LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 242, 22 March 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A' London oable gram states that the lata Sir Joseph "Chamberlain's collection of two thousand orchids is to bo sold.

Owing to the wet weather the orchestral concert which was to have been hold in the ICawaroa Park yesterday afternoon did not eventuate.

The drought in Fawke'-s Bay broke on Wednesday. It is impossible to estimate the beneficial effect to the farm and stations that will result. A total of over £SB was realised on the Waverley A. and P. show grounds last week on behalf of the Belgian Relief Fund by an auction sale. It was stated, at a recent meeting of the Patea Chamber of Commerce that it was claimed that Patea was the the first landing place of Maoris in New Zealand.

A mail bag which was missing some ■weeks ago wa3 found recently in a (Dannevirke street near the railway station. It had been ripped open and rifled: A sum of money had 'been stolen. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce has decided' that it is urgently necessary that the Government should set up- without delay a commission to go into' the improvement of the main road between Auckland and Wellington. At the Stratford Magistrate's Court on Friday reserved judgment was given for plaintiff in the claim Newton King v. Jesse Jame3 Hills, £O3 15s Bd, and costs £lO 10s lOd. The claim was for commission, etc., on,, sale of k farm, recovery of money advanced, and interest.

The Auckland-New Plymouth Bowling Club'a commemoration cup, a handsome silver bowl mounted on & Mock of greenstone, is on view in. one of Messrs Morey and Sons' windows. The annual competition -was inaugurated in 1913, and the New Plymouth Club has won it three times.

The big tunnel work at Okahukura, which was closed down a month ago, is to be restarted next week, the bondsmen being called upon to do so. One of the bondsmen has written to Mr. VV. T. Jennings, M.P., staling that Mr. Ditton, contractor, Wellington, is to have full charge, and that the contract will be pushed on at high speed.

The Napier City Council discussed the foodstuffs question on Friday night, and passed a resloution recording an emphatic protest against prices being advanced and calling upon the Government to exercise tfje uowers invested in it by regulating the prices of common necessities within the bounds of reason and checking the cupidity of the few and protecting the well-being of the whole.

A soldier at the front in Belgium writes: —We have been pushing the Germans rather hard here lately, and they don't like it. Bat they have surrounded themselves with such a veritable birdcage of barbed wire that it is difficult prodding ttvm out. Our men are beginning to call them the "Canaries." It is snowing now, and bitterly cold. The trenches have no chimneys, mid it ia too cold to take one's stockings off. There was a good muster at the Coronation Hall yesterday morning to take part in the-church parade to the Whiteley Memorial Church, on the occasion of the special anniversary services there. Tiie bodies represented at the parade were the Veterans under Col. Ellis., the defence Rifle Club under Captain McDiarmid, and the Boy Scouts under Commissioner Sandford. The procession to the church was headed, by the Citizens' Band under Bandmaster Cummins. Influenza is rife in Wellington and Auckland. An Auckland doctor has informed the New Zealand Herald that the disease, as in the past, was bringing a number of ear, nose, and throat troubles into prominence. The coming of influenza from Siberia vver twenty years ago, he explained, luff the effect of bringing the ear, nose, and throat specialists in prominence. In its present form in Auckland the epidemic was causing abdominal troubles, and it was known with certainty that,many cases' of appendicitis folloved outbreaks of influenza. When it first appeared in England the disease swept away thousands, especially those with a tendency to bronchitis. , For the first time in the history of telephoning it is possible to talk by wire clear across the Continent of America. Telephone conversations between. New York and San Francisco, a distance of 3400 miles, are now an everyday occurrence. TJhe voice carries clearly, just as much so as over any long distance 'phone of a few hundred miles—and as a commercial proposition the service is entirely feasible and practicable. Natuftlly, the charge for talking across the continent is a little "steep!" The price Is twenty dollars (or £4) for a conversation of three minutes. A few days ago a lad of diminutive Atature picked up what looked like a dirty piece of paper at a street corner in Gisborne, and handed it to another boy. Just then Mr J. H. Bull, headmaster of the Kaiti School, came along, mid, on examining the soiled piece of j paper, discovered to his intense surpriee that it was a £SO bank note. On inquiries being made at . the local banks, it was found that the note belonged to h local resident, who Jiad reported its loss. Restitution was made, much to the relief of tlje owner. The sequel occurred a day or two later, when the headmaster of the Kaiti school had tho pleasure of tianding to the lad who found the note a bank pass book showing n credit of £4 10s, and also delivered a shining half-sovereign to the boy to expend immedately in honor of the event. The little fellow, whose honesty thus started liim out earjy in life on the road to fortune, is one'of a family of nine, the eldest of whom is 13.

For many years there has existed at the Admiralty a sealed packet of papers which contained the famous "Dundonald Secret War Plans." The story of their deposit dates back to the early days of last century, and although, of course, known to statesmen of tho time, by whom thev were said to be"irresißtible, Infallible, but too inhuman to employ ftgainst an enemy, or place in the hands of mankind at all," and, incidentally, disclosed in the "Paninure Papers" and in the "Memoirs of Lord Playfair," they have only recently been made public property. After all, the mystery is nearly as disappointing as the revelation .lit tin? end of most works of fiction. The official announcement of the "secret" (s .short and to tho point. Tt declares (h;it Lnvd Dundonahl's plans simply profilled for smoking out the enemy with sulphur fumes. In their great desperation _ (he Germans have already adopted the invention, and complaints are lodged by oud suregons that the use of sulphur in /German shells has had the effect of making an otherwise slight .wound dangerous to the wounded.

Tlia ringing of tlie fire bell just before 8 o'olock on Saturday evening caused some commotion in the town, and ti Tory large number of people hastened towards the East End, in which district the fire was indicated. They congregated around tlie Red Post Furnishing Stores, at whioh the brigade had arrived with commendable promptitude, Mr. Hayden, the manager, whose 'at-, tention had been drawn, to a volume of smoke proceeding from the workshop, had given the alarm, but investigation proved the outbreak to be but a verji small one. It is supposed to have originated from a glue boiler, and was quickly extinguished. . The damage wa? confined to a few charred boards.

Work on the Opunake railway is being steadily pushed on, and anyone passing along the Te Roti to Matapu road will notice cuttings and fillings at' various points. Altogether, between forty and fifty men are now engaged, spread out in gangs of five or six at several points. Most of the work just at present is being focussed in one or two deep concrete culverts near the Te Roti end, and (is soon as the concrete has sufficiently settled the steam shovel will expedite the earth filling work. Gangs of men ftre also at work on the Matapu section, where the construction is very easy and simple, the country being almost dead level for a number of miles. The line is at present authorised as far as Kapuni, and the construction of this length should be a very easy matter, provided sufficient votes are put on the Estimates to enable the work to be carried on efficiently.—Star.