LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A telegram from Auckland says the sloop. Laburnum, which is to be attached to the New Zealand squadron, arrived at Port Fitzroy on Saturday and is expected at Auckland next Friday. The first Royal Show in the. Dominion is to be held at Palmerston North next spring, and the following year one will be held in Christchurch. In 1924 the Royal Show is to be held in Auckland.

The new nurses’ home at the New Plymouth hospital will be officially opened at 11 o’clock this morning by the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister for Health). The public are invited to the function.

An aeroplane belonging to the New Zealand Flying School arrived in Auckland the other day from Cambridge. The distance, 85 miles, was covered in 57 minutes, while an average height of 4500 ft. was attained.

The chairipan of the Taranaki Hospital Board received a pleasant surprise yesterday when a cheque for £2O came to hand from the Seventh Day Adventists, who recently held their annual camp in New Plymouth. This donation was by way of expressing appreciation of the kindness and help extended to them by the people of the town.

Weather permitting the new Mangatoki bridge will be open for traffic on and after Wednesday next (says the Argus). The road will fee closed for traffic on Tuesday night in order to allow the county staff to carry otit the necessary work, but in the event of bad weather this will be postponed to the first fine night after that date.

Good progress is being made with the Stratford-Main Trunk branch line and it is expected it will be completed as far as Matiere by May (says the Taumarunui correspondent of the Auckland Herald). The work of laying the rails is proceeding apace and they are now well on past the 21-mile mark.

In inflicting fines on various defendants for breeches of by-laws by riding motor cycles without lights, the Magistrate (Mr. A. M. Mowlem) at Inglewood yesterday passed some severe comment on the danger of the practice, not only to the riders themselves, but to the public. The only thing the Court could do, his Worship said, was to keep on fining offenders until they realised it was cheaper to buy lights than to pay the fines. Since the beginning of the crusade against rats, as a plague preventive .measure, the tally of rats killed in the Canterbury-West Coast health district to date is 8552. The West Coast portion of the health district is responsible for an average of 50 weekly.

Interesting comments on the standard of school work in Canada are contained in a recent letter from one of the New Zealand teachers who have been sent across to Canada for a period. “The standard of work in English and arithmetic,” she says, “is much lower than ours, but in other respects it is higher. Music is a thing to marvel at. I would never have believed such results possible.” The writer adds that "the Canadian children are nice, but are “being ruined for want of corporal punishment ! ”

Some wives appear to take out summonses against their* husbands for maintenance and then do not trouble to appear in Court (states the Auckland Star). An instance occurred the other morning. It was stated that for the third or fourth occasion a woman had taken out a summons and then had failed to appear in Court when the case was called. The case was struck out, but the husband was put to the cost of employing counsel to defend the action One man stated that he had lost three situations because of summonses issued by his wife.

“I have noticed in New Zealand,” saiti the Hon. W. H. ‘Edgar, M.L.C., of Victoria, in an interview at Auckland, “a feeling of what I may call fearfulness in regard to the financial situation, which T cannot thick is warranted when T look at your green pastures, your fine crops, and the general fertility of tho country.” After some remarks about the multiplicity of Parliaments in Australia, during which he mentioned that people in Australia hardly knew where they were financially, he said that as far as he could judge, it required only a strong, courageous policy and a hopeful outlook to win through. The N.Z. Loan and Mercantile notify that their sale at Te Were. will be held on Thursday, 16th inst., instead of the following day, which is St. Patrick’s Dav. Details of sale are advertised.

Quinnat salmon are reported to be plentiful in the Waitaki River at present, some of them being of great size. Good catches have been obtained recently. Two Waimate anglers secured four fish, the largest of which weighed about 241 b. A Glenavy resident landed one weighing 261 b, while a third sportsman secured one weighing 121 b.

A scheme of further retrenchment in the defence staff, says the New Zealand Times, has apparently been decided upon. The paper says that some 27 officers and 70 non-commissioned officers have received notification of the termination of their engagements. The list has not yet been published, but it is understood that, with the exception of three or four, the officers affected are of the rank of captain and below.

The North Island should benefit greatly if the suggestion is adopted that the money collected by means of the motortyre tax should be spent on the roads of the two islands in. the proportion indicated by the amount of tyre imports absorbed by each island. Figures submitted to the meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association showed that of the tyres imported last year 68 per cent, came to the North Island. Of the passenger cars imported, 67 per cent, were for the North Island, and the mo-tor-trucks 87 per cent. The total value of the tyres imported in <1919 was £860,048 ;* in 1920, £1,803,959; and in 1921, £714,283.

