LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9608, 30 September 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There is a considerable amount of sickness in Mas-nrton at the present time—principally in a mild form of influenza. The committee appointed for the Peatherston Sub-centra of the Wai* rarapa Boxing Association is as follows:—Messrs Alex. Hannay, Gaorge Hume, W. Barton, J. McCarthy, C. J, Carlyon (Hon. Secretary and Treasurer^. Among the judge 3 appointed by the Manawatu and East Coast A. and P. Association are the following:— Leaping and hunters and driving in the ring, Mr Armstrong, Akitio; thoroughbred, saddle horses and ponies, Mr F. Armstrong, Akitio; draught horses, Mr W. D. Watson, Masterton; Shorthorn and Aberdeen Angus cattle, Mr A, McKenzie. Feafcherßton; Holsteins, Mr E. Eagle, jnr., Belvedere, Carterton; fat stock, Mr J. Strang, Gladstone. The hook-keeping methods adopted , by some Wellington tradesmen are by no means satisfactory, according to remarks made at a meeting of creditors in that city last week. The assignee said that, judging by the hooks- which came into his office, something should be done to remedy the existing state of affairs. One creditor suggested that instead of the Government appointing so many inspectors for other work some shoul be appointed to examine the books of tradesmen to see that they were being kept in a proper hianner. The assignee replied that he thought some step might be taken in this direction before very long.

Chaff is practically unsaleable in j Invercargill, but prime quality is j quoted at £2 on trucks at country ! stations. A farmer in the Mount Benger (Otago) district tiied using poisoned ' carrots for rabbits this year, and has been surprised at the result. Yesterday, writes our Carterton correspondent, Mr C Campbell, of Clar.->ville, sent away the first draft of lrtinns irom the Wairaraoa this season. According to the "Western Star" (Southland), the Aparima Dairy Factory has established a record for butter-fat this year, the total amount paid suppliers being Is 3d while Te Tua paid J2Jd, and DrummonJ 1b At the pay-night of the Workers' Mutual Benefit Building Society last evening, over £154 was received. A sale of £3OO will ta*e place on October 14th, aftdr the annual meeting, which will be held on that date At the Auckland Police Court, yesterday, Florence Gasktll and Louisa Inglis, were charged with the theft of rings valued at £64 from various jewellers, one alleged theft being from a Wellington jeweller. They were remanded. ■* An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at Taratahi, touching the death of John Beard, who was found drowned the previous afternoon. After hearing the evidence the jury returned a verdict that the deceased met his death by accidental drowning while suffering from temporary derangement of mind. At a meeting of the Executive of the Blobsom and Butterfly Fair it was decided to hold a children's competition in the Town Hall. During the fair days there will be spelling, recitation and reading competitions. Intending competitors are requested to communicate with the Rev. A. T. Thompson as early as possible. The Masterton Homing Pigeon Club will open the season to-day, when they will hold a race from Wellington, in which forty-five birds representing twelve lofts will compete, Races will be held by the club alternately from the North and South, the distances being gradually increased. The next race after the one to-day will be from Marton.

Tom Burrows aerain proved his right to the title of the world's champion cluo swinger by defeating the American champion, Harry Lawson, at the Theatre Royal, Brisbane, recently, at the same time establishing a new world's record of 66 hours 35 minutes. The Americin showed signs of distress some hours before the finish. Lawson dropped one club about 10 minutes before the conclusion of the match. It was related by one of the speak- , ers at a function at Oxford the other evening that fully twenty years before Cheviot was cut up the late Hon. W. Kobinson was out in one of the paddocks conversing with the station ploughman. He asked the man, jestingly, how he would like a farm on Cheviot, and the latter replied that he would not mind if he could get a portion of the area he was ploughing. , The years went by, the ploughman drifted away to the North Island, Cheviot was acquired by the Government, and thrown open for selection. The ex-ploughman put in an application, and was allotted a farm of two hundred acres, the holding including the self-same field that he was ploughing at the time of the conversation with his employer, and which he said he would not mind having. Owing to the apathy of the Hawke's Bay Acclimatisation Society, a number of sportsmen are thinking of combining for the purpose of liberating rainbow trout in Te Aute Lake and Broughton's Lake (Ohiti) states the "Daily Telegraph." Fishermen here state that it is hopeless to approach the Acclimatisation Society for the purpose of affording sport for the ordinary angler, and they are consequently forced back upon their own rescources to stock the lakes. One fisherman says he would be quite willing to pay £3OO a year to the association for the fishing grounds at the Te Aute Lake alone, and he would undertake tu stock it himself. He calculates that he could then make £2OO a year but of it amongst fishermen all over Hawke's Bay, to say nothing of the profits accruing from an accommodation House. ~ ..

