LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

This year promises well for stone fruit In northern Taranaki. During the past week tile fruit lias ripened, and good crops generally are the rule. The rains of Thursday have cheeked the downward drop in the milk supplies in Taranaki. Had the rains come soonei in December, the season would probably have been a record one. As it is however, it should be quite up to the average. About three weeks ago a calico thai sold in New Zealand at 4.|d a yard before the war was quoted wholesale at Is 2d. Two weeks later a cable was sent Home to get the quotation confirmed, hut the manufacturer's answer was that it had now risen to Is 4d. The steadily advancing cost of cotton goods is certain to continue, in view of the world-wide shortages and unusual demands. Last year a visitor from the Kangitikci, unable to secure accommodation in iNew Plymouth for the holidays, brought a tent with him and pitched it near Ihe beach. So pleased was he with his holiday in what he describes as the ''most glorious holiday town in New Zealand'' that he has now purchased a beach section, and intends to erect this year a summer beach residence. An interesting pamphlet that has been issued by the Munitions Department of the Wall Paper Manufacturers explains why British wall papers have been in short supply of late. The plant that used to produce wall papers is now turning out shells, bombs and certain special classes of paper-work required by the War Office. The British manufac-. turers make no apology for disappointing some of their customers under present conditions, 'but they mention that as sooa as the war is over they will be back in business again. A Hawkes Bay doctor at present in a military hospital in England writes thus to a friend in Napier: "I was stationed here as soon as I arrived. The place was ready. I like the work, and it suits my taste and my training, and I am able to spread myself out a bit. There are fifteen hundred wounded here, all very grievously so—or nearly all. Many of the injuries are ghastly in the extreme, and yet as a rule the recoveries are very wonderful. Though, of course, a great number of limbs are lost, chiefly blown off at the time, still the men seem very happy in spite of it all." An unprecedented increase in the ratio of boy babies to girl babies born in England and Wales is noted in the vital statistics for the years 1914-15 and 191510. In the year from July 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915, 415,205 boys' and 399,409 girls were born, the ratio being 1040 to 1000. The explanation is that women who are extremely fatigued through arduous labor, such as working ten hours in munition factories, tilling fields, and acting as drivers Of street cars, can become the mothers of male children only. Gynecologists of renown have agreed that such is always the result.

An astonishing total of what waste of broad means is given by the "Church Army Gazette" in the following supposed autobiography of a wasted slice of bread: "I am a slice of bread. I measure 3in by 2in. My thickness is half an inch. My weight is exactly one ounce. I am wasted once a day by 48 million people in Britain. lam the bit left over, the slice eaten when really I was not wanted. I am the waste crust. Collect me and my companions for a week, and we shall amount to 9380 tons of bread. Two shiploads of good bread wasted—almost as much as 20 submarines (if they had luck) could sink. If you throw me away, or waste me, you are as good as adding 20 submarines to the German navy." » . The Albert Medal has been awarded to Doreen Ashburnham, aged 11, and Anthony Farrer, aged 8, residing at Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island. The children left their homes for the purpose of catching ponies. Suddenly a 7ft puma attacked them. The puma sprang and knocked down the girl„but. the boy attacked, the beast, which was on the girl's back, with his fists and a riding bridle. The beast turned upon the boy. Doreen, jumping to' her feet, fought the beast with her clenched hands, actually putting an arm into the puma's mouth to prevent it biting Anthony. Thus she got the creature off. Standing on his hindquarters, the puma fought her until it became frightened by a sudden noise, and slunk off. The children, badly injured, reached home. The pijma was killed later. Good progress is being made with the fe-tarring of Devon Street. Had the work been done last year,,when the surface began to crack, the cost of labor and material would have been about a tenth of what it is to-day. Currie Street is an example of liow not to maintain a good road. Last year its surface was perfect. Then holes began to appear, until now they arc gaping and a trap to the unwary. When will the borough council learn tho great truth that "a stitch in time saves nine"? The footpaths of Devon Street have been in a woeful state of disrepair for years, and during the past year have gone from bad to worse, whilst all the money required to do (lio work has been lying idly at the bank. Really, if a private business were run like the council runs the streets of Xew Plymouth it would soon be facing the official assignee. The Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald remarked at Ghristchurch on Tuesday that the general opinion appeared to be that the prospects were never better for a fairly | good harvest. Some figures relating to a possible yield had been compiled, but in view of the weather and other possibilities he preferred to wait till the threshing returns came to hand before making anything public. Another shipment of Australian wheat was expected at a North Island port in tho very near future, and he was of opinion that all the wheat purchased in Australia by the Government would be required. Asked respecting the plans for next season's wheat sowing, the Minister said that the question of guaranteeing next harvest's wheat had been before Cabinet, and had been discussed, but no definite decision had been arrived at.

