LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The members of the Waterside Accidents (,'oimnisssion have completed their report, —Press Assoc.

it™ Mnii«iii;r to the instruction class, or ilcAirinK to join, are reminded that, in consequence of the returned soldiers' fancy dress ball, the drill will be held io-night at the Soldiers' Club.

Don't sign the Wowser Petition, because lliey arc agitators, ;xn(l should no! bo encouraged, but would be interned during the war. Sign our petition, which protects your freedom.— Advt.

At all seasons of tlic year CAMBROC DRY (.UNCllilt ALE is welcomed. In the winter it warms; in summer it cools. It is an ideal beverage made from a guaranteed original Belfast formula and prepared from the finest flavorings and purified water. All Hotels and Stores.

A man who was arrested for drunkenness in the vicinity of the Supreme Court buildings on Wednesday appeared before Air. A. Orooke, S.M., yesterday morning, charged with drunkenness and with breaking a prohibition order. He was convicted un the first charge, ana 011 the second he was fined 20s (costs 7s). ])id the old-time Maoris use a kind of money? Mr Elsdon !Best remarks in the current issue of the Journal of Science: ''A number of flakes of obsidian were found at Paekakariki, evidence of a system of barter among native tribes in former times, for this useful material, flakes of which were used as knives, must have 'been conveyed thither from northern regions. Flakes of a form of chert of a pinkish color were also found, probably tlie refuge of some implement-mak-er. This kind of stone is called manuteo by Triraim-ki natives, who fashioned adzes from it."

The Citizens' Band this season, is to given ten municipal concerts, including the one already given on the .llth of f his month. At these concerts 110 collections will be taken up, the band receiving instead £oo as subsidy from the Borough Council and £lO from the Tramways Committee, whose revenue will benefit through the recitals held at the breakwater. In addition to the municipal concerts, other dates have been fixed as follow:—Sunday, August Kawaroa Park (Copper Trail); Monday, October 28, Pukekura Park (Band Carnival); Sunday, November 17, "Aolea'' (Women's Patriotic Committee); Thursday, December If), Pukekura Park (Bandsmen's Christmas Benefit).

'•Swinging the lead," explains a Trenthani correspondent of the Wanganui Chronicle, ''is not a nautical expression, but in military parlance means malingering, a stratagem according to repute occasionally resorted to by soldiers desirous of obtaining something in the nature of a brief holiday. But it is a very difficult part to play by the "sufferer," as the medical fraternity have made an art of diagnoses of known ailments, these comprising a somewhat bewildering array Occasionally there might be a slight doubt as to whether a case is genuine, or perhaps exaggerated for personal reasons, and the unswerving practice is to give the sufferer the better of the argument until a lapse of time will furnish further observational opportunities. The average medico is a humorist in a quiet, way, with a much more effective way than exposure for getting level with the genuine "lead swinger" who occasionally happens along. The latter receives tender solicitude, a tablespoon of a vile-tasting, but harmless fluid, a hearty invitation to return at frequent intervals for more, and finally, a promise of larger doses if the first is ineflective. The first dose usually effects a cure."

It is a good long hark back to the (lays of ISS'2, when To Whiti and Tohu, the Maori prophets from Parihaka, were, with a warder and interpreter, in midwinter louring the southern parts of New Zealand. The cold at Queeristown was so intense that hardly anything would persuade Tohu more especially to leave the fireside. When he was asked if he had no wish to see the new country, the hills, the lake, etc., he replied: "Xo. no; what are these things if you are nearly Jrojujn, And not comfortable; I want to stay in the house to be warm!" The tlurd night they were at the place they described as the coldest they had ever felt in their lives. It was when driving from Queenstown to Arrowtown, a distance of about 20 miles, a few days later, that Te Whiti and Tohu passed through a severe snowstorm, and, although the two natives had livl'd all their fives under 'the shadows of stately Egmont, with its snow-capped peak, this was the first lime they had actually seen snow falling around them. The interpreter said the scene impressed them both, for "it was really a lovely, though Arctic-looking picture. Snow, snow, nothing but snow, save for an occasional glimpse of sunshine from the rents of the driving clouds overhead." A lady, writing to a friend in Auckland from Queenstown, says that although a girl at the time, she remembers the visit of the two Maoris quite well, and how eold it was; in fact, she does not remember anything to equal the frosts which occurred that season till Ihe present winter ra.mc in to break all previous records in the way of frost and snow.

■Picture patrons will have a lively recollection of Charlie Chaplin in the Mutual comedy "Easy Street," where Charlie does such.strenuous work as a limb of the law. This fast and. furious comedy will be shown on the newprogramme which commences at the Empire to-night. The, other attractions on to-ni."iit's programme include a powerful Metro success, "Daybreak," with Kmily Stevens in the leading role, and the third episode of the popular serial attraction "A Lass of the Lumberlands." There will be the usual ma.tinee to-morrow, when Charlie Chaplin will star in ''Easy Street," Helen Holmes in "A Lass of the Lumberlands'," aad. Ford Sterling iu another two-reel comedy, "Crooked "to-the End." If your throat is..sorc an& irritable

Cappelli, the great Italian operatic tenor, will appear in the Town Hall, Stratford, to-morrow (Saturday) evening. There should be an overflowing attendance for artists of the calibre of Cappelli are rarely heard in the country centres, and Signor Cappelli will be supported by the same coterie of brilliant artists as appeared this week in New Plymouth.

