LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 164, 17 December 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At a meeting of tl»' Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yestciday, the cliainnan amionuced that Mr A. H. Tlalcombc liad donated a pedigree Jersey calf to the Board. The thanks of tile Board were unanimously accorded (o Mr Halcombe, and members expressed the hope that other farmers would do likewise.

At a meeting of the Taranaki Education Board yesterday, Mr J. Newstroski was appointed to the York Koad committee in place of the late Mr C. Studholme, and Messrs F. E. Morris and J, Locke were appointed to the Omata School Committee in place of Messrs. J. Kevell and 11. Edwards, resigned.

A Napier paper states that the chairman at a political meeting at Tomoana so far forgot tho sacred duty attaching to his high office as to leave the chair to administer personal chastisement to an active dissenter from the speaker's political views. After the meeting had concluded the chairman was handled gently but firmly by some member of the audience, and frogmarched to the lake, into which he was heaved, "dressed in his best suit of clothes."

When Austria declared war and the Slavs were mobilised the colonel of one of the regiments was found murdered. A court of inquiry endeavored to discover the culprits, but not one man of the regiment would give evidence. Finally the regiment was lined up in groups of ten. One man in each group was told to fall out and was shot. The rest of the regiment was sent to do garrison work in Austria.

Says the Wellington Post:—We are profoundly thankful that tho electors have not narrowed their minds and souls in the manner desired by the League—"Either we must return to Parliament 11 body of legislators pledged to give .('fleet to our Referendum Bill," saidltlie Outlook, "or the bottom drops out of campaign." Tho first alternative having not been realised, the bottom lias dropped out of the campaign. The Bible.-in-s«hools movement is dead. Let the parsons now abandon the politics of which they have made sucli a sorry mess, and give the children tho benefit of the energy hitherto wasted on the electors.

'flic effect of the philosophy of Nietzsche upon tlui lift! and purpose of the Herman people was referred to ljy Bishop Averill in his sermon at St. Paul's Church, Auckland, on Sunday night. It was claimed that he had cleared away the. accumulated rubbish of VI centuries, and redeemed flcnnany from the great error of the race in the lith century, namely, embracing Christianity. Jn place of the religion of Jesus Christ, upon which all true European civilisation had been built, (iermuny was creating its own religion, instead of taking it to Palestine, And this religion of ''culture" was to emancipate the world! Ideals which sought to degrade the world must be overthrown. That was the highest responsibility of the Mritish Empire, "(io on believing that flod has still a mission for this Empire of ours to carry out," added the bishop, "but do believe that that mission can only he carried out if the Empire is worthy of it and alive to its great trust and its world-wide responsibility." It seems an extraordinary, but nevertheless refreshing fact that the Auckland butchers are. reducing the price of meat. A revised list of the retail prices I of meat by the Auckland Master Butchers' Association has come into operation, showing several reductions in price. One half-penny per lb reduction has been made in the price of various joints of beefs and mutton, including sirloin of beef and hindquarter of mutton. One penny per lb reduction has been made in the price of tripe. The first quotation is for spring lamb, the price being 8d for hindquarters and 7d for forequarters.. The highest price on the new list is; for undercut beef steal^,

The committee in charge of the Red I Cross collection on election day has now | received the last of the collection | boxes, bringing the grand total to £173 10s lid.

The J?ita-oy Hall last night was packed to overflowing for tiic annual school concert, and the whole affair went off most successfully. At a mooting of trustees held in the Inglewood Methodist Church last Tuesday evening the report of the effort in aid of the church and manse renovating fund showed that by donations and ibazaar ha sunn of £9O Is 2d had been raised, and as the expenses in connection wiitln the bazaar were reported to be under £4, the trustees are well satisfied with the success/ of their effort at such a time.

Aa the result of the recent Sunday afternoon concert at "Aotea," and despite the very wet weather, the East End and West End beach improvement societies each benefited to the extent of £S 9s. Tho societies are grateful to Messrs Sole Bros, for their kindness in ■giving the use of the grounds, and to Mrs George's orchestra for voluntary assistance.

The Schools .Championship Tug-of-war, which is to be decided at the East End on New Year's Day, is causing great mlorost among .the schools. Lcppcrton, Eitzroy, and other schools are said to bo training very solidly, so that Central will liave to keen moving if they wish to retain the championship. The handsome m«dals are on riew in Mr J. Bennett'fj window. Among the English firms which have sustained a severe blow on account of

the war is Tlios. Cook and Son, the i well-known tourist agents. Hostilities broke out in the height of the Continental season, when thousands of English tourists were either on the Contitinent or about to depart on various tours, and consequently all plans were upset. Some of the tourists who were in Germany and Austria were able to get away from those countries, not j without a great deal of difficulty, and, in some cases, not without enduring suffering and personal loss. The whole of the firm's deposits in German and Austrian banks are said to have been confiscated by the respective Governments of those countries, and naturally the German and Austrian stall's of the firm are at present either among the unemployed or at the front. The firm, notwithstanding the great loss it must have sustained, is treating its stall' with great liberality. The positions of all volunteering for service at the front are being kept open for them, and, in the ease of married men going on service, the firm is paying £1 per week to the wife and 5s per week for each child. On account of the big check the tourist traffic has received, the salaries of the Home staff have been reduced slightly, but this does not apply to those in the firm's employ in Australia and New Zealand.