LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A new hot spring bore at Heiensville has produced a yield equivalent to 140,006 gallons a day.

Ratana, the Maori healer, returns from his northern tour this week, and will spend a few days among the natives around Auckland. A seam of coal has been struck in the Whakatane Borough Council’s quarry. The seam,has been uncovered in two places, and dips sharply down in a south-west direction.

The New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company at a meeting of shareholders at Hamilton, decided to increase the capital of the company from £400,000 to £1,000,000. The Dominion Show at Ha were, was brought to a close on Saturday in fine weather, when there was again a vejry large attendance. A right whale was found “stranded” on Sunday last on the Eoxton beach, about eight miles from the heads. It is about 33ft. in length. The value of the blubber is variously estimated at from £BO to £2OO.

“Local builders may not like the idea of houses being landed on our wharves like motor-cars,” said a Wellington land agent, “but American mills are turning them out in wholesale quantities, with the parts all numbered and marked in such a way that they can be erected in two or three weeks. The present cost of building is very high and money is scarce, but the imported house may come to New Zealand from Canada sooner than expected.” Linens are still very scarce, and prices are rising. A big Christchurch concern endeavored to place a large order at Home for high-grade linens, and received a cablegram indicating that Belfast prices have advanced recently from 15 to 20 per cent. Linen at the moment is considerably cheaper in New Zealand then in either London or Belfast.

This is a good one from the Feilding Star: “It shows you how little interest the women took in the fight,” said the local typical Scot the other day. “When I went home to lunch I said to my wife: •Well, the Frenchman was knocked out In the fourth round.’ ‘Was lie?’ she said. ‘And where did Kirkwood come

A senseless joke was perpetrated at Napier between 11 and 11.30 o’clock on a recent night. A telephone message was received at the Napier police station to the effect that burglars had been busy at a certain house. Promptly two constables were sent up to make inquiries. Owing, however, to the vague directions concerning the exact locality, the police were compelled to visit several houses. This naturally led to some alarm being created, and residents hardly knew what to expect, although assurance was not lacking by those who knew that there were two constables in the neighborhood.

A paragraph in a recent issue stated that a young man had walked from Auckland to Wanganui failing to find employment en route. A few days ago a man with boots worn out arrived at Taihape, having walked from Wellington without having the good fortune to find a job. He called at the police station and begged to be locked up on a charge of vagrancy, in order that he could obtain food and rest for a few days. A good deal of long-distance walking appears to be indulged in of late by men in quest of work. On two different occasions recently the. engineer of the Waitotara County Council (Mi. Dix) met sailors on the main road in country, who intimated that they had walked from Wellington and were on their way to New Plymouth in the hope of getting a ship there.

Have you received a catalogue for the South Taranaki Jersey Breeders’ sale on Tuesday next, at the A. and P. show grounds, Hawera?* Tristram and Co., land agents, Eltham, are advertising 118 acres for sale on page 7, the price being £35 per acre, with £lOO cash.

At the Hawera Magistrate’s Court on Saturday Rhys Ernest McKenzie was charged with having on the Sth inst. indecently assaulted a girl under 16. He was remanded till the 13th, bail being fixed at £2OO, accused £lOO and two sureties of £5O each.

General lines of chemicals are getting short in New Zealand as a result of importers holding off in a falling market. This applies particularly to tartaric acid, cream of tartar, citric acid, caustic soda, borax, and alum. Sulphur is in better demand. Saltpetre is selling well. Salt is rather scarce, and English brands are almost unobtainable.

Yesterday afternoon there was a large attendance of townspeople at Kawaroa Park, when a recital was given by the New Plymouth Citizens’ Band. The programme rendered by the band, under the conductorship of Mr. Lowe, was appreciatively received. Among the items were “Australis” (a cornet solo by Bandmaster Taylor), “Recollections of Scotland,” and the. novelty song, “Oh, by Jingo.” The collection, which will be devoted to the contest fund, realised about £l6.

Fair supplies of fish are available for the Auckland market despite recent rough weather in the Hauraki Gulf. Hapuka are very plentiful in the gulf at present. ■Schnapper, though not so plentiful, are about equal to the demand. One of the municipal trawlers was expected to return from a cruise on the West Coast the other day, after a week’s absence. The heavy weather during the wek-end will probably have interfered with her operations. One of Sanford, Ltd.’s trawlers was also working on the West Coast.

