LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10572, 1 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

High prices are being received for pigs in the Manawaifcu district.

The arrivals in New Zealand for the month of Janata ry nnmibered 5096, amd the departures 3031. The 'latest, return from thio Maistexton dredge is 24ozs. lOdwts for 131 hours' working. The Alriaruhe 'awimial sports mooting wifll 'be "held a* Ahiaruhe on March, 14th.

The Auckland Produce Committee lias fixed the price of eggs at Is 2d per dozen, and factory butter at Is o|d per lb., for the month of March. .Land in the Pukekohe district is selling at high prices, and.the country generally is experiencing something of & boom.

- Bee farmers in Ahe Eeilding district are complaining of ha.ving a very poor season -this year, the weather. conditions of the past few • months being . against the' industry. ••

Mr J. ,C. Boddington .reports thai the rainfall registered at the Upper Plain for the 24 hours preceding 9 iai.m. on Wednesday was 2 points, and yesterday 63 points.

A Napier. High School .boy recently swam thiree miles in the municipal baths;-amid apparently was quite fresh when he finished. This must be considered a good performance for a boy of fifteen. '

,• Rongotea dairy farmers are not in .favour of manufacturing casein, it .being considered that the price offering is not good enough to make up for the loss of feed for pigs and calves. .

The Taranaki Herald states that £123 18s 5d was paid out to farmers during the year ending January, 1912, from the Taranaki (Master Butchers' Association pig insurance fund for pigs condemned during the last twelve months at the municipal abattoirs.

The iMastertan Musical and Elocutionary Competitions Society is making arrangements tfor the holding of the competitions in July.. The isyllabus is now Ibeing made up, and intending competitors will have them pasted to them at ah early date. In- the Speech from the Throne at the'opening of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament) a Bill was announced giving women the franchise and making them eligible for election as members of the House on the same conditions as men. Already in Norway a>ud Finland women are eligible for election as members of Parliament. ■

In the speech from the Throne at tine opening .of ithe Prussian- Diet, it was announced that the exploitation of poor relief by "work-shy" people .and by those who sought to evade the duty of supporting their families would the dealt with in a Bill which would enforce a -scheme of compulsory work.

j According to official .""statistics,. the ; value-of ■the imports for ihome consumption, exclusive of the, • precious metals, into Germany during 1911 was £477,000,000, as compared with £446,000,000 in the "previous year. The value of the exports of home produce, exclusive of .the precious metals, was £405,000,000, as compared with £373,000,000 ihlDld. The German increase in exports was £32,000,000, as compared with a British increase in 1911 of £24,000,000.

Statisticians affirm that within, another seven or eight years greater New York will have a population of at least a million more'than greater London., and Chicago is coming on at a great rate. Greater London has, on 693 square miles, seven and a-quarter million people, compared with six and a half millions of greater New Yorkers on 702 square miles. But the population of New York is growing so much faster than that of London that'the director of the American census predicts a speedy ending of London's supremacy.

An amusing wager between Colonel Henry Watterson, the celebrated editor of, the; Louisville -Courier Journal,' and the editor of the New York World, has "been the subject of widewyrfnti political hilarity. -I'M wager Was made in, Noveil±?" ; 1909, aild was as follows: —A dinner for four and twenty that on the first Monday in Pecem'ber, 1911, William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt will bo at'daggers drawn, the wager to be decided by the Chief Justice, tho Vice-President, and the Speaker. The "World now admits that Colonel Watterson has won:. J't states that the breach between Mr Roosevelt and Mr Tafb is now complete, Jx)t,h politically and pea\sonal:ly.

The weekly meeting of Endeavour Lodge, 1.0. G.T., was Jield in the- Foresters' Ha.1.1,-Masterton, last evening. There" was a good attejidan.ee of members, presided over by.Sis. Mrs Flanagan. Routine business was transacted. jOne new member was initiated into j the order, and one proposed for membership. A recess was granted to give •the members an opportunity to propiiro tiio for the evening, viz., naiil-driving for .sisters, and tiav trimming 'for brothers, which, resulted as follows ! —Jfaii-dliving, Sis. Mrs Flanagan' 1, Sis. Harvey 2; hat-trim-ming, Bro. AndertO.it 1, lii ; cJ. Willie Morris 2. Sister Richards, oik Ijehalf of Bro. Congdon, presented the prizes fotf the nail-driving. The item on the syllabus for next week is "Sisters Prize Night."

DIARRHOEA. "Quite recently my boy Jack was i verv bad with diarrhoea/' says Mrs M. Lee, of Forbes, N.S.W. "For quite a fortnight he was ill and got down very weak. My husband bought a bottle of Chamberlain's Colic and Diarrhoea Remedy, gave him a dose, and to our surprise the ono dose completely cured him. There is no question that tin's remedy is quick and reliable/' Sold by all chemists and storekeepers. Wo neeii to worry over those Customs entries until your brains sure fogged. Pass them along to Messri J. J. Curtis and Co.,— they are experts at the game. There's no tia« to be lost (and time is money to you) when your entries are passed Messrs J. J. GtJ&TIS AND CO.. Customhouse and Shipping Agentn, Customhouse Quay, Wellingt'tfa. Their charges too arw rtty 'fis&ikrate. _w_ _ ._.. !

