LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 242, 18 February 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Tariki and Ratapiko school children held their annual excursion to the Breakwater yesterday, and With the fine weather prevailing the youngsters had a royal time. The Borough Council has made a commencement with the rc-metalling of St. Aubyn street from the western boundary, the whole width of the road being treated. Footpaths and water-channels arc also being rc-tarrcd.

"It was a 'German sausage' kind of dog," remarked a witness in the local Magistrate's Court yesterday. "That is to say, it had a long body and short legs," he went on to explain. The witness admitted that he was' not a dog fancier.

Though the steamer Afghanistan cleared away all the wool accumulated in the Waitara Harbor Board's sheds for shipment Home, there are now another six hundred bales awaiting removal (says the will be a record for wool export From

the port. :;£itJiSlll Judge Moses, of Baltimore, declares that "a large proportion of the cases ot wrongdoing among children is traceable to the home, and results from the viciousness, carelessness, or neglect ot parents." He suggests that laws should be enacted under which certain classes of delinquent parents could be punished. Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., claims that he has been entirely misrepresented by the Christchurch Press as regards his views concerning the question of the farm-labor boys brought to the Dominion by Mr. Sedgwick-. In fact, Mr. Taylor has been advised legally that he has excellent cause of action against the Pres9, and it is quite probable that he will act on that advice.

The Eltham Dairy Co. manufactured last month 276,4511bs of butter and will pay out £0953, at the rate or lOd per lb. The average test was 3.U4. In the corresponding month last year the pay-out was. £9479, also at 10d' so it will be seen that there is a considerably increased output this season. The dry weather is, however, now having an effect on the milk supply. The llawera Company is paying out ,€5848, Normanby £2017, and Mells £IBOB, all at 10d—Argus. The Postal Department has proposed to the Harbor Board to undertake the handling of mails at the Breakwater for the future. The board was asked to agree to the harbormaster telephoning to the,- Post Office the movements oi steamers and the state of the weather in consideration of the telephone connection with the Breakwater (at present costing £lO per year) being made free. The board decided to agree to the proposal, and it will be put into force immediately. Thus the Wellington correspondent of the Petone Chronicle:—"A respectable young man from Auckland" has just fallen in. He bought a return railway ticket from the hub to the capital, but decided not to return. He advertised his return ticket in the Post. The most businessslike reply he received was from a detective. When the case came to court he was fined 5s and costs. Now, why in the name of heaven should not a person who has paid cash for a ticket be able to sell it instead of making a dead loss? It puzzles me. The Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister of Agriculture, who proceeded to the Dawson Falls Mountain House on Friday night, and after spending Saturday and Sunday there returned to Hawcra on Sunday night, in an interview with a Star reporter, referred to the remarkable beauty of the drive to the Mountain House, which in itself he thought worth coming all the way from Wellington to see. "I have never," he said with enthusiasm, "seen finer types of the rcla tree anywhere. In fact, I *,!iink 1 hat some of the trees should be photographed as typical of the habits of that particular variety, Robusta." Referring to the accommodation, he remarked that care had been taken to provide for all classes of the community, and the pleasure of a holiday there 'came within the reach of all, no matter how limited their finances may be. "That," he added, "is a line I hope to follow in connection with some of the Government tourist resorts."

•Some years ago," said Mr. A. L. D. Fraser, in the course of an address to the Farmers' Union at Hastings, "I gave much thought to the Closer Settlement Act. I drew up a report, which was handed to the late Mr. Seddon. My idea, which was not carried out, was to enter into negotiations with the landowners, say from Woodville and Napier and from the sea coast to the Ruahines, and acquire a small portion of each large estate for closer settlement. You would then have one unbroken chain of small settlements within reach of the railway and good roads. The taking of the small portions of the large estate wnuld not hamper their working, and it would enhance their value. The people who now have the land on a lease-in-perpetuitv are clamoring for the freehold. It is our duty to give it to them."

Another in.stance of the futility of paying the average Maori for his land in cash has just come under our notice (says the Wanganui Herald). A Parapara road native has recently been paid several hundred pounds as his share of the proceeds of the sale of a certain block. If he return to his pa, the communistic habits of the race will at onca assert themselves, he will have to share the money out, and before long will have none left. As he is bound to lose it in any case, he has determined to get rid of it by having a "good time" in town, and, as usual, is spending it on gorgeous clothes and all manner of extravagance. •■-Money no good to a Maori," he°said, when someone spoke to him on the matter. Therefore, as racial custom will not illow him to make n sensible use of it. lie is travelling the same old road that many have travelled before him, and when the winter comes and the money is gone, he will do the annual up-country native starve on potatoes and sowthistle Truly, the native is a perplexing problem. ° '

A SALE THAT WILL STARTLE TARANAKI. The Melbourne annual reduction sale is undoubtedly the greatest ever held in Taranaki. A stupendous sale, the equal of which in size and smashing of values has never been equalled. The whole enormous stock is being thrown at the mercy of the people of Taranaki at tremendous price-reductions. The stock comprises men's and boys' clothing, hats, hoots, shirts, ties, underwear, braces, etc., etc. Ladies' handkerchiefs, umbrellas, .blouses, skirts and underskirts, art needlework, calicoes, sheetings, prints, zephyrs, cretonnes, colored sateens, grey calicoes, spot and striped white muslins, art muslins, American leather cloth, toilet soap, and- hundreds of other lines too numerous to mention. We want this sale to be a period of memorable business activity. For that reason we have sot a new high-water mark for value-giving.

Harvest festival services will be conducted at St. Mary's Church to-morrow. Mr. Benncr, postmaster at Patea, has constructed an experimental wireless telegraph station, which can send ana receive messages. Passengers who left Wellington on November 3rd by the Corinthic for London had an exciting experience at Rio de Janeiro. A private letter from a passenger states that when the vessel was entering Rio Harbor she whs fired upon three times by the mutineers on the big Brazilian Dreadnought Mining Geraes Fortunately for those on the liner the shots went wide. It will be rememberen that on November 24th the crews of two Brazilian battleships mutinied for an increase of pay and the abolition of corporal punishment. Several of the officer* were killed, and some shots were fired on the city. The Minias Geraes also fired upon a launch lull of loyal bluejackets.