LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 2 October 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The net cost of the recent northern tour of the Southland Rugiiy Footballclra was £292.

The average roll number at the Iluiroa school for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19.5, tho average attendance being 48.6, giving a percuntage for tho quarter of 93.1. The percentages for tho quarters were 98.4 and fi)3, the average percentage for the three-quarters thus being 98.0.

There are two strange coincidences in connection with tho death of tho late Mr A. 11. Newton, at Nightcaps, last Monday. He is tho fourth member of his family to meet with sudden death, three brothers, having also been kilfed accidentally. For seven or eight years deceased was a lieutenant in the Wallace. [Mounted Rifles, and he was the sixth memlber, or ox-mcimbor, to die, all of which have died sudden deaths, the Ksulta of accidents.

An English officer who was in Bcfgiuim when the war broke out says: "The Belgians ware a.t first extremely dubious of our intention toi send troQps, to Belgium to support them, and night after night, at a certain well-known seaside resort, they crowded about the (British Consulate for news. When it was definitely known that the British Kxpuditionary Force had started, Belgian men i nd women astked for the Union Jack t > brought out by the Consul, and wlv.'.i this wa-s done they iiled out, kissing it. I saw this with my own eyes."

Mr Hum, of Feilding, has organised a series of mbbit drives for the. purpose of securing 1000 rabbits, the object, boin.;' to assist Belgian families suffering by the war. The rabbits, garyu the Ktar, will ibo frozen free of charge at Uie FeiMing; Bacon Factory, and scnti on to their destination through the Wullington Central Committee. The drives will bj per .motor-cars, and the first has heen organised for next Wednesday. Fliootists will drive to the tramline at Ron gotcft, where the pursuit of bunny will begin.

A gentleman in Sydney, who lm traveled over the whole of' Europe and knows tho .present battlegrounds perfectly, writing to a friend in Ohriatchurch, gays:—"lt should be remembered that Russia can fight in the winter (an important factor), and is looking forward to the freezing of the swamps and morasses that at present Mock the nearest way to Berlin. It is surprising how the German hate the English, swing how we have helped them, most unselfishly U> many ways, for the past fifty years'." A jounuvist with the. New South Wales force 8 at Cockatoo Island, Sydney writes: "I watched o. university undergraduate recently. He was told off as one of a fatigue party to carry bread 75 yards from a lignter to the troopships side. Ho swung one hundredweight at a time on to his shoulders, and covered the trip at the double. It was fascinating to watoh him. He was putting tho same earnestness, the same energy into the job which he used to display when .playing for New South Wales m tho Rugby football ficJd. The same man has represented New South Wales a» a cricketer. Another private [paralysed his company captain by quietly informing ium that he has an income of £2OOO a year, and that he, wished to get off for an hour to make some final arrangement with his bankers. Papers subsequently handed by him to the officer disclosed that his statement was perfectly true. "These chaps," said onofficer of experience, "are the finest lot 1 have ever seen. After a littte experience they will be qualified to take, a commission in ai»v regiment in the world." Most of them ar 0 losing fiimncially by taking on tho job, but that is the. last matter that entered into their calculations.

THE MELBOURNE, LTD PRICES TELL THE STORY. Boys' chrome boots, sizes 1 to 5, 9/G; men's kip shooters, 8/0; men's heavy watertights (guaranteed solid), 15/0; children's chrome school boots, sizes 7 to 2. 5/11 to 7/11; boys' varsity suits, with leather belts, sizes 1 to 10, in tussore silk and all-wool tweeds, 7/11 to 12/0; boys' Tetone Norfolk suits, 14/6 up; boys' Kaiapoi b'.uts. 13/0 up; men's Kaiapoi suits, 20/0 j men's Baddle-tweed suits, 30/6; men's Roslyn suits, 65/-, 72in herringbone sheeting, 1:/- yard; fjflin mercerised damask, 1/fi yard; 2flin Adduce drills, lOd yard; 3(lin pure calico, fid yard; bordered casement cloth, 1/vard; 50in herringbone ticking, 1/- yard —at all Melbourne stores, Now Plyami Hawe'ra. v 'i

