LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 131, 27 October 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Australian and English mails, via Suez and Auckland this morning by the Rarawa.

At the Police Court yesterday, David Morrow Crozier was lined 10* on a charge of being drunk. Last evening tho Egmont Lodge, No. 112, 1.0.G.., held their weekly meeting in the iodgu room, of the Good Templar I bill, when the officers for tho ensuing ijuarler were elected.

The Imperial Hotel is changing hands, Mr Walter Little having sold his interest to Mr Charles Potts, for many years a popular citizen of Klthara, but latterly of Tauranga. The change of proprietorship will eventuate about the middle of next month.

Regulations have been gazetted granting concessions in railway fares to those travelling to ports in New Zealand at winch any of his Majesty's warships are lying to oiler themselves as recruits lor the Navy. Second-class return tickets will be issued at the rate of one i'fMtf per mile, mileage to be counted one way only.

TKs loliowing new books have been n-I'led to the Carnegie J.library"The Sivuidier, etc," by Ethel _U. Dell; '\)nce iiiw-.Td the Lugger," A. ,S. M. Hutchin-

son; "The House Round the Corner," i.oil is Tracy; "The Wilderness Trail," l''rau,k Williams; ''Tho Parasite," Helen R. Martin; "The Am lion Block," Rex Ifc-ai i»; "'A Knight oil Wheels," lan Hay; "The Girl ttlio Found the Blue Bird,' Madiiiir Maeterlinck; "Tlie Laughing t it'.ab")'," Baroness Orezy: "Hardware," kinr.on Parkcs; ''The Rail jumper," Ri.il :n J. C. Stead.

Among the sights at New York, according to a visitor who has just retrned from America, is the formidable array of German steamer* tied up thereuntil the war shall have ended. Prominent among them is the leviathan Yalerluud, which is so big that she sticks out into the river, being much too long for the berth she is tied to." The track to the Mountain House is in extraordinarily good condition this year. During tho past week 'three

i: otor cars have been run to the House. I. '.-.l year it was January before a car was got to tho House, so Uie excellent condition of the track can be guessed.— l'o-t.

An experimental farm of six acres is to be established at Filzln-rberl Street, I'aiihet.-tou, within a few hundred yards of tiie Square, on land lent for the purp.s ;by the Boroujfh Council. Operations will be uiuicr the. cuntrol of a committee, consisting ol representatives io lac Borough Council, the Kairanga Coiilit;.' Council, the High .School, and Tuhwi-al School Boards, and the A.

i.el I'. Association. 'lhc farm wili b primarily for tho training oi boys inter clcd hi agriculture.

Despite reports regarding shortage of

v. or,. in other centres, there is apparently Utile uiK-mplo,> inent in Hawcia 1.-ays the Star.) A local building contra.:: or slates ibat lie advertised for -eve;a! da\s in succession for four

labourers, without receiving a single application. This is not the cxpencnia' in Isee. Plymouth. In reply (o an ad-i.-rii eiitent iu the News 101' carpenters arid laborers, about a dozen of applications were received intjide a coupie of Lours.

In. to-day's war news is a paragraph concerning the use of a new weapon by occupants of aeroplane;,. The airships, the cable tells us, carried boxes of steel arrows, which they dropped from a height of 2000 metres, and made havoc of men and horses. A rccentlyreceived issue, of the "Mirror" contained a picture and short description of this new projectile, which it christened "The Silent Death.'' The projectile looks luueli like u sharp-pointed lead pencil. It is of steel, and has a shaft or guide to keep it at the perpendicular, Delivered from the height named, thes-l steel" arrows pass dean through horse or mail.

Jinquiries have been made (says a London correspondent) from New Zealand concerning tie following New Zealanders who were on the Continent when war broke out, and who have not been heard of since:—Mr. William Frederick Herbert, who was in Berlin; Mr. iA. li. Jones, a teacher of Kngiish in the Ibformed School at Hamburg; Miss Sumo Tatcrson, at Lyombatchely (Hungary); Miss Ada Hear, Vienna; Mr. Horace George limit, a musician, believed to tc in Berlin; and .Mrs. Wilfred Morrison, of Feilding, who was at .Somicrshau.-.en. The enquiries have all been forwarded bv the iligh Commissioner to the Colonial Oflice, but so far nothing has l.en ■ heard of any of the New Zealandcrs in question.

According to Sir Doug'as Mawson, weather ami temperature conditions in the Antarctic are much more severe than in the Arctic regions. The average. temperature in the South is 30 degrees lower than in the North. Sir Douglas says that more fatalities occur in Arctic exploration because the northern explorers depend to some extent on game. When the game-- foxes, oxen, ;harc9. etc.—fail they are in a bad way. But in the Antarctic men have to rely on the food that they carried with them. In Greenland, spring (lowers appear, but in Antarctica the only plant in a kind of lichen, and the only land animal is a small red spider.

Owing to the tardy acceptance by New Plymouth retailers of the suggestion that Labor JJay should be observed aa a holiday, there was nothing done towards the arrangement of any public functions. The bowleis, tennis pia;,ers, and others had a line day's sport, and there were iumlreds along the beach, these including visitors from Stratford and elsewhere. At Kawaroa Park, the improvement of which has been undertaken by the West End Foreshore Improvement Society, there was quite a big gathering of holiday-makers. A few of those o'u the park had: a queer idea of spending a holiday. They wore old clothes, and swung th(> scythe and the .shovel, or wielded the hammer and the paint-brush, or any other implement which would 'njsist in cleaning-up the .place. It was the 'men 'such as these —and their womenfolk—who have made the enjoyment by other folk possible. Their labour saw the pavilion erected, the coppers and utensils installed, wherewith yesterday's ipickniekcrs boiled the water and made tea. Tt is an unselfish way of spending a holiday, and it is to be hoped that when the residents of the locality, who seem to enjoy their promenade on the foreshore, are appealed to by ttic 'Society for help in cash, kind, or labor, they will rcmemlber that just a few men have bome the 'brunt of the day and given up their hours of leisnro to pro-vide a playground for the children ' and adults, and a further Jioliday atuietkrn for the town.

A very pleasant afternoon was spent at the Vogeltown Sunday School on Monday (Labour Day). The school was very prettily decorated, and afternoon tea was partaken of, after which a short programme was contributed. Musical items were rendered by Mesdames iiireliJohnson and Chappel, and the Misses Avann gave a vocal duet. All were highly appreciated. The real business of the day was the painting of the building by voluntary labour, and the live or six wielders of the brush made excellent progress, the job being just about completed when night fell.

As the special train for AV'averley ) aces left the Eltham station yesterday morning the assistant porter attached to the train sprang a'board. N<jt/ being quite quick enough, tlio arm of the tablet catcher struck hini and knocked him off the carriage platform. The man fell between two carriages and lie only managed to retain his grasp of the lian'j 'ail with dill icu! ty," 1 here was a geneial outcry and (.Juard Inch, who was standing nenr, dashed to the man's assistance. With an effort the guard raised liim to the platform and was cheered for his prompt action, which averted a very serious if not a fatal accident. As tile tra-in did not pull up it 13 not known whether the man sustained any injuries as the result of the mishap; hi 3 name was Reed.—Kltham Argus.