LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 965, 2 December 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The advices we almost daily receive through cablegrams coming from London, telling us of the rise m wool is very satisfactory. But it would be much more so, and still more intelligible if we were told what was the actual advance upon the sale which preceded it. On the 27th November we received cablegram advices that wool had advanced from threepence to fourpence. On the 29th, or two days later, we are told wool has advanced threepence to fourpence. Now whether this is an advance of threepence or fourpence on the previous advance we do not really know, although we presume the two advances announced mean only one advance. If we got the average price which the different classes of wool realised at the sales, then we should have some more definite knowledge of the state of the market, and should know better the actual rise which had taken place. We regret to learn that scab' has appeared m some of the flocks at Mangatu. It is now more than ever necessary that a full attendance of wool-growers will be found at the meeting called for Friday evening at Roseland. The matter is too important to be slighted. It is satisfactory to know that the family of the late Mr. T. Young, the Native Land Judge, are not left unprovided for. Mr. Young's life, we understand, was insured for j£3ooin the Australian Mutual Society, and for with the Government. Mr Young had, only recently increased his policy from to £1000 with the Government, and had, m fact, only paid one premium on the policy. A novel application of straw is reported from San Francisco, which will largely affect the cooperage trade. Staw pulp is made by presure m a machine into the form of barrels and kegs which with their wooden hoops only weigh about 16 lbs. The cost of a barrel or a pail is exactly tha price of a wooden one, and one man only is required to attend to three machines which can turn out 760 barrels per day of 10 hours. The Colonial Treasurer stated that his budget was prepared with a special view of fostering local industries. The first effect of the new tariff is a notice issued, by Messrs Kitchen & Sons, candle and soap makers, of Wellington, and m consequence of the imposition of the duty on stearine they will oe compelled to close their works. Messrs Kitchen have a capital of oyer £20,000 invested, and they employed over 70 hands m their mentThere is at all events one thing which the Americans cannot boast that they "lick creation," and that is the speed of the railway trains. The daily express mail train from London to Holy head makes the distance, 268 miles, m 4£ houra, being at the speed of a little over 59 miles an hour, stoppages included. The distances between New York and Washington is 228 miles, and the fastest train makes it m 6 hours and 20 minutes, or 36 miles an hour, stops included. But most of the trains occupy from 8 to 9 hours. The Rangiora Standard says that Mr. W. Rhodes' contribution towards the new property tax, if it becomes law, will be some £4000 a year. That of that energetic if unpopular gentleman, the Hon. W. Robinson, generally known among his acquaintances as "Ready-Money Robinson " — a title which he doubtless richly deserves — will be something under £2800 per annum. A short time ago, so relates the Dnnedin Star, one of the City Teetotal Lodges fell into arrears of rent, and a distress was levied on the furniture, The officers of the Lodge were not long m determing upon a course of action to recover the furniture by stratagem. One of the members, it is alleged, volunteered to engage the attention of the hall-keeper whUe the officers fought the battle of the Lodge. The hall-keeper had expressed himself as a good judge of the quality' of English beer, but he was somewhat surprised when one of his temperance friends invited him to test a sample at a well-known hostelry hard by. However, the teetotoller managed the business with such excellent tact that the hall-keeper and he were discussing the " social glass " — neither glass being filled with water— while the officers of the Lodge entered the Lodgeroom and expeditiously removed the furniture. Having concluded the debate on the merits of English beer, the hallkeeper and his quondam friend returned to the hall, when the former discovered that he had been cleverly " had." He laughingly related the joke to a gentleman of the medical fraternity, who with difficulty was induced to believe that under exceptional circumstances even a temperance man can practicelly discuss and test the qualities of English beer. The hall-keeper has been wide awake ever since, on the principle of locking the stable door after the steed has been stolen.