LOCAL & GENERAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2481, 17 May 1909, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL.

The annual general meeting of the Central Otago A. and P. Association is called for ’Thursday, 27th inst. (Court Day) at 2 p.m. A full attendance is requested.

The County Engineer invites tenders for the following works The erection of a bridge over the Manuherikia River at Springvale ; and the erection of a pound at Clyde. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns.

A statement appeared in last Friday’s issue of the Daily Times, on the authority of their Alexandra coirespoi.dant. that a case of dipiheria had occurred at Clyde. We have Dr Hyde’s authority for it that the statement is incorrect as no case of this nature exists in Clyde. There is quite enough of a scare on at present with the typhoid outbreak, without adding to it by the circulation of incorrect reports of such a nature.

An important point has been raised in connection with preventive measures for keeping down orchard pests. This is the need for some restriction as far as the return of empty fruit cases to growers is concerned. Mothy fruit sometimes finds its way on to the market, and also into the hands of the jam manufacturers, and the cases conlaining the fruit are sold without fumigation to growers in different districts. Far more dangerous, however, is the practice of returning sacks which have contained moth-infected apples. It is believed that the Government is taking steps to put an end to this system. There is a report that Amy Bock is to write a short story of her stay at Nugget 13ay, and the circumstances leading up to the wedding, the proceeds of the sale of the pamphlet going to make up the £-11 she borrowed from Miss Henderson. If the history is published within a reasonable time there is no doubt it would have a good sale. The opinion held by those in the best position to judge (says the ‘Clutha Leader ’) is that she never meant to go the length of the wedding ceremony, at any rate at Nugget Bay, but various circumstances, the chief of these being the shortage of money, and consequent Inability to get away, interfered with what are believed to have been her ideas on the matter, providing her identity had not bean disclosed at an earlier moment,

The price of bread.—Working men's cooperative enterprises have been started in different places in New Zealand, and although they have succeeded for a time, the workers gradually forsook their own store, which naturally could not last when the people for whom it was established withdrew their support- The Aucklanders naturally do not see why they should pay more for bread than the rest of the people in the Dominion, but to contend that wheat and flour should be cheap merely because there has been an abundant harvest iu New Zealand is absurd.—Timaru ‘ Post.’ The charge of murder preferred against William Connelly will be taken at Christchurch to-day. The Rotorua correspondent of tine * Auckland Star ’ states that May Ist saw about every man with a gun. “In big >'ame,*one man, mounting his horse with gun at full-cock, accounted for the horse.’’

It hj stated that from twenty to thirty families are emigrating to Nelson from Wellington, says the Nelson ‘ Mail.’ The heads o£ these are mostly retrenched officers who lived in Wellington on salaries of from £SOO to £GOO per annum, but whose retiring allowance, £250, will not allow them to continue in Wellington. The grain traffic on the Southland railways'during the past week has been abnormally heavy. During the six' days there were 63,038 sacks carried as against 30,082 for the oorresoponding period of last year—a daily average of 10,000 sacks compared with 5000 sacks per day carried in the second week of May in 1908.—‘ Southland Times.’

New York will shortly possess a colossal store which is likely to “ beat creation.” It will be a thirteen-storey building, and the most gigantic, impressive, comprehensive aggregation of commercialism in its various departments of all embracing industry ever presented to the American public. It will be built in the centre of the city, at a cost of £1,000,000, on ground valued at £1,340, 000. The rent to be paid is 5 per cent on the ground valuation, and 6 per cent on the cost of the building; It will contain 27i acres of floor space,, and in the basement will be a station of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad. Forty-one passenger lifts dispense with all stairways. Five thousand men and women will be employed, In addition to a hospital for accidents, rest and recreation rooms, restaurants, a nursery for children whose parents are. shoppings and other acceSfeories comnion to ail 1 Am orb can tlores,' there will be a big organ, a band ftaud, and at) i|Jusjiijjat«4 fountain/

The Land and Income Tax Department gives notice that returns of income must be furnished before June Ist.

