LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 14 July 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

This month nineteen, foreigners have become naturalised persons •of the Dominion. ' A reminder is given of the concert in the Oddfellows' Hall this evening in aid} of St. Mary's pipe organ fund. An attractive programme has-been arranged, anu the concert, like its predecessors, should be a big success. Messrs James and Gillman/'land and insurance agents, Hawera, report having sold 150 acies,~ Mahoe, with every convenience for dairying, to Mr W. A. J. Hail, of Levin. The Leader of the Opposition was somewhat severely criticised at .the, last meeting of the Auckland Trades and Labor Council, one member declaring that he was neither ableVor willing to, Tieip the workers. The discussion, thenV broadened to the other side of' the House) and the Government was likewise the subject of adverse comment. "This so--' ! called Liberal-Labor Government," commented one member; while another fol-, I lowed with : "We get the best results out of tHem when we oppose them," and the remark was endorsed by a, gruff "Hear, 1 »> J 1

To alleviate the loss sustained by the grass fires of January and February last the Lands Department supplied 647 settlers in the North Island with seed valued at £24,082. In the South Island- 67 cases, representing £2756, ■ were dealt with. More than half the amount, went, to the Wellington district, viz., £13,578. The Auckland djstricts's proportion was £7913.

£7913. ;. - The recent flood in the Manawatu has. subsided, and it is possible to ascertain,the full damage to the chain of groins; recently erected by the Palmerston North 1 Borough Council for protection bants. An inspection revealed rthe alarming -fact that the groins had caused enormous scours in every instance. The erosion was more pronounced tHan before the erection of the groins. In some places fifteen feet of bank has been swept away, and in one case a pile 47 "feet long ana only 13 feet above water has been; scoured out and is swinging on its supports. The results confirm, the opinion held in some quarters that groins and other means of resisting the force of water at once become a point of attack, and thus cause erosion^ instead of preventing it. The position, is very serious, as the Borough Council has spent hundreds of pounds in the work. 'With the completion of the Main Trunk railway the junction town of Marton has developed rapidly, and ,the clusters of new houses in the borough and the numerous homesteads already erected on the Marton Extension land give evidence that the, place is fast growing into importance. One of the most striking proofs of progress is afforded by the fact that the capital value of borough property has increased £4000 during the last three years. This shows that development has gone on at a remarkably steady rate. The new buildings for residential or business^ purposes which have been erected in the last ijhree years, we learn, number 130, representing an expenditure of £50,250. There are 20 new buildings in course of erection, and the contract prices aggregate £12,620. These improved conditions are more evident in the immediate vicinity of the railway, on sections in the Marton Extension. Extensive improvements ' are also going on at Marton railway station to cope with the increased traffic on the completion of the Main Trunk -line. This work will, it is 'said, cost something^ approaching £8000. There is keen, demand for building sections at present. ' A Friendly Societies* grand social is to be held at Manaia on August 5. A replace advertisement from Mr J. C. Gillett, draper, with reference to his sale now proceeding, appears to-day. For Children's Hacking Cough at night Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Is 6d rrd 8a 6d.— Advt. ' Mr A. Mclntyre, Grey street, Snortland, Thames, N.Z., says: "Some time ago I had a very bad cold and a sore throat, and seeing Chamberlain's Cough Remedy advertised thought I would see what it would do for me. A few doses cured the soreness in my throat and my cold soon vanished. I must say tb,at I was pleased and surprised at its healing proporties. Since then I have recommended it to several of my, friends, and they all speak in the highest praises of it." For sale by all chemists and storekeepers. — Advf.

The Taranaki News says that Mr C. E. Bellringer has been definitely selected as the Government candidate to contest the Taranaki seat.

'it is said that the annual sheep returns in Masterton district will show an increase. This is a grave misfortune (remarks the Wairarapa Times), because it means that many settlers are overstocked amd the carrying capacity of their land will become exhausted. It is feared that this will lead* to a certain amount of sheep-sick country; and this, judging from past experience, is an evil which it takes several seasons to recover from. It is considered that it sometimes takes five years for overstocked land to- recover its normal carrying capacity.

