LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8878, 12 November 1907, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Chinese Immigration Bill and Divorce Act Amendment Bill' have been introduced into the Legislature by the Premier.

! In the House of Representatives, last night, the Hon. Mr R. McNab I gave notice to introduce the Cooperative Dairy Company's Bill. ' Tire Legislative Council, last , night, finally passed the Land Laws .Amendment BiU, the Agricultural! Labourers' Accommodation Bill, and Government Advances to Settlers Bill.

The shops and offices in Masterton were closed yesterday in celebration of King's Birthday. The weather conditions' weir© anything but pleasant,. rain falling' at intervals duringthe day.

Two a«eidents of a minor nature ocouKred; on. the Masterton-Carterton Road-when th© traffic to the races was at its greatest yesterday morning. Messrs A. Y©.ang, of Masterton,. and Slyfleid, of Wellington, were driving Masterton in a gig;,, when the horse- shied at a passing, motor car, and swerved to one side, escaping collision with a telegraph post by The narrowest margin. The animal then, bolted, and commenced to kick. Mr Slyfield was thrown out of the-gig;', but was not greatly hurt.. ■ Shortly after this Messrs F. Seacombe and. T. Smith passed in a gig, and their horse also shied at the , motor;. Both occupants were thrown out and: the gig fell on top of them. They escaped, with a severe shaking. The vehicle was somewhat damaged.

Shearing is in full swing on the majority of stations in the Wai:~ rarapa. Fairly good weather has been experienced for shearing operations,. but yesterday's rain will retard; work for a day or two. Some very heavy, fleeces have been obtained and. the clip this season is expected, to be a good one.

The country in the Masterton and Lower Valley districts is looking Bernard ably vvhll, and the line weataer lately has allowed farming operations to be pushed on with satisfactory apeec".. The rnin that fell yesterday throughout; the district should prove bsrasficial to. crops. 'Subscriptions received at fchct Age office since those last acknowledged in aid of Mrs Pulford and family are :--Mr C. F. Gawith, £2.25; and A Friend, £1 Is. A number of Masterton bowlers journeyed to the Lower Hutt, yesterdaj\ but were unable to play on account of the wet weather. The visitors were hospitably entertained by the Hutt bowlers. While returning from Makuri to Pahiatua, on Saturday one of the teams from the Pahiatua Rifle Corps were capsized out of' their vehicle just after crossing the Ngaturi Hi.H. The men .escaped with a severe shaking. They continued the rest of the.. joucney on foot. | At Makuri, on Saturday las>t, a team from the Pahiatua Rifles fired matches against a combined team from Makuri and Pongaroa, and a team from Makuri. In the former match the combined team won somewhat easily, but in the latter match Pahiatua secured a win by a small margin.

The death occurred at Kopuaranga, on Suncay last-, of Philip Heath, the third son of Mrs A. Stewart. , The deceased was a pronging youth of 15 years whose early decease comes as a great grief to his widowed mother. Mrs Stewart and family will have the sympathy of a large circle of friends. The funeral will leave Kopuaranga at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow.

Trout are said to be very plentiful in the streams in the Woodville district this year. A HANDY SEPARATOR. Tho Baltic Household Cream Separator has caught on. Since its introduction a few months ago, th 6 sales have exceeded all expectations. As an example, one user states (hat formerly he made four pounds ot butter per week from his single cow, and now, with the sepnratoi', he makes seven pounds of butter from the same quantity of milk. The Household Separator doeg away with all the labour and inconvenience of setting milk in pans, and makes nearly twice as much butter into the bargain. Price, £3 5s eacb, from all leading ironmongers, or MaoEwan's, Ltd., U,S-S. Co.'s Buildings, Wellington.

Members of Parliament when travelling to and from the sittings at the beginning of arid end of the session receive travelling allowance at the rate of 10a per day. This is less than many senior civil servants get. The Premier intimated to the Leader of the Opposition, in the House on Friday night, that he would be pleased to go into the matter with members with a view to raising the rate to 15s per day.

So far, there has been little, suggestion that the session will end; fore November 20th —the date stal .Jjp by the Premier. On the there are those that name a later date than that. It is probable that the prorogation will not take place before the 28th instant.

