LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The New Plymouth. Borough Council decided last night to call for tenders for the erection of a tramway shelter near the railway station.

The gate takings at the Manawatu Spring Show on Thursday amounted to £330 as against £343 last year. For the two days of the show the gate receipts show a decline of £26 compared with those for the corresponding days of last year. Divorce matters will figure prominently in the coming session of the Supreme Court at Auckland. Five defended cases are set down for hearing before a judge and jury, and there are about 50 undefended cases on the listA total of 25 civil cases will be heard before a judge and jury, and no fewer than 63 will be dealt with .’by the judge alone. The session will open to-day with the criminal cases, of which 18 have go far been set down for trial. The value of imports at the port of New Plymouth during the quarter ended September 30 is officially set down a 8 £118,331 as against £85,668 in the September quarter that year. This port stands seventh in the list, Auckland coming first, followed by Wellington, Lyttelton, Dunedin. Invercargill, and Napier in the order named. After New Plymouth come Timaru ( £86,052), Wanganui ( £76.962), Nelson ( £45,913), and Gisborne (£40,181).

A cow which an old lady kept on a farm at Pukekohe was the subject of much evidence in a case at the Supreme Court, Auckland. Counsel said the animal was so tame that it would come when it was called. Mr. Justice Herdman exhibited some weariness with regard to the points of t'hia domestic prodigy and closed the subject by enquiring pleasantly: “But the cow wouldn’t give milk without milking, I suppose?” The price of bread was reduced yesterday in accordance with tile decision recently arrived at by the Government fixing the maximum prices for flour and bread. The new price for flour is £l5 10s per ton f.oJb. southern ports. The reductions for bread in the main centres of the South Island, per 21b loaf, are 5Ad cash over the counter and s|d booked over the counter; 6d cash on delivery, and 6’/ 4 d booked and. delivered. The maximum prices of bread sold in the main centres of the North Island are per 21b loaf higher than in the South Island. At New Plymouth the 41:b loaf was reduced from Is Id to Is and the 21b loaf from 6*d to 6d. A matter which has undoubtedly puzzled a great many people, why the tall New Zealand flax tree, which belongs to the lilium family, is popularly known as the cabbage tree, was explained by Air. J. W. Boynton in the course of a lecture on New Zealand trees at Auckland. When Captain Cook first came to New Zealand the Maoris gave him a dish of boiled heart of nikau leaves, which the great navigator enjoyed very much, likening it to young cabbage, lie asked the natives to point out the tree which had yielded this appetising dish, and by some mistake the flax tree was indicated. The name stuck, and the flax to this day is known throughout New Zealand as the cabbage tree. Sister Esther declared at Auckland last week that the housing conditions under which many Auckland families lived were appalling. She could not give them all the information she possessed on this matter at such a meeting as that. It was common enough to find men, women and children huddled together on. mattresses and rugs, no beds and no bedding. It was impossible for social workers to do permanent work until housing was better. Whole families to-day were eating, living and sleeping in the one room. Were such conditions revealed in the epidemic they would elicit more sympathy. There were conditions existing now which were even worse than those revealed during the epidemic. A New Zealand, family which mourns the loss of a son killed at Passchendaele on the night of October 12, 1917, lias just received from a German an account of how he died. Quack March publishes the letter. The German assumes that the New Zealander was on solitary patrol and crawled very close to the German lines, where he exchanged shots with a sentry, with fatal results to the New Zealander, at any rate. The German says that thinking the New Zealander might be wounded he crawled out to investigate, but found that death must have been instantaneous, for a bullet had gone through the brain. The Hun thereupon emptied the dead man’s pockets of paybook, photos, postcards, a small mirror, French money, etc.—something of importance ' ; ind some valueless trifles which the ■ average soldier treasures. But it says a good deal for this German that he should have kept these things all these years and that he should now write to the relatives. His letter is intended to find out if the address is correct, and, if so, and the relatives want the relics, he will send them out.

“You hardly realise what a mother-in-law I have been unfortunate enough to have,” feelingly admitted a petitioner to counsel in the Divorce Court at Wellington on Thursday (reports the New Zealand Times). At a later stage in the proceedings the petitioner frankly admitted that he stood in awe of his mother-in-law. “I could stand all the hidings she could give me,” he naively confessed, “but I could not stand her tongue!” (Laughter). Just arrived, at C. C. Ward’s, a new shipment of dainty blouses and jumpers. Beautiful voile jumpers, nicely embroidered 7/11, special values 10/6 and 12/6; artificial silk knitted and crochet jumpers, a. splendid range, all the newest shades, 29/6, 35/-, 49/6; crepe de chine jumpers, very smart, 27/6. Prograndra Cures Corns Quicklv. 1/6.