The number of old age pensions in New Zealand is a gradually increasing quantity. When the Act first came into* operation the pensioners totalled. 7443, while in 1900, when the scheme waß in : full working order, the number had In- . creased to 11,285, involving an expenditure of £157,342. la 1906, ( when the pension ■ had . been increased from 6s lid to 10s '«■ per week,' the annual liability of • the State . amounted to £254,367. It increased by £57,837 in the following year, and , added a further total of £11,010 last year, for the Post Office authorities who pay the money report that they dispensed £325,220 13s 2d for the financial year* ended Maiteh 3.lst. : Rather a bad accident happened a little outside" Opunake on Monday about two ' o'clock. Mr and Mrs Henty and child were returning from -^Eltham in a gig, and not , far from home the horse, stumbling on something, fell rather bad"- " ly, with the result that the occupants of the vehicle were .thrown out .on to- 'the road, the child falling right between tha horse's legs. Mr 'Henty soon 'recovered himself, and, grasping the situation at , oncej let the horse. go £b save" his/ child. Regaining his feet and finding nim&elf free the animal , galloped' into Opunake, considerably bruised s about the head and - "legs. A was, .'immediately sent- out • to see .what had become of Mr and Mrs Henty,' who,, though „- severely shaken, were not',, seriously, injured. The child's escape fr,om : serious injury was a very narrow one ' indeed^ ' .' -

At a' meeting ;'of> the 'Egniont County Council, held on "Friday, last at' Opunake, the following resolution, Vmoved\ by Conn- , cillpr Burgess and I seconded by Councillor Conaglen, "of < Piham'a,',- was 'carried by six votes' to .three :— "This Council is in '

favor of the New Plymouth Harbor Bill becoming .law,, believing' it to* safeguard the ratepayers Jn our district in the best possible manner, and to be in the interest of the whole district, .and request? M essrs Major and Okey' to use their best ; endeavors to get the Bill passed" \ This- morning, Messrs McKeown, A. EF. 1 ;/" Moore, , and S. Campbell ' proceeded toi Wellington to meet the Labor^Biills- Conr-> mittee in connection with; %fae Opunake Harbor Bill. Messrs ConneCT^Newton King, and Qkey, M.P.j . were, also passengers /on an errami Telatfve to the* New Plymouth Harbor Loan .Bill. * ! . Some severe strictures 1 upon the class of - farm laborers ivailable at the present day, ' as compared With that 6i several years ago, Were," passed- at a 'meeting of the' Auckland Agricultural- ' and Pastoral Association., V'The present .class' of farm rouseabout * -we're .getting doesn't .know a bee from. a^bulrV foot," was the somewhat scornful allusion of/one speaker, and he was supported in this" by Mr J. Flanagan, oi Drury, who. declared that the farm ' laborer had deteriorated verymuch of late years. At one-time a man - . taking a job on' a farm was a. v proper tradesman,' who could build a stack, put up a fence, cut a drain, drive a reaper, or take a turn at cowspanking with equal facility. Now it was difficult to get a man who knew anything at all. When a main had been, licked into shape, and was just becoming of use, off he wenfc to- claim ■Jugher wages somewhere else. "All the deadbeats and the failures from the towns come to the farms; some of them to escape ,the rest cure at Waiotaptr or Mount Eden," said another, "and the|y will join the Farm "Laborers' Union, and we will have to employ, them although ' they were better, paid to stay away, while good men. who don't, belong: to the union will have to be pissed by,-^ or else be compelled to join a body they don't believe in.?' The Tresidenjk (Mr J. Massey) remarked tKat the fanners ought to protest unost strongly against the practice of letting criminals off wellmerited gaol on condition thai v they "went .to the country."

