LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9684, 7 January 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the review published of , the state of trade in Christchurch during the year 1909,' a strongly optimistic note is sounded, and there seems be a concensus of belief that there are very prosperousjimes ahead. The fruit crop throughout the Marlborough province promises to be very large this season, particularly apples, and a great many fruitgrowers are already making preparations for sending their yield to Wellington. The successful candidates at the examinations on the Board of Education (South Kensington), held at Masterton in June last are as follows: —Building construction and drawing: John A. Duffill, first-class pass (stage I.). Human physiology: Leonard B, Bradstock, second-class pass (stage II.). Tracking the criminal by the finger-print was successfully accomplished at Scotland Yard last year in no fewer than 5,440 cases. In his annual report, Sir E. R. Hfenry, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, who is to all intents and purposes the author of this aid to the law, points with pardonable pride to the fact that this total compares with 7,701 identifications m 1907. Moreover, more than half (5,704) of the total of comparisons were carried out for the provincial police, which number, contrasting with 4,408 in 1907, affords, striking evidence of the widespread adoption of the system.

The electric wireless telephone system, which, it is claimed, will enable one to speaK to persons situated in different parts of the country without risk of "tapping," has been invented by a young electrician namec Mr H. Grindell-Matthews, and will shortly be placed on the English market by a syndicate which has acquired the patents. It is believed that, when perfected, by means of the apparatus it will be possible tc talk through it from land to warships at sea, from battleships to submarines, and even from the top of i house to a distant motor car on the road, while it is expected that this new system of telephoning will be oj invaluable use for communicating between troops in a campaign, the smallness of the necessary instruments being an important factor. Already die inventor has been successful in speaking through £ telephone over three-quarters of a mile in the busiest part of London, and sound has been transmitted a distance of seven miles. At the Magistrate's Court, yester' day morning, Charles Gurote was charged with having behaved in a public place in a manner whereby a breach of the peace may have be 3 n occasioned, and that he did unlawfully resist Serjeant Miller while in the execution of his duty. Mr tf. K. Jackson appoired for accused, and entered a plea of guilty on the first charge, and not guilty on the second." Sergeant Ali Her gave evidence as to seeing accused chasing a man in Queen street, and talking in a loud and threatening manner. Accused continued his behaviour and witness proceeded to arrest him. They fell to the ground, and accused promised to keep quiet if allowed to get up. As soon as this was done accused struck him over the left temple, and under the eye, and would probably have injured him if assistance had not been forthcoming. Accused in his evidence stated that a man named Seccombe owed him money, and when he asked for it ia the street they had some words, and subsequently some one caught hold of him. He did not know it was Sergt. Miller at the time, as he was in plain clothes. The presiding Magistrate, Mr R. H. Turton, stated that on the first charge accused wouid .be convicted and fined £5 and costs, and on the second charge he would be sentenced to two months' imprisonment with hard labour.

"Hampton's Magazine," which paid the record sum of 5a a word to Commander Peary for his story of the discovery of the North Pole, effected an insurance ot the explorer's life to the extent of 5,000 dollars, the proprietors of the' magazine claiming that they had air interest in his life until he had completed the writing of his story. The insurance remains in torce un- j til the publication of tne final instalment of the story. fciThe Foresters' Hall was packed to its capacity, last evening:, when Thompson-Payne presented their pi entertainment, the excellent programme being highly appreciated. Owing to the new railway train time-table interfering with the transmission of their films the firm regvet that they will be compelled to dis :ontinue the matinees on i Saturday afternoons until they make | fresh arrangements. For to-morrow night's entertainment another firstclass programme will be presented. The experiment of inviting members of rifle clubs to go into camp for two days w-s not a success, says | Colonel Davies in his anrual report.™ "They were offered a small personal payment, besides rations Out of the whole Dominion a total of 77 turned J out (all in Wellington), and 3,620 • did r.ot. 1 need say liitle more about that experiment. Mary things, have small beginnings, and in the distant futuie it is possible tbey mayturn out in sufficient numbers and for sufficient time to make it worth, the expenditure, but the prospects at present are not hopefn), to s<*y the least." The annual meeting of the Workmen's Friend Building S'ciety was® held last evening, jn the Y.M.C.A. building, the chairman (Mr W H. Jackson) pre&iding. The annual re- % port and balance sheet, the former j of which has already been published, was adopted. The following were elected directors, viz., Messrs McEwen, Rigg, Winzenberg, and A. Dona>d. An appropriation by ballot was held, the successful member being Mr A. Norman. After the annual meeting, a meeting of directors waa held, when Mr W. H Jackson was elected chairman for the ensuing twelve months, and Mr J. A. McEwen vice-chairman. The directors' meeting was adjourned till Wednes-*-day evening next. The modern Maori is no fool, says, the "Bay of Plenty Times," but sometimes he has queer ideas. Theother day a native in Tauranga wanted to have his watch cleaned-' and repaired. He proceeded with caution. First he visited a shop oh the Strand and* producing the watch to the lady in charge politely asked J "You weigh this for me?" It was done, and then the native tooK his timepiece to the watchmaker's establishment. In due course it emerged from there duly cleaned and repaired, 'and the first thing the owner did was to visit the lady u£ the Strand with an anxious request that the watch might be again weighed. This was done, and the weight declared to be the same as before. When he realised that none of the works were missing he vented his feelipgs with "Kapai, te Pakeha," and left the premises with an smile on his face.

