LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 259, 12 April 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Italy has a strong navy, consisting of 18 battleships, 31 cruisers, 45 destroyers, and 22 submarines. "During the year ending March 31st, 1015, fifty new buildings were erected in New Plymouth, of a total value of £32,61G. The Belgian Relief Fund will benefit by £2O as a result of the recent MakeI tawn sports and picnic, despite the wet weather experienced. Mr. Wheatley, president of the Novell Tarsinaki Hunt Club informs us that Mr. W. Birdling lias kindly granted the use of bis property at Waitara for the first meet. The date of opening has not yet been fixed by the club. The Okaiawa Maoris arc not to bo beaten by the pakchas. They are holding a dance in aid of the Belgian Funds on Wednesday, and announce that the music will be superior, the floor good, and ladies admitcd free! Kapai, te Maori! The meeting of district delegates to discuss details in connection with the establishmen of co-operative meat freezing works for North Taranaki will probably be held at Inglewood next weak, after the appointment of Okau and Awakino delegates this wte'.:. The engineer to the Egniont County Council (Mr. C. A. Court Opie). lias resigned. The question of appointing a successor or reverting to the system of riding foremen, together with the question of building county offices, will form the subject of a special meeting of the Council to-day. A change is to be made by the Wanganui Education Board in the method cf the inspectors' annual reports on schools (says the Herald.) Personal criticism and details regarding management and method are to be supplied confidentially, to the teachers, while the official statement as to the efficiency of the school is to be supplied to the committee. At the Farmers' Co-operative yards, Opunake, on Wednesday, considerably more stock came forward than was anticipated, which were all practically quitted at market rates, although price's were not equal to the previous sale. In-calf heifers showed a slight improvement in prices. The society expects a number of outside buyers to its supplementary sale on April in. Constable O'Neill, of Rahotu, on Saturday arrested a man named Joseph Hazolrtine at Rahotu on a charge of serious assault upon a little. Maori girl on Friday night. Hazcldine, who is a young man, is a musician at the circus now travelling the district. The accused will be brought before the Court at New Plymouth to-day. Yesterday was another busy day at the North Egmont mountain house, about a hundred making the trip. The weather was perfect, and the visitors were rewarded with a glorious view, especially the fourteen or so that reached the summit, the view obtained from which is said to have been the best so far this season, the atmosnhere bei-ig perfectly clear. An oat stack belonging to Mr. T. V. Symous at Upper C'arrington Road,' together with a timber waggon alongside, was destroyed by fire early yesterday morning. The stack was on the roadside, and it is surmised the fire was caused by a match being thrown down in the vicinity or from the reflections of glass. There was no insurance and the loss is estimated at over £2OO. An accident occurred on the main road near Johnson's store, on Saturday A motor-lorry belonging to Mr. Bunn, of Kltham, was travelling in the direction of the harbor when it collided with a horse that had got away from a mob that was being driven along the rd.ul The bonnet of the car was considerably smasher], and the driver thrown out and rendered insensible. The horse was -seriously injured, and had to be shot. The New Plymouth abattoir report for March states that there were slaughtered for local consumption during the month 154 cows, 31 bullocks, 15 calves 7113 sheep, 17(i lambs, 147 pigs. Trii-os cleaned were 108. Compared with the corresponding month of lust year these figures showed an increase of 8 cattle s>l sheep, 24 pigs, and 10 tripes, and a decrease of 1 calf ami ', lambs. There were slaughtered for export 74 cows, 31 bulls, 0 sheep, and 2 calves, an increase of 2!) cattle and a decrease of 22 calves, 123 sheep, and 181 lambs. Condemned-' 8 cows and 3 bulls. Hop-picking in the Nelson district is now drawing to a close, and various parties who leave been engaged in the work during the past few weeks, <ir« '■breaking earn])." lii many respects the picking has not been so successful, financially and otherwise, as in ]i evious Reasons, a good deal of unfavorable v/'-ilher during that period when the ci-eps were thriviii" was responsible for a li'rht yield, and in consequence the Mvisnn has been a comparatively short