With regard to the question of inspection of New Zealand-grown potatoes, it is understood •' (says an • exchange); that the intention of the Government now is that if a line of potatoes is found to bebadly infected with disease, either in * transit or in auction rooms or 1 shops, the whole is to be seized by the Government inspector. There is, however It is definitely announced no intention on % the part of the Government to make a systematic inspection of New Zealand-grown potatoes, either at the port of shipment or at the. 'port of arrival.. 'Of course, whenever disease is prevalent pr suspected to exist in the Dominion/ the Department will exercise a judicious hand in the direction of safeguarding the pub* lie interest. The prolonged dry weather- in the Commonwealth has resulted in large, ship-"-ments of fodder being gent from - Dominion ports, Sydney being the destination for the bulk of it. For several months past (says the Otago Daily Times) each outward bound steamer has taken from 3000 to 4000 bags of chaff for Sydorwtfin 11 * 1 ls estimated th at close upon 80,000 bags of tKat commodity have been shipped to that port within the pasfr three months from Dominion ports, and there is, apparently no dimfmition in the' ■ demand. The prospecte for this Branch; J of our export trade appear to be goocT'--for some little time to come.,

ALL HALF-PRICED. A big purchase of 200 warehousemen's samples of Ladies* Costumes and Skirts. Samptos are usually better .made and finished, than ordinary lines, and thw purchase consists of tailor-made and beautifully finished goode.. You can't m justice to, your purse afford to mi» the good value offered at the "Economic," . W. Spence. Hawera..—Advt.

For Tmmchial coughs tnko Wood** Great Peppermint Cure. Uid und 2s 5d. — Atlvt

, FRENZIED WITH FEAR are '-many who develop lung trouble. Dr. Sli&Ws New Di-covery for Coogfis, Colds, no* Consnmphon will care tbem, Prwe Is W and 3s. For « a le by chemiste tad storekeepers, HaweVa; F. J. Gapper, Kapongaj^and C. Jame,. Alton.^Ad?t.

Beturning from a visit to the North Egnurat accommodation house on Sunday, a>arty of New Plymouth people heard t groans when passing through t 1 c reserve. 'They investigated, but could find nothing that -would .account for same. The l party, however, were not satisfied, and •as the Tesult of their information further search took place on Monday. The result (says the News) was that a Maori -woman named Pipi was discovered crouching in Wie fern, with her Bead pressed between her knees, which she , clasped with her arms. She wa.s almost -nude, her apparel consisting of a mans F - ,-sTiirt and a short' jacket, and she was •evidently half dead from exposure and -starvation, her extremities being swollen -with the cold. The woman was afterwards removed to the New Plymouth "Hospital, where late on Monday evening ■she was reported to be doing well. Mr Morris (custodian of the Mountain House) says that from inspection of the surToundings lie is of opinion that the woman must have been about the spot for two or three weeks. She had evidently made her home for some time in a hollow tree. , How she got there, and why, are matters' for conjecture. It is not often that one hears of jockeys going on strike, but such a thing happened at the Rockhampton Jockey Club's carnival race meeting last week (says the Auckland StaT). Eeports from Brisbane make it appear that the cause for this .action was the method of starting adopted by the official, Mr, C. F. Counsell, who imposed fines for breaking through the tamer or crossing a line which he drew across the track. In^ the opening event, ior which there were half a dozen startlers, fines amounting to £18 were imposed, and on returning to scale the riders ■held a meeting and decided to ( go on strike, and thkt action was endorsed by the horseowners. When these decisions Tvere conveyed to the stewards a meeting '■of that body was held, at which the -starter was present. After some consideration it was agreed to remit the" '"fines, whereupon Mr Counsell intimated that 'unless the fines were paid Before the -jockeys concerned were weighed out he -would not continue as starter. This brought about a deadlock, which was -eventually overcome by Mr A. S. Thompson, Secretary of the Central Queensland Ttacing Association, offering his services, •which were accepted, and he proved a •most efficient starter. Although the eleven Hoggings order

