LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9601, 22 September 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The second ballot for the Rangitikei seat will take place to-morrow. A Maori who died at Waihi, near Waitara, the other day, was reputed to be over a hundred years old. I The bachelors of Whareama held a meeting on Thursday evening last, when it was dec'ded to hold a dance iti the Langdale Hal! on the Ist October next. At was stated at a meeting of the I Taranaki Executive of the Farmers' Union that the opti ing of the Main Trunk Railway had enhat ced the value of a onsi Jerable amount of Native land. Land which was worth about £2 per acre was now being let for milling lights at £1 per acre. As a result of the police investigations regarding the burglary at Mr White's tobacconist shop, Con> stable Townseml yesterday afternoon arrested a man named Roland John Ranger, a fruit hawker from Wellington, on suspicion of being implicated m the burglary. . He will be brought beoie the Court this morning, when a remand till Friday will be asked for by the police, A meeting of the settlers interested in the construction of river protection works on the banks of the Ruamahanga river between the junction of the Waingawa and Taueru rivers is to be held in Mr R. Brown's office, Masterton. to-day, at 1.30 p.m., when a report by Mr Dorrell, of the Greytown River Board, on the proposed works will ba considered with a view to taking immediate action. Five buyers met representative of the Hawera Dairy Company and Melrose (Curie's proprietary) in Hawera on Tuesday It ia understood, says the"Eitham Argus," that 5Jd was offered for cheese, but the makers declined to close at that price. On Tuesday thirteen firms were represented in Waitara to meet North Taranaki and Uruti directors, but no business resulted, both companies putting their articles on firm offer at a trifle more than buyers would operate on. About one-sixteenth of a penny is the difference in both cases between buyer and seller.

As the results of heavy rain much of the country at Nireaha and Atea C has been flooded. g A meeting of the Carlton Cricket v Club will be held in the secretary's C office this evening, a 8 o'clock. * Mr Reakep, Government Veterinary Surgeon, will give an address at ' Featherston to farmers on Tuesday c evening. s f A social will be held at Tenui on Friday evening next, under the aus- , pices of the local Football Club, when the medals and trophies won during the past season will ba presented r Un Saturday night, while driving c up from Papawai, Mr Malon? was ' thrown out of a brake, and fell on a * barbed wire fenre. He •'receiverlfja E ! severe gash in his arm. Dr. 8i?,.0f * Greytown, put in several stitches. 1 The snow is rapidly disapp ;ari ig ( from the Tararua Mountains owing ' to the mild rain that has been fall- ' ing. This has caused the rivers at the Lower Valley to be in high flood. i Despite the heavy ram that fell last evening, there was a pood attendance at the Town Hall when the Masterton season of the pictures shown under the direction of Messrs Tay lor and Hayward was brought to a close. Besides the excellent fiim "Drink," a splendid programme of varied subjects was exhibited, and much enjoyed by the audience. The fortnightly meeting of Stonehenge Lodge was held last evening, Bro. Gourlay, A.D., presiding, Dr Symonds, of Patea, wrote statine that Bro. Boyle ,w ho was in the Patea Hospital, was progressing favourably. Two candidaes were initiated and two proposed for mem- [ bership. Other routine business was transacted. A Napier syndicate is getting from ; Home a new kind of machinery for • dressing flax. The new plant, says the "Hastings Standard," will turn out the fibre with much more rapidity ' than the old process. Within fortyf eight hours from the time the green ; flax leaves the swamp the hemp will , he ready for export. The exact nature of the new process is not known ' except to those conceited in its venture, ar.d it is understood to in j elude steam drying. I A shunter named McCabe was 3 fatally injured at Marton Junction on Monday night. He was occupied in fly shunting, and was standing on a truck, clad in a heavy oilskin. He slipped, and the oilskin was caught by the brake, and he was dragged 1 for some distance. Two ribs s broken, penetrating the lungs and he* , died on the way to the Wanganui hospital. The deceased was married, ' but had no children. 