LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The for Iboot repairing are about to be reduced in Auckland.

On Friday the Wanganui County Council decided to adopt the Taranaki counties’ joint by-laws.

The prisoners employed on the 1 improvement of the s;oad from Waimarino to Tokaanu* have been doing very good work, and there is now a good motoring stretch for about ten miles.

A Dunedin correspondent states that owing to the slackness of trade, Messrs Reid and Gray, the well-known engineering firm, have suspended work on Saturdays and Mondays. Messrs. Tweedie Bros/ sheep farm of 4000 apres, at Awakino, was recently sold to Mr. H. V. Hammond, of Lismore, Wanganui, for approximately £30,000.

Whales are reported to be numerou: in Foveaux Strait just now, and a largschool was seen off Maori Beach th' other day.

The amount collected in totalisato tax in New Zealand for the last finan cial year was £413,654, compared wit] £497,9'61 for the previous year.

The electrical, engineer (Mr. R. H. Bartley) Jias reported to the New Plymouth Borough Council that the transmission line to Inglewood (which is to carry power for the Inglewood Borough) is all but completed. The report of the New Plymouth borough inspector on work during April states: "Owing to the. scarcity of feed this is the worst time of the year for the pest of stray stock. To put a stop to this nuisance three cases were taken to court and fines were inflicted. It is intended to continue, this procedure.”

"The building trade aas returned to normal,” states the chief inspector (Mr. R. Day) in his report to the New Plymouth Borough Council, for the month of April. Permits to the value of £6BOO were issued and fees amounting to £29 14s were collected.

The Rev. W. Grigg, presklent of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, has received intimation that by the will of the late Mrs. Ann Hawker, of Christchurch, the W-oolston Methodist Church and the Salvation Army will each benefit to the extent of between £lOOO and £2000:

The revenue received from the New Plymouth electric ’bus service during April was £lll 13s Bd, and the passengers carried 10,486. Compared with April last year the increase in fares is £l6 8s lOd, and the increase in passengers carried, 2184. The totals of passengers on the various routes are: Westown, 6125; Frankley Road, 617; Vogeltown, 3744; total, 10,486.

Stock slaughtered for local consumption at the New Plymouth abattoirs in April was as follows: 198 cattle, 57 calves, 809 sheep, 101 lambs, 177 pigs and 7 sucking pigs. Compared with last April they show an increase of 24 calves, 120 sheep, 55 pigs, and a decrease of 7 cattle and 38 lambs. Two cows, 1 calf and 12 pigs were condemned. Fees amounted to £lBO 13s 4d, an increase of £22 Ils 10d.

In accordance with headquarters circular military groups are abolished, and four regimental districts are substituted. In the Central Military Command that embracing Taranaki will 'be known as No. 8 regimental district, and comprises: Headquarters, Hawera; all that area included in the counties of Clifton, Taranaki, Stratford, Whangamomona. Waitotara (excluding the town of Wanganui and suburbs), Patea. Hawera, Eltham, Waimate West and ’Egmont.

An increase of £407 9s lid is shown in the revenue of the New Plymouth tramways for April, as compared with the corresponding month of last year. The monthly report of the manager (Mr. R. H. Bartley) gives the following figures: Passengers carried, 156,223; fares, £1682 Is 6d. Of the foregoing, the Morley Street route carried 1697 passengers, earning a revenue of £96 Is 2d. The report states that the service has been maintained without interruption, and the operation generally is normal.

In reviewing the progress of the New Plymouth hydro-electric works, the resident engineer (Mr. R. L. Peerless), in his monthly report to the Borough Council, states: "Labor has offered well, but unfortunately it Jias been necessary to put men off. This will be the case until such time as we are able to carry on at the three remaining headings, etc. The settling of this matter is in your hands, and it is unnecessary for me to again point out the urgency with which it should be dealt with.”

Reporting to the New Ply mouth Borough Council on the question of traffic control, the chief inspector states: "There is an outcry all over the Dominion for some safeguard at the intersections of streets. A delegate came lately from Canterbury to Hawera to inspect the dumb policeman. We have several very dangerous corners, and something should be done to keep traffic on its correct side. I suggest that at Dr. Home’s corner an experiment could be tried. A promine'nt white mark in the road is all that is required, and if made of stone would be permanent. I should like to see something of the kind tried.”

