LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 264, 17 April 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

: The Wanganul municipal tramwavh made a profit of £SOO last year.

The Midliirst sports, held last w.ntk, netted £25, which will go to swcl: tin* Belgian Relief Funds. Four hundred and ninety-four horses were taken with the third reinforcements to Egypt. Only six were lost.

About thirty territorials have to face the Magistrate on the 2!) th inst. at New Plymouth to explain their failure to attend parades.

At the special meeting of the Borough Council last night a formal resolution was passed approving of the new byalaws, which will be confirmed at a future meeting.

According to the Inspector of Factories at Napier "general layering work is gradually getting worse. At pies-jnt there are a large number of men'out of employment and there is no prr.puct of improvement."

It was decided at the New Plymouth Borough Council meeting last evening that the express stand be fixed on the east siele of Currie Street, from Oill Street to the railway station, and the taxi-stanel also in Currie Street, from Devon to Courtenay Street.

Jhe wheat market in Canterbury is much easier, the amended estimate showing a larger yield than was rirst considered having steadied the mark-it,. I'or prime samples of Tuscan and Hunter's White varieties Os fid at country stations is now difficult to obtain.

A Hawcra resident who this week returned from a holiday spent in the South Island, states that the crops in some districts are very late. He saw on the Banks Peninsula a fine crop of oats just ready for cutting.—Star.

The survey of the Opunake-Motuioa railway route, which lias been proceeding (luring the past few months will be completed in a few days. The survey party will then proceed to survey the loute of the Ivapuni-Manaia branch of the Te Roti-Opunake line.

For t'.ie year ended March 31st tho working expenses in connection with the Napier municipal tramways totalled £7O/8 lis Bd, and the revenue was £9OBO, leaving a balance of receipts over working expenses of £2OOI. Passengers carried numbered 1,401,137.—Pre5s Association,

It has been calculated by a botanist that one Beed of cotton, given the application of all possible cure and skill, would produce 80,000,000,000, seeds ; n six years, and he gives an actual ei.-c of the production of 11,000 bushels of seed of a pure strain of wheat from a single grain in live years, without exercise of any special care.

A motor-car was arrested in Waverley on Thursday. A motorist arrived in the township and reported that a Maori, under the influence of liquor, was coming up the road in a car, and that he was a danger to the public. Constable O'Brien interviewed the Maori, with the result that the car was taken from him and locked up. The man and his family after some time were allowed to go home in the train.—Press.

Four dead cows were removed i.!. 0 other day from the Stratford railway yard, the animals having died in il.'e trucks while on a journey from Fe!Ming. They were in very poor condition and it is thought they were overcrowded in the trucks. Opinion holels tliat as food becomes scarcer in the wiri'.cr there will be a pretty high rate of mortality among the beasts unless they arc handled quickly by the freezing works.

Writes a correspondent to the Hawera Star:—The iMernmero Dairy Company appears to be the only one whose suppliers remit regularly to the Belgian Relief Fund, some dozen contributors giving a percentage of their cheques every month to this laudable object. One supplier gives 4>/> per cent., a truly generous gift, and one worthy of all praise and imitation.

In spite of the dry weather experienced towards the end of the summer in South Taranaki, the quantity of cheese and butter passing through the West Coast Refrigerating Company's hands for the year ended March 31 last constituted a record year. In 1914 the figures were:—Cases cheese 145,300, boxes butter 8403; this year the record was.-—Cases cheese 149,388 boxes butter 9555.

A Waitotara Maofi recently applied to the court for a prohibition order aganst his son—not, however, to restrain him from drinking, but from eating! Tho Native in question had developed a most extraordinary mania for eating, and not long since ato a large kit of potatoes, and lay like a log for a couple of days. The Natives were under the impression that if there was a law to prevent a man from drinking too much there must surely be a law to prevent him over-eating!

Hares are said to be exceptionally numerous in tho Patea district just now, and the number of sportsmen is increasing in proportion. Some of these latter, owing to their, limited acquaintance with the business epd of a gun, aro a decided menace to farmers and their stock (says the Press). The Government might do worse than follow tie example of the Home authorities and charge a fee for permission to "use and carry a gun."

The death of a small boy at the Auckland Hospital last week has resulted in a strange development, the exhumation of the body having been ordered in order that the facts of the case may be investigated. The boy's name is Cc-eil Rhodes, and last Thursday he fell into a tub of boiling water and was considerably scalded, dying in the Hospital on Saturday. The body was buried without an inquest, but the Minister has oidered the body to be exhumed.

A ruling of interest to "the trade" in particular and also the general public, van given by Mr. Kenrick, S.M., at the Elthani Magistrate's Court on Thursday morning. The Argus reports that David Gordon Henry pleaded guilty to being found on licensed premises on Sund'iy. March 14tb. Mr. Weir said defendant did not deliberately go into the Eltham hotel to obtain drink. He went in as the guest of two boarders. The licensee of the hotel was not present.—Constable Townseiul said, when the defendant was asked whether lie was a boarder, he i,dmitted to the contrary, but said he had been asked in to have a drink. The licensee was not prosecuted, as tlu-i'e was not suflicient evidence to allow of a prosecution.—His Worship said there must have been carelessness on the part of the licensee. He must have cither left the bar open or left the keys in the hands of one of the employees. Boaiders should not be allowed to obtain drink at the bar after hours. Liquor should be served in the sitting room, or elsewhere away from the bar.—A fine of 10s and costs.was inflicted.

