LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evidently as the result of the weekend cables, a number of firms are making offers for cheese output in this district (says the Pahiatua Herald). Prices are high, very close to lOd per lb. t'.o.b. being offered to one factory rejoicing in a brand of cheese which is invariably graded very high.

A relic of old days, said to be the first printing press brought to New Zealand, has been presented to the Canterbury College authorities by Bishop Julius, to whom it was conveyed by Messrs. Marriner Bros., of Christclmrch. The press is believed to have been brought to New Zealand in 1830, and used in the Bay of Islands in the early work of the missionaries.

The proposed increase in the price of butter was discussed at a meeting of the Wellington Trades and Labor Council on Thursday evening, and a strong protest was made against the rise in the retail cost of this New Zealand product. The Council decided to draw the attention of the Government to the promise given hv the Plight Hon. W. F. Massey in mi.), that if the price of butter rose above Is 7d pel pound retail, the export would be prohibited, and to ask that this promis? should be carried into effect in the event of the proposed increase being made.

A Maori woman strolled leisurely into the Napier Magistrate's Court during the hearing of a case last week and settled herself comfortably on a seat at the rear of the Court (says, the Herald). She wore a man's felt hat. and was muffled in a long rain coat. She had hardly been seated a minute when the Magistrate rapped out sharply: "Take off your hat!" The Maori womnn smiled hack blandly at his Worship, who now looke,! very severe. Then a surprised .and embarrassed look came over the Magistrate's face. "Oh," he faltered. "I thought it was a man." And the Maori woman smiled on serenely.

"I have seen the cat 0' nine tails in captured German trenches, with which, it is said, the officers castigate their men," said a wounded Cameron Highlander in a hospital in London. "And I have seen Germans chained to machineguns, which seems to suggest that the enemy had to be kept at their work; but in the latest fighting there was not the slightest sign in our quarter of a lowering of stamina or morale. They fought as stubbornly as could have been expected of any troops in the world. One small trench alone, close to ours, had to be taken by the Australians five times before they held it. What it meant in killed and wounded on both sides I leave you to imagine."

A Manaia soldier and the money lender formed the topic of denunciatory character at the meeting of the local Patriotic Society 011 Monday evening, says the Wainiate Witness. From the particulars furnished to the meeting by Mr. Mi-Phillips, it appears that an invalided soldier desiring to resume his trade in Manaia, and being in necessitous circumstances, applied to a professional man in Hawcra for a loan, in evident ignorance of the fact that the. Patriotic Society in Manaia, if made aware of his circumstances, would have offered him the necessary assistance. The person he appealed to in Hawcra agreed to make him an advance of £2H, the conditions being that he paid £4 monthly, or 102 per cent, for the accommodation. In his anxiety to secure the means of making a fresh start in life the soldier accepted these monstrous terms, and the discreditable transaction was legally consummated very much to the disadvantage of the man who had fought and suffered for his country. It is satisfactory to know that he is noiw, owinsto the Patriotic Society having made him an advance, free of interest, able to repay the debt ami so extricate himself from the toils of this up-to-date Shylock. „ ■,