There are various rumours in the air as to probable candidates for the Rangitikei electorate against Mr Remington. The latest names mentioned are Messrs D. H. Guthrie, (Ruahine) and Newm«n (Wangaehu.)< R. Tressider, of Australia, has signed the articles for the world's; sculling- championship match with W. Webb, of Wanganoi. The race will' take place on the Wanganui River about the end of February next. The' second deposit of <££oo aside is due to-night.

Last week the Palmerston North police took action against W. Ryan, secretary of the Dominion Bazaar, for having disposed, of tickets, on a carved chair, which the police contended was not a work of art, and that the carving had been done by an apprentice. Mr A.. -Bi Thomson, S.M., on Saturday dismissed the information. It is believed that .a fresh action will be brought).

The Pahiatua Herald states that the New Zealand Dairy Union does not intend to close down the creamery at Mangatainoka, as- first reported.

Thirty-seven bookmakers are to be prosecuted at Christchurch tomorrow on charges of having betted with boys at the Riccarton races last week. •

A motor car was responsible for a collision between two vehicles i%' Lower Queen Street, yesterdafj? morning. A trap containing apaity. of Mastertonians, which was being driven in the direction of Carterton,, collided with a vehicle coming from Carterton, through the horse in the latter taking fright at a passing motorcar. As the result of the'collision, the trap containing therMas—terton residents was overturned and sustained damage to the extent of a broken shaft and splashboard. The occupants received a severe shaking,, but nothing worse.

The body of a man over fifty years of age found floating in the Wellington harbour, on Sunday,, and was taken to the morgue. It has been identified as that of Arthur McGowan, baker, whose wife and: family reside in Wellington. The deceased went to Christchurch for a; holiday at Cup time, and returned to> Wellington last Thursday. He called on his wife, but returned to obtain some things from the wharf. It «■ is believed that he must have fallen into' the harbour.

The slaughter of calves and the loss of sheep, it is stated, has recently thrown a great number of skins and hides on'the market, many of rhem indifferently prepared, and consequently fetching poor prices. ]At the largest market in New Zealand, at I>nedin, complaints have been raised about the quality, ot the I skins, and the manner in which they ! are flayed and dressed. At the request of the Wellington and Taranaki Wool, Skin, and Hide Buyers' Association, an object lesson in the 'preparation of hides for, the market was provided at the Manawatu Show. • Side by side were properly flayed ! hides and the rough handiwork of the. :untutored husbandmen. > [Sheepskins i and calfskins w=!re treated in the same way, and comparative prices , were appended to drive the lesson .home. Thus one hide was tagged ! with a card which read:—"This cow- ! bide, weighing 451b, properly flayed, i and cured, is worth £l," while its neighbour was thus criticised and I condemned, "This cowhide, weighing 451b, badly flayed and cured, is worth 7s 6d."

Fruitgrowers in different parts of the Manawatu district this year are complaining of the presence on their Japanese plum trees of hollow, misshapen plums of abnormal and premature growth. A reference to Leaflet 18 issued by the. Agricultural Department shpws that the occurrence is due to a plum tree disease,. closely allied to the peach curl, andi one greatly on the increase in the* dominion. It is caused by a minute; fungus that lives parasitically in thetissues of the young branches. In t the spring, just as the trees are beginning to blossom, part of the mycelium of the fungus extends from the interior of the branches and enters the young ovaries of the flowers. It then through, the developing fruit and prevents the formation of the stones and instead, of developing into normal plums the fruit becomes deformed and hollow. These bladder or pocket plums, as' they are called,, are of variable size and shape, being hard, furrowed gnd, generally curved and flattened. They finally dry up and fall from the tree.. The free use of Bordeaux mixture is, recommended for treatment, full details of which may be ascertained by obtaining a leaflet from the Depart-* ment.

The English mail brings news.of a tragedy that missed fire in Parts. A woman, apparently desirous of getting rid of her husband,, rigged up an impromptu gallows in a loft above the bed where he lay sleeping and fixed a rope round his neck. While she was returning to the loft the man awoke, and catching the humour of" the situation, slipped the noose from his head and attached it to a small stove. He then lay down and watcheti the stove being slowly drawn up towards the ceiling. The woman, satisfied with the weight of the pull, rushed to the window, and cried; loudly that her husband»had hanged himself, .but when the neighbours and street loungers hurried in they found the stove dangling in midair, and the wife being battered by the husband in a comer.