About 250 boys of the New Plymouth High School journeyed to Hawera on Saturday to witness the inter-collegia *3 match between Wanganui College and the New Plymouth High School. They were well treated by the people of Hawera, who provided them with luncheon and afternoon tea, and they returned home in the evening after having .bad an enjoyable day. The members of both collegiate schools were entertained to dinner by the Taranaki Rugby Union, who also arranged for their comfort afterwaMs. The primary schools’ teams were also entertained to funcheon.

A Masonic medallion, bearing date 1516, which, though discovered in Ireland some years ago, was unknown to the Masonic authorities until recently, lias been, handed over to Mr. R. W. Wilson, Provincial Grand Secretary of Tyrone and Fermanagh. The medallion was found by the caretaker in the wall of an old country house in Derganyneville, near Dromore, County Tyrone, belonging to Mr. J. J. Nelson. It was covered with soot, and had evidently been hidden in the chimney of the house, which was built in the old wattle-and-clay style, now almost obsolete in Ireland. The members of the Dublin Masonic Lodge of research believe that it is one of the oldest Masonic emblems in Ireland, and the date it bears is 101 years before the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England, the mother Grand Lodge of the World.

■Sentences of three months’ hard labor for theft were imposed on Thomas Lake and Patrick J. Curtin at the Hawera Magistrate's Court on Saturday. The charge on which accused were convicted was of having stolen on the Bth inst. at Hawera one. raincoat, one pair of underpants, one pair of socks, and two handkerchiefs, of a total value of £4 15s, the property of George Williams. Messrs. McNeill and S. Blake, J.P. s, presided. At the time of his arrest on this charge there was another warrant out for Curtin in connection with the alleged theft of a motor car at Hastings some time ago. It is alleged that, together with an accomplice, Curtin took the car and drove to Taradale, where the machine was later found abandoned in a damaged condition on the roadside near a cliff. This charge is still pending. Both prisoners were conveyed to the New Plymouth gaol on Saturday.

A leading business man in the retail soft goods trade, in discussing the situation at Wanganui with a Herald reporter, made it clear that the traders were heartily tired of sales, and also ventured the opinion that the fall in prices has reached the nadir. “The existing condition of continuous special sales has been caused mainly by money tightness and not by reason of goods bought at lower prices,” he remarked. “The tremendous importations during the past twelve months tried the financial resources of many traders to the utmost. The pressure put on by vhe banks, who also had limits, and the need for cash have compelled many traders to dispose of their stock, in some cases with small margins of profit, and in others at an actual loss. It is also to be remembered that the importation figures were made to lopk large by the recent inflated values of goods, and in some measure were not due to increases jn the quantities of goods.

The flocking of so many women undergraduates to Oxford has made that old English city a new place. It is not only that the cap-and-gown—-a most becoming gear—is being worn this term for the first time, and that virgin pride in it persuades the women i>? hug it as surely as the men shun it. Women are, in fact, as well as in appearance now, almost as much a part of Oxford as the men. To the ‘ undergraduate” proper are also added a number of “home students,” or women who live in private families and share loosely in Oxford education without belonging to a college or necessarily seeking a degree. These may multiply indefinitely, but already exceed 200 in number. They come from all parts ot the world. A great Indian ruler has sent to the University both his sons and his son’s wife. That single fact is in itself a portent.

Miss Rosemary Rees, who opens at the Empire Theatre to-morrow evening in the play, “The Amateur Adventuress,” one of her own productions, is a talented New Zealander, who has earned fame in other countries as an actress and authoress. She had signal success in London, where eight of her plays were produced. She also had plays produced at New York and in France. During the war period Miss Rees did excellent work, and had the honor of mention in despatches and being presented to the King

The up-to-date housewife no longer gets up by candle-light to tackle the weekly wash. She lets “Fairy Wonder” washing powder do the work the night before. The soiled clothes soaked during the night in cold water to which has been added a tablespoonful or so of “Fairy,” are practically clean in the morning. Try a packet. On sale everywhere.

Have you received a catalogue for the South Taranaki Jersey Breeders’ sale on Tuesday next, at the A. and £*• show grounds, Hawera?*