LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 286, 12 May 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Wellington telegram says the price of butler was advanced Id per lb yesterday and the retail figure is now Is id per lb.

The third sclmapper to be caught in the neighborhood of Sumner and Lvttelton for 40 years was landed recently from Sumner pier. It weighed 1-I'/Üb.

The services of the Town Clerk of Stratford, Mr. I'. Skog'und, are evidently appreciated (and deservedly so), for the council has just voted him a rise of £25 in salary.

It is stated that the Germans have 8-1 million pounds' worth of properly in Britain. 'Whether this includes the huge allowances and pensions paid to German princes is not stated.

Writes a trooper from Cairo:—l think the total cultivation area of Egypt is 7,000,000 acres, and from what I have seen of it I can honestly say it is the finest crop producing country in the world.

Tll view of the European war, there is every likelihood that the Government will ask the lion. Thomas Mackenzie to accept a renewal of his ollice of High Commissioner for another 12 months, 'i'li" present term of (ln'ec years expires in August next.

Amongst the men sent back from Egypt, and who landed at Wellington 011 Wednesday, four are to serve the ha,lance of terms of imprisonment imposed on them in Egypt. it is understood that the sentences are heavy. The four were brought ashore handcull'cd. The Education Districts Commission will sit i\t New Plymouth at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the IStli. The secretary, Mr. 11. M. ('ore, intimates that the evidence re boundaries given to the commission of ]!)I2 and to the committee of the House in 101-f is being treated as also given to the present commission, and there is therefore no occasion for its further repetition. Persons desirous of giving evidence are asked to notify the secretary of the Education Board, Mr. P. S. Whitcombc.

Kesideuts. of Stratford hare still co. oat cow, instead of steer beef. No oxen were slaughtered at the abattoirs Inst inonth,..

Mr,. Hugh Campbell, who returned to, S.tratfcird yesterday from a shooting trip Out Last, had to his eredit fifteen, cocli pleasants and fifty quail, beaidca. th.ree/wild boars and several hawks.

i Who invented that saying about ill;, news travelling last? asks the Bulletin;. Australian poet Adam Lindsay (iorijoji VAwt himself at Brighton lieaeh (Vic,) •a>vay back in 1870. Last week a Ytmkne, paper was delivered at the Bulletin ioffice addressed to the poor fellow wiuise 'funeral took place 45 years ago!

The, Stratford Borough Council afe its recent meeting decided to invite 3>fc, A. (Jray, director of the New Technical College, to attend ti.l9' next meeting and give further information as to the work of the college, so enable the Council to consider Lift, request S'.'V a grant.

'As a result of a discussion inutile dining room of a local hotel a prominent Auckland musician has summoned a well-known Auckland land agent fof assault (says a telegram from..Hamilton). It is understood he has als# issued a writ for a large sum of damages, the alleged slander being that lie, was called a German.

A private letter received; from a New Zeakuulw at present in JJunibay, where lie is serving in the volunteer force, which to a large extent has relieved many of the regular regiments, states that thirty regiments some of the finest soldiers in the world have A'ft India and are marbling up the Kll- - towards the west through Mesopotamia, and it is probable that they will co-operate in the present operations at the Dardanelles.

"A man lias no i;ight to strike another if lie can got away. He has only to resort to force when lie cannot get away. That is our law." This was the pronouncement mails during the hearing of an assault cast; in the Wellington Supreme Court by his Honor the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), who added that the ia.w was very precise on th"m matter, and v-as set out in section-) 71 in 14 of the Criminal Code.

'All traces of the missing policeman, Donald Shaw, appear to be lost. Shaw was last seen during the interval of a Napier 'picture theatre, when he went out for a few moments and novor returned. The country has been searched high and low for miles, J>ut without avail. Constable Hugh Shaw, brother of the missing man, was one of the search party. ' The Princes Islands, in the Sea of Marmora, now said to have been fortified as the last defence of Constantinople, have been a place of exile in all ages. In Byzantine times the savage Empress Irene was shut up in a nunnery upon Prinkipo, the chief island. At the time of the Young Turk revolution the worst officials of the Yildiz gang were interned here, though they were politely termed "Guests of the Isle."

The efficiency of the automatic lifeguards which are attached to the tramway cars in Christchurch was demonstrated on the Papanui extension line the other evening. The motorman noticed a dark object lying across the track less than a car's length ahead, lie immediately applied the brakes, but too late to avoid a collision with the object, which proved to be a man lying across the track. The tripping gate struck him, which resulted in the wheel-guard being automatically released. The man was rolled to the side of the car, which almost immediately afterwards came to a stop. A coincidence of two accidents occurring at exactly the same spot, in the same manner, very soon after each other, aiul with the same result to tho victims, happened at Napier the other day (states the Daily Telegraph). A grocer was getting off'his cart to deliver some goods when, in stepping to the ground, he put his foot in a ho!o in the footpath and sustained a sprained ankle. A little while, after a Chinese greengrocer, also bent on disposing of some of his wares, descended from his vehicle at the same place, and, putting his foot into the same hole, also had the misfortune to sprain an ankle.

Auckland rock oysters are reported to he in prime condition this year. Beds controlled by the Marine Department at Russell and in the liauraki Gulf are yielding well. The season opened last Saturday, and 450 sacks were oll'ered, having ueen got ready the day before; of these 200 came from Russell ami 252 from the liauraki beds. They were sold to the extent of some 28S sacks at 13s 0(1 per sack. Small lots for consumers were sold in bags of 15 dozen for lis and five dozen for Is. Apparently fewer of these oysters go to Wellington than formerly, the supply for that city coming mainly from the south. There were, two bags only of the quality offered in Auckland on Saturday destined for Wellington. Quantities are. however, sent to Gisborne and Xapicr, New Ply-, mouth, Palmerston North and Wanganui, and some even to Wcstport. A New Zealand member of the New Zealand-Australian Army Corps (mixed division) writes of the arrival of the Maoris. He says:—The chief event this week was the arrival of the Maoris and the reinforcements. The Maoris came in first and were met by one of the bands and marched into camp to the cheers of all the rest, and got a pretty good reception. They arc a fine big lot of fellows, but we are all curious to see how they will be received here. 1 w r as in town last night, and the people could not make them out at all. They would go into a cafe with the style of a European and order their wants from waiters or girls who were accustomed to treating natives like dogs (the only way to treat an Arab), The place would be full of soldiers, and all at once they "wouhl see some old friend or other, and it would be. "Hullo, Jack! Fancy meeting you here; come and have a drink," and aiuid handshakes and introductions they would sit down a merry party, brown and white. The mixing of the races is a thing people here don't understand and never will, as the Arab is a very low type of native, and not the decent fellow the average Maori is. They are creating a great interest among (he other troops, especially the "Tommies." One imperial sergeant got into conversation with one of them, and addressed him in the "pigeon English" one usually uses here with natives, but was very much taken down at receiving the reply": "My dear fellow, if you would talk English 1 might understand you. We respect the Knglish soldier, but if you talk to our fellows like that they will hui2h at von. The Tommy sergeant got the shock of his life.