LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 92, 7 June 1912, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A well-known Maori, 100 years of age, commonly known as Napoleon, living at Manunui, near Taumarumii, met with a painful accident lately, in which his leg was broken and badly burned. It is presumed that he fell on his fire. He attempted to doctor himself with the milky sap of the tutu leaves, but only made the injuries worse. He is at present -under treatment at the hospital. The old man's real name is Nukn. He was a famous fighter in the old days, and is said to be the only surviving Maori artist in the district. He is now unable to carve owing to failing eyesight.

Says the 'Voice of Labor,' Auckland: The whole town of Waihi is held up; no union men dare leave the town except by special permit issued by the officials of the federation; no union man can enter the town but what his name, his business and all about him becomes an object of consideration by the revolutionary tribunal; no union man can visit his neighbor, enter any office, store or private house, or hold conversation with anyone without his action being reported to the revolutionary tribunal.

Tile earthquake on Sunday night w : as responsible for some amusing incidents at Auckland, to many of tho younger generation of Aucklanders, was quite a new experience, and it was natural that some mistake should be make as to the cause of the unwonted shock. To mistake an earthquake for a burglar, however, is an unusual blunder, but it was made. A clerk was sitting in one of the shipping offices in the city diligently totting cash when the preliminary tremors arrived. Some of the first quivers upset a delicately balanced ledger or something equally ponderous, and it came down with a solid and convincing bang. The clerk had had no experience of earthquakes, but he had a lively sense of the presence in the city of a gang of buglars prone to the use of dynamite, and he left the premises as fast as he could and gave the alarm. "The safe's gone! The safe's gone!" he called out, and the immediate disturbance created by the remark put consideration of a mere earthquake out ol the question. In no time there was a little crowd and a policeman and the constable called up and with all speed a burglar-fighting organisation of at least fifteen constables and detectives arrived and formed an attacking party. I hey stormed the office and searched it high and low, but by the time they got there the earthquake had gone.

in the course of a patent' case in Wellington the Chief Justice (Sir Hubert Stout) said that by far the best method was the American system, which would not allow a patent to be registered unless it wag a good one. Here anything could be patented, and parties were left to fight it out afterwards, as occurred in this case. Sir John Findlay, K.C. (counsel for plaintiff company) remarked that the German system was even more strict. At the last Imperial Conference it was urged that the Imperial' patent law .should follow the lines suggested.

It was announced by the Prime Minister in his policy speech at Opunake last week that the Government had decided to repeal the Second Ballot Act. In order to provide a substitute it was intended to introduce into Parliament a Bill to give the right to each elector to vote on a system of electoral preference under an adaptation of the methods that obtain in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. The elector will state the order of his preference beside the name of the candidates for election, and by a very simple process these preferences will be counted in order to ensure that no person shall be elected who has not a majority of the votes recorded. The system is ext.emely simple, and it is expected that by this means the country will be able to secure the benefits of second ballots without the delay, expense and inconvenience that attend the present system.

There was a striking illustration of the scarcity prevailing in forage lines provided at the auction sales of produce yesterday (says the Sydney 'Daily Telegraph' of May II). A consignment of hay was knocked down at the remarkably high price of !Js 9d per cwt., said by the veterans of the yard to be the highest price received for a similar offering since the drought of 1892, 20 years ago. Nor was this a freak price. On the previous day 9s (id per cwt. was received for a consignment. The hay was of good quality—in fact, could be classed as prime, but at the same time, the identical lot would scarcely have brought 6s 6d a month ago. On Sussex Street, too, the high price was reflected. A consignment of prime Victorian oaten hay which arrived by the Werribee and the Moorabool, was promptly sold out at -£!) a ton, which price constitutes a record, dating back as far as that achieved by the local product—or possibly to 1888. . The fact that buyerswere so numerous at the high figure .shows how depleted stocks must be, while the small number of arrivals, both local and inter-State, speaks trumpettongued of the day conditions prevailing and the general shortage 1 of fodder in the country.

As proving the advantage of the Post Office Savings Bank, a resident of Ran. giora lately received the return of a small balance of about £2 15s which had lain forgotten in the banit about 21 years. Among some old documents an old bank book turned up showing the credit. Upon applying at the ofice the postmaster stated if the book were left it would be looked into, and a day or two later the sum, with intetest added, was placed at the disposal of the depositor. In any other bank or company a balance of money unclaimed for six years is registered as unclaimed, f m if not claimed within two years is ) $$ into the public less exj = m d the claimant thereafter may malje a demand against the Minister for Finance, which is rather a tedious proceeding, and, of course, it is not returned with interest.

Th© Masterton branch of the Farmers' Union has k nominal membership of 94. It isi hoped to double this number in the course of a few weeks.

