LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

No accidents have been reported to the police in the New Plymouth district during the Christmas holidays.

As the result of their carolling “expedition” round the borough on Christmas morning, the New Plymouth Regimental Band succeeded in raising about £9O for the contest funds.

The prisoners at the New Plymouth gaol participated in a Christmas repast, while donations of “smokes” from one or two friends were distributed to tue

An office new to New Zealand municipalities has been created by the Auckland City Council. It is the office of supervisor of children’s games in city parks, and applications are now being invited from women for the position.

Though there was a very large crowd in New Plymouth on Christmas Eve the people were very orderly, and the police report a quiet period in this respect throughout the holiday. .Sobriety was also a feature, and there was only one arrest for drunkenness (a first offender) during the week-end.

Two of the skeletons found on the site from where an old Anglican Church was removed, were unearthed last week. The bones, after being in the ground between fifty and sixty years, were in a splendid state of preservation. Evidently both men had been very tall, the skeletons being over 6ft. A Taranaki man connected with the dairying industry yesterday received the following cable from his London agents: “Cheese prices better than butter £56 per ton. Advise butter factories make cheese.” This message is interpreted as meaning that cheese prices are better than butter by 6d per lb. butter-fat.

We have it on fairly good authority (says the Cromwell Argus) that farmers in the outlying districts have decided to fix the rate of wages for harvesting at Is 3d per hour, and for threshing at Is Gd per hour. In view of the markets and general conditions, employers consider this a very fair adjustment.

A Gazette notice states that all goods liable to ad valorem duty which are imported on an after April 1, 1922, will be chargeable, for the purposes of duty, on the current domestic value. The practice of accepting duty on the purchase price of goods is to cease on the date mentioned. The careless throwing of a fishing line resulted in an accident to Mr. Richard Burton, a variety artist, at Auckland, on Sunday, his right eye being penetrated by a fish-hook. The hook was removed at the casualty ward of the Auckland Hospital, and he was admitted as a patient upon further examination. He is at present in a darkened room, and it is not known whether he will lose his sight.

John Joseph Larkin, who was arrested in New Plymouth late on Friday afternoon, was again before the court on Saturday morning on a charge of drunkenness, and was convicted and fined 10s, m default 48 hours’ imprisonment. Alfred Stevens, on a charge of being an idle and disorderly person and having no visible lawful means of support, was convicted and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment. The long standing and picturesque Christmas custom of dressing ships in a manner befitting the festive season was revived by the crew of the liner Westmeath at the end of last week. The vessel, which is now lying at the wharf at New Plymouth, was brilliantly beflagged on Christmas Day, the after deck being profusely decorated with greenery taken aboard from the hills around Paritutu and consisting mostly of the yellow flowered lupin.

Thursday was the sixth anniversary of the completion of the evacuation of the Anzac and Suvla positions at Gallipoli by the British forces. The announcement of the withdrawal was made in the House of Commons on December 21, 1915, by Mr. Asquith, Prime ■Minister, who said': “It was here where our gallant kinsmen from Australia and New Zealand won undying honor.” The total losses in withdrawing were four men wounded and the destruction of six guns and a quantity of stores. The landing at Gallipoli by the Anzacs Was effected on April 25,* 1915.

What has puzzled a great many people in the wool trade, remarks a Sydney paper, is the heavy buying by Japan of the finest merino wools. It is a matter of a change of fashion among Japanese women. The kimono, the universal garment of Japanese womenkind, has in its finer makes hitherto been made of the finest and lightest silk. It is now being made of the finest and lightest wool. Made of such wool it has a gossamerlike texture. It is quite as light as silk, and it is more serviceable. These woollen kimonos are now quite the fashion in Japan,, and the manufacturers are finding themselves hard put to it to supply the demand. Japan, it is estimated, will take 150,000 bales of our wool, of which a large proportion on account of the new fashion will be high-costing fine merTraffic in Devon Street on Christmas Eve was a record for size, and there was a continuous stream of motor cars in the earlier part of the evening, particularly prior to the departure of the boat for Auckland. Generally the traffic ran smoothly and no accidents have been reported, but two well-known motorists who came under the eye of the borough authorities will be summoned before the court in the near future to answer charges of “speeding.’’ A factor which tended to make for the peacefulness of the main thoroughfare was the ban which was placed on ‘‘crackers” and other explosive materials of the kind. It had a good effect, and the rule will be enforced bn New Year’s Eve also.

Speaking at the dinner of the N.Z. M.T.A. on Tuesday night, Mr. L. A. Edwards, of Wellington, gave some advice which'might well be taken by all business men and the people generally. He said he agreed that things were not as bad as painted. The depression came, he said, in September, 1920, first hitting the wholesalers and then the retailers, and they were now through the worst, for finance was easier and bills could be negotiated now that could not be six months ago. Only one thing, he added, could bring them back to normal, and that was keen interest and the hardest possible work. The war and boom conditions had destroyed the morale of the business man. It was easy to sell, and they were rushed with orders, but now, he added, business men would have to o-et back to realise that, only work and still greater effort could help them to get back their normal conditions. Sharland’s Tomato Sauce makes a „ood addition to Soups and Gravies. It makes them richer and more appetising. ENLARGEMENTS made from any film, plate or print at H. J. Abram, the “MAIL ORDER” Chemist. New Flymouth.