LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9671, 9 December 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The present session of Parliament will close on December 22nd. It is estimated that the two recent wool sales in Napier will result in an increase of a quarter ot a million of the wealth of Hawke's Bay. It is stated that there is an enormous quantity of feed for stock in the Kaiknura district, Marlborough. Considerable areas have been closed for cocksfoot seed. A parasitic disease is stripping the trees of the Palmerston North streets and reserves of their foliage, and a Government biologist has been requisitioned to prescribe for the enemy. Intending competitors at the Martinborough Caledonian Society's sport, to be hell on Boxing Day, are reminded that nominations for the various handicap events will close on Saturday, 11th inst., at 10 p.m. One of the successful applicants at the ballot for sections on the Fyvie Settlement, saya the Christchurch "Press," stated during his examination that he had been unsuccessful in no fewer than ten previous ballots His ioy when success at last smiled on him was boundless. The excursion fares for the South Wairarapa people who' purpose attending the Friendly Societies' picnic at Pigeon Bush, on Boxing Day, are as follow:—Carterton: Adults, 2s; children under twelve years, Is; from Greytown the same. Featherston: Adults, Is; children, 6d.~ Carterton correspondent. Leo Boranoff, the alleged Russian exile, who has been lecturing in vari • ous parts of the Dominion on Russia, was arrested at Rongotea on Tuesday last, and was before the Feilding Court yesterday, charged with attempting improper relations with a girl under twelve years of age. Boranoff was remanded till Monday. Bail was refused him. MrC. Bannister, the well-known Mount Holdaworth "pioneer," proposes to make an ascent (the ordinal number is lost in a plenitude of climbs) of the mountain in a week or so. The absence of rain and the prevailing heat have combined to render the track most suitable for climbing, and Mr Bannister proposes to collect a number of the chief botanical specimens for which the mountain ia noted.

One of the parties in a libel action before the Supreme Court in Wellington is a speaking demonstration of the plain assertion that a man in his time may play many parts. This actor on the world's stage was in the beginning a sailor before the mast, and since then has turned his hands to many things. Under examination he admitted having been at one time or other in his life a hotelkeeper, a carpenter, painter, bridgebuilder, hotel porter, head keeper in a menagerie, a wild beast collector and a farm hand. Now, for want of better, and because he objects to a lazy life, he is a railway hand in Queensland. In timeß when not thus occupied he has assisted to turn H.M.S. Foudroyant into scrapiron and to erect the Blackpool Tower in England. "This has been a wonderful season for native flora," remarked a local authority on such matters to a Wairarapa Age reporter yesterday. "Ihe mild winter and spring conditions have caused the native shrubs and plants to thrive splendidly. Particularly so is this with the kaikomako (pennantea corymbosa), a plant with a gorgeous blc ;~om of white, with two distinct pa terns of leaf. It is to be seen in profusion on the Waipoua flats. Another rn :tif Abloom I have seen mo e frequently this season is that o; the Carpodetns Serrata. or. as th« Maoris term it, "puta putaweta." This pretty tree should have a domicile in every cultivated plantation, as »t is a singularly attractive botanical specimen. It stands about ton f "t high, and bear 1 ? a white bloom.. It may be seen just now on the Matawnili Road."

There was a strange accident at the annual show at Wyndham, Southland, during a military rescue race over hurdles. The race waa run in heats of two, the riders gcing at top speed over a hurdls, picking up a dummy, and hurdling back again. All went well until the final, when Privates Grieve and Frame set off neck-and-neclc The horses touched several times on the way to the hurdle, and as they rose at it at top speed, they collided, and hurdle, hors;s, and riders crashed into one heap. A rush ot spectators to the spot followed. Grieve got up promptly, with a cut on the forehead and minus some teeth, but Frame lay still for some time on account of kick on the head. He regained consciousness, however, and the pair were able to walk, little the worse for their exciting ex perience. The result of the competition was declared a tie.

The ratepayers of the Wadestown portion of the Wellington Borough yesterday voted on the proposal to borrow £33,000 for electric traraa to that suburb. The proposal was carried by 187 votes to 17. K.The West Coasters residing in Wellington entertained the Hon R. McKenzie, Minister of Mines and Public Works, last night, and presented liim with an illuminated address. Mrs McKenzie was presented with a gold bangle. Som ■ months ago the citizens of Hastings subscribed a good sum of money for the purchase of a town clock. The money was sent down to I Wellington, and as a considerable time has elapsed the subscribers are beginning to wonder if the Department intends to erect a clock, or add their subscriptions to the surplus. "A great thing about the scout movement," said Bishop Julius on Sunday in his sermon to the boy scouts in Christchurch, "is that it teaches the boys useful things. There is very little ceremonial drill, although a little drill is very good; it teaches boys to walk properly. Half the boys in Christchurch cannot stand on their tegs, but walk like cows going to market." "As I see that some parties propose holiday making in the Government forest reserve," said a local forest rover to an Age reporter yesterday, "it may be as well to warn prospective excursionists to these secluded haunts that there is a penalty of £SO attached to the shooting ot wild cattle, while,of course, national game are also stringently protected. The remoter regions of the forest reserve abound in wild cattle, and in view of the temptation open to thoughtless picnickers these facts should be made fully known to them."

