LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 800, 10 February 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki seems likely to be well represented in the passenger bookings for England during March. A meeting of the Feilding Cricket Club, at which the members of the B team are particularly requested to be present, is called for 5.15 on Southstreet Reserve to-morrow. A business man in Timaru informs the Herald that he wanted a smart boy, and advertised for one. Fourteen boys between 14 and 16 years of age applied for the billet, and of the 14 only two had the Sixth Standard. > News lus been received that Mr Todd, senr., who was reported missing from Palmerston on Friday last, spent Sunday and Monday jvith some friends at Cross Creek, on the Wel-lingtoii-Wairarapa line. He is now in Wellington. Thero has been considerable activity in the way of harvesting operations in the country districts around Hawera during the past week of fine weather. Some splendid oat and barley crops have been gathered in, the season having proved a very good one for these cereals. Labour conditions indeed I What are they coming to? asks the Taranaki Herald. Look at the long list of fines imposed by the Wellington S.M. oh Wednesday on employers for various offences against Arbitration Court awards. Bahl HJajppy the "man who can dispense " with' all hired assistance!

An observer who is in an excellent 1 position to know states that the num. ber of people travelling on the trains , during the past few months is largeI ly in excess of any previous occasion. Especially on the trains from Wellington to Auckland^ and vice versa is the increase noticeable. Captain White, skipper of the Falmouth tug Triton, who rescued twelve of the crew of t<li£ Norwegian steamer Martha off the Cornish coast, in December last, has been instrumental in saving more than a thousand lives. Among those whom he has saved were 420 persons from the stranded liner raris and 1 300 from the Suevic. Yesterday's mail train from New Plymouth was again late, ueing nearly half-an-hour behind time when reaching Feilding. The delay was caused by the transferring of the Main Trunk passengers at Marton Junction. It is anticipated that the delay caused by the Main Trunk train will be obviated when the through service in inaugurated. In October last Mr James Fotheringham, of Dunedin, while travelling between Napier and Wellington in the Union Steam Ship Company's Manuka, was thrown off a sofa in the social haff during a storm, and sustained serious injury. Mr Fotheringham sued the companj' for £2000 damages, but tho claim was settled last week by the payment of a considerably smaller sum. In future late-comers who nearly lose their passage on the Union Company's steamers will not receive such considerate treatment as heretofore, for the chronic delays and inconvenience caused on the Welling-ton-Lyttelton ferry boats have determined the Company to decree that in future, after the gangways have been lowered to the wharf, no one is to be allowed to board tho steamers. A Wellington hidy has just received a present from Home which the. sender describes as "the latest freak from Pv.n's." It is a hair ornament in 'the form of a sinuous serpent, about a foot and a half long, the wonderfully realistic 'scales" of which are fashioned of emerald green sequins placed one above the other. Twined in the dark locks of its possessor the somewhat uncanny ornament created some diverson at a Wellington function. On the motion of Mr J. M. Johnston, seconded by Mr S. R. Lancaster, the General Committee of the A. and P. Association yesterday resolved 1o forward a letter of condolence to the family of the late Mr It. Linton, formerly of Halcombe, an old member of the Association, and for long a member of the Committee. Mr Johnston said that when he was first a member of the Committee, Mr Linton was a valued worker on it. There is money burning somewhere! An old Dresden china group, respresenting the, "Postmaster~Gencral and the King's Fool," nine inches high, was sold for £504, or £50 an inch, at Christie's auction rooms, in London, on December 18, while ;>» old group of lovers, TJnis. high, fetched £493 10s. Four large panels of old Brussels tapestry, re moved from the Marquis of Waterford's Northumberland castle, brought in £003. and a pair of upright panels of old Bea.uvais tapestry went ior £525. At a South Island meeting tho other day an owner with more suspicion than discretion, rushed to the start of one of the races, and at once started to lampoon the rider of his horse. The fact that the horse was being overlooked by punters aroused his suspicion, and he blurted out: "None\ of your funny business; too big a dividend. I'll keep mv eve on you, and— and— etc." The' rider calmly dismounted and told the owner to ride his own jolly dash horse (or words fo that effect), but common sense, as supplied by a steward present, intervened. ' The horse won. A Union of butter factory and creamery employees is in existenco at Palmerston North, and arrangements are now in progress to secure an award of the ArbTtration Court for this industry. At Tuesday's meeting of the Wellington Tramways Employees' Union an application was received for financial assistance to enablo the applicants to carry their case through the court. It was decided to deal with the application on February 21, and it is understood that some assistance will be given. The Australian Federated Seamen's Union has given £5 to the