The Native Land question, which is more or less in the air at present, is dealt With in a lucid article in the current number of The Citizen. With regard to the policy of Mr Carroll, the writer points out that in 1900 even the power of the Crown to purchase was abolished by Act of Parliament. He adds : ‘'Consider this for a moment! One fourth of the land in the North Island was made inalienable from one-fourteenth of its population, inalienable to a people who in a few years would not even be onefourteenth or even one-fourtieth of the population, but must become an insignificant fraction, a people who had never really occupied the land thus entailed to them.” The right of purchase was in a measure restored in 1905, but for the most part the Native lands “lie silent and sullen across the heart of the North Island, denying opportunity to settlement, depriving the country of trade and commerce, growing more desirable and more valuable every day by the labour and the enterprise and the expenditure of the European. And tho law of the Dominion sustains the tribal claims which make the situation possible, and formulates the absurd pretension that the future of a million Europeans is to be as tenants of a few thousands Maoris.”

Owners of thoroughbred mares will be glad to learn that the services of a first class sire will be available in this district during the coming season, Messrs J. and J. Sheppard, of Lauder, having purchased Grafton Loch from Mr L. C. Hazlett of Dunedin. We understand that Grafton Loch will be raced after doing light stud duty in the spring. Grafton (Grafton Loch’s sire) has a strong lead of Australian sires this season. Up to the time the last mail left his stock had managed to win 139 races, worth £19,582. The thoroughbred stallion Marriner, whose progeny is highly* spoken of, has also recently become the property of Messrs J. and J. Sheppard.

In the Mangere district farmers are com- . plaining of the conduct of shooting parties. The “ Star reports that one farmer found a valuable cow dead, riddled with shot. Another party had robbed a hen’s nest and cooked the eggs. The writer observes that • while the fanners readily consent to visitors shooting over their farms, it is thought that the man who cannot hit something smaller than a cow ought not to go shooting. •* Zatuiel,” commenting in the Auckland • star ’ on ihe accident to a young lady who broke her arm dnring a set of Lancers at the Kawhia Hospital ball, says : “ Lancers as perpetrated nowadays are simply an outrage on civilisation, and an insult to the intelligence and self-respect of every man and woman who takes part in them. In the nursery or at a girl-and-boy tea party, romping of that sort may be tolerable. But quite apart from actual danger, the charging and plunging and scrummaging and bullyragging that go on unchecked and uuabashed under the delusive title of dancing in our ballrooms today is simply a disgrace to the society that tolerates it and everybody who takes part in it. I trust that somebody during the coming session will move for the final abolition of Lancers by the strong arm of the law.”

An instance of canine sagacity is reported from Dargaviile. Two men named Todd and Grainger were coming down the Wairoa river from a shooting expedition. Grainger shot a pheasant from the boat, and Todd, in trying to get ashore to recover the bird, fell 'into the river- There being a strong current running at the time, he was in danger of being carried down stream. Mr Grainger's dog seemed to grasp tho situation quicker than anyone else on the boat, and with a spring he was into the water almost as soon as Mr Todd was precipitated into the stream. The faithful animal grasped Mr Todd’s clothing in his teeth, and made for the shore, which was successfully reached. Mr Todd cannot swim, apparently, aud had it not been for the dog the result might have been serious. The dog is a fine specimeu of a bull pointer ana can do almost everything but talk.

