LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Wairoa Freezing Company has substantially reduced its charges for the freezing and storage of meat.

The slump in New Zealand timber is likely to prove a serious set-back to many West Coast mills. It is officially stated that owing to lack of orders the mills will probably have to close down until better conditions rule.

The New Zealand Trade Review says: “There is not much change in the money mirket since our last report, though we hope the turning point lias been reached so far as the balance of trade is concerned, which is the principal controlling factor.”

Miss Gladys Gamman, the elocutionist who has been appearing at the Male Choir concert season in New Plymouth, paid a visit to the Old People’s Home yesterday, and treated the inmates to a number of elocutionary items, which were highly appreciated.

During April 56 men were employed on the east end of the Stratford—Main Trunk railway, and a similar number were engaged on the west end. There were 36 men working on the Opunake— Te Roti line. The number of men employed in the Stratford Public Works district was 232.

A meeting of the Taranaki-Wanganui branch of the New Zealand Sanitary Inspectors’ Association was held in New Plymouth yesterday. The meeting discussed a large amount of executive business, including remits to be forwarded to the, general council, which sits at Wellington in July. The subjects dealt with included qualifications of plumbers and inspectors, school - hygiene, and superannuation for local bodies’ inspectors. A young man named Archie Cecil Hooker, of New Plymouth, aged about 23 years, was arrested by DetectiveSergeant Cooney yesterday on a charge of obtaining a noxious thing with intent to procure abortion. The accused was brought before Mr. T. Furlong, J.P., and on the application of the police was remanded to appear before the Magistrate on June 9. Bail was allowed.

The production of margarine in Britain last year was four times as much as in 1913. Taking the combined consumption of butter and margarine in the United Kingdom in 1913 and comparing it with that of 1920, the butter percentage of the Whole fell in the seven years from 55 per cent, to 26J per eent. Before the war, according to the Economist, whose figures agree very closely with those of Weddel and Co., the per capita consumption of margarine was 8t pounds and of butter 17 pounds, whereas last year butter had fallen to 8 pounds and margarine had increased to I'7 or IS pounds per annum.

Newton King’s Haymarket sale will He tnvid to-day, aJJU. o’elock.

The grave of Charles Armitage Brown on the northern slope of Marsland Hill, New Plymouth, has now been completely uncovered and marked with white stones set in the turf.

Some 10,000 boxes of butter salvaged from the fire at the Patea Freezing Works have been disposed of by the underwriters at what are considered satisfactory prices. The greater part of the butter that was sold brought Id to 2d per pound below market rate. Much of it was disposed of in the South Island at Is 9Ad per lb. It is being stated (saye a London correspondent) that Sir Robert Hadfield, who probalbly knows as much about projectiles as any man living, does not agree with* Lord Jellicoe as to the inferior nature of the British shells fired at Jutland. He has had the opportunity of making German armor-piercing shells, and his conclusion is that at the battle of Jutland, the British ships possessed the better projector. This is a different story than that usually heard about the inferiority of our naval munitions.

“Members sat up and rubbed their eyes,” says a Scottish newspaper of recent date, in a Parliamentary report, “when Mr. Clyrtes, chairman of the British Labor Party, strolled into the House of Commons in evening dress and dropped into his accustomed place on the Opposition Front Bench. Presumably, Labor feels that it has got to live up to its dignity as His Majesty’s . Opposition. After the Coalition it is the biggest party in the House. The first appearance of a Labor man in the House in evening dress is a portent of 'the times. Labor took kindly to *he Topper’ a long time ago, and ifT seems a far cry now to the days of Keir Hardie and his cloth cap.”

The Ku Klux Klan organisation is composed of native Americans, whose fathers were also native Americans. It proposes to stand for the enforcement of law, the protection of womanhood, separation of Church and State, and the supremacy of the white race. Commenting upon the last item, the “Bapjtist” has the following:—‘lf this iltem is to be understood in its historical significance, then in this year 1921 we hdve the spectacle of a rapidly-growing 'secret order bound under oath to deprive the negro forever of the right guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the United .States, and by whatever measures of fraud or force to keep him in subjection as a servile race.” This hint to any person putting down a concrete path may be accounted of value (writes the Wyndham Herald): Frequently such paths are disfigured by cracks in the surface where each mixing gives out or where work is suspended for the night. It may be obviated by stretching a barbed wire within a little of each sjde of the line of path, to. be covered with the concrete and reinforce it. The effectiveness has been proved by experience. Never a crack appears in paths so reinforced. In ceasing work for the night, an abrupt end should not be left but a slope, so that the fresh mixture, well moistened, may overlap a little. This hint was supplied to us by a practical man. A former New Zealander, writing to a Dunedin paper about the work of the Women’s Institute, says: “I was amazed at the talent displayed. When one comes to think all the excellent work is entirely carried out at the various villages in these districts, and by women who are not skilled workers in any particular craft, it only shows the brain there must be behind it. The needlework was exquisite and impossible to describe in its wonderful variety. Then there was quite a large collection of original work; for instance, there was some wonderful feather work, made from the waste feathers picked up in farmyards. You would hardly believe how charming these articles were, and the dainty feather clusters and aigrettes for millinery purposes were altogether delightful. Besides these things, thip waste product had been ingeniously utilised in making dusters and other things for which it has been found eminently suitable. These women’s institutes,, of which I have previously spoken, have borne excellent fruit, and are intended to teach the women of this country of all classes, especially those Who live far from big centres, to be useful, and to make the best use of the material, whether food, fruit, material, or any sort of product, which may come to hand.” The price of bricks to-day is £5 10s per 1000. There are five brick-making yards in and around Wellington, and the ?tock on hand to-day is estimated to be sufficient to last for three months at the present rate of consumption (says the Post). “Probably very few of our industries,” said a brick manufacturer to a Post reporter, “show such a high ■ratio of wages paid to the value of materials produced as does the brick industry.” Figures placed before a representative of the Post show that the , wages paid in the yard account for no less than £2 2s for every 1000 bricks burned, while coal accounts for £1 10s per. 1000. “When it is realised,” stated the Post’s informant, “that before the war bricks were sold for something like £2 5s per 1000, it is not difficult to understand why prices have increased when the wages alone to-day account for what was practically the selling price of a few years ago. Still closing down is hot going to bring down prices, nor is it in the best interests of the community in the time of stress we are now passing through. It would be infinitely more advantageous to the community if the present surplus of materials could be utilised, and while the city is suffering from such a dearth of dwellings for its inhabitants it would seem only business sense to endeavor to keep in employment the men at present engaged in the brick industry, and at the same time find employment for many of those out of work to-day. The advantage to the community would be incalculable from every point of view.”

Over one thousand square feet of floor space. has been added to the Bon Marche drapery and clothing business at Eltham. To save shifting of goods, and to celebrate the opening of a magnificent showroom, a big sale, when prices will be revolutionised, will commence on Wednesday next.