LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 124, 2 June 1910, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

The Maelboroxtgh Expkess will be published as usual to-morrow, as the day is not to be observed as a general holiday.

Forty domestic servants, all of good type, sailed for New Zealand by the Arawa, which left London on April 29. Their passages were arranged by the High Commissioner's Department. '

The Prime Minister has received confidential communications from the High Commissioner relative to the Commandant for the Dominion recommended by Lord Kitchener. These will be placed before Cabinet, and Sir Joseph Ward hopes, at an early date, to announce the selection of a capable officer.

The following members of the Blenheim Defence Rifle Club are selected to fire in the Rifle Union field-firing competition on Saturday afternoon :— No. 1 team, Messrs Wilson, Williams, McKenzie, West, Pope, H. Kirby, Cooke, and Brown. No. 2 team, Miller, Linstrom, J. Wemyss, Page, Eyre, Humphreys, Orams, Perrin; emergencies, Farr, Reid, and Yarrall.

Napier, having accepted a loan of about £148,000 from the A.M.P. Society, expects to have its tramway running and its electric light system in full swing in about eighteen months' time. Mr Frederick _ Black, consulting engineer, of Wellington, has been engaged by the Borough Council for the construction of the works.

H.M.S. Pioneer, the naval reserve drill-ship, leaves Wellington for Picton on June 6, and from the latter port she goes on to Nelson on June 9. After a stay of three days at Nelson she continues to Westport, thence New Plymouth, where she is due on June 18. She leaves New Plymouth on June 21 for Wellington. Captain G. Gr. Smith, Royal Naval Registrar, will accompany the vessel in his official capacity.

The Masterton School Committee applied to the Wellington Education Board on Tuesday for permission to introduce the Nelson system of religious education in the school. It was pointed Qut that a new committee Had been elected practically on this question, as a large majority of the parents wished for the Nelson system. The Board resolved to decline the application, as it had previously decided in the case of Te Aro school. The chairman (Mr Robert Lee) remarked that the Board had taken up^ the position that it was ad-/ ministering a secular system.

The annual meeting of the Taranaki Licensing Bench, was held to-day, when all licenses were renewed without question.

Taking advantage of the fact that Monday had been wet, a clothes-line thief paid a visit to Muller Road during the night, and from one line alone secured booty to the value of over £3.

Some individual with' criminal propensities smashed last night a pane of thick glass over the door of one of Mr Rabone's new shops in High Street. The deed could not have been accidental.

The lambing season in Marlborough commenced the other day, when two or three ewes brought to light lambs on Mr A. Wiffen's property at bt. Glair. This was probably m -honor of his victory at the recent Borough Council by-election. Anyhow, _it constitutes a record for early lambing in the province.

It may interest the present generation to know (says the Masterton correspondent of The Dominion) that at one time the whole of the Wairarapa Valley was under offer to a South Wairarapa settler for a sum of £1000. The money could not, however, be obtained at that time, and the opportunity never again presented itself.

A well-known local butcher's order boy accosted a representative of The Expkess in High Street this morning and informed him that he had discovered a simple form of exercise which eclipsed the Sandow and all other systems. When asked what his discovery was he replied: Riding round town with 501bs of meat in a basket on a trotting horse."

There was' a large attendance of the public at the Church of the Nativity last night on the occasion of the Sunday-school children's annual distribution of prizes and _ cantata. The various prizes were distributed by the Yen. Archdeacon Grace, who complimented the children upon the result of their studies during the year, and also the teachers for the untiring energy they < at all times displayed in connection with the school. '

A prohibited person obtained drink in a most ingenious way at one of the* Te Aroha hotels, states the New Zealand Herald's correspondent. He disguised himself in a Druid's beard and boldly walked up to the bar. The drink was a costly one, however, as he was subsequently fined £3j with the alternative of 48 hours' imprisonment.

The open launch in which several members of the Waikare salvage party made their hazardous journey from Dusky Sound to Preservation Inlet is now lying on Bluff beach. That the craft is deemed too unsound even for work in Bluff Harbour is evidence of the chances the party took in making the Dusky-Preserva-tion dash. The boat has had her engine taken out, and is practically a derelict.

The yields this year from the Spotswood crops grown on the fertile Waiau Flats at Cheviot are turning out very satisfactorily. Mr J. T. Barns threshed out 57 bushels per acre from a 30-acre paddock of Tuscan, Mr T. H. Wilkinson 63 bushels of Bordeaux, Mr Petergill 50 bushels of Tuscan; and the rest of the farmers in^ this locality had the same good yields. Wheat is being sown again all over the district as the weather permits.

The other day, while opening a wooden case which purported to contain a cream separator, Mr J. Black, of the Farmers' Co-opeative store, Riversdale, made the startling discovery (says the Mataura Ensign) that the box contained nothing but a large piece of iron, a piece of lead, and a few blocks of wood, • evidently placed therein as make-weights. The box had been carefully nailed up, and there was nothing in its external appearance to show that it had been tampered with. The imaginary separator was received from a Dunedin firm.

Kirkcaldies are now showing a fine selection of ladies' and gents' tweed and mackintosh coats suitable for the wet and cold weather, which is now upon us. Kirks' source of supply is from the best makers only, and they aim at giving value for money. Apply at their agency in Blenheim, where a good assortment of these coats may be seen. The firm will also Bend their catalogue of illustrated styles on application.,

Mr Herbert Chappie has (says the London correspondent of the New Zealand Herald) been working at the construction of a remarkable instrument, which is said to give the tone of a highly-cultured human voice—it has long been the ambition of makers of musical instruments1 to invent something of this kind. Mr Chappie's invention, which is obtainable in various sizes, will have a range of 25 keys, whereby any musician will be able to play hundreds of songs by one record only. Thus after securing one record, say, by Tetrazzini, it would be able to play any music suitable to her voice, whether she had sung it or not. Further, it is stated that with the necessary set of records set on the instrument it would be quite easy for any musician to play any solo, duet, trio, or quartette with a range of two full octaves. Mr Chappie has applied for patents, and he is about to arrange that his instrument shall be placed on the market. In size it is quite small.