Yesterday a telephone of lie;; -was I opened at Tumahu, inland of Okato. {

The vital statistics for SHratford for September wurc 'as follows:—Marriages 4, births 21, deaths 5. For the cjuaiter ending -September '3O the figures were:— Alarriagcs 15, birth* Co, deaths IS. During the month of August, arrivals in New Zealand from oversea totalled compared with 2747 in August, 1913. The departures lo»t August numbered 1883, as against 1883 in the corresponding month of last year.— T J ress Association, •

Mr. IVV. A. Beddoe, the Canadiaa Trade. Commissioner, who is to give an address in the Town [flail to-night, will not eonfinei himself to "dry' trade matters. He is a fluent and entertaining' speaker, and hj% story of "Where the lied and White Men licet" is full of information and interest, Canada is the biggest of the oversea dominions, and a country with which -we are "wound to develop an enormous trade in the near future. He -has intimated to Jir. Taton, the president off the Chamber of Commerce, that he appreciates the dislike most people have for dry facts and figures, and that he proposes to break away from trade Judging by the published reports of Mr. Iteddoe's lectures, those attending to-night will enjoy themselves and gain much information.

It is suspected that there are manyGerman spica in Australia. One of these nearly succeeded in blowing up the Hawkesbury river Tailway bridge, by which the north and axmithrirn systems of New South Wales are linked. And, although no details have been permitted to be published, there are rumors of other effortsi on the part of malignantly inclined Germans. No fewer lian erne hundred and fifty Germans who refused to take the oath of neutrality are kept under an armed guard at a concentration camp soiih miles distant from Sydney. The reason for there being no news from the navy, and why the public knows nothing in regard to the dispatch of our troops, is well explained iby the following extract from a letter receded in Wellington on Saturday from a midshipman in the navy:—"Strict regulations) have been issued which do not allow us to eay what ship wc are in, where wo are, where we are going, what we have been or are doing, or anything at all about the navy or the war. So 1 can give you no news whatever. 1 am not allowed to say wihat my rank is, what the ship is like, or how we aTu getting on. I can only say that I am quite well and enjoying things tremendously." "I myseM arrt no party man ""declared Bishop Averill at a meeting in the Auckland Tow* Hall on Saturday night. "I do not know anytilung of pouties aa politics, but try to vote for the man who has a clean repitation, and who desires to uplift the people and bring about as far as he can national righteousness. Remember, you and I have a vote, and wc have to record that vote. After consulting with our consciences, it is our duty to support men and principles which aro likely to honor God and to raise the tone of the people and to strenpthea the national character. I consider this to be a far greater duty for men and women than merely to lie members of any particular party." At tihe Stratford (Police Court yesterday, 'William, Newman was fined £5, in default fourteen days' imprisonment, on a change of stealing a lady's watch nod ribbon guard, and on a charge of stealing a spirit level was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and a prohibition order was Issued against 1 im. He wis given a few days in which, to find the amount of the fine. The effencesi were committed at Douglas early this year. M. 31. IBarringtoii, recently committed for sentence on a charge of theft of dtapery, anprarcd in answer to a charge of (having, between August 21 and September 10, broVen into and entered the premises of K. G. Fowter and stolen therefrom 'boots and shoes valued at £l2 10*. lie was reuanded till to-day.—Post.

An amazing side issue of the war (says the Observer) is the extraordinary Imperial spirit in South Africa, the result of a chivalrous treatment of a splendid foe. You liavc the extraordinary spectacle of the old commander-in-chief <>f the enemy (General Botha), now the Prime Minister of a British domii.ion, exhorting the British and Dutch colonists to uphold the flag he gal'milly tried to tear down. You see a people who were aided by German officers, German ammunition and German guns, preferring the rule of their liberal conquerors to the rule of the nation that soolcd them on. It is a minor incident among innumerable vast ones demonstrating the genius of British diplomacy, and emphatically the result of the statesmanship of Edward VII. Britain did more to create a feeling of loyalty by acclaiming I)e Wet and Botha as heroes in London than German miltarism could do ; n & hundred years.

