LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 247, 2 April 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The death is announced of Professor Alexander Agassiz, a great naturalist. President Taft has extended the minimum tariff to Australia and New Zealand. A committee has been formed to raise a National shilling fund in order to enable Professor Bicker ton to be sent Home to develop his great theory of Partial Impact. A subscription--list lies at this office. The following table, kindly furnished by Mr T. E. Foy, shows the rainfall at Te Kuiti during the month of March: —March 3rd. .02 inches; 4th, .10; 6th, .0G; 12th, .13; 15th, .37; 21st, .55; 22nd, .01; 29th, .27; 30th, .1.57; 31st, .32; total 3.40 inches on 10 day's. The Public Works Department notifies the taking of certain lands in the South district for the purposes of constructing a road. A plan of the land required to be taken is deposited at the Ngapaenga post office, where it may be inspected, Attention is drawn to the inset which is enclosed in this issue describing a few of the specif).! lines offered by Mr E. Hall, of Kaiapoi House, Hamilton. Mr Hall pays carriage on all parcels.;;, Mr C. B. Lever will sell on Thurs-/ day, April 21st, on behalf of Mr J. Ivess, several valuable sections of land in Rora street, Te Kuiti, together with a six-roomed house. Tl)3 property lies in a rising part of the township and is recommended as one of the best investments no\y upon the market. The terms have be.en niEjd'e very easy and full details will be found in the [MtaMysement in jinother colymn.

The Northern Ohura Medical Association invites tenders for a medical residence at Matiere. Plans may be seen at Mr J. S. Gardiner's office, Te Kuiti, up to Monday next, and full particulars be there obtained. For Children's Hacking Cough at night, Woods Great Peppermint Cure, Is 6d, 2s 6d.* Every husband and wife, says the Bishop of London, would be better if they had a fortnight's holiday away from each other every year. The wife should be free for at least a fortnight from the cares of the home and the children, and she would return at the end of that period to the joys of her home with increased strength. Mr H. E. Kerr, who has taken over the accommodation house recently owned by Mr D. Ormsby, at Otorohanga, is making a number of improvements with the intention of running it on thoroughly up-to-date lines. The house, which will in future be known as Otorohanga House, is a commodious structure, and standing just opposite the station, is in a very central position. Mr Kerr hopes to see many friends both old and new at his new establishment, and from past knowledge of his management in Te Kuiti it may be safely asserted that visitors will find Otorohanga House a convenient, comfortable place whereat to stay. Before leaving for Australia to study the railway systems of that country, the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Railways, said there was a system of running motor trains in Queensland in which he was particularly interested. He had already given instructions for four selfcontained motor carriages to be built at the Petone workshops, and it had been necessary to send Home for engines for them. The motor trains would probably be first tried on suburban lines, but it was his opinion that they would be found most useful in sparsely-settled districts where it did not really pay to run full train services. In the courss of a conversation with a Waikato Times representative, Mr J. P. Luke, Member for Wellington Suburbs, said that he was very much impressed with the developments of the country around the Main Trunk line, as a whole, and he felt sure that rapid growth and settlement would be the result of the Government's operations in carrying the railway through, together with opening up the country and the erection of roads and bridges, which had become so strong a feature in connection with the present Government of the Dominion. "Speaking as a resident of the south end of the Island," said Mr Luke, "it is very gratifying to see the progress made in the northern portion of the Dominion, and particularly in the growth and advancement of the Waikato and surrounding districts, which is to me a testimony that rapid progress can be made in the Dominion generally." The first and gravest of our problems is that of imperial defence. Tho unprecedented efforts of Germany to increase her fleet are imposing on the finances of the United Kingdom the severest strain. If we are to meet them as they should be met, Navy Estimates of forty, fifty, or even sixty millions are on the horizon. Faced by the German nation of sixty two millions, rapidly growing in wealth, the United Kingdom, with its population of forty-five millions, may be hard pressed. But if we can call tho Dominions to our counsels, their twelve millions of white citizens will redress the balance. Already they have shown their willingness to render substantial aid. Australia and New Zealand are offering Dreadnoughts and cruisers. Canada is making a beginning with a small Navy. The trouble is that their populations cannot be expected to tax themselves heavily for the British Fleet unle33 they are granted some voice in the direction of British policy. With a reformed House of Lords, in which they were represented, the Dominions would have such a voice.—'London Daily. Mail.