LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the Magistrate's Court yesterday Mr. A. Crookc, S.M., gave judgment for plaintiff by default in the case of L. S. liart v." J?. Jenkins, a claim for £l2 18s 1(1. Costs amounting to £1 Us Gd. were allowed. A Wellington press message states tint mo less than nine big steamers, carrying over 8000 New Zealand soldiers, are now on their way back. "With two exceptions all the vessels are due to arrive between the 12tU and ''lt'll April. Ihe hunger for land continues uimppeased (writes the Okinawa correspondent of the Hawera Star). A well known Tokaora farm which was sold recently at somewhere about £3O per acre, has again changed hands at £lO5. Land agents are reaping a rich harvest, and I wis recently informed that in respect to another property which changed hands twice in a few months, this land awts took off it the sum of £(100. This is better than milking cows, and a lot easier. There is nothing thai, I can see to justify these high prices The prospects are that there will be a drop in the value of our dairy produce, and should that eventuate there will be a corresponding drop in land values. Every voter who is in favor of continuance will be interested in the big advertisement which appears on page 7of this issue. It gives some interesting facts regarding the question.

Having abolished proportional representation, the Christehureh City Council, at a special meeting on Friday, decided to conduct tile forthcoming municipal election under the old system, —l'rtss Association.

The housing problem has been acutely brought home by the expected arrival during the next few days of a hundred or so soldiers with their wives (states the Christehureh Sun). The exact number is not known, but it Ls obvious that with an absolute famine in houses to let, few wll be able to immediately commence housekeeping. The Lands Department has received instructions to make the necessary arrangements, but how this is to be done, or possibly why this department has been selected to work the necessary miracle, its perplexed officials probably could not say.

Practically a deadlock has been reached between the Wanganui Borough Council and the Wanganui Fire Board in connection with the latter refusing to pay £SOOO for the present lire station site, and it is probable (states a local paper) that the matter will be tested in the Supreme Court by way of, tin originating summons. One of the councillors has summed up the position thus: "The Fire Board have the horns of the cow and the Borough Council the tail, and it looks as if the legal profession is going to get the milk."

The mantle of Pelorus Jack appears to have fallen on a number of his fel-low-members of the finny tribe (states an exchange). It is a long time now since Pelorus Jack was observed piloting a vessel through the French Pass, and he has cither forsaken the waters which knew him for so many years or has died. A traveller, who recently crossed Cook Strait from Nelson to Wellington by the Mapouritca, states that half a dozen porpoises led the vessel for several miles in the manner made familiar by Pelorus Jack, gamboling backwards and forwards and rubbis^;,themselves ' alongside the stem. Then they departed just as suddenly as they lmd made their appearance. Sailors on the Mapourika stated that the porpoises had been accompanying their ship for the past six weeks or so. If a bush fire destroyed effectively everything in its track the tragedy that has befallen many settlers in the Gippsland and Cape Otway regions from time to time would have been less serious (says the Melbourne Age). Unfortunately, however, it frequently happens that, a great bush fire, rushing across virgin country, causes millions of young 'seeds lying 'buried in the ground to spring into activity,' and the old burnt forest is quickly replaced by a young forest whose density is appalling. Instances are recorded of soldier settlers returning to their Gippsland holdings from active service abroad, to find the effects of the clearing work of years obliterated by an enormous growth of young tree life, 30 to 40 feet high, the mushroom-like crop of bush fires. In much of the Beech Forest afea. however, it is stated, this experience is likely to be less trying, in view of the fact that the areas have suffered a succession of bush fires, which have had the effect of germinating and destroying in turn much of the latent forest life in the soil. Provided, therefore, that the Government follow the recent disastrous fires with prompt assistance to the settlers, it is more than likely, it is stated, that, many of the younger settlers, who have taken to the sawmills of recent years, will return to their semi-abandoned holdings with renewed hope and in the certainty of reaping a rich harvest from the last clean-out by fires.

i "House hunger" still exists in Wellington to an extent probably greater than ever before. It was thought that the terminating of hostilities would herald a drift away from the Empire City on the part of those who had taken up their residence here to be near headquarters whilst their soldier relatives were away, but now, four months after the armistice, congestion is as rife as ever, and the heart of the housebroker rejoices. Why he should be glad is because of the fact that people, being un'able to rent boiwes, or rent them at a reasonable figure, are being forced to buy, and the fact that the eager purchaser is about has a trick of forcing up values. Indeed, many cases could be quoted as showing that he does the forcing himself by offering a figure likely to tempt the owner. The prices now being paid for ordinary four, five, and fix-roomed houses stagger outsiders, and simply amaze those who come from the Old Country. Only recently some cot-tages—five-roomed, at least a quarter of a century old—were sold for £2OOO each, whilst properties in favored areas are proportionately high-priced.—Dominion. Nauru, or Pleasant Island, one of the former German possessions under British occupation over which Mr. Hughes and Mr. Mlassey are reported to be squabbling, lies a few miles south of the equator, to the north-east of the EHiee Group. It is an upraised atoll of circular form about three and a half miles in diameter, the highest elevation being 150 ft. The commercial value of the island lies mainly in the vast deposits of phosphates, extending over 4500 acres. These are worked by the Pacific. Phosphates Company, the phosphate being conveyed by light railways to driers, and then shipped from the jetties in cargo boats to thei steamers which, in fine weather are made fast to buoys close to the edge of the reef. The interior of the island consists of undulating forest land. Though Nauru was surrendered to H.M.A.S. Melbourne in September, 1014, and was included with the rest of the German New Guinea possessions in the capitulation of Herbertsliolie, it was not until November 0 of that year that it was effectively occupied by troops from Eabaul. In accordance with the terms of tlie capitulation local laws and customs have been continued as far as practicable, and a civil administration has been established. The island exports annually phosphates to the extent of roughly 100 000 tons, and also small quantities of copra. T( possesses a wireless station of 00 kilowatt power, erected by the Germans to link up the island with other Pacific possessions and Tsingtau.

A COLONIAL'S VIEWS. New Plymouth is one of the towns to which the Efficiency League are sending a man of outstanding ability from New South V.'alcs—Jlr. A. Bruntnell, M.L.A. Both sides are girding themselves for the eventful April 10. The No-License Party are fortunate in having such a fine exponent of the value to the worker, business man, farmer, as well as the distinct benefit in the domestic sense, that will result from the operation of No License. In Mr. Bruntwcll New Plymouth will lmve an opportunity of hearing the rase discussed by a colonial pretty alive to Dominion conditions, and capable of putting hi* case sympathetically and with great effect. Ke speaks in the Kmpire Theatre on Saturday. "Doors open at 7.30.