2 "Legislation should be passed," V" said Major Young in addressing a a meeting of settlers in Eketahuna on e Monday last, "to make it an offence to take a horse suffering from *■ strangles into a public stable, or » permit it to drink out of a public e trough." In answer to a question 0 at a later period, Major Young stated it was wrong to offer cows 0 suffering from contagious mamraatis d at public auctions, and he would s make it a crime, t The joint committee of the Fire d Brigade and Fire Police, which care ried out arrangements in connection with the sacred concert held in aid " of Constable F. Boyle, met last - night. The balance sheet showed the a door takings amounted to £l2 6s v 6d, and with a donation of 5s for- , warded to the secretary made a total of £l2 lis 6d. A vote of thanks was passed to all who had assisted to e make the concert a success, and a a special vote of thanks passed to Mr j L. H. Lewis, who carried out the duties of secretary. Alfred Langley, who was arrested 3 by Constable Brown about midnight s on Monday, the circumstances sur 0 rounding which were published in h yesterday's issue, of the Wairarapa Age, was charged at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morn--11 ing that he did unlawfully break t and enter the tobacconist shop of a Mr Alexander White, and did commit the theft of tobacco and pipes to the value of £5. On the application of d the police a remand was granted till t Friday next, bail being allowed in f accused's own recognisance of £SO and two sureties of £SO each. Accused was represented by Mr C. A. Pownall. The Ministerial organs will be shocked to hear, on the authority of the "Mangaweka Settler" (Mr K Hornblow's paper; that "a large number of Liberals in the Manga- ;' weka district have deserted and thrown in their lot with the OppoJ sition." The "Settler" sadly red marks: "This is to be regretted, more especially if we wish to a strengthen the good old Liberal ■ r cause." We like that expression e "good old Liberal cause," remarks '- the "Manawatu Standard." It means so much to the initiated. It e reminds us, also, of stirring events i' in bygone days. n Disqualifications are from time to time imposed on men for misbe- * haviour, but it seldom happens that ™ one of the gentler sex has to be t placed under the ban for a period for acting in an unladylike manner on a - sports ground (says the Christchurch r "Press"). The New Zealand Hockey ' Council on Friday endorsed a number - of disqualifications imposed by asso--1 ciations on players, and included l among the names was that of a young : lady. She had, apparently, failed to I see eye to * eye with the • referee - during a match, and is alleged at its I conclusion to have expressed her feelings in no uncertain manner by deliberately hooting him. Her sud- . den outburst of indignation will i necessitate her retiring from the game of hockey till May Ist next. A story is being told at Wanganui significant of the Government action when aby election is pending. Some lime ago a deputation proceeded to Wellington to bring under the notice of Ministers the desirability of providing work for the unemployed on the Parapara Road, which is in the Rangitikei electorate, but, on their return, reported that nothing was likely to be done. Last summer all the material for the suspension bridge across the Mangawhero River, which is a link in the road, was carted to the site, and has bean lying there all the winter. It is now stated by a "Wanganui Chronicle" correspondent that, Just before the election last week, a telegram was received stating that the bridge would be put in hand immediately, and that between twenty and thirty men i would be put to work on the road in a fortnight.