A trip through the country districts just now, says the • Ashburton Guardian,’ shows that, despite the failure of the turnip crops earlier in the season, there will be a good supply of teed during the winter months, which should be gratifying to the farming community. Farmers complain, however, that the rapid manner iu which the feed has grown since the dry weather has deprived it of much of its fattening properties, and in consequence of this there is spill a comparatively large number of stock in an unfinished condition for export purposes. .Reports to hand show that good progress is being made with ploughing apd oat-sowing operations, and as the soil is in a moist state it is being worked expeditiously ana to good purpose. Much gram has yet to be carted and the rain that commenced to fall on Sunday night will hinder threshing work, but in other respects it will do good. Thomas M’Kay, a one time proprietor of the Hartley Arm's Hotel at Clyde gave some interesting particulars of the vicissitudes of "a horse-trainer’s luck in Dunedin on Thursday last during the hearing of a plaint against him on judgment summons for £l3 3s. Since 1897 he had earned on business as a butcher. He was burned out, and tried farming. He again lost money, and took an hotel at Clyde. He had £163, which he advanced to a man on a horse. This person turned out to he aa infant, so he lost his money. Defendant had horses of his own, but one bursts blood vessel, another broke a fore leg, and a third fractured a hind leg. These three died. He had four altogether—three racehorses and a hack. He used the hack till it was of very little value, and then sold it for £5 or £6. His sons then took on the business, and started a training stable. He worked about the place, and his sons kept hitm He received no wages. The sum of £25 was owing to his sons for training St, Denis, which horso broke down so badly that the owner could do nothing with it. The owner gave the horse to defendant, and the sous cried off the account. Defendant had attended to the horse, and blistered it. He kept it idle for two years at his sons’ expense. Ultimately the horse was getting back to bis old form, and altogether he won £l*27 at races; but the expense of taking him round came to over that sum, and he had to borrow money. The horse was finally killed, and he sued the corporation, and obtained a judgment. On the occasion when the horso was killed the trap and harness, which did not belong to him, were broken, and he bad to pay for repairs. He had at first no encumbrance on the horses, but he had refrained from selling them to pay his debts because he hoped to do well with them and pay what he owed, and leave something over for himself besides. He had stated before the Supreme Court that he had won £2OO in stakes. The horse was killed just as he had recovered his form, When in the hotel in Clyde a man had taken £93 off him, and others failed to pay what they owed. He came away with nothing bub the four horses. S.M. Widdowson was not much impressed with Tom’s airy style of giving evidence and the cafe for a fortnight.to get further particulate. ; l ' Tor Chronic £hest Complain is, Woods’ Gfcat Peppstnuat Care, ye & 2/$

‘ The Inspector of Nuisances for the town of Clyde (Mr W. Holloway) and Sergeant Crawford have been making a house to house inspection of residences in the town during the past few days and as a result a general cleaning-up process is going on. On account of the prevalence of contagious diseases at Alexandra it has been decided to close the school in that town for the time boing. Last week Dr Hyde wired to a prominent member of the Bosongh Council urging that the Ghatto Creek

water supply, as a possible source of typhoid infection, should he cut off and we understand this advice has been followed. In the House of Commons Mr Haldane, Secretary of War, in reply to Mr W. W. Ashley regarding the question of flying the Union Jack on Empire Day, - said he did not think that the Empire was held together by flag-flying.— (Ministerial and Labour chceis.) The Mt Benger Mail says that the exact number of cases of fruit sent awny from Edievalc station this season is 54,089 Some of these were sent to Dunedin and other terminal stations and charged parcel rates of 9d. per case up to 5616s pr case. Other i were charged 6d per case of half-case. A number of the cnscs were carried at tonnage rates. One grower worked out that he had paid as low as 4d per case at the.tonnage rate, hut the average was Gd per case. The number of cases despatched was supplied by the Kailway Department. (Averaging tne fruit at 6d per case the revenue for the railway would be i‘1352-4-6 for the season, move than double the amount credited to this source by the Prime Minister in his statement in regard to the Lawrence Roxburgh extension.) What should prove to be of interest to potato growers in tin's district is the introduction io New Zealand of a variety reported to he absolutely blight proof. To Mr George Robertson, of Wellington, is due the credit of introducing the “Solamun Commorsoni” into New Zealand. The new potato hails from France and has been successfully grown in the North Island this season. Mr John Davies, of Manawatrn, and Mr J. S. Smith, of Paekakariki, report favourably on the new variety. Mr Smith says : “the ordinary potatoes, Up-to-dates, were attacked by both wire worms and blight but the Solamun Commersoni, which had been planted among the other tubers, resisted both effectually. If a cold you have neglected, Till you fear your chest’s affected, There’s no need to feel dejected, You can still be quite secure. To despair is only madness, So away with gloom and sadness, Take that thing of joy and gladness, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.