LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 27 November 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

For the past month or two we have been bombarded with epistles emanating from the one source but written in a disguised hand over the signature o. r persons whose names do not 'appiiar in the sdietories, anil posted from various places—HS.'iitr/ Hill, Waiongona, Leppcrton, Jnglewood, and New Plymouth, but chiefly from Waiongona. Our practice is to take no notice of anonymous letter.-i, whieu have consequently found a resting place in the waste-paper basket. We welcome ventilation and discussion of tiny •public question, hut we do not open our columns to a correspondent like this one who is not honest or manly enough to enclose 'his name, not necessarily for publication, 'but as a guarantee of good faith,_ and who descends to all manner of tricks in order to get his more or less perverted views into print.

_ The box office for "Galled to the Front" opens at Hoffmann's music warehouse at 0 o'clock this morning.

I 1 Arrivals in New Zealand from oversea i 1 during October totalled 3205, compared with 38WS in October, 1013. Departures numbered 1240, as against 1800 in October last year.

The risks that motor-car drivers take at railway crossings almost led to an accident yesterday niolrning, wSien a two-seater car dashed over the crossing near Midhirst ahead of the mail train, the engine of which just liiwscl the ear by inches. It is possible, that a prosecution will follow, in order to deter others from taking .similar risks

A bevy of young lajies were busy at liawera yesterday collecting for'the lxcd Cross Ambulance Fund. Everv donor of a silver coin was siren a bado-e and as it w-.i 3 almost unique to see uny i'V I'™' 1 '™' " mma witnout the led badge;, they must have met with a good response.

That people are still prepared to pav h"?li prices for good Jersey stock was T( ;." lioy, out of the champion butter-fat cow MaJam Mayflower, was ,old to Mrs A. Banks an,l Son, of Kiwitea Feihliin* for 150 gns after kern co JhHinjr started at 70gns and hi- ten and fiv-o guinea bids reached the ■nri,. o s t t

The West End Foreshore Improvement Rj.cu.ty. winch has undertaken the care ih"™s' 0 ?,n rk>flm,iscom '« ti '««'« of t, t, ,' ,m "'. s aml ""*■* '"to one sort! ,1 c,, , arm '"S little holiday reMts round about, wants money for miim enauee and further improVeme £ A li.ud-workmg committee of ladies has arrange, a sale of work for next W £i\ afternoon and overling, and the so o , Aft ,"" T' «"»'l«-titi«n«, and wie, /• <>ry ] 'r n,,y of Vm I'ro«t« ,'. J< ' Pl '", t "' w " ,,k wlneh will benefit 1 Y J" I '', 7 " f t,lf ' ""'""unity. £ thete should be a good response

! m * I,l< ' '•■vi'tUmn';"* Uunn attacked by thresher sleirks then. »«»S three of the latter. The thresher shark outlines fi"iv..k ;„ JM. the kiUer-wha'h'rind tacks are made on the lnnre cachelot or sperm whale. The killer-whale u" lu-Hlariv 10,1.1 of the tongue of the sperm Mae, and while the thrcsner slun ™ '''" ; "> the former, ll„. killer seizes the W whale's tongue, tears it out ad U'vonrsit. ttjth the loss of its Wml ■>e ',"»"' """"al Kl'wlily ilies from i o ss of blood and excruciating pain. The !»«»l- "1 attack by the thre her s! ak i* t0 ""lit-olf out of the water n, throw ,|;s bulk on to (he whale's head This is continued until the animnl is so injured about the head and eves that t bellows lro,n pain. As the whale opens ins cavernous jaws to emit his roar of j anguish, the killer whale operates on the tongue. The turn of the threshershark comes when the carcase of the whale floats helplessly on the surface or sinks to the bottom. I„ company with hundreds of other sharks, the 'killers soon reduce the huge mass of blubber and flesh to a skeleton.

A youth named Thomas Coleman was fined £1 and costs at the SM Court yesterday for discharging a rifle in Hobson street, to the danger oi pasacrfl-by. Mr W. H. For, natiro interpreter, has been appointed deputy returning officer for the Waitara distriot, for the Maori election for a member to represent the Western Diviiiou in Parliament. The poll is to be taken on the 11th December, the day after the Toting of the general eleotion. William Fitepatrick, an elderly man, who narrowly escaped death recently by alighting from and boarding a moving train at Leppcrton, was prosecuted in the S.M. Court yesterday for breach of the railway by-laws, and was convicted and ordered to pay costs.

A presentation is to be made to-night ■by sns comrades of the Defejice Eiile Club to Lieutenant Ilartnell, who is leaving for the front- on Tuesday. It is understood that tiiio High School cadets will he present. The president wishes all members to attend' to bid o. cordial good-bye to Lieutenant Ilartnell, who has, by li's unselfish and untiring example do:i 0 .much for the club, whose members will to-night wish him all good luck with tine forces and <i safe return.