A sluggish liver gives rise to biliousress headaches, irritability and other disorders. The liver wants stimulating gently to do its work, and the medicine? oi hf is Cham beriain's Tablets. They art mild and gentle in tlier action, and their use is npt followed by constipation, Tor eale by &U dealers,

The Woodville Chamber of Commerce has elected the following -officers for the ensuing year President, Mr J. Motley; vice-presi-dent. Mr Watson; secretary, Mr Murray; treasurer, Mr Horne; council, Messrs McKibbin, Harding, Galbraith, Tyerman, Sandford, Shaw, Home and Kirkpatrick.

A petition is in circulation in Pahiatua for presentation to v the Pahiatua Borough Council at its next meeting with f-be object of reverting to the old closing the shops in the borough "^■tfSaturdays—namely, 10 p.m., instiW of 9 p.m., as at present. Thei petitioners point out that much inconvenience is caused to customers by 9 p.m. closing, especially during the summer months. They also point out the injustice of fruiterers and confectioners being compelled to close their shops at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and 6 p.m. on other day 3, and ask that they be exempted, as they are in other towns, from the early closing provisions applying to other businesses.

The music at the Kakariki sports yesterday was supplied by the Pahiatua Brass Ba*:d.

The Otago Daily Times states that an interesting discovery of what must have many years ago been a Maori camping ground has been made' on the bank of the Molyneux River about two miles and a half south of Miller's Flat. Inspector Gladstone (Health Department), who visited the locality last week states that there is a huge Maori oven about 50ft long. The oven is constructed of large stones, and the bed of it is strewn with charcoal and a very considerable quantity of what are undoubtedly moa bones. The assumption is that a flooded river has swept away the covering silt and debris, and exposed the oven. A large number of bones have been submitted to Professor Benham, and he has pronouncad them to be those of the now extinct moa.

A visitor from Nelson informs the Dunedin Star that the Motueka district is rapidly achieving distinction in the fruitgrowing line. Special attention is Peing given to the planting of apple trees. The people of Nelson have never been accused of living a too strenuous life, hence their appreciation of the merits of apple culture. For the greater part of the year you sit on a fence and watch the apples grow. Then you gather the fruit, pack it in boxes, consign it to the Empire City, and climb back on to the fence and wait for your cheque. But even in this Garden of Eden there is a serpent—the codlin moth. He is the most solid grafter in Motueka, but is beginning to find the spray pump a somewhat discouraging proposition. Last season 87,000. cases of fruit (chiefly apples) were despatched from Motueka wharf to Wellington, and these returned to the growers an average of 5s 3d a case—well over £20,000. The exports from the district last year amounted to £63,000, showing an increase of £B,OOO over the previous year.

Mr W. H. Cruickshank has several good house properties for sale. Particulars appear elsewhere.

Particulars of a roan gelding, impounded from Fernridge on Saturday last, are inserted by the poundkeeper. The Masterton corporation gas department have made special arrangements for the supply Of gas cookers in all designs and sizes, and their lady instructor will give lessons, free of cost, to those who purchase Full particular of terms can be obtained on, applicatiop at the corporation offices, Chapel Street. The date of the sale of Messrs Handyside, Roberts and Co.'s Marainanga estate, at Akitio, has been fixed for Wednesday, January 15th next. The sale will be conducted in Wellington by Messrs Murray Roberts Co., in conjunction with Messrs Abraham and Williams, Ltd. Particulars of the sale and terms will be found in our auction columns. Mr Searancke, of Fernridge, has purchased, through Messrs Keeling and Wynn-Williams, Ltd., two stands of "Thorley's Combination" shearing maehines and a "Dominion" oil engine for the purpose of contracting for shearing. This plant is now erected in Mr Moore's shed on the Waingawa, and has been so installed under the direction of the agents' experts, Messrs Cullen and Anson, that it can be easily removed and set up in any shed in a very short space of time. These machines are very highly spoken of and in the Hawke's Bay district there are between ninety ( and one hundred machines in use, which speak for themselves, considering they have only been on the market for eighteen months. ( The machines are a combination of the Burgoyn and Wolseley, the best parts being taken as a pattern from each machine to complete- the "Thorley Combination." These machines are made in Thorley and Co.'s works at Hastings, and the "Dominion" engine is also made fere, the whole plant being a credit the manufacturers. Messrs Keeling and Wynn-Wililams,) Ltd., are agents for Thorley and Co., and are also prepared to supply any information required as to Mr Searancke's •terms for shearing.