HEAVY DRTXKER FOR 30 YEARS. DRLVKO CURED HIM, A grateful wife writes on November 14.—' You will be pleased to know my husband is splendid.. lie tells rue lie lias not now the slightest desire for drink, lie was a heavy drinker for over 30 years. Wo are all so grateful." Satisfy yourself tliat DRIXRO is a genuine cure. White for free booklet describing the treatment and containing dozens of similar testimonials. X will post it in plain sealed envelope. Treatment, is inexpensive and easily given--secretly if desired. Address me in confidence, Lady Manager, Drinko Proprietary, 212 A. C~, Lambton Quay, Wellington.

Ten sons in one family in Vancouver have been killed in this war. A labor agent informed a Maslertou Age reporter that there were cjnito a imini.'er of general laborers in .Master!,on iinxious to procure work, but lie found a (liiliculty in placing them. "Of course,' he said, ''there are plenty of milking jobs about, but the unemployed will not look \it these." Par. trom a soldier's letter, written to a friend at Otaki:—"lxmg before this reaches you will have more casually lists. Oil, what a place Ypres is! Multiply what yon imagine it to be. by ten, and then yon will only get a very faint idea of what the conditions* are like, Jt ia Hell absolutely. Let us say no mflro about it!" A very sad story concerning the return of. a soldier has been told to lis (pays the Eltliam Argus). He arrived recently, and was surprised and disappointed at tliere being no friends o» relatives to meet him. On his way vd to YVangamii in the train he learned that during his absence his father and mother had both died, also a brother, ami that the home had now changed hands. "There is room there for thousands of families," remarked a Gisboine man who recently returned from Ilia first visit to the East Coast to a Gisborne reporter, lie went on to say that he was favorably impressed with what ho saw up there, but thought that it would be far better for the Natives were their large blocks of land cut up and leased to pakeha settlers. Under present conditions they were doing no good for themselves.

A remarkable story of a swift air tragedy was told. l)y Mr. Boyd. Cable at the Aeolian -Hall.' "At a certain mew," he said, "1 met a boy in the Royal Flying Corps. He had just lit a cigarette and ordered a drink, when the major came in, and. asked for volunteers for a balloon 'strafe.' The boy put down his cigarette and went out. His machine went up and—lie 'Went West,' I was still at the same table when they brought the news. >So little time had elapsed that his cigarette was still burning. It wag a bit of a shock to see it." One submarine which will never return to Germany, it is stated, sank under peculiar circumstances a short time ago. ! This U-boat torpedoed a ship bound from the United Sttaes, firing its torpedo at a range of only about a hundred yards. It is extremely unwise and unsafe to fire a torpedo at sucli close range, but the U-boats must take their targets us they get them these days. The torpedoed ship was loaded with a cargo of heavy war material, and the explosion was so forcible that it blow a large piece of heavy material through the deck of the ship and dropped it on the submarine as the latter was submerging. The hull of the submarine was crushed like an eggshell, and she sank with all on board. • Influential circles in Germany already want some arrangement that will allow France in the future to be her friend aud yet will not check Germany's economic development. If the Allies can see it through the military way, they hold the whip-hand economically. Germany can only produce one-tenth of the copper She needs. As her supply, we come first, and then Australia. Tlius we hold the whip-hand on her machine industry and her eloctric industry. Australia has a similar 'power over lead, of which Germany produces only a third of what she needs. Great Britain awl the United States supply most of her gold and silver. She is dependent on France for aluminium, and on France's island, Hew Caledonia, and Canada, for nickel. Russia and Columbia control platinum. It is easy to understand, therefore, why German thinkers consider peace mostly in terms of economic treaties.

