LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 29, 28 July 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. Eagles, a big-game hunter from America, is at present paying a brief visit to New Zealand, en route to Africa. In the sixteen months since a crematorium was established in Wellington only sixteen people have been cremated there. : i! A notice appears in the Gazette that ,tltfj. T. Kennery Macdonald Company (Limited),,in liquidation, is to be wound up voluntarily, and that a liquidatorhas been appointed. A vivid flash of lightning in a district in Australia struck a fence and travelled along the wires for four miles, fusing the wires, and causing a large number of fires en route.

A painfully ,-sjidden death occurred at Feilding on Saturday evening. A young married womaft, 'Mrs. W. Stringer, agca 25,'.wh0 had fourvliours previously successfully undergone an operation, was joking with her husband when she suddenly expired.

It is understood (says a local paper) that prosecutions against the directors, manager and secretary of a company formerly doing business in Blenheim are about to be initiated, in which the penalties may run into thousands of pounds. Miss Ethel Irving is to appear in London on her return from Australia, at a salary of £OOO per week, which is the highest salary paid to any individual artist, with the exception of Madame Sarah Bernhardt. This Dominion has over half a million fewer sheep than it had in the previous, year. There was more than half-a-mil-jion decrease in the North Island, and an incerase of 83,102 in the South Island, leaving a net decrease of 515,035 for the whole of New Zealand.

Red clover has been a paying crop with a number of farmers' in Canterbury this year, for after securing hay they have made good sums from the seed. " In one case the grower sold the seed 6d per lb, bringing in over £2OO, representing over £l7 per acre for the seed alone.

Under the terms of the late Mr. Henry Hayman's will, all the members of. the New Zealand staff with ten years' service to their credit receive gratuities of £2O, and those with 20 years' and upwards £SO each. There are about twenty members of the Auckland staff who will participate in the bequest. The Waitara waterfront looked quite busy yesterday. The steamers Mana and Tainui, from Wellington; Pitoitoi, from Awakiiio; and the auxiliary schooner Amelia Sims, under charter to Messrs: Ilatrick and Co., were all discharging at the wharf, as well as the little oil launch Te Kuwait, which trades from Waitara northwards.

In the S.M. Court yesterday morning fines of os and costs were inflicted on John Gerald Johns and John Rawlinson for cycling at night without lights, the former on the information of Constable Boulton, of Fitzroy, and the latter upon the information of Inspector Tipping. L. F. Laurent was fined 5s and costs for allowing his chimney to be on fire in the borough.

There is now being fitted up in the New Plymouth Technical College woodwork room a complete wood-turning lathe, presented by Mr. E. Snowball. Mr. Sandford, the instructor, has been wishing for such an addition to the plant for some time, and is delighted at the prospect of having this fine lathe at the disposal of his pupils. At Wednesday's rriffting of the Education Board a vote of tihanks was passed to Mr. Snowball for his generosity.

There was a large attendance of members and visitors on Wednesday in the Baptist Church, when a good amount of business was done in arranging for the W.C.T.U. Provincial Convention at Ngaere on August 9; also for the mothers' meeting and women's demonstration to be held in the new temperance hall on August 15. The members were notified that Temperance Sunday will be celebrated next Sunday by a mass meeting in the Theatre Royal after the evening church servicss, when Mr. Dawson, of Wellington, and the Rev. W. J. Comrie will speak. A vote of sympathy was passed to Mr. Tisch, the Mayor, in his illness. Miss Grimley, from Leicester (England), arrived by the mail train last evening and was met by .the local Good Templars, taken to the Hygienic TeaRooms, and welcomed by upwards of 70 temperance workers. A very .pleasant evening was spent. There were many musical items and short speeches. The host, Mr. Legg, was in the chair. Miss Grimley gave an interesting little sketch of her work in the Old Country, and told of the results of her observations since she came to New Zealand. She finds the liquor evil very pronounced in New Zealand. Mr. R. C. Hughes, on behalf of the Good Templars, returned thanks, and the meeting closed with the singing of the usual Good Templar ode. A motor-car belonging to Mr. J. West was totally destroyed on the North Egmont Mountain House track on Wednesday evening. The car was a 1(1-20 h.p. standard one. and Mr. Thompson, a very careful driver, was in charge of it. The long pull on the low gear has the effect of heating the engines on motorcars climbing the mountain, necessitating frequent changes of water, it is customary to take in fresh water at the spring near the gate, and at the two-mile peg, this usually being sufficient to carry the car right on to the house. On this occasion the engine fired just before the house was reached, and the fire quickly reached the taurine tank and demolished the whole car. It was covered bv insurance.