Notice has been received that Court Tamaki. Hamua, has been granted a dispensation The court will be opened by the District Officers at Eketahuna on October 12th. A rabbiter looks upon this incident in his work as something of a record. In sixty-two sets of his traps; says the he neve* failed to have a catch, registering 3,170 rabbits, which were trucked! from Mount Stuart to Burnside. A number of apparently healthy horses have died suddenly in Christchurch, and the inspector for the S.P.C.A. Society suggests that they were choked by tight collars. He says it is the easiest thing in the world to choke a horse.- One of the lady members of the society ventured the opinion that the men- in charge of horses "did not know enough to come in out of the wet.'* A correspondent o£ the "King Country Chronicte" states that he recently saw nine staunch horses valiantly struggling through the great Ohura sea (the Ohura Road) with a paltry 25cwt load. The colour of ine horses was indistinguishable through their generous coating of papa mudj New Zealand's offer of a battleship was not the first of its kind made to the Home Government. In his lecture before the Philosophical Society at Palmerston North on Monday night, Mr Duncan Sinclair tol'l of one of New South Wales' early convicts, Perry, who had made a lot of money and owned at one time all the buildings on one side of Pitt street, Sydney. He was so wealthy that he made an offer to the British Government to fit out a first-class battleship as a present to the Crown if he were allowed once more to put his foot on British soil a "free man." His offefr •was refused. The polling in the Rangitikei by election illustrates in a very startling way the advantages ol the | system of preferential voting. Thwt . was embodied in Mr McNab'a i Absolute Majority Bill, says the i "Lyttelton Times." If the Government had adopted this system in its electoral legislation last year, instad of saddling the country with ' *he wretched second ballot, the) 1 Rangitikei contest would have been 1 decided on Thursday, and the difii 1 trict would have been saved from 3 the heartburning and unrest of a f further six or seven days electioneering. The reuslt, too, would have ! « represented the wishes of the ma- : jority of the electors .mum more 1 certainly than will the polling next ' week. » The practice of surreptitiously appropriating goods from shop count--1 ers is, according to thi detectives. 3 again becoming, prevalent in Sydney. J The department is consequently showr ing increased activity, and judging c by the attitude which magistrates are adopting towards this class of , offender, some exemplary punish- * ment may be expected. A remarka able feature is that in almost every 3 case the shop-lifter is a person who could well afford to purchase the trivial articles stolen. "I can't unB derstand it," said one officer. "These people are • models of rej 1 spectability in their neighbourhoods, ! but the moment they get insiia a shop they seem to become pussessedi 3 of a desire to lift something fir 3 the sake of lifting it." 1 The heavy cost to the Slate of some i of the trials which took place at last > sitting of th 9 Supreme Court in i criminal session, at Auckland, was r the subject of repeated comment by B . his Honor Mr Justice Edwards. The most expensive trial proves to have 3 been, says the "Herlad," that of t Adams, who was charged with arson and a sexual offence, at Owhata. In this case witnesses' expenses alone ,_' ran into £312. Other costly trials ," were those of Dyer, charged with horse and cattle stealing, the wit- " nesses against whom took away £ £lO9 with them, and Amnion, t charged with horse stealing, the evidence in which cost £9l. Curf iously enough, none of these men j were convicted. ' The total cost to the State of the sessions was £1.4E5, j including witnesses', jurors' and interpreters' expenses. The trouble that is being experienced by the battleship Westfalen, the s Kaiser's first Dreadnought, which, y owing to some miscalculation, was r unable to steam down the Weser:;to e the North Sea, is in some respects a . repetition of what happened to the $ original Dreadnought built by Brit- . ain. - It is pointed out in "Jane's . Fighting Ships" that when the Dreadnought was launched she drew ) two feet more water than she was 1 designed to draw. In the case of the 1 Westfalen the August number of the s "Navy League Journal" states that t the new warship's armament was t very heavy, she having twelve six--3 inch guns, whose existence had been kept secret, in addition to twelve eleven-inch guns. It would appear as 5 if this accounts for the miscalcula- " tion, the additional guns having fc added to the weight of the ship. | This, of course, is an important matter in Germany, where ships 1 have to move about considerably in 1 a litte depth of water. Messrs Gillespie and Co. advertise I for two ploughmen, fencer and sta' ', tion hand, milkers, married couples , and shepherds. Mr J. Kitchener, bootmaker. , Queen Street, [has to hand a supply i of footwear mside of Ruberised leather, which are recommended for extra comfort and their superior wearing quaHties. Messrs Ueorge and Kersley, of the Economic, Wellington, are now making their spring display of new season's goods, particulars of which will be found in another column. At their Perry Street rooms at 2 o'clock today, Messrs J. A. J. Maclean and Co. will offer a large assortment of furniture and household effects, on account of a gentleman who is leaving Masterto.i. Mr E. Hodge, second-hand dealer,' whose premises are opposite Pirihey's stables, has a large assortment of tool 1 ? and furniture which will be sold at low rates. Mr Hodge -will deal with large or small lots on a commission basis Excellence and quality at a minimum cost is the rule that guides the business policy of Mr W. H. Cole, painter and decorator, of Chapel Street. - New wall papers in the latest designs are to hand, and Mr Cole is prepared to give advice and estimates for house decorations.