LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Egmont A. and P. Association erected 152 cattle boxes at their show grounds, Hawera, last year at a cost of £2090.

Four children were born at sea during the voyage of the Athenic from England to New Zealand,, a girl, a boy and twin girls. The mother of the boy died and was buried at sea. The four infants are all well.

An extra carriage and engine had to be added to the mail train at Hawera yesterday morning owing to the number of carriages being over the limit for one engine. When the train left Hawera the engines were drawing nine carriages.

“It was proably sent here by error,” remarked the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) at the meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council last night when a long letter was received from the Auckland provincial hydro-electric power league asking the council’s support “to develop hydro-electricity for the Auckland province.” The letter was not received seriously and no action was taken.

During the discussion on hydroelectricity at the meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council last night, Cr. J. Brown asked the electrical engineer -whether there were any prospects of utilising the Waitara river for power. Mr. Bartley said the Waitara offered quite a practical scheme, and one from which 5000 h.p. could be harnessed, but it would not be so cheap as the present scheme, owing to the risk of floods and the necessity for protective works.

Farmers! Don’t spoil what, promises to be a good season by neglecting to lay in a small stock of “Sinus” for keeping your machines, separators, tubings, cups, rings and cans wholesomely clean. A small outlay now in “Sinus” will save, you pounds in rejected milk. Be wise; order it now.

The war trophies exhibition at the Coronation Hall, New Plymouth, has already been visited by 1443 children and SCO adults. Yesterday’s attendance included children from Koru, Hurford Road, Tataraimaka, Inglewood, Egmont Village, Hillsborough, besides a contingent brought in by Mr. Smith’s motor ’bus from the Urenui district.

To avoid wounding French susceptibilities, no British flags were to be hoisted in captured towns in Palestine. When Jaffa was taken, however, some New Zealanders didn’t like the Turkish flag over the City Hall. They removed it and replaced it with a Union Jack. Photos were taken, and some reached headquarters. Now, headquarters didn’t always approve of colonial methods, and the photo was shown to General Allenby as a breach of orders. “Shouldn’t have done it”; “shouldn’t have done it!” said the big man; “all the same, that’s a fine photo; I’ll keep it.”—Colonel Meldrum on the Allenby way of dealing with men.

The council of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society has decided that the coastal rivers from New Plymouth to Opunake .shall receive large allocations of trout fry this season. In addition to the 65,000 rainbow trout already placed in the Stony River at Okato, and the Okaihu at Rahotu, the following streams are to receive immediately the undermentioned stocks of strong brown trout fry:—Kaihihi, 5000; Waiweranui, 5000; Warea, 20,000; Oaonui, 8000; Opunake (Waiau and Taungatara) 35,000. Some of these streams have already received their quota. These are not the final allocations of the season, only the proportions from the early hatchings of trout now ready for distribution from the ««ociety’s new hatcheries at Pukekura Park. Stocking on ‘similar lines for a few seasons should result in the coastal streams becoming particularly good from an angler’s point of view. These rivers are very suitable for trout, and provide splendid waters for the angler to fish over. The society hopes that the young fish will be protected. Speaking at the Egmont A. and P. Show Association’s annual meeting on Saturday, Mr. O. Hawker said no show in New Zealand paid the whole of the year’s expenses. They only found about half. The membership was the strength of a show. Their membership had dwindled down, and a good many did not pay their subscriptions. The times were going to be more difficult, and he thought the people should recognise what a great asset they had in the show and pay up better than they had. All public concerns were going to be very difficult to run now. They in Taranaki were in a better position than many, but awkward things were happening in the financial world, and many people were finding that they were not so well off as they used to be. He added that it was highly probable that a Royal Show would be held alternately in the North and South Islands, and it would be open for any association which had, a membership of 1000 to apply for the right to the show. They were very much below the standard at present, but the time should not be far distant when they would be eligible. When they did have it, it would give an impetus to show work.

How hard the winter has been to some of the outback soldier boys very few know who do not understand the conditions of fanning rough land far from the usual haunts of men. One sturdy, brave-hearted fellow, writing recently, said that he was not making a fortune, but one thing he did know was that if 5/- came along unexpectedly he would think he was in clover. Still the life was a free and easy one, and he was not going to make it into a Kathleen Mavourneen job. They had had a funeral near the settlement, and it had cast gloom over the whole district. There was none of the splendour of a city funeral. A spring-cart was the hearse, and a kindly neighbor drove. Practically the whole of the mourners were on horseback, even to the parson. He, poor man, had hardly ever been on a horse before, and by the time he got back home he had ridden over thirty miles. The days of helping a neighbor in trouble are not gone. Everyone is splendid, and ride long distances to help to keep the farm going till things can get fixed up. “We keep big log fires burning at night.” says the writer, “and the sun shines in the bush clearing in the daytime. Altogether we have sunshine in our hearts. There are many worse off than we are, and we could’spare a log or two to keep the fires burning on the hearths of some of your folk in the cities. Others have won through with bigger difficulties to face, and we will win through, too.’ Manawatu Times.

The Wellington Post, in commenting upon the perversity of certain juries that lately have acquitted accused persons against the weight of evidence and the clear direction of the presiding judge, speaks out very plainly in regard to the scandal. “The self-respecting and lawabiding citizen who has regard for the sanctity of the law and obligations of an oath,” it says, “may well regret that jurors who. ‘by a deliberately perverse verdict, make themselves the virtual accomplices of the criminal, cannot actually be tried by* a jury less disposed to sympathise with crime.” In the good old days juries that behaved in this fashion could be called to account, and fined or imprisoned; but in these times they may play almost any pranks they please with the evidence and their oaths and escape scot free. The Post’s remedy for this state of affairs is not the abolition of the jury system, which has been sadly discredited in the Dominion during the last year or two. but an improvement in the method of selecting juries, so that the proportion of “good men” may be larger and the proportion of “black sheep” smaller. Till the “black sheep” are eliminated altgether it still would be necessary, of course, to abolish the rule requiring unanimity in criminal cases to secure the effective operation of the

Tn our stock sale column on page 8 will be found the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile, advertisement for their monthly Tarata sale on Friday' next, the 2nd September. Prior to the stock sale they are offering a numerous assortment of farm implements on behalf of a client who reports everything to be in good order.

Pupils of the Boys High School are requested to assemble at Coronation Hall this morning to visit the Hat Trophies Exhibition. Full instructions are advertised in this issue.

Should sufficient inducement offer, Johnson’s “White Bus” will leave Waitara for Wellington on September 16, returning on Sunday, September 18, to enable patrons to see the final test match, Springboks v. New Zealand. See advt. in this issue.

CLINCHER! MOTOR CYCLE TYRES are dependable. “Dreadnought”, 28 x 3 and 750 x 75 de luxe extra heavy, for high-powered machines such as Indians and Harleys. British built. Foe longer wear. 131.