The census of public libraries taken last year shows that there were 421 libraries in the Dominion, comprising 1,132,079 volumes. The number of subscribers was 60.441. A free reading room was provided in 174 cases. The counties, as apart from cities and boroughs, contain three-fourths of the total number of institutions, but only one-third of the number o-f volumes. The rural libraries appear to be much less patronised than those in the towns, even when population and other circumstances are taken into consideration. In 1874 Otago possessed 75 of the 161 libraries then extant, and the same district maintains a preponderance both in institutions and in subscribers over most of the other provinces. The steamer Waiotapu, which arrived at Auckland from San Fsancisco last week, reports that the Pacific Coast of North America is experiencing the most severe winter of the last 25 years. San Francisco seldom experiences much snow and ice, but this winter producers have suffered heavy losses through the intense cold. When the vessel was at Ocean Falls two feet of snow lay on the ground and the thermometer once registered as low as 17 degrees Fahrenheit. During the whole time the steamer was loading along the American coast the temperature never rose above freezing point. At Los Angeles the temperature fell 35 degrees below freezing point, and the snow was lying thick on the ground. Losses in the fruit crop were considerable, for the main portion had not matured. Oranges were spoilt in large quantities.

The introduction of Atlantic salmon into Lake Taupo was discussed at the meeting of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society in Hamilton, when a letter was read from t-he Department of Internal Affairs promising consideration of the society’s request for a subsidy to enable it to import 1,000,060 ova. Mr. C. A. Whitney said the Waikato and Wanganui rivers were more like the English rivers, and he thought the Atlantic salmon would do better in those rivers than in the South, owing to the number of natural enemies. If the fish were established, he was satisfied that in a very' short time there would be excellent fishing between Hamilton and Atiamuri. Mr. H. H. Ostler said that the quinnat salmon on show at the Auckland Exhibition were placed in the Waikato River. Subsequently a fish was caught in the Waikato which was pronounced by Mr. L. F. Ayson, the chief inspector of fisheries, to be a quinnat salmon. If this was one of those placed iu the river, it would seem that quinnat salmon would thrive in the Waikato, and, therefore, Atlantic salmon could be acclimatised.

The Legitimation Amendment Act of last session contains a provision which is of interest and materially modifies the law in an important particular. The old Act precluded the legitimation of a child born out of wedlock, if at the time of the birth there existed any legal impediment to the marriage of the parents. This restriction is now entirely removed and parents may legitimate their child at any time subsequent to their marriage, no matter what the obstacle to. their marrying at the time the child was born. Another provision makes it now possible for the mother of a child lx>rn out of wedlock whose husband has died without availing himself of the provisions of the principal Act, to secure the legitimation of the child herself, by making application. Any application so made must be heard by a stipendiary magistrate, and supported, if considered necessary, by sworn evidence that the deceased husband was the father of the child to be legitimated. Previous to the Act .of last session all hope of a child being legitimised passed with the death of the child's father, if he had failed to apply for it.

There was an attendance of between two and three hundred people at Messrs. Lester Bros.’ gardens at Ngaere yesterday on the occasion of a picnic outing held und<?r the auspices of the Taranaki Drapers’ and Clothiers’ Association. The weather outlook in the earlier part of the morning was somewhat threatening, but the day cleared as the parties from North and South arrived between ten and eleven o’clock. A marquee, well equipped with tables had been prepared by the proprietors, so that the visitors were provided with shelter when a few showers fell. The picnic was formally opened fey Mr. R. Masters, M.P. The afternoon was fine and sunny and a very successful sports programme was conducted. In addition there were motor boat trips, croquet and tennis, and music by the orchestra la. After the distribution of prizes the committee in charge of the picnic acknowledged the work of the proprietors in making general arrangements for the picnic. It was agreed that the gardens made a pleasant meeting ground and the hope was expressed that this first picnic held by the association might be made an annual function at the gardens.

The attention of members of the Employers’ Association is called to the quarterly general meeting, to fee held on Monday, March 20, when Mr. K. Akers will deliver an address on tire Insurance.”

The remaining few days of the Melbourne’s Great Sale will be marked by m-eat activity in all departments. btocKfisting is now nearing completion, revealing in many instances odd lines, broken sizes and shop-soiled goods, all of which will be pushed out at sacrifice prices to clear. “Fairy Wonder” Dry Soap washes everything washable and cleans "Si thing cleanable. The “Fairy Wondei way saves time, saves labor, saves money and saves wash-wear of -lothes. AH jxrocers and storekeepers.