(Mr. N. Pepperill had an experience during the Maiden Jumping competition at Waitara yesterday that is probably imparalelled in the annals of hunting, nt all eventsi, locally. He was riding a horse named Malaphin, which refused to take the brush fence, and its impetus caused it to slip and glide gracefully under the heavy l>ar that bad been solidly erected for a wing. Mr. Fcpperill, with wonderful presence of mind, threw himself fe'tfaiglit along his mourn,, and went unrl'er the bar with it, just falling off as the animal regained its feet on the other side. lie escaped without a bruise, but might easily have been seriously hurt. The height of the bar from the ground was afterwards measured and found to be 4ft Oin.

Some workmen engaged in excavation work near Courtenav street east received a rude shock on Wednesday, when the d.iiay that they were loading with earth Received a sudden addition to its, load jn the shape of a large live bull. The workmen waited not on the order of their going, but scattered in all directions, and the whole incident would have made a beautiful comic picture. It appears that the bull was being driven from Westown to Bell Block, when it got somewhat out of hand, and, climbing up the bank, jumped with the above mentioned result. The youth in charge went down to the scene, and after shifting the dray the bull jumped out uninjured, It will, however, cost its owner a trifle lo repair the damage to the floor of the dray.

Thft Hawera Winter Show door takings totalled £585 12s <td, and the profits amounts to about £320. The New Zealand Axemen's Association, whose headquarters a.re at Elthaim, has a balance of assets Over liabilities of £384. The finances were strengthened by £7O as a result of last year's contributions.

A dead whale lias been washed inshore pn the Heriot beach, Oaonui. It waa seen floating out in the sea early on Sunday morning, and many persons thought it was a small ship floating bottom upwards. It is reported to be about 25 feet in diameter.

Cattle fit for beef are still very scarce in Timaru, and butchers have to go far afield and pay big prices in order to fill their requirements. Some of the beef at present being consumed there comes from the North Island. Polled and de-horned cattle are being shipped and railed without the least injury. The Wellington Times Btates that the quota—the number of electors who will be grouped to form a constituency—has been fixed by the Representation Commissioners at 15,104, and that the North Island will gain one seat, inßtead of the expected two. It is anticipated that the new seat will be in the Auckland province.

The addresses to have been delivered by Mr. Kllison, London representative of the National Dairy Association, in Stratford and New Plymouth, to-day and to-morrow respectively, have been postponed indefinitely, as Mr. Ellison has been iialled to C'hristehurch in connection with the fatal illness of his brother-in-law, Mr. T. _E. Taylor, M.P. At a Christchureh meeting of creditors a good deal of comment was made on the unfortunate position of grocers when customers fail to pay them. It was said that the profits made were so small that no margin could lie allowed for bad debts. A grocer with a suburban business stated that prices had been cu,t so fine that in some weeks the master's profits were less than the wages to the assistants. A Victorian farmer describes Chou Mollier as the most wonderful fodder plant he has ever seen or 'grown. He has had it grow ten feet high, and all kinds of stock cat it with keen relish. As it grows the leaves can be pised off and the stalks stored away for future use. It does not taint the butter, and the milk supply is very rich and abundant. Two crops fh tW year can be grown, and the plant is not affected by frosts, A peculiar acfeident happened during the first race af'Wellington on Saturday. Clem, r.idden .by Watson, was a long way behind the field, and a spectator on the inside of the course, thinking all the horses had passed, stuck his head out over the rail. ,( Clem came past with a rush, and ths eager spectator'jj head came in contact with Watson's leg, which was subsequently found to be broken. The erowd did not know What had happened till Watson fell off his mount". The spectator was not; injured!

A plucky act stands to the credit of a fiyttelton telegraph messenger. The Maori was tasting off from the wharf at the southern port on Saturday night when a boy, selling newspapers, accidentally tumbled into the wa at the after end of the vessel. The messenger divested himself of his coat and effected a prompt rescue. Apart from the fact that the night was piercingly cold, the rescuer's action is all the more praiseworthy, seeing that at the time he took the header the ship's propellers were in motion.

The area under potatoes in Taranaki, according to the official agricultural returns supplied by the census, is only 503 acres, as agnins,t 1.001 acres in 1899. i The figures for the other provincial districts are:—Auckland, 7107 and 4199 acres; Marlborough, 753 and 308 acres; Nelson, 1108 and 867 acres; Westland, 308 and 41 acres; .Canterbury, 12,434 and 9407 acres. Taking the Domfnion as a whole there were 36,981 acres under potatoes in 1899, against 28,185 acres in the last census, showing a total decrease of nearly nine thousand acres. The figures for the North and South Islands are: hi 1899, North Island 15.483 acres, .South Island 19,904 acres.