During the last year G4£ per cent, of the pedigreed Hereford® shipped from Britain went to Africa—South Africa, Rhodesia and British East Africa. About 24 per cent, went to South America, and the balance to New Zealand, Japan and Cuba. The prevailing note at the annual meeting of the Wanganui branch of the Farmers' Union was the lack of interoit on the part of fanners generally in the union's work and welfare. One of the speakers a in deploring this fact, stated that it was inestimable the amount that had been saved to the fanning community by the Defence Committee of the union fighting the labor demands in the Arbitration Court and elsewhere, and lie was sure that a body of men that contributed £16,000,000 to the Dominion's total exports of £22,000,(XX) Muld, if it properly combined, run the strongset political party in the Dominion.

"I have just come from Japan and China," said General Baden-Powell in Wellington the other night, "and there is a marvellous development there. It is an absolute certainty that no one can tell what the outcome may be. One of the greatest authorities on the Chinese character wrote, two years ago, jeering at the idea that a revolution was possible within 18 months. Yet the revolution has come within the 18 months, and you can't tell what they will do when they feel their feet. If a nation of 400,000,000 people suddenly takes it into its head that it wants more territory it will take it, and naturally it will look round for the weakest people and the most dosirable land. If they see yon prepared for defence they won't come."

11l opt>n injv the Otago Winter Show the Prime .Minister (Han. T. Mackenzie) said they depended chiefly on the export of their agricultural products. These were the basis of their success. Without them they might close .down cvcr.v other industry in the country except mining. It was his endeavor to keei) as close as possible in touch with their markets beyond New Zealand to collect statistics of the capacity of competing with producing countries, to increase or diminish their output, and to form estimates of the increasing or diminishing consuming powers of the countries requiring these products. The great central pivot was the United Kingdom, and in much less degree the Continent of Europe and the United States of America. He might here mention in passing that they as a Government were keeping in close touch with the Continental possibilities, and at the present time had in hand negotiations for a better system of exchange. Referring further to dairy produce he. might state that the increase during the past seven months had been phenomenal and far exceeded the total of any preceding year's exports. The increase in the period referred to was from £2,750,000 to £3,750,000 in value.

! Taking into consideration the fact that harvesting has been an extremely harassing operation this year, owing to the showery weather, it was patent that never (luring the last 30 years had there been such n shortage of suitable labor for farm work, stated a .speaker at the provincial conference of the Farmers' Union at Christchurch. One of the principal reasons was that tlie good men who had saved money were now taking up land of their own, and it was difficult to find men with sufficient experience to take their places. The only remedy for this was the system of immigration which prevailed in the '7o's, when men who made the country were helped by the (iovornment. A son of his, who was in the Old Country, had informed him that there were hundreds of men there who were eager to come to the Dowithout assistance. Mr W. T. Hill (Ashburton) considered that the Oovernment should advertise more in the Old Country so as to let agricultural laborers there know of the possibilities here. They should also afford cheaper facilities for coming to New Zealand, and should guarantee occupation on arrival. He maintained that Canterbury alone could absorb 500 men within a week. The position had never been so actute as at the present time. He himself had had two teams idle for a fortnight. If this sort of thing went on farmers would have to stop growing wheat and. go in for pastoral land, which did not require so much labor. One of his neighbors who had advertised for two men without receiving a single reply was talking alxnit giving up his present farm and taking up an area of 20 acres where he could do his own farm work. The conference unanimously resolved that the Government be urged to offer greater inducements to farm laborers and domestic servants to emigrate to New Zealand,

Master ton can lay claim to fame for what must surely be the record game of euchre ever played, for the stake was nothing less than a bride (says a local paper)- There wore only two participants for the valuable pri»e, but they, are doughty sons of old Ireland, and' were fired with the ardor so characteristic of Erin's children. T'hev happen both to be captains of the labor that entails plentiful swinging of the pick and hoisting of the shovel, and also merry widowers, whose previous matrimonial encounters in no way daunted them for a second bout with Cupid. The bride-to-be was, a merry widow, whose Dublin brogue was only excelled in richness by the suiters who "played" for her hand. The match was fought out, in a„ local boardinghouse, an enthusiastic audience watching a point-to-point game wifcklMjte, interest. Fortune favor# and insistent.. greeting I*l -IWHlfNfft Akura whilst the Ore' Or'e antagonist walkedl safSjp&Vay from the scene with an inevitable walking-stick alone to console him. Sad to relate, the "stake" had not been previously consulted in the matter, and when the winner went to claim her he was ignominiously spurned, the kdy declaring "be the powers" she wouldn't Have winner or loser "on her moind." Such is life I