LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The following poultry championships have been allotted for competition to the Hawera Winter Show: Utility White Leghorns (;■:.-;!?), Indian Runner duck, Utility Whit .Vyandottes. A record price for town property at Hawera was touched at an auction Bale on Saturday, when a section in the heart of the town, facing High Street, having a thirty-four feet frontage, realised £225 per foot. Two other sections facing a new street brought £lO9 *per foot.— Press Assn.

The question of the medals for presentation in connection with last year's show was mentioned at Saturday's meeting of the general committee of the Taranaki A. and P. Society. The president stated that the delay in getting them ready for presentation was due to the difficulty of getting them engraved and it was hoped that they would be available in a short time.

Mr W. I. Lovelock's dispersal sale of hia Friesland Park pedigree Friesian herd was held at the Palmerston show grounds on Wednesday. Representative buyers were present, top prices being cows 220 guineas, and one and two-year-old heifers 147 and 131 guineas respectively. There was keen competition for heifer calves up to 90 guineas. The performance of the New South Wales orchestra, at Hawera evoked immense enthusiasm. M. Verbrugghen, the conductor, said (reports the Star) that one particular reason for which they wished to see Hawera was to see the home of their esteemed co-worker, Frank Hutchens, who was held in high appreciation in Sydney and was a great personal favourite. "We are proud of him, and you may be envious of ns," he added. "If you have any more like him," he said, endorsing Mr Hill's remarks, "we hope you will send them over to the Conservatorium."

A graceful compliment was paid to Mme. Goossens Viceroy at Hawera. She, as well as her husband' and M. Verbrugghen, are from the little country of Belgium. When she came on to acknowledge the applause that followed her first song little Betty Edwards, dressed in Belgian costume and carrying the national flag, presented her with a pretty Ijouquet. Mme. Goossens highly appreciated the compliment, and made a direct appeal to her audience when she bent and kissed the little maid.— Star.

In connection with Lieut.-Commander Bourkc's illustrated lecture to he given at the Empire Theatre to-morrow night, it is interesting to note that Chief Motor Mechanic Batey, of New Plymouth, was a special volunteer on the coastal motorboat at Ostend on April 12. This boat was lost.' Batey's body was washed ashore and buried at Dunkirk with full naval honors. The deceased's parents live in New Plymouth. Among other New Zealanders who took part in the exploit were Lieuts. Le Pine, Jones and Turnbull (Wellington), Lieut. Jackson (Picton), and Lieut. Hancock (Christchurch). "At the commencement of the month," reports the New Plymouth Borough Engineer, "the visible supply of gravel was small, and I recommended sending to Xapicr for a quantity to enable the work to be kept going. This, with the local and Waitara supply, has placed us in a j better position to cope with the season's work, and will allow of building up a J reserve against possible future shortage. Kecently I have received an excellent sample from South Taranaki, and inquiry is being made regarding quantity, I etc, available." Brigadier-General Pcichardson has expressed the opinion mat tubercular trouble among soldiers was going to give the country a great deal of worry. He suggested that at the next medical conference the matter should be thoroughly discussed. At present nothing beyond the building of sanatoria was being clone. Certainly the men were receiving treatment; but as soon as they were discharged very many of them broke down again. He reckoned there were about 12,000 returned soldiers suffering from tuberculosis.

The extraordinary discrepancy that sometimes occurs between the taxable and the marketable value of a property was strikingly exemplified in the course of tho proceedings of the North Auckland Land Board (states the Styr). As recently as March, last year, a property that is now on offer to a returned soldier was valued for taxation purposes at £1450. At the meeting of the land board it transpired that there was a mortgage on the porperty of £200(1, while two experienced valuers with knowledge of the district uospectivclv valued the property at ,£27'00 and £2900. Thus between the mean, of the two latest valuations and tho taxation valuation there was a difference of £1330

Trooper D. W. Banks, 19 years of age, son of Mr. W. Banks, of Kirnbolton, returned from active service a few days ago. He left New Zealand in 11)18, worked his passage Home, and enlisting in' King Edward's Horse served on the Western front. Later, he volunteered for North Russia and took part in the Archangel operations with Carrol's cavalry. On the evacuation of this front he returned to London. .Speaking of the Russians in (ho northern sector. Trooper Hanks -aid the majority were "Bolshevik sympathisers, and could not be relied upon, while it was estimated that of the Archangel population fullv 7.1 per cent were pro-Bolshevik. As the Holshcviks on the northern front would not fight it was possible for the British force" to have advanced to IMrograd, but all the time Us lines of communication Avould have been menaced by the population in the rear, and 50 nothing of much value could be done.

On Tluiiwla,- „cx(. a f "Elmiua." Whiiiuakura, the I'aniieiV Co-operative f™; 1 ™ w ; ! " '»'!tl .1 dispell sale of Mild Hock Lincoln s l lM , p am i n vdes _ dale pedigree draught, m ;>.res and a few well bred hacks, on !>ci> :i jf of Mr h Q lircmcr. Details will !, 0 found on page \ The sale Rhoiild r. e one of the most attractive of the season.

Tne N.Z. Loan and Mercantile draw attention to the sale they are holding in their Stratford yards to-morrow, at It ! noon. Full particulars of stock to ho ollered will be found on paae S of this issue.