The outlook for the hemp industry in New Zealand is now very much brighter than it has been for a very long time. The fact that enormous supplies of Manila are held in store over the past year or so. and the heavy shipments of it that have been made 1 from the stores to the, London market have all along had a very decided lowering tendency on market values. Last season in New Zealand and in Otago and Southland in particular, the position was a very serious one, and very few mills were working, it being impossible to turn hemp out at a profit. Now, however, the Manila hemp in store is gradually diminishing, and this, combined with the enormous demand for binder twine in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, owing to the exceptionally heavy grain crops, has led to a very much improved position. Manila hemp recently went up in price about £6 per ton, and the latest quotation for the New Zealand article at Home was £26 per ton, which, after deducting £3 per ton for expenses of ship- | ments. etc.. leaves a verv good margin of profit to the manufactures. Farmers in the Rongahere district are very bitter over the serious loss they are sustaining through the ravof deer (states the "Clutha Leader.") These animul.i have now become very numerous on this side of the Blue Mountains, ami through scarcity of feed are coming on to the farming land in ever-increasing numbers. One settler declares that he has several acres of young grass which he wishes to keep for seed, and that he has not the slightest chance of saving a particle of it unless he employs a msn with a gun all day and part of the night to watch it from now right on till harvest time. Another settler had ten or twelve acres of turnips; these the deer demolished to such an extent that they were practically not worth turning sheep on to when winter came. The matter has been brought before the Acclimatisation Society, which, it is stated disclaims any responsibility, despite' the fact that it derives a revenue of several hundreds a year in the issue of shooting licenses.

Somebody has been advertising in Auckland for an office boy who must be a registered accountant. Private advices have been received that Mr W E. Bidwill's Provocation is doing very well at Ranciwick, and from the gallops done, he will run a great race on Saturday. The horse hj: a greatly improved since landing in Sydney. There is every indication of the Masterton Homing Pigeon Club having a highly successful season. A large number of local residents areinteresting themselves this year in Homing Pigeon racing, with the result that additional lofts are being established. The club intend to offer a number of valuable prizes for competition. Long distance races will be held from Auckland in the North, and Dunedin in the South, by the club. A well-known mariner, who has a working knowledge of German, overheard an interesting conversation in Melbourne recently. Emissaries of the local German Navy League were trying to persuade a naturalised Ger» man sea captain to join their organisation, but he refused. In conversation afterwards he imparted the information that the Melbourne branch of the German Navy League contains 1,500 members! The £2,000 allocated to New Zealand out of the Pan-Anglican thankoffering of £2lO 000 will be distributed in equal sums in the dioceses of Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington for religious education, says the secretary ot the fund in a statement issued recently. The sum of £104,000 has now been finally awarded to dioceses throughout the world, and it is hoped that by December 31st, 1909, the whole thankoffering may have been allocated.

The Secretary of the Auckhnd Water siders' Union of Workers, in a letter referring to Mr C. C. Kettle's remarks concerning paid agitators, says:—"Only a few years ayo the Hon. T. Mackenzie .called the Hon. J. A. Miller an arch agitator, and not long since Mr Millar told us 'the agitator must go,' but, judging by their actions in the Rangitikei electorate recently, both the honourable gentlemen are now paid agitators,, for instead of attending to their Departments, which they are paid to do, they were agitating the electors to support the Government." A correspondent writes to the"Manawatu Standard" as follows:"The following paragraph is appearing in several of your contempor- > returned New Zealander 1 states that Bluff oysters are on sale' at certain periods of the year in* Johannesburg. They are somewhat. of a luxury though, as the pri :e is--4s a dozen.' The Bluff oystera sold in' Johannesburg are secured from the Bluff at Port Natal, better known as Durban. Whoever the person was who returned to New Zealand, he evidently went about withjhis eye& and ears closed, or el.<e he is trying to work a poor sort of joke on the' people out here." August proved one of the worst months to British underwriters for a long time paßt. In the event of the Lund Liner Waratah having become a total loss, the amount which' th 3 underwriters will have to pay for losses incurred are: —Waratah. steamer, £300,000; Maori, steamer £IOO,OOO (hull and cargo); Plympton, steamer, £45,000 (hull and cargo); Langton Grange, £61,000 (hull' only); Maratpn, steamer, £10,000; and Lucane, steamer, £50,000 (estimated particular average claims. ). This gives a total of £566,000. In the course ot an interview with Chinese in Otaki, the "Otaki Mall'" elicited the fact that the gardening: season so far had been somewhat unprofitable, and that uiany seeds owing to the dampness of the ground, have failed to germinate as in previous years. Consequently, the number of Celestials in Otaki and its surrounding country at the present time is much below the ordinary, and! many gardens wera found to be evenuntenanted.while in other place© only a stray Chinese or so could be; found. At . present the Celestials, have about 116 acres under cultivation, for which they pay from £3 to. £8 per acre rent. i A despatch clerk at the Napier Telegraph Office, named Arthur , Hanlsn, aged 19, was arrested on Tuesday night on a charge of attempting to conspire with one Hiram Ashcroftto defraud Edward Limbrick, of £2O 9s and £5 by means of false pretences. It is alleged that Ashcroft arranged with Limbriek,. a bookmaker, to accept wires ott> horse races. These wires bore the' telegraph office stamp as having oeen. handed in half an-hour before the races were run, but inquiries showed that the wires had never passed, through the office. Hanlen wap before the Court yesterday morning, and was remanded till Monday on bail. Ashcroft was arrested at Palmerston North and remanded to Napier.

