LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9677, 29 December 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

{ The latest return from the Worksop Dredge is 32 ounces for 120 hours' working. The dredge will be closed for a fortnight, starting from January 10th, in order to allow the crew to enjoy their annual holidays. Good progress is being made with the erection of the Trust Lands TrUat'snew brick premises in Qjeen. street." Given fine weather the contractors expect to have the contract completed by about the first or second wetik in January 7' j Boring has disclosed the existence i of a valuable and extensive new deposit of hard coal, at a depth of ninety feet, in the vicinity of the Seddonville State Colliery, Westland. I The find promises to be a most important one. Evidence that the land hunger is still unappeased is furnished by the fact of there being 184 applications for three sectious in the Piri Piri block, Napier. The h-allot was held last Friday, F. A. Fp>v_end, H. C. YjHow and iimma Jane Anderson being successful. A»• regards lighting- for household purpn is, the population of Hawera h p s*ih]y better favoured thin Ihe mMJori y «f New Zealand towns. The gas and electric lighting companies are in o,i n companion, and house in-t'illi.tio «a nr. •»« *e free ol cost. iicljiling th »v for municipal street lightings, are <l ,wr, to a minimum.

A Press Association telegram from Greymouth states that the stoppage of three weeks' pay at the S'aie mine during the period of the strike has cot affected trade very much. The miners rely fully on the Ministerial promise to deal justly by them. Meantime, they are resuming work on the- improved conditions after ther holidays.

I At the last quarterly meeting of i the Westport branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the secretary reported that, as the previous meeting had lapsed for want of a quorum, he. placed the books in the cupboard in the meeting room. They had since been stolen, and, although the matter had been placed in ttfe hands of the police, no trace of them had yet been dis- j covered. j

, In keeping with the ever-increaa* ing demand for closer over 10,000 acres of the well-known Kereru estate, sub divided into five blocks, has been placed on the market. Maggie Papakura and her sister Bella, the famous Whakarewarewa guides, are at Sydney with a party" of sixty Maoria. They have set up * a pab with materials brought from Rotorua, and are giving entertainments, in which Native songs and dances are the chief items. The venture is said to be succeeding. Our Tenui correspondent writes:—For twelve hours on the 26tb inst. a soaking rain fell all over the district,,. and a great deal of good has been., done by the heavy fall. The dry pastures were in need of rain, but the ■ prospect of experiencing something approaching a nrought has, fortunately, been dispellad. A singular freak ot nature was discovered at the North British freezing : works. Napier, in the form of a : lamb with two mouths. The extras mouth is just under the left ear,,., and is well ,shaped. The lamb, which is now the property of the drover, 'Mr Foster, is alive and in a normal condition. I I On the present trip to New Zealand waters the steamer Clan Ogilvy is ■ manned by a white crew, and has a complement of 33 hands all told—all Britishers. When previously in NeW' Zealand she carried Asiatic sailors to. 1 the number ofJ57, and with the offi— . cers and engineers added, she had a. complement of something like 70.. This serve 3 to emphasise the difference between the capabilities of the - . British sailor and the Asiatic. Judge Emden thinks that the way people speak to-day is quite shocking. He remarked at Lambeth County Court that in spite of education people speak worse than ever. "They don't seem to teich people to speak—everything but that. They teach themi to play the piano, and all sorts of things. Day after day, all day long* lam asking people to make themselves heard; and., not only that, but to speak so that they can be understood. Really they might be speak- •* jng in foreign languages.

The country has never asked for "ar bulky statute boob, but it is, or ought, to be, deeply concerned at beings saddlbd-with a sheaf of crudely-con--ceived, ill-designed and badly-made' laws to harass the people and restrict their liberties, says the "Christchurch Evening News." Bacon says somewhere that there ia no greater torture than the torture. ' of laws, and it will be no thanks* to« our legislators if the country is; not; crying out for relief at an eaiJy date> against some of the statutes recently , enacted. Mr K. Mcßae* one of the threes shearers whose shearing tally at; Puketiri was recorded recently im these columns states that after going; carefully into the figures and cowditiona he considers that the record put up by Mr J. Bristol, at Ternyhurst, was even better than their performance. "Our average per man,,", stated Mr Mcßae, "was 239, and SB.T" Bristol's was 232, but it shoufdTiiot-, be forgotten that we used a wider; cut machine and had better shearing - ; lambs to work on. In fairness to Mr" Bristol, I thitk these facts should be. made public" ' "' The following telegram* has-' been"' received by the President of the- : Tauranga Railway League from tfoeHon. R. Minister for Pub- . lie Works:—"You wi'l be pleased to learn that a vote of £IO,OOO appears on the Public Works Estimates, brought down towards the construction of the railway from Tauraagav- t to Te Puke. The authorisation of this section of the East Coast Main 1 Trunk will be provided for in the' Railways Authorisation Bill, and it; is intended, if the Bill in passed,. to arrange for the construction' works to be commenced as soon as.' possible."