Anyone wnntine pood building sites should entire about the two sections to be of.ered bv auction bv Mr Xewton Kins on the 24th inst. The sections are close to and overlooking the East. End beach, the view is very good, and thev are sheltered from prevailing? winds. The end of the season "special week" commences at the New Zealand Clothing Factory to-day, the ]oth instant, At tliis event many bargains in clothing, mercery and boots can be secured by the thrifty parents lifting their "boys" out for the new school term, and they will be able to make substantial savings.—New Zealand Clothing Factory,

"Some of the darkest pictures in society to-day' are due to marriages eon' tracted after the proper mating period has passed," says Dr, Henson, Bishop of Hereford, in support of early marriages. It is not generally believed that horses possess a sense of humor, but an incident that occurred recently in Colombo Street suggests that they have (says the Lyttelton Times). A cab horse standing near an empty motor-car began t.c gently lick the rubber on the motor horn, with the result that the horr sounded. Passers-by stopped to laugh, Again and again the horse, with ears laid back, blew blasts on the horn, until an unimaginative policeman interfered and spoiled the sport. Several of the spectators positively declared that they saw the horse Bmile. Whole towns in America, especially on the Pacific coa9t, are engaged in nothing else but producing film plays. There is lots of money in the business—the "Birth of a Nation" cost £40,000 to produce, but the producer pocketed something like £l,ooo,ooo—and there is recklessness of expenditure. Chaplin, who used to be glad to eafn £3 a week, has just refused a contract of £250,000 for a year's work, and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks have each turned up their noses at £200,000 a year, which means appearing in about a dozen pictures, though Chaplin limits himself to sis a -year. Actors and actresses j*7ho a few years ago were doing splenusHly with £3O or £4O a week now receive £IOO,OOO a year. In the course of an interview with a Press representative in Auckland, Misß Gilbert, of the British Overseas Mission, said:—"We shall tell the women of England that there is very little chance for them in New Zealand in clerical work, but splendid opportunities as domestic helpers and industrial workers, Although wages in England have increased since the war, they are still far below the average wage 'in New Zealand. The £1 or 25s a week that the New Zealand domestic demands, and readily obtains, is far above the sum paid for really competent service in the Old Country, and it is because English girls are no longer willing to work for such wages that they arc looking out for a chance to do better in a new country." The age of giants is not past. Leonard Mason, a youth of 16, who lives with his parents at Leicester, turns the scale at 295t., and is probably the heaviest boy in Great Britain. Some of his measurements are:—Arm. 23in.; chest..G4 J /jin.; thigh, 38in.; calf, 24£ in. Like theft parents, the other members of the family, two sisters and a younger • brother, are normal. Leonard himself was quite an ordinary baby, though very early ir, life he began to show signs of extraordinary development, and it may be said of this budding Daniel Lambert that he has never looked back. His health if wonderfully good, and' his complexion is one that ladies might envy He is a perfectly happy boy, and two of his enthusiasms are music and football. A gramophone is one of his most prized possessions, and he goes as often as possible to see the Leicester city matches. Since leaving school some years ago he has been exhibited in several parts of the country. His height is sft 3in. An exciting incident occurred at Coogee (Sydney) recently, when Mr. V. P. Taylor, the balloonist, had a narrowescape from death. He was to ascend' to a height of several hundred feet at the Coogee Carnival, and then come hack to earth by parachute, but when the balloon had risen only about 100 feet it seemed to be slowly falling. The next thing that the thousands of spectators saw was the balloonist jump out with the parachute. But 'because the 100 ft was too low for the parachute to become effective, he came straight down I without any check until within a few I yards of the earth. Then the parachute opened and the balloonist fell into the Cricket Reserve heavily. The spectators believed that he must have been killed, and rushed to where he had fallen. They were surprised when Mr. Taylor sat up. Although the parachute had taken sufficient speed out of the fall to save him from king killed, he was found to be suffering from a broken leg. ' In spite of the profiteering Act, most articles of clothing continue to advance in price, and will bo dearer next spring than they were at the beginning of this year, and dearer still next winter (writes a trade correspondent of a London newspaper). The whole world is in the market for textile rmn<R and production w miite inadequate to meet the demand. Woollen goods are now much higher in price than even during the war, and some cloths are costing 10s a van! more than twelve months ago. Cotton and silk goods are also steadily rising in price. The difficulty in the' trade is to obtain the necessary supplies, and large numbers of machines are standing io> because of this and the shortage of skilled labor. Manufacturers of woollen cloths have their output covered until the autumn of next vear, and in some cases until 1921, and manv of them are not accepting any further business for the next winter season. This means that the supply of overcoatin" cloth will be very short. In the hosierv trade wholesalers are having to par much more than thev obtained for the goods this autumn, and the output of socks is very restricted. Many firms are offering suits and other articles at quite moderate prices, but that is because of the lower quality of the materials. The following story concerning Sir James Carroll, who was defeated for the Oisborne seat, is related by the Kltham Argus:—He was once on board a steamer on an ocean voyage, and, in response to | a request, he gave a lecture on "Maoris.'I There was a certain English war correspondent on board, and he, a few nights afterwards, had the exceedingly bad taste, at a smoke concert, to burlesque Sir James Carroll's lecture in a vulgar, caddish fashion that disgusted and annoyed all except Sir Jame3. He listened quietly, with a face as stolid as that of a sphinx. When the war correspondent had finished, Sir James quietly rose and said that he had been asked to contribute to the evening's entertainment, and lie would give a leeturctte, "My Ex- | periences as a War Correspondent." And then he started off with an imitation of a lecture that had been given in Palmorston North by the famous wnr correspondent. There was not one rough word in it. Delicate satire and irony poured forth in choicest diction. The audience roared, the war correspondent wriggled and squirmed, but Sir James Carroll kept going until the war correspondent jumped from his seat and ended the "leeturctte" by seizing Sir James by the hand, giving it a shake, admitting (hat he had been beaten at his own game, and vowing that he would retire from the lecturing field. Sir James scored heavily that time. Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (Second Group) are notified that subscriptions due and payable to-day (Monday, January 19th), at the Secretary's Office, Currie Street, from 0 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m, to 8 p.m.— A4ts r