Australia and New Zealand now come to a deadlock over the Davis Cup Tennis contest. Considerable correspondence has passed' between the two governing -bodies since the resignation of New Zealand from the Australasian Association, and both sides have been hurling proposals at one another. New Zealand gave way on several points and negotiations for a settlement of the difficulty were proceeding satisfactorily uiuil Australia insisted that the New Zealand Association should rejointhe Australasian Association. This it has declined to do, and the breach is now as wide as ever. It is Btated that unless some arrangement ie comj to within the next few days New Zealand will find it necessary to take some steps to enforce its claims. A progressive euchre party and dance under the auspices of the Foresters' Lodge was held in the Foresters' Hall last evening. There were about 100 couples present. Euchre Wf«s indulged in for two hours, and resulted in Messrs W. Lttt, E. Daysh and J. Berrj. tying. for first prize, each winning 11 games out of 12 in the men's class. The ballot resulted in Mr Lett securing the prize. The ladies' prize was won by Mish A. Hunter. Mrs Stinson and Mr F. Roys were the win* ners of the "booby" prizes. Messrs A. Chapman, B. tfraggins, L. Lewis and J. Budd made very capaiile M.'sC. for the euchre, while Messrs L. Attwood and A. Chapman were M.'sC. for the dancing. The success ot the gathering was in a great measure due to the capable secretaries, Messrs J.]«B. Rue and L.JH. Lewis.

A new papar, to be known as the '•'Dannevirke Evening News," will make its appearance on the 16th proximo. A well-known Masterton land agent states that there is a pronounced improvement in the labour market. Enquiries for labour are plentiful, but there is some difficulty in obtaining suitable men. At the Borough Council meeting r last night. Cr Morris said that since F Colombo Koart had been extended beyond Kuriuutii Street and into the ' ' next Street drivers could now take their stork through this route instead of taking them along Kunpuni Street, where the footpaths wtre being spoiled. The mattei of erectinr a suitable notice to stock owners, • directi'K their attention to the right route to take, was left to the Engineer. At the meeting of the Carltun Cricket Club last evening, feeling a-eference was made to the death of the late Mr James Welch, of Willow Park, Oyafci, a promitent sup porter of the Club, and it was decided ti forward a letter of connolence to Mrs Welch and family. Sev- > cral speakers referred to the deceased gentleman's many sterling qualities, :'■ v his kindness of heart and straight- ' lorwardot-ss having commanded for > Jbim the re pect of the whole community. His death, it was stated, •was a severe blow to sport in the district, he having taken a prominent pait in cricket and football. A first-class skirt hand is required by Mr H. A. Whelch, Masterton. Three good dairy cows are advertised for sale, Mr F. P. Welch, labour agent, has vacancies for various classes of .labourers. ' Sitting of purebred Pekin and Aylesbury duck eggs are advertised for sale. An experienced coat hand is re-' quired by Miss Thomson, of the] W.F.C.A. dressmaking department. > ... An excellent illustration of Grif- > fin's patent tea-can appears in an ad-, vertisemenfc on page 7 of this issue. The Masterton Borough Council notifies that the new stock road connecting Makora road with Cockburn street is now open to traffic. Serviceable and stylish tan footwear, for men, women and children, is obtainable at the W.F.C.A., at reasonable prices. Brief particular of the "Ringwell House" furniture, to be sold .on Saturday, by Mr J. R. Nieol, on account of Mrs Rayner, are adver tised to-day. Every line will be sold absolutely without reserve. An auction sale of valuable sec- « tions in the borough of Greytown will ] be held by Messrs Dalgety and Co., ' Ltd., on Monday, October 11th. The < k, property consists of twenty acres, . F divided into areas from three to six acres, and is situated within three ] minutes' walk of the Post Office. 1 The terms of sale are set out in 8n advertisement on page 8 of this ] issue. i Mr J. J. Spillane has imported a 1 large number of bicycles from the i leading English manufacturers, par- i tkulars of wh:ch are given else- ] where. These machines are guar- i anteed to be of the best material j throughout, and have all the latest 1 improvements. A number of juvenile ( rycles have also come to hand, with ] varying heights of frame. Sturmey- t Archer two and three speed gear will s be fitted to any of the machines at a j low price. Mr Spillane's premises j are in the Exchange Buildings, Masterton. j In many instances superior gop,ds i are being sold at Hendry and Bux < ton's closing down sale at 50 per cent i below cost. This ia no mere state • i went to catch trade, but a genuine < loss on the original cost. The pre- i raises are to be closed on the J 6th i October, and the goods must be < turned into cash. Residents are in- 1 vited to inspect the lines that are I remaining, land they can rest as- i aured that a cash offer will not be I refused. The premises are opposite i Knox Church, Queen street. Master- I ton.*' . __ ji