Evidence of the resourcefulness of the colonial troops has been given by the machine-gun section of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, members of which hare devised a new method of mounting the machine-gun on its tripod, and an improved pack-saddle for the transport of the weapon. The standard method comprises a bolt or pin passed through holes in tho standard, and the operation of mounting the gun is somewhat slow. The new method consists of a clamped hearing, the use of which enabled the gun to be adjusted readily on its tripod, and while tho operation is both quicker and surer than the usual method, it does not necessitate the exposure of the operator. Application has been made for patents for the invention, its ingenuity having been greatly praised by military experts. A new gun pack-saddle has been designed by a member of the same section. H carries tho gun clear of the horse, fa no. secures a more even distribution of the load.

Ono important effect of the> war in tho Old Country lias (boon to cause u severe economising of paper. The normal consumption of paper is estimated lo bo nbout 15,000 tonß weekly, but probably that estimate) includes the quantity exported from Oreat 'fritalq a* well as tho quantity actually consumed. It is commonly assumed that the supply is entirely foreign and colonial, but The Times asserts that of the amount eo-n. sumed in the British Isles fully 11,500 tons ia loeatfy manufactured, tho importations being 900 tons weekly from ■Newfoundland and 2COO tons from Scandinavia, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Tn spite of the fact that the newspapers immediately cut down the size of their publications, the increased circulation and the demand for multitudine\i rt editions had produced an increase in consumption to 19,000 tons weekly, and the price bad been increased by 75 per cent. The position was realliv a good deal wors« than the figures indicated, because much of the paper man-ufae lured in Great Britain was produce 1 from wood pufp imported from the Continent, and of course the supply of raw material had sorioualy decreased. In .ll.eso circumstances the British manufacturers were turning to Canada, whicu was anticipating an, enormous increase. ' in output. '

Yesterday was t4a anglers' "first," and the streams im the vicinity of New Plymouth were well whipped. No big cacthes wero reported, but the fish are said to ibe in fine condition.

A local furniturci manufacturer suggests that with a view of provcnting undue slackness in the local furniture trade, tlia Hospital Board should lose no time in letting the contract for th-j furnishing of the new hospital.

Some "squads" from the ladies' physical culture chuisea marched on the i)«n's camp at the racecourse last night, ibent on a "surprise party," of whicJi the nmfolk iliad evidently received infonnut:ou. A jolly evening was o-pent. Tho British cruiser 'Emm, which has done such sterling service to our great trans-Atlantic lineivs and oilier craft by warning them of the presence of German warships, notified the Canadian Government recently that sh o had capturtd a rich prize in the Atluntic, Nothing is known concerning the nature of the prize-, but it is possible that the Voterland may have fallen a victim tp the I&scw A day or two previously it was stilted that thu Vaterland, which is the world' 3 biggest liner, was nbout to sail from New York with a valuable cargo and 8000 German reservists, and if the Essex has captured) her she has Becured the greatest priffl of the Atlantic.

The- residents of the Old Oarrington road, which has recently been rcgraded I yesterday planted th e centre of the voad with puxiri trees. It is the. intention to put the middle of the road in grasj with metal each side, after the manner of the roads in the model village of Letchworth, in England. Tho residents are to be commended for their pub-lic-spirited action, which conld be followed with advantage to the town by residents in other saburbs.

I can assure you that nothing has caused more trouble than the fact that smce I came into office I have not allowed the shooting of the native pipeon," said the Hon. H. I). Bell in the Le«y«. lative Council on Wednesday afternoon. "And I don't dntend to allow it," he added. (Hear, hear). The creation of an Hapedrtioma-r* Force in Now Zealand hag given a nctw lease of life to the moustache, which has not for a decade past enjoyed that favor which it perhaps deserves as the neatest and most manly of hirsute appendages. From the appearance of the men who have been parading tho (streets of Wellington during the past week, tihero is small doubt but that at least three-fourths of those who hiare hitherto clean shaved are now cultivating a growth on the ujpper lip. IJi is Baitf, t 0 go well with the tohaki uniform. "Swagger" sticks is an accompanying vogue to the return of th e raoustachc-TimfOß,