Mr A. H. Blake, who has written a book entitled "Sixty years ago. in New Zealand,'' describes the big earthquake in Wellington in 1855.' "Lambton Quay," he says, "then consisted of one street,' which ran along the foot of the plateau called the Terrace. But we rushed to see what damage was being done, and to escape damage to ourselves, when* oh horror! the sea was slowly but surely bubbling over the breastwork and into some of the establishments. Women and children, half clothed, were rushing to and fro, wringing their hands, praying and crying* afraid to stay in their houses, and terrified at the sight of the ap- y proaching tidal wave. Many immed- f iately fled to the Teerrace for fear '/ of but soon returned upon finding the sea had receded. The appearance the harbour presented next morning would lead the observer to imagine tnat it was being drained by some subterranean agency, so far had the tide ebbed. Boats which had previously been anchored in comparatively deep water were left high and dry." It is reportetd that the Chinese Department of State Affairs contemplates issuing an order directing officials, soldiers, students and police to give up the queue and to wear their hair short. Ultimately the pro- , hibition would apply to the popula- V tion generally; Doubt is, however*/ expressed as to whether Imperial sanction can be secured for such a break with long-established custom. The "Jap&n Mail" recalls that the queue was introduced into China by the Manchu dynasty nearly three centuries ago. It is said to have been originally suggested to the Manchu by their sense of gratitude , to the horse, that , animal having played a great part in the Tartar conquests. In short, the "pigtail" was a method of establishing a relationship between human beings and horses. The fashion was regarded • by the Chinese as a badge of subservience, and they long resisted it. This was true especially of the natives of Swatow and Amoy, and. when they were ultimately cdm-7 pelled to adopt the irksome coiffure they hid the queue under cotton turbans, which to this day they continue to wear.

As the result of experiments that have been conducted at the Central Laboratory at Guatemala, the "London Standard" reports, a very good 'spirit which is said to be something like whisky, has been produced from bananas which were about to be thrown away. In countries that produce bananas for export, a largequantity of the fruit is rejected as being unfit for shipment, arid is consequently of ten wasted completely. In view of this, various means have been tried for the purpose of utilis- Y ing the waste material. Among % these have been the drying and preservation of the fruits, and the production of banana flour from it. None of them has, however, sufficed to deal with the quantity of unexportable fruits that have been pioduced, and it has become necessary to seek for other methods for the disposal of it. The yield of spirit is estimated at aboift' a gallon from each Bunch of bananas. As regards* the cost of manufacture, this is said to be much less than that of whisky,, and it has also been proved that the fitably

The Besses o' th' Barn Band, now j on their way to Australia, are declared to be even a greater combin-j ation thau the band which visited us two or three years ago. The full strength of the Band to appear in Australasia is twenty-two performers, who will be equipped with a complete set of new instruments, and will be under the baton of Mr Alexander Owen. •" A large party of about thirty i people will make a pilgrimage to the - top of Mt. Egmont this week. The party will comprise people from Wellington, Waverley, Masterton, Marton and Napier and Woodville will be represented by four. A start will be made on the sth January, and Eltham reached that night. Next morning a Btart will be made up the mountain, and the Mountain House made the rendezvous for about a week. The trip should prove a delightful one. Miss Branscombe Wood, who was solo pianiste In Madam Patey's Concert Company, which toured New Zealand in 1891, is now a professor i v of singing at Paris. Quite recently "Miss Branscombe Wood gave a very instructive lecture to a large number of vocal students and singers at her studio, 4 Rue Benjamin Godard. The lecturer stated that out of the thousands of vocal students who come yearly to Paris, only one in a hundred made a genuine success; and that the cause of the failure lay in the vicious use of the voice in tone production. Nearly all voices were forced; for singers now-a-daya aim at quantity rather than quality. The new and rational ideas put forth by Miss Wood evinced great research, and the lecturer was warmly applauded. Several pupils exemplified Mies Branscombe Wood's admirable method by singing pieces of great difficulty with consummate ease in J. execution combined with a quality of tone rarely heard at the present day.