Mr T. W. Driver, conjuror, magician and spirit medium opponent' concluded his Masterton season in the Town Hall last evening. The audience although not a large one was l decidedly appreciative, and the keenest interest was manifested in th.es performance. The programme was mainly on the lines 01 that of the previous evening, the first part being taken up with conjuring and rcagiV cal feats concluding with the "cabinet seance" In the second half theconjuror produced "apports" under the rigid test conditions of a committee selected from the audience to > the mystification of everyone present. Mr .Driver is a pleasing conjuror, for apart from the actual feats. performed he keeps up a happy How of light conversation which for him the entire, sympathy of *-~£ i, A Cablegram of exceptional' interest to those who are concrned with the progress of the meat trade has been received from Sydney, It states that te3ts were given before a gathering interested in the meat trade to at new process of 'preservation by fumigation or dry air, as opposed tosterilisation, it was claimed that the results were highly satisfactory. The meat was killed and treated on the 6th inst.. and, after hanging in an open butcher's shop exposed tJ ordinary temperatures for fifteen days,, was found sweet and sound, of'ex.-: cellent colour, without a trace of" deterioration. It was also clairsedk that the meat could, after treat*.ment, be chilled, exported, thawed* and kept hanging for a monthJm a butcher's shop without toss of" quality. Another advantage of the process is that it is considerablycheaper than any other knevwj-sys- - stem.

Information was received in Dunedin last week that the shearers en- - gaged on the Walter Peak Station, Lake Wakatipu district, owred by ' Messrs Mackenzie and Sons,; had! eonenufn„ strike> after shearing 500 «... of a total of 14,000 sheep/ The mei., to the number of about half a iozen, were receiving the award race of 18s per 100, but on reaching the stage mentioned, de-' manded that they be paid 20s pea? 100. This the owners refused them and they thereupon ceased work*' The matter has been placed in the hands of the Labour, Department and Mr Le Cren, inspector of" Awards, left for the district The shearers' award contains a strike clause, the effect of which is that the union must do everything in its power to prevent a strike; As the action of these men means jeopardisine the award, the Shearers'' Union will hava something to say in- tbe-matter.

A telephone bureau was opened at ? 3>yerville, South Wairarapa, on Tuesday last. The latest cablegram received this ttnoruing contained .the news that there was a , recurrence of the heat wave in Melbourne, the temperature hnvina reached 107 degrees in the City The fortnightly meeting of Stonelienge Lodge, U.A.O D„ was held > last evening. Bro. P. C. McGraugharan, P.A., was presented with a P.A. collar and diploma The D.P. Bro. J. M, Nicholls, of Carterton, installed Bros. Smith and into their jespective offices. Two candidates 'were initiated into the order, and one friend proposed for membershio. There is little difficulty in finding tenants for houses in Ashburton now, especially for cottages of ffiour or five rooms, and it is said lhat many people are boarding because suitable houses are not available. One man, who has 23 houses, some ot which were vacant during Abe winter, has now let every one of them, and in several instances the iias been raised "A aood time! Bless you, yes, it "was a grand time!" an old lady at the Pilgrims' gathering in Christchurch recently, said when her mind went back to the old days. "We were all young then, you know, and full of , life, health, and strength. We did jisaot know, and full of life, health and * strength. We did not know what it was to be utterly tired. I have walked from Lyttelton to Riccarton and Papanui, through rivers, swamps and tussock, and have never had a more pleasant walk hyny life. Camp ovens were one of our principal iiousehoold appliances in those days. Our damper bread was as good ?s any foread yeu get in Christchurch to-day, I belie p e that 81} food in those days rhoi'e" than it ia now. The men went out and* snot a" wild pig or a number of quail or ducks, and these, with our damper, often k]Jh.a.de the only meal we had. I do nut that all tti?. remarkable inventions of modern days have Improved' things as far as the art of cooking is concerned. We had to learn it in a hard school, and we learnt it thoroughly. I think that the best feature of the old life was the fact that we were all mainly a great, happy t family. There were bickerings and small quarrels, of course, but they vrere soon swept aside when anyone was in need of help. As a matter of fact, we all had to help each other. If we had not done that we would not have been abie to get along at all." Mr F. P. Welch has vacancies for generals and station hands. Hew and fashionable "footwear in all the latest styles is now being shown at the W.F.C. A. Boot Department A good breaki -g-in plant, together with a. sound business is advertised for sale-. Full particulars can be ob- j tained on application to Professor ; Hepburn r Pnhiatua. Mr A. Henrlerflfln, jeweller and notifies that he will ciose i his premises on Saturday next, New : Year's Day, and will open again on i Monday, the 3rd Januiry, s ; Kirkpatrick arid" Co., Ltd., ; isie manufacturers of the WeU-lrsown , jams and preserves, feftve a special , Criatrflas and New Year announcement appearing in this issue. A number of leading business ( firms in Masterton announce on page ( 1 that they intend closing on New , Year's Day (Saturday next), and Will open again on Monday, January 3rd, but will observe the usual halfholiday on Thursday next. Business people who; Wish to do likewise are ' requested to add their names to those i already appearing in the advertisein mt. <