same cause. In the report recently issued by the independent auditors of the steamboat and housing accounts of the London County Council, the ultimate loss to London on the now abandoned steamboat experiment is stated to have been £300,000. The municipal housing schemes also were failures in nearly every case, and £44,660 is the figure at which the auditors put the loss on this count. Notwithstanding this, the leaders of the Progressive party on the Council have stated that they intended to resume these experiments on the next occasion they are returned to power. An increase in the number of solicitors practising in the Wellington district was noted in the annual report of the Welligton District Law Society. The numbers are 240, as compared with 235 for 1907. Of these 125 practise in the city, and 115 in other parts of the district. The number of solicitors practising in the dominion on December 31 last was 841, as against 840 for the previous year. The figures for the various districts are as follows (the numbers in parentheses being for 1907) : Auckland 184 (180), Canterbury 123 (119), Gisborne 19 (20), Hawke's Bay 41 (41), Marlborough 10 (10), Neison 15 (15), Otago 111 (123), South, land 29 (29). Taranaki 52 (48), Wellington 240 (235), Westland 19 (20). A splendid proof of the productivity of the soil in Feilding, and its carrying capacity for stock, is reported to us. A gentleman who owns 48 acres in the borough wintered on that area 87 sheep, 8 dairy cows and a bull, 9 head of mixed cattle, 4 yearlings, 3 calves, and 5 horses. Of the sheep, 70 were 2-tooth breeding ewes, and these dropped 78 lambs, of 13 more of the ewes not used for breeding purposes,, six were exhibited at the Feilding Show in pens of threeeach, taking first and thirel prizes as fats. Two of the calves, exhibited at the same Show, took first prize as yearlings. In October last two cows were sold to 'a Feilding butcher for £5 10s each as fats. "And this," concluded the fortunate owner of the land, "is, I think, a record." Inr speaking on the motion at'yesterday's meeting of -the Majttrv-atu A. and P. Association to discontinue the Lincoln College scholarship. Mr Cohen said that the Committee had reason to deplore the lack of enthusiasm with which tb,e. efforts of the Association had been received. . Mr Lang suggested tiliat if a sufficient number of applicants came forward in the future the scholarship be renewed. Mr Cohen said it had just been suggested to him that it might be worth while to consider the-mak-ing of a grant to the Technical School, which would be subsidised by tho Government, so that a wealthier scholarship could he offered for Lincoln College, by the Technical School under the auspices of the Associa- ' tion. It was declared . that Mr Cohen should report to the Committee on the subiec£. .' ' . I Mr M. Cohen at the maeting of the General Committee of the. Manawatu j A. and P. Association yesterday said ' at present no! member who has not ' paid up his subscription for the ensuing year is allowed a vote at the annual meeting., li£r Cohen pointed out that mapy jieoplel did not pay their subscriptions lall the approach of a ShW, i and- thejr were thus debarred from a voice, in the election. of the new administration. He suggested that all members who had paid their subscriptions for the previous year fi^ allowed a vote at the annual meeting, and intimated his intention of-'moving in the direction/of gettihjg, a recommendation made to the irreoming Committee to ] revise the existing rule in the direction stated, lie hoped by doing so ■to,, arouse much* more interest on the part of members than, is at present ! evident at the* annual meeting.

Young_ Artist: I say, my man, you don't mind my painting your cow, do you ? Farmer : Good heavens ! is it coming to painting the cows now the Government is putting on us? All right, Mr Inspector, do yer worst. An Auckland property, situated in Queen-street, opposite the New Zealand Herald Office, with a frontage oi' 22 feet and a deptli of 180 feet and a frontage of 19 feet 6 inches to High-suLut, has been sold at auction for £12,200 or £554 10s per foot. The building standing on the property was erected in the seventies. A number of jockeys and horses had lined up for the start of a steeplechase, but a delay occurred because a tall, raw-boned beast obstinately refused to yield to the importunities of the starter. The patience of that worthy was nearly exhausted. "Bring up that horse!" he shouted; "bring him up! You'll get into trouble pretty soon if you don't!" The rider of the stupid animal, a youthful Irishman, yelled back: "I can't help it; this here's been a cab horse, and he won't start till the door shuts, an' I ain't got no door !" At Kairangn t ounty meeting yesterday. Cr. O'Loughlin said his neighbours wore complaining of pennyroyal, and if it got into Kairnnga it would be a curse. Ho mentioned that it was bad in the accommodation paddocks. — Cr. Mayo and Cr. Bryant also spoke of the ravages of the weed. — Cr. Mayo said the inspectors of the Department were neglecting their duties with regard to this weed.