Interesting statistics given by the Socialist newspaper "Vorwartj," in its campaign for the election to the Diet, have been published in connection with the increase of the wealth in Prussia. It is painted out that whereas in 1903 there were eighty thousand people in Prussia alone with incomes of over fourteen hundred pounds, five years later (in 1908) the number of persons in receipt of incomes ever this figure had increased to one hundred and four thousand. In 1908 one million and a-half people owned property worth forty-five million pounds, of whom one hundred and forty-four thousand each owned more than five thousand pounds' worth. There are eight thousand three hundred persons who are millionaires, according to the German sense of the term, that is to say, who are worth more than £50,000 each, and in the last fourteen years the wealth of these eight thousand three hundred "millionaires" has increased from six hundred and fifty million pounds to eleven hundred million pounds.

A sensational record has been made at Brooklande, United States America, by Hemery, the famous Continental racing motorist, who finished second in the last Grand Prix. Driving a9O h.p. Beuz, he beat the world's flying kilometre, travelling well ■ over two miles a minute. So high was the spied he attained, and so important were the records made, that the Brooklands Club only announced approximate figures, with a view to the tapes on the electrical timing apparatus being carefully studied with a micrometer. Over the flying half-mile Hemery travelled at 127& miles an hour, and his speed over the flying kilometre was at the rate of 120 miles an hour. The previous flying half-mile record was made at Brooklands on November lßth, 1908, by Frank Newton, who travelled at 119.34 miles an hour. Other speeds accomplished by Hemery over various distances were: —Standing mile, 87 miles an hour: standing halfmile, 70 miles an hour; flying mile, 116 milea an hour; standing kilometre, 71 miles an hour.

A lost waterproof driving apron is | advertised for. A bay mare lost from Mrs Watson's yards is advertised for. A reward is offered for the recovery of a five pound note lost yesterday between the Bank of Australasia and the Post Office. The Brethren of Stonehenge Lodge U.A.0.D., are requested to assemble at the Dominion Hall at 1.45 p.m. today, to attend the funeral of their i late Brother A. P. Lea. Messrs George and Kersley, of the Economic, Wellington, advertise particulars of some of the bargain lines now being offered at their New Year bargain sale. Travelling bags and rugs are usually in demand at the holiday season. The Masterton branch of the New Zealand Clothing Factory advertise particulars and prices which will be found elsewhere in this issue. In an inset circulated to-day, Mr E. Oliver, practical tailor, Queen Street, notifies that there is no need to be puzzled as to where to get a • suit correctly made. Mr Oliver will undertake all orders, and solicits a rial.

Messrs Abraham and Williams wil hold their next Eketahuna stock sal* in their new yards. These have jus been completed and they are com • modious, up-to-date, and well adap ted for the purpose of stock sales The present train service ha! made it necessary that sales in fut ure shall commence at 11.30 a.m This has been duly announced else whete. The Dresden Piano Company is proud ot tne confiHencp placed m it by tht public—a trus; built up by years o hsnestdealingr. Frankness is the "Dres den's" motto in all its relations with f purchaser. The more the latter knows about the piano he is buying, the won likely he to be satisfied. What tht Dresden Piano Company has to offer its patron? is quality—never anything elst Had not good value been a charact3ristic feature with the Dresden, theirs would not be the business it is < o-day. Thai Company has many advantages. H ■ possesses extensive capital and an enormous output. Thus, it commands stocl on a bedrock basis from the world's foremost manufacturers. Then it possesses officers of great experience, ol unrivalled judgment, and of unquestion- ; *• sd integrity, in whom not only lias "The i Dresden" the utmost confidence, but or . •whom the public, too, can rely—to the list word. Local representatives—- * ■ Messrs Inns and Goddard, next Clut „. Hotel, Masterton.