LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 91, 4 June 1912, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

PO»e apple crops this year in the vicinity of Hastings have been remarkaoly heavy, and |he. fruit is" excellent. One orchardist Kas 5*2 tons'of Stumers in pits. ,„ ' ~.,,,< ... . .?' local oronardis't (says the Palmeiston 'Standard/') has taken SOOlbs of apples from a small jSturnier pippin tree this season.. This, at 3d per lb, wo|ks out at £3 15s, and, taking an average of 100 trees to the acre, would mean a return per acre of £375. An extraordinary case of cruelty to animals came before the Police Court the other day. The defendant, who was trying to administer a bottle of kerosene to a horse as a cure for. gripes, spilt the kerosene on the anJßial's head and theu, apparently in a passion, set a light to the liquid. The animal was badly injured, and the otjver animal got off. with a fine of £1 and the payment of costs. 4 Hastings storekeeper is bitterly bewailing the fact that he is obliged to siCdown and see £IOO of his good money vanish before his eyes into thin ahi without a hope of l>eing able to st<H it. It seems he gave a Maori credit up to the amount stated, and now the native is going bankrupt. There are only a few creditors altoge§her, and the Maori possesses more laud than would satisfy all claims, but of jpourse it cannot be touched, and the confiding creditors fall in.

An extraordinary new photographic cajnera lias been invented by a Japanese, Set up on a hill, or in a field, it photographs everything an all sides. It takes in the whole view—north, south, east and' west—and produces a picture of everything in the horizon. The film is bent into a cylinder looking like a little barrel. A set of mirrors and lenses, is so arranged as to reflect on this film the images of everything stretching all around the camera, and on the lid, is placed a series of revolving lenses which combine to give an image of everything one could see by turning round. Unless the Government was prepared to enter into an energetic and comprehensive scheme of immigration the resuits would be disastrous to the dominion, stated the president in his address to the Farmers' Union Conference at Ohristchurch a few days ago. To-day teams were idle all over New Zealand for want of teamsters. Last year the wheat area in New Zealand was onethird less than in the previous year. Through the idleness of teams it was quite possible that insufficient wheat would be grown next year for local requirements, notwithstanding the prospect of good prices. It was sufficient labor that was wanted, not cheap, labor, and if the Government did not face the question the farmers would have to do so themselves. There was deafening applause the other dav at the hide sales conducted by Messrs Winchcombe, Carson, and Company at Circular Quay Sydney when a single hide realised £o. it was of course, an especially prime hide', weighing 891b,- and the 14d per lb that it fetched was announced as an Australian record The hide came from North Queensland, being consigned by the meat works at Townsville, and it was the exceptional substance it contained that caused so much competition among the huyers. The big price showed that the hide and leather markets are just now particularly buoyaiu. Whether the applause that rang throughout the auction-room at the market barometer being topped m this way will be re-echoed by those who buy the leather when made up into boots and shoes is quite another matr ter, the public just now being more or less apprehensive about the all-round rise in the cost of living and materials. Speaking at Christchurch the other night Hon. G. W\ Russell (Minister for Internal Affairs) said that for a number of years past the women of New Zealand had felt keenly the difficulty of obtaining domestic help. Within the last-few days Cabinet had approved ot a proposal which was about to be put into operation through the Immigration Department and which he hoped would relieve the difficulty. It was intended to bring out as an experiment a party of 50 voung women from the orphanages in England, including the Clergy Masonic, Commercial Travellers, and other high-class institutions of that kind, to provide domestic help for the women of New Zealand. These young women would be placed under the supervision of some of the Government officers, and the Government would act in loco parentis to them. If the scheme succeeded the intention was to extend it in order to meet the demand for domestic help. The Government would be able to do a two-fold work : it would provide homes for the orphans of the Mother Country, and it would enable the women of New Zealand to obtain domestic help. The experiment was an important one and he hoped it would be thoroughly successful. A sensational story is going the rounds (states an exchange), to the effect that it was Pawelka who hanged Tabi Kaka, sentenced to death for the murder of John Freeman at Puhipuhi. Since the death of Tom Long New Zealand has been without the services of an official executioner, and when the sentence on Kaka had to be carried out no hangman could be found. The gaols were searched, and at length Pawelka, sentenced to 21 years in gaol and serving his second year, accepted the gruesome task. It was arranged that he should go to Auckland and put the rope round the Maori boy's neck, on condition that he kept it a close secret, and -that he should receive a substantial sum of money and be allowed to leave New Zealand unobserved. Pawelka performed 1 his part of the contract, an'l when he- returned to Wellington it was •agreed that he should "escape." On the first attempt a warder not in the know detected Pawelka and he was maTched back to his cell; but on the (second occasion, a Sunday morning, 'Pawelka was provided with civilian's dress and allowed to escape. The find ing of the convict's clothes in the har|bor and the arrest of the suspect at Mokau was part of the fake. It was a fcleverly-managed drama, a magnificent /fake engineered! by the high officials. The police deride the Btory, but—there it is!