A Maori boy, who was' charged in the Juvenile Court at Wanganui with ill- > treating a kitten, was ordered to receive * six strokes of the birch. It transpired , that the lad secured, a rope and tied it round the kitten’s neck and dragged it about, and then threw it down a bank, i Then in company with a pakeha boy he dug a hole and buried the kitten alive, and the more the kitten screamed and struggled to be liberated, the harder the boy trampled the earth over it. Mr. M. J. Savage. M.P. for Auckland West, has* forwarded the following telegram to the Hon. G. J. Anderson, Minister of Internal Affairs: "Three him dren and seventy unemployed enrolled at Trades Hal) to date. Largo number 'married men absolutely penniless. What does the Government propose doing? Able-bodied men arc still enrolling.” For Bronchial Coughs, take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 4

A movement is again on foot to petition Parliament to vote pensions for the blind. During the past five years over five miles of Auckland city streets have been paved in concrete. The population of the boroughs of Wailii has decreased from 4774 in 1916 to at the time of the census last month. The number of pensions granted to returned soldiers is 31,764, representing £1,748,86'5 a year, the average pension being £55. In conversation with a Manawatu Tinies representative, Mr. O. Hawken. M.P., who has just returned from a tour of the South Island, stated that although some parts of the south are suffering from the effects of drought, the country generally was looking well, and the farming prospects were most encouraging.

A farmer told a Masterton reporter that on the way in to Masterton from Tinui on Monday he had encountered seven swaggers in a drive of 23 miles. Many of the men on the road now are quite unaccustomed to swagging. They were a good type of young men, and were obviously only swagging under compulsion.

The Wairarapa Age’s Martinborough correspondent states that a most alarming experience happened on Monday morning to Mrs. G. Burls, whose husband is away from home. She was in bed with her two young children, no one else being in the house, when she was awakened by a man with a mask on his face and a pistol in his hand demanding money under threat to shoot the children. There was a small amount under the pillow, and, on receiving this, the miscreant decamped.

Says the Lyttelton Times:—The Government ought to face the fact that juries, who are drawn from the body of the public, very often do not regard betting as a crime. Trial by jury failed years ago in gaming cases in New Zealand, and in consequence the Government reduced the maximum penalty to three months’ imprisonment with the. object of settling the cases summarily before a magistrate. If, however, the Government intends to continue trial by jury it must cease tampering with the verdicts and judgments of the Courts. The Auckland representative of a London firm has written to a Palmerston North business house as follows:

"I have just received the following cables from my principals, and have pleasure in passing on the information, and trust, it will be useful: ‘Market hardening, think lowest point paid. All markets rising, including wool and metals, orders being placed for larger quantities and well ahead.’ From above I gather that prices have reached bottom, and with orders coming in freely, and owing to the present industrial unrest in the Old Country, the natural conclusion is that there, will be a shortage of goods, and prices will have an upward tendency. We would advise placing any urgent requirements at on'ce, to secure lowest possible "The applications received for the supply during last month are 70; the additions made to existing consumers’ installations 12; and the connections made : to supply mains, 45,” states the report on the New Plymouth electricity department by the manager (Mr. R. H. Bartley), “Quite a number of heating circuits have been connected during the month on a restricted hourly basis; also we have refused to accept many applications for heating and power because the consumers could not agree to the guaranteed restriction. If the demand continues as at present it cannot be long ‘before we must even increase this restriction. Owing to the very lieavj r demand on our plant the operation is being very carefully watched and maintained, and I am pleased to have no irregularities to report.” Mr. J. Burgham, late of the Club Hotel Stables, Opunake, has taken over the Opunake Hotel Stables, where he is at the service of the travelling public.

The Tariki Football Club’s usual fortnightly social will be held in the Tariki Hall to-morrow (Tuesday) evening.

Now is the time to select your new coating. The display of thls latest fabrics all specially reduced at Morey’s will make your call at this fashion house the week's most interesting shopping event for you. Why not to-day? Referring to the performance of "The Country Girl,” given in Wanganui recently, when Madame Emily Briggs played the part of the "Indian Princess,” the Wanganui Chronicle said:— "Amongst the individual performers it i£ difficult to pick out any one of outstanding merit, so good were they; but we must admit that Madame Briggs not only sang magnificently, but she gave evidence of the possession of histrionic powers of no mean order.”