The experiences of the present war surpass in variety and in strangeness all the imaginings of story-tellers. Descriptive writing is at fault in their narration. The only way to tell the tale is to use plain words and set down the tacts. Here is a marvellous example. One of our young men who came back on the last trip of the hospital ship carries on his body 48 shrapnel wounds. He and another man were signalling, when a bomb burst between them. The Otago man was peppered, but has come home. His mate was blown to pieces. The only permanent hurt sustained by the vor is in one of his heels. He poohpoohs sympathy, and, though thankful to U alive, he scouts the suggestion that his is a remarkable case, his reply to anv suggestion of that sort being that he "know? a New Zealander who has 90 marks of the same sort. At the meeting of the Patea Harbor Board, the Pilot (Captain Tinney) reported that the channel at the entrance is crooked ard shallow between the ends of the walls, where there is a bank in the centre of the entrance making it bad for shipping at neap fides. The bank should scour out with a good spring tide. Captain Tinney stated that he sounded the bar. on tlie"f>th, and got 7ft din close to the western wall, with 7ft on the tide gauge. The channel, however, is very narrow, but with good water along the eastern wall when once over the spit. There were IS arrivals and 17 departures since tbe last report.

A correspondent writes:—-We are indeed funny people in New Plymouth. We brag about our Pukekura Park, and other beauty spots, but delight in displaying the flotsam and jetsam of ouv ahops in the most prominent position. It is not a fortnight since tile Borough Council put men on to clear away the accumulations of an unsightly and insanitary character which for a long time had made the bed of the Huatoki, -just below the Devon street bridge, an eyesore to observers, and for a day or two it was quit-; a pleasure to look upon the water rippling over pebbles as clean as those in the upper reaches of the stream. Then down came an empty large size jam tin, which lodgd m a position ena.b'ling it to advertise to all and sundry the fact that a particular make is on the market. It has since been joined by two (empty) whisky bottles, one "G.TT.M." lemonade bottle, one dead cat, and several indescribable®, and no doubt in the "oursc of the next few weeks we shall have as good a collection of rubbish as the one so recently removed. Thus our Cit.v Fathers allow to be re-created right in the centre of the town a nuisance and a disgrace presumably by way of offset to the fernery which the Par* Board is about to form in a far less obtrusive position. Such is life!

Ask distinctly for SANDER'S EUCALYPTI EXTRACT, or else you may receive one of tlic manv substitutes. The GENUINE SANDER EXTRACT cures colds, fevers, indigestion; prevents infectious diseases and heals ulcers, poisoned wounds, skin diseases, burns, sprains, etc. It is much more powerfully antiseptic than the common eucalyptus and does not depress ' ir irritate like the latter.

Thp Mcdicul Board Rat at Stratford yesterday and examined thirty-one recruits. Of these seven were classed fit, one CI, 22 C2 (liable for reexamination), and one D (rejected). According to the Auckland &tar, a lady spectator present at the landing of the last returned soldiers, hoping to hear some particulars of the death of her son, of which she had been advised, received a shock when her son appeared before licr. "My hoy, my boy," she "they told mo you >vore dead." The mistake evidently occurred from the fact that two boys bore the game initial and surname. Sir Joseph Ward stated at Christchurch on Thursday: "There will, during the next quarter, be large payments from both land tax and income tax, and I am quite satisfied that upon completion of the current quarter's revenue and expenditure the consolidated revenue will lie in a strong and healthy position. There is, happily, a greater certainty at present of relief being given by a considerable increase of.shipping for the conveyance of products that have been largely held in the Dominion for some time." Throughout South Taranaki, and moro pronounced along the coast and on the open land, has been a spell of very dry weather, most trying to farmers and very productive of a fall in milk returns. This (6ays the Hawera Star) has been noticed for a good few weeks, and although there have been at times satisfactory rainfalls, much of the good has [been nullified by a succession of dry. Ing winds. In the northern portion of the district nearer the mountain, rain has been much more frequent and austained. For instance, the fall from Eltham northwards was vastly heavier than on the Plains. Travellers by express on Thursday morniug could notice pretty clearly the line of difference in the fail as they looked out on the roadß aioju; tlie railway line. ~