The "Dominion" newspaper writes as follows:—"We must compliment both the Government and the Executive of the Miners' Federation on the reported arrangement arrive! at yesterday in regard to the strike of coal-miners at the State mine at Point Elizabeth. What actually happened at the interview between the miners' representatives and members of the Government has not transpired." Why should the "Dominion" feel compelled to "compliment the Government" when it does not know what transpired at the interview is a question that may be reasonably asked.

The ideal weather which has prevailed for aquatics during the last few days has prompted numberless swimmers to disport themselves in the Park Lake and in the river;?. For active swimmers it will be of interest to know that a race will be swum on the Park Lake on Thursday evening next, (16th inst). at 6.30 p.m., under the auspices of the Wairarapa Amateur Swimming Club, t The distance will be 66yds and a | handsome trophy will reward the winner. Evening races have in the past provided a very popular attraction for the general public, last year 1 ' as many as six hundred people witnessing some of these events. Me F. W. G. McLeod, who is now resident in Cobar, New South Wales, . writing to a friend in Masterton this ! week, says:—"Australian towns have a very different appearance to our native county, and I am afraid it is anything but to their advant- ' age. Two-storeyed buildings outside of the cities are the exception, the chief reason bsing that there is invariably no lack of ground space, and the more 'roof they have on their premises the more rain-water they 1 are likely to catch when a shower comes. ... It can be tairly hot, too. Last Thursday we got up to 101, but I have felt more uncomfortable \ in Masterton when the temperature has been 88 or 90 than I have here."

Mr Will Crooks, M.P., interviewed! by the "Southland Timeß" reporter on the way to catch the Melbourne boat at the Bluff, said he would be back in time for the British elections and would be in the thick of the fight. He hoped to reach Home by January 10th. Whatever was the result of the coming elections he did not think there had been for two hundred years or more such a change for the people. He declared that the members of the House of Lords were responsible, and this was their last act, and marked the end of their power. "If they beat us at this election," he added,"then the representations'or the Government ceased to exist, and all our democratic sentiments go by the board." Mr A. Barton Kent, a British manufacturer, who his just returned from a trip of 36,000 miles through the British Empire, has been confirmed in his impression that the present wrong-headed policy of free trade is costing us valuable commercial markets abroad, says a contemporary. He asserts that the colonies are ready and anxious for commercial co-operation. Mr Kent observes: "In New Zealand I found they were equally eager for better commercial relations with the Home Country; equally amazed at our sticking to the old fetish of free trade. No business min with whom I tackled out there could understand it." The British Beekeepers' Association have made arrangements with a firm of underwriters at Lloyds' for insurance against liabilities for injuries caused by bees The policy indemnifies the owners of beehives gainst their liability to third parties for damages to persons or propertyoccasioned by bees from the insured apiary outside such apiary, such claim in any one year not to exceed the sum of £3O in the aggregate, and not to include any claim for injury to the assured, or persons or live stock under his control. The premium is at the rate of one penny per hive on the maximum number of hives kept, with a minimum premium of ninepence. On December 13th a partial eclipse of the sun will take place, and will be visible thro'Hiout the South Island of New Zealand The moon will be south of the sun a f the time, and the consequence of this is that the farther south.the observer is placed the larger is the portion of the sun that is hidden. At Wellington the eclipse will be a very small one, and about 40 miles farther north the eclipse will become invisible. At Christchurch the fraction of the sun's diameter obscured will be nearly onetenth, and at the extreme" south of New Zealand it will be about oneseventh. At no place will the magnitude of this eclipse amount to much more than half the sun's diameter, and this could be seen only at certain places within the Antarctic Circle.