The WclliiiKto.il. Farmers' Mea.t Company has paid out £1787 18s 8d in wages during the 'month of February. Tho prizes -and trophies donated to the Masterton Ladies' Swimming Club, wihoso carnival hats been postponed, will 'bo kept unitiil tho next carnival.

A large number of men are now engaged in the construction of the first section of tho East Coast railway. Tho Carterton Gun CLuib fired a livo pigeon match at Carterton yesterday for a stake of £SO. Mr H. Feast (21 yds) with 14 kills, was first; J. Gunn and J. Harvey (23yds) 13, second, and A. Teal (21yds), 12, next. Socialism, which the Government pilloried as the "arch-enemy of the State," emerged triumphant from the first ballots of the German Reichstag elections. It elected 64 members, 11 more than in the last Reichstag. The Socialists gained 28 seats and lost only 2, making their net gain 26. No other party came out of tho first ballots with a net gain. Even the 'hitherto impregnable Roman 'Catholic Centre has lost ■six seats and the Conservatives 15.

■- After living the luxurious life" of a millionaire for one clay, Mr John J. McDevitt, the Wilkesbarre (Pennsylvania) miner, announced that he had only half-a-crown and a few coppers left of his £SOO. The one time when, bo says, he realised that tho possession of a million might bo insufficient for real comfort in New York was when he sat in a taxi-cab and watched the indicators accumulating the dollars in f ares. ■-■ '"'

Mr Ted. Burrows, of the Masterton Post Office, who purchased;,the. first' Bradbury Jmbtbr* cycle"'ah: Masterton-,-left yesterday for •Wellington, with the object of competing in the motorcycle reliability trials, which take place today and to-morrow, from Wellington to Marton and foack to Wellington*. The cyclists pass through the Wairarapa to-day, and the return trip will be made via Pa.ikaka.riki. There will be about twenty-tliiree competitors. The new decree forbidding the dropping of wastepaper on the public thoroughfares in Paris is now in force... The edict,, issued by the Prefect of. Police, represents the first serious step taken in the war against the dirty &rid : neglected appearance of the streets. The penalties 'for infringing the law, which forbids the dropping of wtastepaper or fruit-peel,- or anything calculated to dirty the streets, are fines from lOd to 12s 6d, or imprisonment ranging from one to five days. A study in Maori contrasts was pre- , sentted at tlie Supreme Court at Auckj land on Wednesday. A young native [ who was twice convicted of horse stealing during the day, supplied the one [ aspect of Maori life, and an elderly Hoi kianga rangatira, the owner of one of the horses, provided the other.. The comment of Mr Justice Edwards was; apt and striking. . "Here," said, His Honour, "we have on the one hand ah old chief. He is perhaps more or less a savage, but he is.a genMeman sav% age. The young man. (the-accused) is not a savage, tbut,h.e is certainly not: a»| gentleman." • " j During (tlie course of a proceeding under the "Summary Separation Act in the Magistrate's Court at Auck- < land, before Mr 0. C. Kettle, S.M., the Magistrate handed to the counsel the following letter he had received: "Mr Cattei, Dearsir, Wd you bee kind enought to let mo know how much it will cosit to get Devoce in the Serepam Cort fr a warking man becausse it is ' a clear case for a Devoce. Shelhas left me.about six years an I'waait4o-get a Devoce-as soon as you can teH me the cheapest way it on easy terms. Anyser an oblige yours truly."

In consequence of tlie'recerit,rise:,in. the price of hemp, five flaxmills have (reports the Southland Times) recommenced operations in Otago iwud Southland. The improvement in prices unfortunately, came too late, and several millers have thought it not worth while to open in consequence- If prices remain good thero will be a resusciation of .the industry, and a general reopening of mills wlim next spring comes round. At present quotations millers should reap a fair profit; but, unfortunately, many of them sold early, and, in consequence, arenot receiving as good a price as if they bad tarried. Tow is in great demand locally, but the supply is inadequate. It was stated at a meeting of creditors in Cli.ristchu.rcb the other day, that some small storekeepers make 12} per cent profit on their turnover. Another small storekeeper stated that ho ■reckoned on making 15 to 18 per cent. Astonishment was expressed by tho representative of ,a wholesale bouse, who .remarked that storekeepers were very lucky in being -'able to obtain such profits. The latest he had 'hoard, was that a-inanin a big way of business made 4 per cent net. Tho. .storekeeper fcmai:kc'4 tlint c4JO U>18 per cent be was ,rt.f Z™l?£ to t l,e gross profit, bub the expenses of a man in a big way of business were very much highw compared with bis expenses.

A young Jady who lived in Napier" up till quite recently, and became fairlv acquainted with the "high .society" of Bluff Hill (states the "Telegraph") was betrothed to a Sydney gentleman. '"ne wedding day was fixed,_ and presents amd good wishes received from various sources, many from Napier. Several local .residents were even invited to the. ceremony, and preparations had been made by them for ordering new dresses. Before leaving Sydney tlio bridegroom-elect was also the recipient, -of many good washes and pres.jiii.s, On arrival at 'Wollniglon, however, after an absence of.some two. years from bis fiancee, he did not altogether meet with .her approval, and was informed at the eleventh hour that "she would not marry liim." Telegramswsre ffisflatcheu to stop intending gliosis journeying to the capital city, and, it IS stated, the presents were returned.