"I am not going to make a good motor road to the West Coast," said the Minister of Public Works (Sir William Fraser) in Christchurch. ''Tourists can take the railway. If they must gc to the West Coast they should go by rail. If they want to go by motor they can do so, but I am not going to make a motor road. It is absurd. As soon as a railway is built nowadays, they want a good motor road alongside." He was quite prepared, he added, to help in keeping the road passable and open to traffic.

At Wednesday's meeting of the West Coast Refrigerating Company the chairman submitted a table showing the saving effected in railage on cheese* and butter passed through Patea for the past year. No one has ever disputed the present saving to certain of the southern factories. The point is that it the liners that take away the produce from Wellington call at New Plymouth—a-nd, according to Mr. Newton King (chairman of the New Plymouth Harbor Board), that assuredly will be done on the completion of the harbor improvements—there will be a distinct saving to the South Taranaki factories in freight. It is obvious that railage to Patea, placing on a coastal ship, and transhipment at Wellington, must cost considerably more than railing direct to the wharf at Moturoa. That is the main point to be considered.

Writing to Joildiiig friends of the jailway run through Canada, Mr P. Pirani, a member of the New Zealand, press delegation, says: ''You are expected to give a tip with fevery meal, and a tip each night to the berth-steward. In feet the only things free are iced-water and: air, and you can hare plenty of both. It has been a great i&ilway trip across, although the first half was a long way the best. In fact, except for Take scenery and the wheat prsiiries, there has been little of interest during the past two days (when nearer New York).- Hie big towns have too much evidence of dirty shacks and unlovely surroundings to enable one to admire the magnificent buildings, etc. The cost of living over here must be double or treble that in Now Zealand."

Farmers in the King Country are still complfimiug that the weather continues rough and cold, and that in some cases stock ia suffering severely. Many of the milking cows are coming in early, tat on account of the recent and continuous severe frost 'there is very little grass. Many farmers have parted on their last haystack, while the turnips are nearly dons. One old Maori near Te Kuiti, who was born and has lived there nearly all his life, says lie has iiever seen so much snow as th?s season, and that the nearest approach to it was in 1875, 01. as he puts it, ihe _ year Sir Donald Me-T-iean, the Native Minister, paid a visit to the old Maori King, and when amicable relations between the pakeha and Maori racej were resumed, which Sir George Grey, tht great friend of all rates, but more espcially of the Ma»ri, cemented more closely when he became Premier two years later.

Describing the benzine-store fire at Auckland the other day, the Star states: There was a big blaze in Beach-road to-day, when between 7000 and 8000 cases of benzine, stored in a shed, were destroyed by a fire that lasted for over three hours. The outbreak occurred shortly after 10 o'clock, and tfce alarm was quickly given to the City Brigade, but the highly inflammable contents of the building blazed up almost immediately, and when the brigade arrived they were faced with a practically ropeless task. The flames soon enveloped the whole of the larger of the two buildings, and in spite of the half-dozen leads of hose that were brought into play, the fire lasted until the structure collapsed and the whole of the con twits were aestroyed. While it lasted the fire was an impressive spectacle. As case after case of spirit exploded and ignited huge flames shot into the air, and great clouds of black and grey smoke burst upwards for hundreds of feet. The firemen were handicapped/by the nature of the building—a corrugated iron structure without windows—and had to play the hose through the single door in the front of the building, and from the railway line at the back. A' smaller building adjoining caught alight, and for a time the benzine stored here was also threatened. The brigade managed to keep the flames back, and enable a par(y of men to remove a portion of the contents, and eventually this building, though badly damaged, was saved." Men should take advantage of the following bargains at the Melbourne's great end-of-season sale: Boxed suits made of heavy indigo serge, , S9s fid; Roslyn boxed suits, 493 0d; Roslyn saddle trousers, 15s lid; tweed trousers, 12s 6d; '''Hardwear" trousers, Ss lid; all wool colonial ribbed pants, 5s fid; natural singlets, 5s 6d; and tweed hats, 6s lid.

To enable all picture patrons to see the magnificient Goldwyn picture "Sunshine Alley" and supporting programme, tho management of Everybody's has arranged to screen this exceptional attraction again Among the supporting pictures there is the fourth episode of the serial sensation "The Mystery of the Double Cross." Don't sign the wowser petition—they are never satisfied, as they would sooner have, prohibition than win the war —but sign our petition. We are fighting for your, liberty and freedom, while the wowsers, are trying to take away raur freedom anil that of the toys white they are away fighting for them. —Adv.t.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. draw attention to their spring horse fair in their Stratford yards to-morrow (Saturday), at 1 p.m. Full particulars of horses and sundries to be offered will be found on page S.