The authorities in Queensland do n-jt intend to stand any nonsense with disloyalists in their midst, and instructions have been issued to, the police to take proceedings in all cases of utterance of disloyal sentiments. At Marburg, on the 20th ult., the first prosecution of the kind took place, when a German fanner named Maartens was fined £ls and costs, or two months' imprisonment. Maartens was also ordered to entc- info a recognisance of £SO and to find a surety of £SO for his subsequent good behaviour. The disloj'al utterances Were made in an hotel at Marburg. They Included reflections on British and Australians. We believe that nowhere in the whole world there are municipal politics so clean as they are in New Zealand (says the Eltham" Argus.) "Graft," in its American sense, is unknown, and all over the Dominion may be found numbers of men who sacrifice home comforts, time and money in the carrying out of municipal duties entirely from a spirit of local patriotism. They have nothing whatever to gain from their labors, and in fact in many cases they make considerable losses. The Legislature, in their enthusiasm for purity of local polities, have, in our opinion, gone just a trifle too far and driven out of civic positions men whose valuable services could ill bo spared. A sad case is related by Adjutant Gordon, of the Salvation Army's Pani-dl rescue home. The circumstances were brought to her notice by an Army officer, the parties concerned having made no attempt to secure assistance. It appears that a man of German descent, but naturalised, who lias lived in Auckland for 19 years, is married to a New Zealand woman, and has three children, lost his employment as a packer early in the war. Since then he lias found it hard to get even casual work. Ultimately tne bailiffs were put into his house for the rent, and when the case was discovered the man and his family were in a shocking state. They had no food and scarcely any decent clothing. The attention of the Patriotic Leaguo lias been called to the case. The Taumarunui and Hawke's Bay election cases will come before the Judges of the Full Court to-day. The questions to be decided are points of electoral law on which decision of a Full Court are necessary before decisions can be given by the Judges in the cases of the -Northern Maori and the Bay of Islands. One of the points to ,he settled is whether the period of twenty-eight days during which an election petition may be legally lodged should count from the day on which the returning officer's official declaration of the poll is advertised in the press, or from the day the returning officer endorses the'writ for return to the Clerk of Writs. The matter has an important bearing_ as a motion was filed in the Supreme. Court on the same point to declare the petition lodged against the return of Mr. Vernon Reed for Bay of Islands to be late and therefore invalid. Attempts are still being made in Month Africa to stir up feeling against the British rule, writes a Pretoria correspondent to an ex-London resident in Wellington. A mischievous and anonymous circular, typed in English (he says), has been circulated amongst Dutch farmers in the Stellenboseh district (Cape Province) to the effect that the British Government is making arrangements to send to South Africa 1,000,000 Belgium refugees with a view to establishing in South Africa a powerful Britisli party to counterbalance the Boer element. A similar circular has been published in Pretoria. The Mayors of both towns have decided to take steps to discover the identity of the perpetrators of the statements. Ur Merriman, one of the most far-seeing Dutchmen in South Africa, points oi:t that the Belgian delegates who have' been visiting the sub-continent are so opposed to leaving their country that he has not been able, to discuss the matter with them. Personallyi he much tcgretted that such useful' people could not be got for South Afrier.. Well might credit be given Great Britain for the ceaseless activity of her great clothing mills. A Times representative who has just been to HuddersS'.-ld draws a wonderful picture of that sleepless city. There is, ho says, hardly any movement in the densely-populated valley. Its life and energy, the power of its brains, and the strength of its arms, seem to be concentrated within the walls of hot and noisy mills. The valley is not occupied solely in making khaki for the British soldier, though the bulk of the machinery is engaged jn satisfying the voracious cloth-hunger of our own War Office. It is despatching green-grey cloth to the Russian army and blue-grey of a dark shade for the Belgians, and of a light shade for the French, to the base of our Allies in the West. Lodz and Verviers and Roubaix are in the hands of the enemy; their industries arc awaiting their certain resurrection. Meanwhile the Colne Valley must work as it never worked before to fill the gaps in the equipment of the Allies. The output of cloth is prodigious. Firms no longer measure -their production by the yard hut by the mile. A recent estimate put the war-time output of irniy cloth at 300 mi'.e; a wc<*. IN-i average life of a khaki uniform on active service is not more than three months. Since each uniform takes about three and a quarter yards of cloth, every million men in the field will want 13,000,000 yards a year. Leagues of cloth are required for overcoats, blankets, horse-rugs, hoisery, caps and putties. One factory recently had to refuse an order for 3,000,000 yards of cloth for the Russian army, and the tons of khaki which come from the mills i>rc Been on the backs of the tens of tho'iRiinds of soldiers distributed over England. In the clothing factories the three and a quarter yards of doth which are used are. converted into a uniform In throe minutes.