LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 February 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Plans for a new liall at Kaponga are being prepared, and will bo submitted to tiie ratepayers in due course. The Health Inspector (Mr. A. Gray) informed an Elthani Argus representative yesterday tliat considerably over a hundred eases of influenza were notified during the past week.

The Borough Council decided last night that steps be taken to submit to the ratepayers a proposal to borrow £71,001) for the purposes of electric power development extensions. The steamer Lorain, which is coming to New Plymouth from New York with a cargo of benzine, left New York on January 3. She will call at Auckland first, where filie U expected any time now

The value of the exports from the port of Patea during the year ending December Hist, 1917, were* £067,922. Last year they reached the colossal total of £a,3(in,sSl. Of this, cheese was responsible for no less than £2,005,33r>. A young Maori, who was brought hefore Air T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., at New Plymouth yesterday morning on a clu.rgo of drunkenness, being a first offender, was convicted and discharged. At last night's meeting of the Borough Council the finance Committee was in.-iiTin-iwl to submit a programme to tinCouncil for the ceremonies in connection with (he entertainment of the Prince of Wales on his visit to New Plymouth.

Mr. Henry Holland, the ex-Mayor of Christchnrch who has been spending a few days in New Plymouth, has expressed an opinion that the streets of lbs borough generally are in a very good condition. Mr. Holland speaks with a due sense of responsibility, having had many years experience in the administration of civic matters in Christchurch, flu (I being thoroughly conversant with' all the difficulties attendant upon local Sody work, and particularly in regard to road maintenance.

The question arose in the Arbitration Court at Wellington yesterday as to whether a collin is a cabinet and coilin-makmg is cabinetmaking, and incidentally whether undertakers who specialised in coffins should be included as parties to the furniture trades award. An undertaker applied for exemption from the award, but his Honor Mr. Justice Stringer would not accept the argument and said that as long as the applicant was a cabinetmaker he must be :i pa:-ty to the award.

"Seeing how well you people are off in New Zealand in every way," said an English commercial man visiting Wellington at the present time, "it is difficult to imagine why the" steamers are being rushed by the public. I can quite imagine that many business men may have to take the trip, hut the people who are looking for pleasure will, 1 am afraid, find themselves sadly disappointed, and not a few will regret having ventured abroad so soon after the war It appears to me that New Zealanders'wil! r.o'; be convinced how well off they are until they realise the trying conditions that are being experienced in England at the present time."

A high compliment was paid to the New Zealand Press by Mr. W Ed"ar Home, M.P., for tho Guildford Division of Surrey, in an interview at Auckland last week. "Yon have splendid newspapers in this country," ho said. "I cannot speak too highly of their really excellent tone. The leading articles are well informed, broad-minded, free from prejudice, and written in thoroughly good English. I inve read both Wellington and Auckland papers, and have found the same to be true of all of them. They are very well made up, and the printing and general appearance is attractive. I spent some weeks in California lately," added Mr. Home, ]'. md I grew very tired of American journalism. It was a very pleasant change to pick up "papers like yours," The financial status of the clergy in New Zealand was referred to by Dr. A. W. Averill, Anglican Bishop of Auckland, at a social gathering in St. Mary's Parish Hall, Pa'rnell, last week (reports an Auckland exchange). Giving it as a message to the vestries and the congregations, he asked the congregations to do their best to help the clergy and to give them really a living wage. Many of the ministers were not getting a living wage now. Whatever they did in England, they did not form unions here, so far as he knew, and they did not strike, but persistently plodded on doing their work on a stipend which many u wntensider would refuse to look at. The secret of the success of the diocese in the future was in the centre,! fund, and if the people used their imagination and thought of the suffering of some of the o orgy at the present time, and helped them, he was certain they would greatly relieve tne hard-working "clergy of many of their anxieties. On Monday next Webster Bros are selling by_ auction, on the ground', the Vlitmra Golf ciub'n House and sheds for removal, also the contents of same, including many useful articles. Particulars m our auction columns. Only a few more days and the Melbournes great sale will he "gone, but not forgotten," but tho memory of the exceedingly low prices will live for a long tune to come. To-day's retail price may be to-morrow's cost. Cotton goods are jumping almost daily. Woolen goods are following suit while silk has reached ,sueh dizzy heights it Will soon be unbuyable. To-morrow Messrs. L. A. Nolan and to. will submit to auction the household furniture and effects of Mr. R. V. S. Broach at the residence, corner Hobson and Lemon streets, New Plymouth Full particulars are advertised. Sale commences at 1.30 o'clock.

At the request of Die Mayoress (Mrs. K. H. Clarke) the Council* last night gave permission for the erection of stalls in the /streets on Saturday, March Otb, in connection with the Library and Muslim Day, which is to be held fer the purpose of raising money for these institutions-

The Borough Inspector (Mr, R. Day) wrote to the Council last )iight, suggesting that on Saturday, 28th inst., a unitod effort he made to exterminate rats by the laying of poison, and that residents be invited to co-operate, and that poison should lie laid especially along creeks and streams, and that the 'Council should lay poison alsng the waterfront. In regard to the "death instrument" to he. used the inspector said any of the poisons on the market were good, but he suggested strychnine and sausage meat. A short discussion took place, in which the need for such effort was generally admitted, but ihe matter was deferred for the present.

A peculiarity of the Licensing Act was illustrated in the Police Court at Auckland last week (reports the Star), when the licensee of the Rising Sun Hotel, John J. Sullivan, wa3 charged with supplying liquor to Vincent Hayes, a youth of 10 years. The Act provides that for a prosecution to succeed it must be shown that the offender is apparently under the statutory age, and in this case, as soon as Haves entered the witness box, Mr. J. E. Wilson, S.M., remarked that there was nothing in his appearance to excite suspicion that he was under that prescribed age. He therefore dismissed the information. Similar action was taken with an additional charge of a breach of the antishouting regulations, in which the evidence w'as too conflicting to justify a conviction.

W. 11. .Tamos, builder and contractor, Opunake, announces in this issue that he is prepared to undertake all classes of building and contracting, whether in town or country. Mr. Jamos has almost completed two houses for Opunakc residents and is therefore a variable for giving estimates to those about to build. ■