LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 250, 1 March 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The stone monument erected to mark the landing of the first settlers at Moturoa is now practically completed. The premiums offered for the best designs for the proposed new Parliamentary Buildings in Wellington are as follows:—First £IOOO, second £SOO, third Mi), fourth £2OO. Cash, who has been sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, was about four years ago an A.B. on boara the Rarawa, and was well-known amongst the local harbor employees. The survey of the harbor being undertaken by Captain Newton has so far been very satisfactory, the plant working well. The harbormaster anticipates that another half-day's work will complete the survey. The usual 7.28 train for New Plymouth arrived here just about an hour late last night. The train was running late to Inglewood, and was side-tracked there to allow the express to pass. The passengers for New Plymouth were transferred to the mail. Competitors in the 100 and 220 yards at the Re-union Picnic on Thursday are advised that these events are set down early in the programme, which commences at 2 o'clock sharp. For the convenience of competitors, an express will leave Mr. Wooller's tea rooms, Egmonv street, at 12 noon sharp. The Sabbath School anniversary services at St. Andrew's '„-»urch on Sunday were conducted by the Rev. J. M. Thompson, M.A. At the afternoon ser»vice, which was attended by a large I number of the parents and friends of the children, 103 handsome book prizes, besides certificates, were presented to the scholars for regular attendance and work done during the year. Appropriate hymns were rendered. The life of a country publican may be a good deal of beer—it is certainly not all skittles. A licensee in the Masterton district states, according to the Wairarapa Age, that in one week recently he had to supply over a thousand swaggers with free meals. A trio of sailors who came along demanded grog and accommodation at the point of a revolver. Fortunately the publican has a repeating rifle, which he keeps loaded, and the production of this had a subduing effect upon the thirsty "salts." Since the railway line into New Plymouth was diverted from Leach street, the residents there have requested the Borough Council to form and metal the streot. The council has asked the Railway Department to hand back to the council the centre of the street which was taken 33 years ago without compensation being paid, but this the Department will not do, requiring a further £205 from the council. Last week a wire was sent to the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Railways, asking if he was likely to visit New Plymouth in the near future, the idea being for a deputation to wait on him and place the whole matter before him. On Monday the Mayor (Mr. G. Tisch) received the following wire from the Minister: "In reply to your telegram of Saturday, it will be impossible for me to visit Taranaki for some time yet. Will let you know in due course as to date of my visit." In view of the telegram, it will probably be necessary for the deputation to proceed to Wellington. In the following cases heard at the local Magistrate's Court yesterday morning, before Mr. Fitzhorbert, S.M., judgment was given for plaintiff by default: Dr. Walker (Mr. C. H. Weston) v .Fred Kendall, claim £3 0s Gd, costs 13s; Cook and Lister (Mr. A. Johnstone) v. Wm. Percy Brown, £5 15s (23s (Id); George G. Boulton (Mr. Standish) v. John F. Whitmore, balance of account, 2s (Id (10s); New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency (Mr. Hutchen) v. John Walter Wilson, £B3 12s 2d (£4 lis Gd); Morey and Son (Mr. Quilliam) v. Alexander B. Stewart, £7 19s 8d (2as Gil); Bellringer Bros. (Mr. , Hutchen) v. Percy W. Roberts, £3 7s

(10s); M. H. Barnitt (Mr. Standish) v. E. Hadlcy Co., £33 2s (id (£2 14s). in the judgment summons case Dr. Walker '(Mr. C. H. Weston) v. Dave Duffy, there was no appearance of judgment debtor, who was ordered to pay the amount (£5 2s (id) within 14 days or in default 14 days' imprisonment in New Plymouth prison. At the meeting of the Liedertafel Society, in the course of the annual report, regret was expressed that several members had lost their interest and had apparently dropped out of the society, and whereas at the last annual meeting the committee were able to report that "the society, which started with a membership of twenty, had risen to nearly fifty active members," the present committee could not report the same progress, but rather the reverse. It seemed absurd that in a town the size of New Plymouth, having so many professedly musical people, a Liedertafel had to •struggle for its existence. But it was i not thought the public was altogether to blame, as, for instance, allowing for . those members who had left the town, where were the balance of the fifty active members enrolled at last annual meeting? If the members did not stick to the society, it weakened the hands of those who did, and made it harder for them to put an acceptable programme before the public, besides lowering the income.

There will be night swimming for ladies at the municipal baths to-night from 7 to 9 p.m., at usual charges.

