LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3220, 18 June 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The latest dredging returns to hand are as follow :—Mystery Flat 450z 4dwt, and Masterton Dredge 460z 9dwt, both for a week's work.

A Miss Hill has been sppointed sexton at Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire. The post has been he id by members of her family for 200 years. Seven hundred thousand pounds were spent upon r.ew buildirgs in Auckland City and the surrounding boroughs last year, over £200,000 being on the city proper. "It's not the customer's body that the tailor has to fit; it's his head," was the philosophic remark of a tailor at the tailoring dispute in Christchurch the other day.

"When an Irishman in the witness box says he thinks he did a certain thing, I am always prepared to take that from him as equivalent to 'Yes, I did do it,'" said Judge Denniston at Timaru.

At the annual meeting of the Greytown Bowling Cbb, the following officers were elected:—President, Mr W, Udy; Vice-President, Mr H. Trotman; secretary, Mr H. Wigg; treasurer, Mr W. Dav.

A meeting of the committee which has the arrangements in hand for the social in aid of the St. John Ambulance District Nurse Fund will be held this evening, in the Dominion Hall.

A Greymouth correspondent states that important developments are likely at the Kotuku oilfields in the near fature on account of their acquisition by Mr David Ziman, on behalf of a powerful London syndicate.

JKveryone is agreed upon the point that the law is an expensive business, states a Waikato paper. The writer instances a case at the Te Kuiti Court when a man was charged with assault was fined is and costs £24.

The work of deporting the kanaka 3 from Queensland has not yet been completed. A small number are now being gathered in Brisbane. They will be sent away as soon as a steamer accommodation can be found.

Wellington is much more a rural town than one would imagine. Last year there were 87 people fined for allowing horses and cattle to wander in the streets. The year before there were 143 convictions.

At the meeting of the Managers of the Technical School, last evening, it was reported that the hyloplate ordered for the equipment of the classes had arrived. Messrs Jackson and Danisll were appointed a committee to deal with the matter of havmg the material fixed in the respective rooms. The acquisition of this specially prepared writing surface will doubtless prove ot much benefit for instructional purposes.

A meeting of shareholders of the Workers' Mutual Benefit Building So.iety was held last evening, Mr R. Krahagen presiding over a large attendance. The sum of £3OO free of interest drawn by ballot was secured by Mrs M. A Pragnell. The chairman announced that he would be pleased to call the shareholders together in a month's time, when the sale of £3OO free of interest wonld be held.

At the Magistrate's Court, yesterday morning, before Mr W. P. James, S.M., two first offending inebriates were each fined 5?, in default 24 hours' imprisonment. For having been in a helpless state of dru'ikenness in a pubiic place John Molloy wa3 fined 20s, in default seven days imprisonment. Denis Cronin and Martin Buckley were also charged j with insobriety, with previous con- ! victions against them, and were each fined 10s in default 48 hours' imprisonment. The Hongkong correspondent of the "Tung Wah Times" (Sydney) states that the recent floods in tha province of Canton did great damage both to life and property. Many of the dykes on the banks of the Canton River, in the north-western portion of the province, were swept away, and the rice fields were submerged and the crops destroyed, The charity societies of Canton and Hongkong forwarded supplies of provisions and provided shelter, for those whose homes had been s-vepfc away. An appeal for subscriptions in the southern part of China towards-relieving the distress met with a liberal response. Colonel Bedford, military representative on the Hongkong Sanitary Board, asserted recently that the admissions for malarial diseases among troop 3 serving in Hongkong are greater than those in Tndia, or in any other colony except the West Coast of Africa. The figures for last year were 792 cases per 1,000 troops. An inquiry into the cause disclosed a shocking condition of affairs in the village of Shangiwan, which is near the quarters of the garrison of LyeeMoon,and which is described as a hotbed of pestilence. It would appear that efforts to combat malaria, which were vary successful for a few years, have been relaxed somewhat, with the result that breeding grounds for the malarial mosquito are again on the increase