Adducing evidence that she had paid a sweep to clean he- chimney quite recently, Mrs. Mary Fair yesterday successfully defended a case in which the borough inspector prosecuted her for not keeping a chimney at her residence in proper order. This chimney was afire about a week ago, and inspection by the five authorities showed it to be very foul. The S.M. held that the defendant had (lone all that was possible, but the sweep had evidently skimped his work. The information was dismissed.

At the S.M. Court yesterday A. Trueman was fined 3s and costs for failing to scad her child to school regularly. B. Citibanks was fined 2s on each of two charges of failure to send her hoy to school regularly, 7s costs hcing allowed on the first charge. Another charge was dismissed on the production of a medical ! certificate. Annie Kendall was fined 5s and costs (7s) on a charge of failure to send her 12-year-old grandchild to school. Two other cases were adjourned The bicycle thief pales into comparative insignificance as compared with the motor-bicycle robber (says *"•■« c -. church Press). It is reported that there are twelve rightful owners of motor cycles at present who are anxiously awaiting information of the whereabouts of their property. In one case a man has been relieved of a comparatively new machine, which cost close on £OO. Recently the Christchurch police authorities received information from Dunedin that a Christchurch motor-cycle which was "lost, stolen, or strayed," five months ago had been recovered.

A peculiar defence was raised yesterday in a case in the S.M. Court, in which James Lcitch was charged by the borough inspector with keeping an unregistered dog. It was explained that defendant had bought the dog at auction about August, 1913, and paid 2s Od for registering it with Mr. Tippins. Then some time later the inspector had found that the dog had previously been registered, and defendant had understood that the half-crown lie had paid would count for this year. The inspector, on

the other hand, said it was Leiteh's misfortune, not his, and the money would have to be regarded as done away with, His Worship considered it was a bonafide mistake, and on the understanding that he would register the dog now, defendant would he convicted, and ordered to pay the. costs only (75.).

! Tlio accommodation for the pressmen :it; (lie Hnwcra show was execrable. Tlio press room for years lias been far too small, ami it lias to serve as a sort of stewards' retiring room as well. The accommodation for ten reporters, representing five papers, consisted of one double desk across the middle of the room, providing accommodation for only _ six men at once. Seating accommodation there was none. One of the officials of the. Association when appealed to, by one of the perspiring prossmt-n, admitted that the accommodation was wretchedly inadequate, and promised to ventilate the matter at the annual meeting. Tf his appeal on behalf of the press is successful, he will earn the heartiest gratitude of the reporters, whose | work is no sinecure. The secretarial dol'firtments' housing is not in keeping with the amount of work and responsi-' l'ility, oitlier. . .1, .*.

A press despatch reported the arrival at Archangel of the surviving members of the ei'pedition which left Russia in the autumn of ]<) B. under Cwot Kodo, by way of Franz Josef Land. The survivors report the death of their leader from illness, while attempting to sledge north from Franz Joseph Land. This expedition was financed chiefly by the well-known St. Petersburg newspaper, the Novoya Vremya, and was generally believed to be badly equipped when it /started north. The undertaking was not favored by the, Puissian Government. Sodov's previous Arctic experience, had included an expedition to the mouth of Kolmya, in loon, and one to Nova Zembla in imo, but the impression prevailed when he left Russia on his final journey that neither he nor his men' had sufficient skill, training, or equipment to hope for valuable results from their expedition. The winter of IM2-13 was spent at the Panknitiev Islands, oft" the north coast of Xova Zembla. The following summer, eight of the twejvtv-two members oftlie expedition were obliged to return to Russia on account of illness. The others were supposed to have sailed to Franz Joseph Land, but as no tidings were received of them the Russian authorities recently sent an expedition :in search of them on the steamer Hcrtha.

IA new loan and savings plan for employees designed also as a protection from loan sharks, is advocated in a circular letter sent out bv the .Russell Sage Foundation (states a New York newspaper). Employers, it is said, have Ion" recognised the seriousness of the salary loan problem from the effieionev point of view. "Rut, while realising that no employee is capable of rendering efficient service when living in constant fear of the loan shark, the intelligent employer recognises in small borrowing offer a legitimate and defensive procedure caused by emergency needs, and frequently a prudent act'committed in a spirit of eeeonomy." the letter reads. "But he knows also that much of the borrowing of his employees is directly or indirectly a result of improvidence, and to (each employees to save, ami to encourage them in saving, in order that they may provide in advance for emergency needs, it is to achieve a deep and lasting result which reflects itself in the increased efficiency, competence, and contentment of employees." The scheme provides for "credit unions" on a co-operative basis.

Being -a combination of roots, harks and herbs, condensed into drop doses, KURAPEPTTC cures most obstinate eases of Indigestion. If not yet ol> tainable in your town, ask your store keeper to get it from ; Barges*, flramr