LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Another striking increase in totalisator receipts was made at the Grand National meeting, which concluded at Christchurch on Saturday. The total amount handled by the machine for the three days was £213,475, as compared with £167,341 last year. The Union Company's cargo steamer Waikawa arrived in the stream at Wellington on Friday evening direct from San Francisco, with general cargo and 58,000 .«ises; o ftf oil for- discharge at Wellington. ,_■ . ; (irea-fc difficulty is being experienced by the Auckland Harbor Board in accommodating the vessels arriving at the port, though every effort is being made to overcome the shortage of berths. The Mayoress (Mrs. ,T. Clarke) will formally open the new room at the New Plymouth, Library at 3 o'clock to-mor-row afternoon. The room is a very attractive one and contains the reference | library and tables for magazines, one of which, containing ladies' papers, is reI served for the use of ladies.

"Complaint is made to-day about the cost of living, but in 1880 it was so high that people in Wellington were starving. Many residents who -should have been well off were kept poor through the high cost of commodities." So said, an early settler at a meeting of the association in Wellington o*i Wednesday.

"I am beginning to think," writes Mr. Len Barnes from San Francisco, "that prohibition is turning up trumps in this place. There are fewer accidents, so much so that the outside* emergency hospitals are closed except; for bandages, and the central emergency hospital has had its staff of surgeons r-iit from twelve to three. Also the police have fewer duties—one told me his business had dropped 75 per cent." An idea of the railway car shortage In the United States may be gathered from the fact that it is estimated the mills in and around Pittsburg alone hold one million tons of manufactured goods awaiting means of transit. T ! :e danger ir, now that a slowing down in operations will become necessary, which does not point to lower prices foi- goods.

It is reported that substantial supplies of superphosphates arc corning forward from Japan, and that. for supplies have been made v.hirh should provide almost sufficient :':-.• .New Zealand's'requirement!) during i.|j« wining spring. Thpy approximate r;',oij(> t.oi:s. The first shipment to arrive itl Wtfilin;'tnn will be 4000 tons one day next wee': in the Meika Mam. r'uribi'v i-iii'jrojs for other North and South Islan.'! port* are on ihc way. "There ere abroad throughout, the lend very loose ideas as to what, h hr.:i«l.v." said Mr S. F<, McCarthy, o.ttf., at iise Magistrate'scourt in Christ ch.uvii ;n connection with a charge of against a woman. "It is' the. duty ot this court as far as it can, Uv ennvet ithdsc ideas." Those \vh-:» revived articles known to be stolen, ho eontiniK'd, were thieves, and were not .-to be trusted. The crime of 'Stealing (articles from restaurants was becoming a very serious one indeed, and proprietors throughout the Dominion would say that tiuch things were constantly being stolon. A big part of the enormously increased cost of building is that of painting the structure when completed. A speaker at a meeting of the Y.M.C.A. at Palmerston North said that the price of white lead, an essential component of paint, has risen since the beginning of the war from £lO to £IOO per' ton —a six-fold increase. Oils had risen at comparatively the same rate. The cost of labour was the least part of the expenses of the building trade. The same speaker mentioned that from private informatjon he had received there | was every possibility of a-big fall in the price of lead and oils in the near I future.

Referring to the increasing number of motor accidents, the Auckland Star says editorially: "A man who endangers life in this way (he was driving a car while drunk) deaerves to go to gaol and to have his license either cancelled or suspended for five years, at the end of which time he might get it back on production of proof of improved habits. Nothing but such drastic measures will check the selfish and dangerouf) recklessness and carelessness of a small minority of motorists. This urgent matter should be dealt with by Parliament as soon as possible this session."

' The commiUea who have the arrangements of the returned soldiers re-union dinner in hand held a most enthusiasm': meeting on Sailurday evening. An effort is being made to organise tho whoia of North Taranaki for this function, and from correspondence .received from lh« country districts up to the present date, the committee are sanguine that September 23rd (the date fixed for ithe dinner) will witness the largest gathering of returned men ever got together in Taranaki. The committee find ithejnen scattered throughout North Taranaki most keen to meet their old "cobbers," whom, in many cases, they have not seen since they laid aside the uniform for the more genial garb of, the civilian. This is only as it should be, for while there are many things about the war that the ex-soldier wishes to forget, the thought of forgetting one anoher is always distasteful. A business man whoso affairs take him frequently through the Waikato and other dairying districts in the North Island is exercised in his mind regarding the probabte scarcity of cattle in a few years' time. "Too many calves are being slaughtered," he remarked to a representative of the Auckland Star, "At some farms where they used to rear sixty to eighty calves each year, I now find only four or five are saved. This is the outcome of the good'prices that are being paid for the milk. It pays the dairy farmer better to sell the mi'lk than to rear the calves. This is, rff s course, looked at from the point of view of immediate profit, but what of the future? If the calves are not being reared, where is tho supply of cows to come from in a year or two years' time ? One thing is evident, namely, that the price of cattle is not likely to come down unless more calves are reared. 'lt seems to me" that instead of £ls to £2O each, the price of good dairy cows is more likely to be nearer £3O to £4O each.

The.N.ss. Loan and Mercantile Agency draw attention to tbeir usual Stratford sale to-morrow (Tuesday). The dairy stock will be offered promptly at one o'clock. A sitting of .the Supreme Court to deal with a fairly lengthy list of Taranaki criminal and civil cases will open at New Plymouth at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. Mr. Justice Salmond will preside. For Bronchial Coughs, take foods' Great Peppermint Cure, 1/9, 2/B,