The bankruptcy statement of Henry George, carpenter, formerly of Masterton, is as follows:—Unsecured creditor £lB4 Is 6d, secured creditors £l,lOO, estimated value of securities £1,925. total debts £825, assets (surplus from securities in the Hands of creditors) £825, estimated surplus £640 18s 6d. The unsecured creditors are: —J. D. Cruickshank and Co. £3 15s 9d, J. Carpenter £2 4s 6d, W. H. Cole £1 3s 7d, Connell £4 10s, Pickering Bros. £5 lis lOd, C. E. Daniell £l2l 15s lOd, Beale and Partor, £45, all of Masterton. There are two secured creditors—W. G. Winn, Gishorne, £7OO, estimated value of security £1,500, and M. Wilton, Opaki, £4OO, estimated value of security £425, The Labour Department has the names of 80 men, believed to be for the most part capable bushman, registered in Wellington for the Government's bushfelling scheme. Twenty have been registered at Auckland, 8 at Taihape, 12 at Masterton, 5 at New Plymouth, ard 16 at Gisborne. and the returns from Wanganui, Palmerston North and [other places are not yet in. while about 15 other applicants are in communication with the Department. There will thus be apparently at least 200 ready to take immediate advantage of the offer of work. Ihey are to be sent to the Rangitatau Block, which comprises between 10.000 and 15,000 acres, and;, as about 10 miles from Waitotara Railway Station, and is expected to provide work for 250 men. If more is required a bush area near Taungarakau, Wanganui River, and another in the Nelson district will be allocated for the purpose. '

At tha meeting of the St. JohnAmbulance Brigade last evening, Mr L. H. Lewis gave an essay on "Circulation and hemorrhage." The Greytown telephone exchange is now open from 8 a m. till 8 p.m. each day, as there are over fifty subscribers.

A meeting of hockey piayers and others will be held at 8 o'clock, tonight, in the Dominion Hall, to arrange for the annual dance.

Mr Will T. Cronin, representing West's Pictures, was in Masterton yesterday making arrangements for the two-nights' season of the pictures at Masterton, commencing on June 26th.

Mr Nelson Illingworth, the sculptor, has received verbal instructions from the Government, through the Native Minister, to proceed with the work of designing and sculuturing the memorial to be erected at Papawai (near Carterton) to the memory of the late chief Mahupuku, who died a couple of years ago. The material is to be of marble and bronze, Grecian design. The memorial will be 18ft in height, and will be erected on a base 10ft square. The cost will be about £SOO.

An almost incredible thing happened at Bellinger Heads (N.S.W.), last week. Mr F. J. Mulligan lost two horses, and four days later they were found by Mr Abel Davis side by side at the bottom of a well Bft by 12ft square and 60ft deep, which was used for supplying steamers with fresh water for the boilers. They had apparently fallen through the decayed timber on the top. Mr Davis was attracted by the glare of the animal's, eyes, and it took a gang of men several hours to extricate them from their peculiar position, from whichthey were rescued alive. The incident is vouched for by reliable people.

A farmer Jiving between Eketahuna and Pahiatua has his homestead in the Pahiatua Electorate, while the back portion of his farm is in tha Masterton Electorate, the boundary ' line running through his property, says the jiiketahutia "Express." He ■ is now in a state of perplexity as to how he will fare when No-license is enforced in this electorate if he wishes to carry liquid refreshments < from his house into the prohibited portion of his farm, say, when haymaking or harvest operations are in progress.

A correspondent sends to the "Westminster Gazette" the following note on New Zealand angling:— "I have been in camp now for three months, and in that time have caught 30001b of trout; their average weight is 101b. One brown trout weighed 2241b, and one rainbow 20|lb. The rainbows give <j magnificent sport, and are very bard fighters. The country is a fisherman's paradise, every river being well stocked, and, of course, free to anybody, while in the shooting season every kind of game U very plentiful, from quail to red deer." The editor regretfully adds: "What a pity New Zealand is so far away!"