— lt was resolved that the Council's inspector interview the Agricultural Department's inspector re pennyroyal and ragwort, and that the Agricultural Department be also written to. While fishing at the mouth of the Opihi (Canterbury) as the tide was coining in. Mr Franks, the Acclimatisation Society's ranger, saw what can only he described as an unbroken procession of eels jibout six feet wide coining in from the sea and passing [uto the lagoon. The water looked a's If it was full of seaweed, and Mr Franks had only to cast in his line and draw it out to secure fish, sometimes as many as three at a time. None of the eels appeared to be over 21b in weight. The eels continued to come in as long as Mr Franks remained, and there must have been hundreds of thousands of them. Another angler said that many yeans ago, with another friend, he was a witness of a similar occurrence. A campaign against the murderous hatpin has been instituted by the newspapers of Berlin in view of a series of accidents which occurred during the busy period of Christmas shopping. Numbers of more or less serious injuries have been caused by these dangerous implements protruding Irom the huge hats of fashion--•ible ladies. One Sunday a lady was permanently blinded in one eve 'when taking part in' a. rush at a "bargain sale. I wo days later a Jift attend. a lit at a neighbouring shop had hi.s race so badly injured that it was necessary to take him to a hospital. Many cases of scratched faces were reported from many quarters. The newspapers remind ladies that they are liable to punishment for wounds thus inflicted, and urge them to use guards on the points of their hatpins. "A Nnw Zealander," writing from Wellington to the Publisher's Circular, makes some suggestions for English publishers. The following is all ioxtract from his letter: "How is it that you English people are letting tho Americans capture such a big market here for their fiction? Every New Zealand bookshop you go into has pile's of American books. Some of them are really clever stuff, and others the veriest trash. I think much of the Yankee's success is due to the attractiveness of his covers and the fact, too, that his outside wrapper is generally illustrated, and thus the book makes an attractive appearance in the shop windows.' 1 The same writer states that the New /ealanders are "a great book-buyine people." Wellington, with sonu sixty thousand inhabitants, can boasf of "fifteen really decent bookshops three at least arc worthy of a cits three times the size." The changeableness of tho Victorian climate, and the irregularity anc sparseness of the rainfall in recenl years, which are a very serious matter, have often been imputed to excessive denudation of forest country, What such excess involves is valuablj illustrated in an article recently published in the Indian Forester. The writer says: ''Transportation of water irom a forest is computed to be from a water surface of tho same area. Calculating the proportion ol land to water on the surface of the globe as 1 to 3, and reckoning thai forest occupies one cpiarter of the land, tbo moisture given off by the forests is many times greater than that evaporated by the whole watei surface.^ Hence it is reasoned thai diminution of forest areas must leac to diminished rainfall, or, regardec transversely, the moisture which maj be condensed to rain is primarily de. pendent upon the extent of the forests." A pony attached to a trap belonging to Mr C. J. Munro. of Fitzherbert, and containing Mrs and Miss Munro, took fright at some dogs barking under its legs yesterday afternoon and started to play up, finally getting a hind leg caught in the swingletree. It then proceeded to run away on three legs, getting faster and faster, till colliding with the big lamp post opposite the Council Chambers (Palmerston). Both occupants of the trap were thrown out, and. the pony, regaining the use of its four legs, bolted towards the railway line. Its course was, however, still erratic, and after colliding with the fence of the central Square gardens it kicked itself free of the trap, and was finally popped opposite tho Clarendon Hotel. J lie trap was literally smashed to Pieces (says the Times), both shafts bymg off, and body destroyed. Mrs Munro was considerably shaken aud bruised, and Miss Munro, who was thrown against the lamp post, was also bruised. Fortunately neither was sei-iousOy hurt, however, though both had a remarkably narrow escape. Only a few days ago another horse of Mr Munro's behaved in a similarly unmannerly fashion, smashing uj> a trap which is jr,t vet out of hospital." At a meeting of the Sydney. Cremation Society, Sir Julian Salomons delivered an addnss ~ oil~T!reiiiatioriT He said that he was personally interested in the success of the society. He ha-.l once been strongly opposed to cremation. J3ut long before becoming a vice-president oi the society he had come to the conclusion that this was a most important movement. It did not touch the sympathies oi the. body of the people, because most menthought everyone mortal but themselves; yet anyone who had seen a dis-^ interment must have been shocked and horrified. The necessity for cremation could not be exaggerated. It was a mistake to imagine that its advocates were persons allied with unbelievers; they were strong supporters of religion and of the present constitution of society. Sir Alfred Stephen and Sir George Dibbs had beeii among the supporters of this method of disposal of the dead; so was Sir Frederick Darley, and when an Englishman of importance died it was almost always found that he had left direc-. tions for his cremation. Nor did immortality depend on the material part of the being. The movement was making slow but certain progress, and a day would come when everybody would be startled to think that so little interest was taken in it.