<Ed by Mr Justice Lawrence to be inflict «d upon prisoners at the recent Gla

Morgan Assizes are unprecedented in jpoint of number since the old garroting days (says an' English exchange), the .actual themselves will not be \. aiearly so painful as they then 'were, at that time the army-pattern "cat," -as it was called, was in use. This was .made of whipcord, and was furnished--with "blood knots," specially designed (to lacerate the flesh of the culprit. The .modern cat, on the other hand, is made ioi a special kind of strong twine, carefully bound with silk" at the endsto preTent it unravelling, and as it is, destitute of knots, it does not break the skin, much less injure the underlying tissues: Nevertheless, the . punishment inflicted by it is not exactly ' pleasant ; for each of nine tails is, of course, a separate -whip, to all intents and purposes/ so that a sentence of. twelve lashes means 108 •'distinct cuts.' Floggings nowadays, it may be -mentioned, are ■ inflicted out of

■sight and hearing of the otfier prisoners, - so that the culprit's , "pals" cannot jeer •%at Him afterwards for having whimper«ed before he was "seized up," or for ■fcaving "given tongue" during the operation. l Neither does the sufferer carry with him in after life evidence of having been flogged, as was the case former-

ly, when }he peculiarly shaped cicatrices -which were left on his back by the healing of the wounds made by the bloodTtnots were such as were easily recognisable ever afterwards by any prison governor or other gaol official.

Some very interesting figures coTacern-

dng the great Atlantic liners are given in Engineering. Twenty years ago, "ivhen first vessels of twenty knots were

.introduced on the Atlantic, it is said the cost for each voyage was about • .£9OOO to £11,000; ten years ago, when ~" '.22£ to 23 knot ships were jjut on the :service, this was increased to about JG19,000; and now it is calculated that -the expense of a 24£ knot Mauretatiia 'or Lusitanaa trip cannot be short of j830,000. ,As to the total population of Atlantic liners, the larger figures apply •to the emigrant ships from ytn"e Mediterranean. For the year 1907 the average is 1089, whereas in the previous year it ■was 1056. The maximum average per ship ior any one liner this year was 1998— the ■mean of the "White Star Mediterranean 3iners. '

Wonderful is the bird life of London. .And how. sacred! Londoners look upon wild birds, which find* sanctuary in the .parks of the metropolis, with the reverence of Buddhists (remarks a Home correspondent). Thus every year one sees birds that are unapproachable in the country freely and tamely feeding in the jbusy streets, and suburban residents are .awakened every morning with the song .of the blackbird* and the thrush. The jpigeons of London have for years been .■a, ieaTure, and they are so devoid of fear that they eat readily from the hand of vthe veriest 'stranger. But they have at >one time been domesticated, or their ancestors have. Only a couple of days ago j. saw a bullfinch in the .middle of the .Strand, opposite the Law^ Courts; woodjpigeons, the most shy of all -birds;, are .this year nesting in the trees along the Victoria Embankment, within a few feet • of the electric tramcars that run constantly, throughout the day and night. Perhaps later on the poor little creatures -will suffer from "nerve storms," but at [^present they seem nappy and contented, , .heedless of the rumble of the passing -trams. And this, moreover, in a thor<oughfare where nightly congregate thousands of the unemployed and starving of 'London, /wßd wait for hours outside a 'Salvation Army shelter longing for the bowl of soup hunch of bread dis--trib'uted at midnight by the Army. Yet i - the . bird's are safe within reach of all these pinched and poverty-stricken crowds. Assuredly such a sight could be seen nowhere else than^in London! '■ A basket social is to be heid in the Auroa Public HalJ on Friday, July 17. The proceeds' are to be devoted to, the -supper room- fund. , ior Children's Backing Coagh it night Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Is W vtA 2s 6d.— AdtW . Zymole Trokeys are just the thing for Hoarseness. They, "clear w the k \throat and soothe the irrityted membrane.' Absolutely harmless. * ■ \