Probably the worst case of which he knew, said Mr L. R. Wilson (secretary of the Unemployed Convmittee), to the conference of local, bodies at Christchurch on Monday last, was that of a widower with five children. He had been dismissed from the Addington workshops when tha first batch uf men was turned off. He went to Broken River and worked there for some time. He kept his home together as long as possible, but he had to dispose of his furniture, and to send hi.; child--ren to an institution. He was supposed to pay £1 a week for them, but he had not Is for a meal. He had tried hard to obtain work, but had failed.

There is a persistent belKf that Lord Charles Beresford will be disposed of by being offered the governorship of one of tha self-governing Dominions, writes a London correspondent. Asked as to tha accuracy of these reports the other day, he sjid witn a smile: "There is nothing probable Seeing that my career so far has entirely a

naval one, it Js just the sort of thing that would occur Li the authorities To put me in some place where a ship is never seen or heard of." If the report should turn out to be correct, it is hardly likely His Lordship would be kept waiting for the appointment long enough for the New Zealand position to fall vacant.

Mr Stevenson, M.R.A.S., asked hy an Auckland "Herald" representaive for an opinion in reference to the earthquakes in France, replied that these shocks, as had happened on many former occasions, occurred on the very day of the moon's perigee, and he thought it probable that the same locality would experience some after shocks during the present week. There was also strong probability of earthquakes in North America, and perhaps in Japan, between June 17th and 19th. In Mr Stevenson's opinion, New Zealand will be comparatively free from earthquakes for some time to come. Mr Clement Wragge, telegraphing from Dunedin, says that conditions are still favourabla for seismic action in various parts of the world, and such are due mainly to solar influence, and, secondly, to the astronomical position of the moon. Cosmical ethrical. vibrations appear'to be acting on our sun (and, through him, on ih= earth) from a dark sun, remote from cur solar system.

The long arm of coincidence has the habit of striking some unexpected blows at times. At a recent musical re-union in one of Sydney's suburbs the local choral society was warmly praised by several speakers, and consequently when the chu'rman appeared tc do his eulogistic turn during the interval he' found the ground cut from under him. The only thing hi could do was "go one better," £ii; he did. He described the society i., mbers and conductor alike as sometime a little too gooa for eart'ily music, and as one of ca hearers put it, "laid it on with a trowel." The vocalists sat quietly and tikjd to look as if tbey liked the rather fulsome compliments. And then the speaker concluded, and they sang with vigour the next number on the programme, "Strike, Strike the there were some whowondered (remarks tha"Sydney Daily Telegraph") why merriment mingled with appreciation on the part of the audience. A general clearing sale will begin at the W.F.C.A. Boot and Fare/ Department on Saturday next. All lines will be reduced.

An advertiser has for sale a quiet cow in milk, also a Berkshire boar and sow. Mr W. H. Cruickshank has for sale a 600-acre farm on lease-in-per-petuity. Mr R. Brown, land and estate agent, advertises particulars of a aew list of farms and town properlies which he has been authorised to sell. Mr J. Kitchener, bootmaker, next to the Empire Hotel, has a full stock ox dependable footwear. Watertights to measure and repairs mra strong points at this shop. Special holiday excursion fares in connection with the Palmerston North Winter Show are advertised by the New Zealand Railways Department. At the Post Office Auction Mart, Mr M. O. Aronster will sell a large consignment of fruit ard forest trees, and shrubs, from Mi Duncan's Nursery, New Plymouth. Particulars appear on page 8 of this issue. Mr M. 0. Aronscen reports r, very successful sale of Mr J. Yarr's furniture, yesterday afternoon. There was a large attendance and satisfactory prices were realised. Messrs Lomax and Co., hotel brokers, of Wanganui, have a replace advertisement on page 6 of this issue. Mr P B. Lomax, senior member of the firm, will be in Masterton oa the 26th inst, and will be pleased to meet prospective buyers at the Club Hotel from the 26th to 28th. Messrs C. Snow and Co , land and stock agents, Palmerston North, advertise a straight-out lease of 1,150 acres of splendid sheep country. There is a good house on the property, woolshed, dip. and the rent is 9s, with five years to run. j