LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 May 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At yesterday’s hide and skin sale at Stratford ox hides advanced from 2d to 2£d, and cow hides from id to Id per lb, equivalent to an advance of about 40 per cent, on the previous sale. Best ox hides brought up to 13d, and stout cows up to 7 5-Bd. More military equipment is reaching Wellington, the latest consignment to arrive being about one hundred field gun limbers, which have been temporarily parked on one of the wharves. The military authorities are reticent about this equipment (writes our Wellington correspondent.) Some of it was paid for during the war and other portions have been acquired since the armistice. Trentham camp lias been converted into a military storehouse on a large scale, and it appears that if another war comes within the next few years. New Zealand will be able to equip a division without sending orders overseas. At the New Plymouth Victoria League rooms last night the council entertained the junior associates, to mark the occasion of Empire Day, to a. social evening. The young people contributed a musical programme and various other items, including fancy dancing. Archdeacon F. G. Evans gave a very interesting and instructive address on the British Empire, taking his hearers on an imaginary journey through • various parts of'the Empire, the journey commencing at Auckland by steamer. The address was attentively listened to, and at the conclusion Archdeacon Evans promised to give further similar addresses.

The Gaming Commission, which is to make recommendations to the Government regarding ffihe distribution of totalisa’tor permits, has not yet completed its deliberations, and its report may not reach the Minister of Internal Affairs until next month (says the Dominion). It will be the duty of the Minister to consider the report and then make a recommendation. based upon the report, to Cabinet. If additional permits are granted they will require to be allotted at the beginning of the racing season in August. The Government, is not giving away much information about the sugar contract at. present (writes our Wellington correspondent). A new contract has to be negotiated shortly,, but it appears that when the .present contract ends in a few weeks the Government will have in hand a large quantity of sugar delivered by the Colonial Sugar Company at present prices, and this stock will have to be marketed before a lower price rules. Sugar is bound to be cheaper, but a return to the old price is not anticipated. The official view is that New Zealand will be wise to pay a reasonable price for an assured supply of »ood quality sugar, rather than become dependent on the vagaries of the world market.

The charge against Stuart J. D. Russell, of indecently assaulting a little girl eight years of age at'the East End Reserve on February 19, on which two juries disagreed, was disposed of by Mr. Justice Reed at the Supreme Court in New Plymouth yesterday When the Court resumed Mr. C. H. Weston, in accordance with instructions from the Crown Law Office, applied for a new trial. His Honor said lie had very carefully considered the matter, and in view of the fact that it was quite a young child giving evidence, and the possible moral effect upon her of haring to repeat that evidence over and over again, he had decided, although it was usual to grant a third trial, to refuse the application under the circumstances, and accused was therefore discharged. Owing to the high cost of new suits, costumes, dresses, etc., thousands of people are now having their garments renovated, thereby saving the cost of new ones. The firm of J. K. Hawkins and Co., dry cleaners and steam dyers, have one of the most up-to-date plants in New Zealand for doing this class of work, and they receive goo ls to renovate from ah parts of the country. At the cost of r. few shillings soiled and faded garments can be made equal to new. Now is the time to economise—so have a losk ever your wardrobe.—Advt.

A horse that had cost £2 4s Cd to keep in the Manawatu county pound, was recently sold for one shilling. About 200 objections have been lodged to the new valuations in Masterton County. At last someone in the soft goods has struck*a new name for a sale. At Pahiatua a draper is running a “Cheerup Sale.” The men who discovered the new gold reef in the Reefton district are asking £lOO,OOO in cash and 5Q,000 paid-up shares for their claim. Included in the recent fall in prices of household commodities is starch, about 25 per cent., methylated spirits about 20 per cent., haricot beans about 5d per lb, fruit 3d to 4d per tin, currants about 2d. Various brands of soap have also recently declined. A successful trial of an invention known as a “stopping place indicator” was held on a tram-car at Napier. The device displays the stopping place, which a car is approaching, to the passengers, automatically, and the invention is likely to be adopted by the Napier Borough Council.

Sir Andrew Russell, in the course of a lecture to the Wellington United Officers’ Club, warned officers against believing that any troops were immune from panic. Panic was a danger that had to be avoided, and it happened to be highly infectious. "My receipt for warding off an attack of it is to take three deep breaths and tell yourself not to be a fool,” said General Russell. He added that he had been very glad that the German tanks were not more numerous on the day the New Zealanders first met them. The troops met them and got the best of them, but he personally 'had been pleased that there were no more.

Thursday’s Golden Bay Times states: “The cessation of work at Tarakohe at midnight on Saturday last, after continuing uninterruptedly for the past eleven years, is the means of throwing upwards of 100 men out of work. The marble works, as previously stated, have already ceased operations, let us hope temporarily, which leaves the Onakaka Iron and Steel Works the only industry in operation, and that only in its embryonic stage. It is sincerely to be hoped that the cement industry will shortly be resumed and avert what threatens to be a local financial crisis. The hands were paid oft on Wednesday.” The offence of having obtained £l9 on valueless cheques was admitted by a well-dressed man, Vincent Joseph Leathern (38) at the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. He had been arrested by Detective McHugh when lift was at work in the Portland cement works under the name of Paddy Doyle. The man’s history was one of a downward drift during the past few years. Fe had been a farmer of fairly comfortable means at Elt'ham, but four years ago had left his wife, family and farm, and had gone adrift and was drinking a good deal. Last month he met a former Eltham acquaintance in Auckland, who, unaware of Leatham’s change of circumstances, had introduced him to an hotelkeeper, and on the strength of the introduction Leatham cashed cheques for £7 and £l2 with the licensee, the paper being drawn on a Hawera bank with which accused now had no account. This was accused’s first conviction for dishonesty, and in view of the fact that he had the offer of a steady job he was admitted to probation for three years, with a condition that he should refund the £l9 within six months.

Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., had a rather interesting case before him at Auckland last week, in which a landlord sought possession of a five-roomed cottage in Turner Street, occupied by an old lady. Plaintiff owned the adjoining premises, a boardinghouse with 20 rooms. He purchased the cottage occupied by the defendant, and -gave her notice to quit. The old lady, who is •65 years of age, and is in receipt of the old-age pension of 15s per week, stated that she had rented the cottage for twenty years. Her rent was 18s per week. She let rooms to three old men, each over 60 years of age. She had been a widow for over 28 years. The rent she got for the three * rooms was 15s, 10s and 7s per week. “You want t<? make a living out of this house,” said counsel, to which the old lady frankly replied, “Of course I do, and he bought this house so as to extend his own business.” Mr. Poynton said it would be a hardship to turn out the tenant, as shq could not rent another room and live on her pension of 15s per week. It was true she was making a few shillings per wei?k by letting rooms, but it could not be held to be any hardship for the applicant, who had twenty rooms in the other house he owned. The order was therefore refused.—Star.

Taking advantage of the visit of Mr. Cumming (Government electrical engineer attached 'to the Post and Telegraph Department) to Hawera yesterday, a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce waited upon him in regard to the telephone requirements of Hawera. It was pointed out that upwards of 150 people were waiting to have telephones installed, hud some of these had been on the waiting list for nearly two years. Mr. Cumming said the whole difficulty was in obtaining supplies of cable and telephones. During the whole period of the war not a scrap* of < cable could be obtained, and the Government had only just within the last month or so landed part of an order placed in 1913. Of the Wellington province’s share of this Tlawera was obtaining seven-tenths, so that they would see that Hawera was not being unfairly treated. Mr. Fairburn, engineer in charge at Wanganui, would get to work at once, and this allotment of cable should enable from 50 to 100 connections to be made within the next three or four months. He could not, however, promise that that number of telephones would be installed when the cable connections were made,, because of the shortage of instruments. As a special favor, and by paying a high price, the Government had been able to place an order for 7000 telephones to arrive in May, with a further extension of time for two months if necessary. These instruments had not yet arrived. An event of more than ordinary interest this week is the “Overcoat Week,” which is now in full swing at the New Zealand Clothing Factory. Each year, at this period Ltd.” devote one special week for the showing of the new season’s overcoats, and this year it has the decided added attraction of a discount of 4s in the pound off all Men’s and Boys’ Overcoats and Raincoats. Remember. this big reduction is for this week only.—New Zealand Clothing Factory, New Plymouth.

Smokers who know will tell you that the secret of perfect enjoyment of tobacco lies in the pipe. Real contentment is only secured by smoking a Loewe, Civic, Dunhill, or Imperial pipe? See the wide selection of these, famous briars at W. H. Preece’s, Tobacconist, Devon Street Central. All shapes.

The Auckland Star says:—The price of gas stoves in New Zealand has gone up to an alarming level. One popular make, (for which the landed cost in 1914 was £5 ss, had risen by Decembex* last to £lO 2s 9d, and is now £l3 Is 2d; another make, the landed cost of which in 1914 was £3 2s 7d, is now £7 9s Id. If the stove-making industry cannot exist under these prices it is high time that the works were closed down. And because New Zealand was "threatened” with cheaper gas stoves their importation into the Dominion was prohibited! The shortage of money is beginning seriously to affect the building trade in Wellington, and as the result of a falling away in the demand, for material, it is anticipated that the prices of timber and fittings may shortly decline, in sympathy with the fall in cement. The cost of building in Wellington is still 100 per cent, above pre-war rates, but owing to the restrictions imposed by the banks and the raising of rates of interest, building has ceased to be brisk. The demand for high-priced material has sensibly decreased during the past month.—Dominion.

Our sister planet, Venus, is now a magnificent object in the eastern sky before sunrise, writes Mr. C. L. Wragge in the Aucland Star. It appears like the crescent moon, and being comparatively near the earth at this time, her light casts a distant shadow. The planet may even be seen in broad daylight by those having good sight, and should be looked for about 15 degrees west from the sun. As the axis of Venus is inclined to the plane of its orbit about 16 degrees, the seasons of about eight weeks each will be much more extreme than is the case with the earth, the tropics virtually extending from pole to pole with alternating excessive cold. The day of Venus is about half an hour shorter than our day, and observation so far seems to show that she has lofty mountains far exceeding the height of Mount Everest. The grav> ity is rather less than that of our world, so that alpine climbing would be a little less arduous. Venus will, attain greatest brilliancy on May 28. so that even a photograph could be taken by her light with adequate exposure, and will be quite close to the waning moon on June 3, when the spectacle in the early morning sky will be superb. “I would say,” writes a New Zealand farmer from Queensland, "that there are no bigger horse teams in the world than are to be found away up on the sheep stations in the North of Australia. It is quite common to see great huge wool wagons drawn by from thirty to forty horses, and these wagons will have from sixty to a hundred bales of wool piled on to them. The teams are quite different from anything we know Ln New Zealand and no reins are used. The horses are trained to obey the driver as bullocks and the bullock driver is noted for a vernacular peculiarly his own, so the horse driver in Queensland has evolved a language suitable to lus surroundings and his work, which makes him a class apart, but a good-hearted fellow wtho helps every traveller he meets and often shares his lunch with the ‘dead beats’ to be met with on the road. The wool wagons traverse long stretches of country, but\are quite as slow as our bullock teams, which do not travel more than ten or fifteen miles a day. The animals are turned loose at night, and feed on the grass to be found in the vicinity. No hard feed is carried in the wagon, and the horses are so well used to their job that usually they return to their wagons in the morning to be harnessed up.”