At an early hour this morning there was a slight improvement in the condition of Mr P. Lee, who is lying seriously ill in the Masterton Hospital. The monthly service of the Presbyterian Church at Bideford will be lielii on Sunday afternoon next, at 3 •o'clock. Mr C. J. 'locker will preach. It may not te generally known ithat Mr Asquith, British Prime ■Minister, wag schoolmaster, at a tMoravian school in Yorkshire, of Mr •Join Ja.res Lang, of this town, says a Dannevirke pap:'r. Mr Lang recalls that young Asquith was so ■smart at his studies and took them so seriously—even to tha extent of conning them over in his sleepthat his masters sent him home for half a year, fearing softening of the brain. The boy quite outstripped the jrest of his contemporaries,, and today he is Prime Minister. A statement presented at the meeting of the Manawatu A. and P. Association on Tuesday showed that the •expenditure at the recent ehow was .as follows:—Prizes (cash), £1,369; labour and sundries, £375 17s sd; judges and luncheon, £197; advertising and printing, £330 V guessing .stock cost, £9 19s; total, £2,281 16s sd. The receipts were: Gate money and stands, £1,087 16s; fees -and space, £7Bl 2s; privileges, ,£148; catalogues, £92 3s 4d; donations, £4BO 5s 6d; guessing tickets, JB3O lis Id; sale of stock, £IC Us; total, £2,635 8s lid. Balance, £258 il2a 6d. The overdraft now stands at £5,316. Members' subscriptions for the year totalled £i,i69, as -against £1,086 last year. There was an affecting scene, writes a London correspondent under date, October 29th, at the Congress Hall at Clapton, on Wednesday -evening, whan the veteran Chief of the Salvation Army announced to a vast audience, which had assembled to welcome him "back to public life" after his recent operations, that he had quite lost the sight of < one eye, and was - not sure of the other, General Booth spoke with the .greatest cheerfulness for an hour vand a-half, merely lapsing for a few moments as he made the pathetic announcement. "I have lost the Bight -of my right eye," he said with a tremulous voice. "It has gone, never to return. The other eye is imperfect, and it is likely, they tell me. to become more and more defective. Any way, they cannot tell. I asked 'the doctor about it when I saw him a few days ago. He said it might 'Jast twenty years. A cataract has •, iformed on the eye similar in nature /to the one which developed on the eye I have lost. But I can discern i that there are individuals at the end ■of this building, and, if the light was a little better, perhaps I might be able.to recognise faces in that •quarter." The audience cheered sympathetically. With his lung hair and straggling beard he looked every inch :the old warrior that he has been, and he described with optimism and his plans for the future, A lady's mantle, lost in or about Queen street, Masterton, is aJvertised for. Mr F. P. Welch advertises for sale a first-class block of drained flax country, on which it is estimated there are 10,000 tons of flax now ready for milling. On Saturday afternoon, at the Masterton auction mart, Mr J. R. Nicol will sell the privileges in connection with the Wairarapa Caledonian Society's sports on New Year's Day. The Alos Hair Restorer makes the hair grow thick and beautiful. It is purely a herbal remedy, containing no grease, oils, dyespr colouring matter of any kind. It is manufactured by Mr Davies, hair specialist, Auckland. In anotHer column testimonials are published from ladies who have used it, in which every -satisfaction ia expressed with results achieved. Mr J. JU Hughes, hairdresser and tobacconist, has been appointed agent for Masterton and district.

pMr Robert Russell, second-hand •dealer, whose premises are next to the Queen's Hotel, Masterton, has a very large stock of general sundries for sale. He is a cash buyer of •second-hand goods, and as a retailer is noted for reasonable prices. Mr Russell has in stock a number of ■ second-hand tents, all in first-class order, which he is prepared to let < out to picnickers and others during the uhristmas holidays. Stretchers may also be hired at a nominal price. Mr W. Inglis Husband, land agent, SPahiatua, reports having sold Mr E. ■J. Diamond's 824 acres freehold, all fully improved, together with stock consisting of 1,850 sheep, 900 of which are breeding ewes, also 80 head of cattle, to Mr D. W. Owen. This property was taken up by Mr Diamond when all in bush, and was ■particularly well farmed, the stock being one of the best flocks in the Pabiatua district. As the selling .price was only £8 per acre it should ,prove to those on the look-ot for farm properties that hefore buying they ought to visit Pahiatua. The selectiqn of a useful and acceptable Christmas present will be an easy matter to those who visit Mr Jas. Scott' jewellery establis h ment in Masterton. In his choice of stock he has certainly msde a happy selection—goods that from point of utility and attractiveness would be hard to excel. The stock is a comprehensive one, covering the large range of lines that are only to be found in ah up-to-date jewellery store, and in which high quality and low prices are the leading characteristics. Country residents entrusting orders to Mr Scott can -rely on a careful selection of their requirements, and prompt despatch of goods. Prom an indifferent piano youcan|only expect indifferent mubic. Even the <most brilliant musician requires a good instrument, otherwise his eifort3 are at l)est only second rate—he laoks delicacy of expression and fails in tone. A good piano is not necessarily an expensive one; the Cottage piano of today is better than tli9 Grand of yesterday. We have pianos which are moderate in price, exquisite in tone, handsome in appearance, and of remarkable durability. These cost from thirty-eight to fifty-five guineas, and represent the highest development in piano construction. They are made by skilled workmen, from dependable materials, and are instruments which cannot fail to give the utmost satisfaction and pleasure. We shall be pleased t: show these pianos to intending purchasers. Don't forgat • our easy time'payment system. The .Dresden Piaao Company, Wellington. North Island Manager, Mr M. J. Brookea. I ocal Bep-esentati ves: Messrs Inns and -Ooddard, next Club Hotel, Mastertoa. 2