A commencement has been made with the work of widening the wharf, the first two piles at the shore end having been driven yesterday. During February the vital statistics for Wellington were: Births 170 (163 in previous February), deaths 51 (78), marriages 78 (02).—Press wire.

The dates for the second Dominion Dairy Show at Hawera have been fixed for July 5, 0, 7, and 8. The directors have decided to cover in another 10,000 feet of space. For St. Patrick's night a soeial is announced by the popular "Happy Hours Assembly." A feature of th« function will be a waltzing competition for prizes, previous winners being ineligible to compete.

The Athcnic, which left Wellington on Thursday for London had included in her cargo 33,890 boxes of butter and 11,505 crates of cheese. The amount shipped by the Arawa for the corresponding date last year was 26,202 boxes of butter and 12,843 crates of cheese.

At the instance of Messrs. Pitcaithly and Co., contractors, a writ claiming £20,000 is stated to have been issuea against Messrs. John McLean and Son, contractors, for loss alleged to have been sustained through \he latter firm's abandonment of the Wellington Harbor Board's dock contract. Messrs. . Pitcaithly and Co. had, it is alleged, contracted to supply Messrs. McLean and Son with the shingle necessary for con-crete-making.

The Government has authorised the expenditure of a sum of money which will enable Captain Scott's vessel, the Terra Nova, to carry out the accurate location of a few points of the New Zealand coast which are believed to be improperly charted. The Minister of Marine, the Hon. J. A. Millar, states that when Sir Joseph Ward is in England he will endeavor to arrange with the Admiralty to complete the survey of the New Zealand coast. Questioned in Wellington concerning the cabled statement that New Zealand was taking half a million loan from the Federal Government, the Premier said he knew nothing of it, and that the statement was evidently an error. r Jk Commonwealth Government has latdH been lending to the different States <4M siderable sums of Jjbe money which has flowed into its coffers since it began the issue of paper money. The message presumably refers to a transaction with either New South Wales or Queensland. A Patea resident paid a visit to Moumahaki State Farm last week, and is very enthusiastic over what he saw there, says the Patea Press. He declares that if fanners were only alive to their own interests they would crowd the farm In battalions to see it. A sevenacre field of swede turnips was a revelation of what proper cultivation can achieve in this district in a dry season. Maize 10ft high, Japanese millet, lucerne and other fodder plants were seen growing luxuriatnly, and there are some immense crops of apples on trees grown |on the cordon system. That is, they are trained along wires, so that the, fruit does not get thrashed off by heavy winds, and the trees are more easily attended to in spraying, pruning, etc. In I spite of the long dry spell, the farm is looking very well, and our visitor declares that farmers can learn a lot during a visit to Moumahaki. A series of photographs depicting early New Plymouth from 1858 onwards was the subject of much attraction in Mr. Hall's (chemist) shop window yesterday. These are the property of Mr. W. H. Skinner, and they reprcßeut very valuable mementoes of the historical times of the town. The old customs house on the beach on the south side of Huatoki stream is plainly to be noticed on one of the oldest cards. The bridge over the Huatoki in Devon street is a striking object in several of the scenes. St. Mary's Church, Marsland Hill (with: the barracks showing plainly on the summit), the sea-front (with a barque lying off ready for discharge at a spot about opposite the present railway stution, where business was done before the breakwater was built), the old Maori pah, upper Brougham street in the seventies (showing Smart Bros.' present premises and other old landmarks), besides various views of Devon street and New Plymouth generally from the time settlement was in the primitive state. A suggestion that was thrown out by a bystander yesterday is worthy of being put into practical shape, and this was in the direction of the reproduction of «everal of the plates. As such, they will afford much pleasurcable attention to all, but especially to the old identities.

There was a flutter of exeitement among surf-bathers at St. Clair on Friday evening (says the Dunedin Star), when a cry of "shark" was raised. It seems that a quarter of an hour previously a young fellow named Murtidge was bathing near the breakers when he espied a shark coming in. He immediately rushed out of the water and told several what he had seen. His hearers, however, discredited his statement and urged him not to alarm the other bathers, who were close to shore. Later on, when E. J. Dansey and T. Lamburn were bathing a few yards ahead .of the others, Dansey saw a big ground shark making at him from the side, with its mouth upturned. For a moment he was dumbfounded, then, to repeat his story: "I, hardly knowing what I was doing, struck at its snout with my clenched fist with nil my force. Then 1 turned and swam towards the shore, kicking as hard as I could to frighten the shark." There were about three hundred bathers in the water at the time the shark made its .second appearance, and of course ail made for the shove when the alarm was raised. Of the shark nothing more was seen. All who saw it say it was about eight feet long."