The Auckland Herald of Wcdne.*|«y says:—"Our New Plymouth correspoudrat reports tlwt at the monthly mest"'E of the Ilarbor B.mrd the on.vii.uu/ st'ited that the harbor works scheme «■ nld bo advanced to such a stage in lb u onllis that large liners would be able ti; come in to tin; river and berth uioiigside the wharf." Where is our river? Hoes the well-informed correspondent mean the Huatoki? For the benefit" oi our contemporary we may explaii. that tlv: harbor can at this ve y memtnt accommodate the largest steamers, and that it has not yet been found necessary to dredge any river in order to iucrei.se the usefulness of the deep-sea harbor, i erhaps the correspondent referred to Wanganui.

voluntary effort with the object of popularising its seaside resort, New Plymouth kicks the beam. Two committees are at work beautifying what is termed t')e Bast and West End waterfronts. A healthy rivalry exists between the two factions, and as a. result hundreds of pounds have been raised by Special efforts and expended on improvements. The committees take off their coats and work like trojans in excavating, levelling, and beautifying. Very little financial assistance is given by the local authorit-j these public-spirited townsmen, who are building up an added asset to this naturally beautiful town. In this connection New Plymouth citizens set a fine example to the rest of New Zealand.— Foxton Herald.

Speaking with reference to the impending war tax on Thursday, the Minister of Finance said he could give no indication as to how it was to be raised. The necessity of such a tax, Mr. ■Allen explained, had become imperative to provide interest and sinking fund in connection with the war loan, £120,000 for the Belgian Relief Fund, and pensions to widows and dependants of those who lost their lives at the front. The statement, when the elections took place, that no ft'ar tax would be necessary only referred to the time being, and not the future. The Government would be able to carry on all right for a certain period, but the falling-oil' of revenue in the Customs and Railway Departments, owing to the war, rendered such a tax inevitable sooner or later.

At the Magistrate's Court, Stratford, yesterday morning the inspector of noxious woods proceeded against Jesse J. Hills (for whom Mr. P. Thomson appeared) for not clearing his property of ragwort. Accused had previously lieen fined £5 for a similar offence, .lis Worship (Mr. lvenrick) said it was evident defendant was conversant with (he Act, but lie preferred to pay the fine instead of doing the work. Mr. Kcnri-tk further said that if cases continued to come before him, he would, put up the amount of the fine to £2O. He was rather surprised fo hear of the amount of trouble the Department went to to get the work done, as the sending out of notices was only a matter of courtesy on the part of the Department. In tiio present ease a fine of £7 (costs 7s) wr.s imposed,—Post.

The London corre.'yondciit of lint Press wrote as follows on March 2nd: ''Delivery of the Union Steam Ship Company's now vessel, Ao-Tc-Roa, which is intended for the Canadian mail service, is definitely postponed 'owing to the war. The Admiralty and the War Ollico have commandeered so man",' of the great engineering and shipbuilding works in the United Kingdom that many contracts for the new merchant ships have been suspended. The Union Company's now cargo ships, the Leitrlm and Armagh, are also hold up. The Limerick, which was commandeered by the Government for transport, early in the war, luis now been released, and she is almost ready to leave'for New Zealand, where she will shortly be available as a meat-carrier. The Westmeatli, which was also taken up early in the war, was released somo time ago. The salutary effects of the training and the scrupulous attention to cleanliness at the Trenthani camp, are remarked by a Wellington paper. The writer states that the health of the troops is the best of evidence of the hygienic conditions that are being maintained at Trenthani. Some 14,000 men have passed through the camp, and there have been precisely five deaths since October list —when this hospital was established none of tliem actually in camp. The cause of the five deaths emphasises the camp's 'fine record. One man died from alcoholic poisoning, one was killed by. a fall from a railway carriage, one had only been in. camp one day died at the Porirua Mental Hospital, and one (ivho was a haemopliilie) died of acute bleeding of the nose. There have been*about '2O cases of measles lately, but these have been sent in to the Wellington Hosp'.ral. and there is no sign of an epidemic. Legal argument was proceeded with at somo length at the Eltham Magistrate's Court on Thursday (reports (.lie' Argus) in the case in which Alfred Barlow, cattle dealer, of Stratford, for whom Mr. Gow appeared, proceeded against George Heaven, public poundkeeper, of Eltham-(for whom ill'. Weir appeared!, and James McKenzie, farmer (represented by Mr. Morrison) for the Bum of £3 10s, tlui value of a cow belonging <o plaintiff, and which, plaintiff claimed, the defendants had wrongfully impounded and sold. Mr. Weir contended that the defendant Heaven had acted strictly within the meaning of the Impounding Act in impounding the animal, and also in afterwards selling it. Neither defendant know to whom the animal belonged. Defendants knew nothing of any registered Irar.d on the animal, and therefore could not have sent notice to the owner of the animal as provided !.y section 37 of the Impounding Act.—Air. Morrison contended, that the- • wrongful acts alleged in the statement of cl.iim were entirely different to the wrongful acts alleged against the public official, in this case the poundkeeper. The defendant, McKenzie, had from a public point of view, counsel submitted, considered that it would be wrong to drive the cow from their farm to the public pound. Such, they considered could not be done without domage being done to private property. There had been no evidence that McKenzie sold the con 1 , and counsel did not think there had been any suggestion to that effect. —Cowisel for plaintiff (Mr. Gow) contended that the animal had been unlawfully detained mid sold, and that the plaintiff had been wrongfully disposed of his property. —His Worship (Mr. Kenrick) reserved judgment. At the Whiteley Memorial Church tomorrow evening, the Rev. A. B. Ohappell will take for his subject " The Real Cause of the War." Specially printed hymns, among them being " Hymn for the Men at the Front," bv the novell.!», John Oxenliam. The choir will render the anthem " Come unto Him" > . •