an extent 1 as to warrant a call the public. The present indefinite way in which, correspondence is addressed to volunteers at the concentration camps mal«>s it in some instances impossible to deliver it. The I'ontmsister-Uenera] Requests persons writing to the cam/ps to include as pmt of the addre.% the company and regiment to which the addressees belong. • j It is reported l.v the New Zealand I wliidhi act as convoys, there I Herald that an important sale of Crown J are * J l ™?®**. of. converted trawlers lands timher has just been effected 1 owne ! l by the Admiralty, and employed through the Lands Office in Auckland. ) ils Tlie Kauri Timber Company is the pur- The prospects of business in Auckland chaser, and the price paid is £21,28'). now appear to he considerably brighter The timber purchased consists of 9,100,- {than they were at the beginning of the 000 feet of kauri and 700,000 feet of war (savs the Herald). When war was mixed timber in the Omahuta State for- first declared, there was for the nicest, near llokianga. mo.nt a feeling of uncertainty in the community, and many were inclined to, suspend the ordinary routine of business for the time being. Happily, the feelings of apprehension as to the effects of the war have vanished, and apparently a confident feeling as to the immediate future exists. l.t appears to be more generally recognised that a producing country like New Zealand has little to fear in regard to its business interests t as long as liritain retains the command of the sea. Enquiries made among business people of Auckland elicited the information that conditions with regard to business were now much more settled. All signs of panic had vanished, and trade was settling down to normal. When war was first declared, many people resolved to lay in large stocks of provisions, and tradespeople were unabl<> to cope with the demand for sugar and Hour. 'Plenty of supplies are now available, and tradespeople are now overtaking the unusual demand that existed, i Xow, however, people are realising that there was no occasion for the feverish 1 haute to buy up large stocks of provisions, with the result that grocers are meeting with a normal demand for supplies.

I The British nary has a complete I squadron of mine-layers, consisting of I seven light crnisers—Andromacihe, Apollo, Intrepid, Iphigenia, Latona, Naiad,' I a Thetis. Mr. Winston Churchill, in , discussing the question of floating iiniiKW, I hag stated that the Admiralty has fore- ! seen the position which lias arisen, and ■ is prepared to mefilt it. His reference is to what are known in the scrvioe as "mino-sweepcrts." A squadron of four mine-sweeping guniboata—the Gossamer, Leda, Skipjack) and Speedwell—was formed some voars ago for the purpose of searching for floating mines sown by / the enemy, and picking thesm up or ren-f dering them innocuous. To assist the

Judgment orders were madv in the following cages at the Magistrate'.) Court yesterday:—MeON.ind. (Mr Hutehoson) v. Wm O'Sullivan, to pay £7 fortlnvilh, in default 7 daw' imprisonment. the order 'io i>e. suspended on payment of 10s (id ]>cr week. Kate Cassidv (Mr HuWlien) v. Frank Read, to pay £.'! 10s Od forthwith, in default 5 days, t-ho order to be suspended, on payment of lo's per month. d thousand pounds' worth of radiiuii was swept into the sewer by mistake on June 10th. A quantity of radium which had been, placed in a shallow saucer at the sanatorium in West JSerlin a few minutes later had disappeared. At first theft was supposed, but it turned out that an attendant, seeing the saucer, had carefully cleaned it and j thrown the contents down the drain. I The Charlottenburg sewage station will make an ell'ort to recover the lost- rad- | ium. I

An accident of a remarkable and probably unprecedented character occurred on June '■> near 'Wilde"", in Switzerland. Some tourists were walking through the forest, when they came upon the body of a young mail who hail evidently committed suicide by shooting himself. The right hand of the corpse still held tightly clenched a revolver. One of the tourists attempted to remove the revolver, and in releasing the dead man's linger from the trigger the weapon went oil'. The bullet pierced the tourist's chest. He is so badly wounded that it is fearid. that the wound will prove fatal.