LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 28 October 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the Police Court yesterday a first offending inebriate was convicted and discharged. The official opening of the season at the Vivian street tennis courts will take place next Saturday. Owing to the withdrawal of the coastal steamers there is a meat famine at Westport, which depends lor its supplies on Wanganui. A telegraph office and telephone bureau will be opened at Westown on Monday next under the charge of Mrs. MeOuni. The new office will be known as Whakawhiti.

Major Young, who supervises the veterinary work and .stock inspection in this district, and four district stock inspectors were in New Plymouth yesterday on departmental matters. A Wellington Press Association telegram states that as a result of heavy rains the new dam at Wainui for the city water supply is now brimming over for the first time. The dam holds 120 million gallons, and the work of construction lias taken several years to complete, many difficulties having been overcome.

Sonic of the Akitio backblocks are sixty miles from a doctor's resilience, and'as accidents are not uncommon in such rough country, the settlers have been trying to get a doctor to take up his residence in Pongaroa. It has now been decided to guarantee £3OO a year, and to approach the Government for a subsidy.

'Captain Young has secured the freehold of a further ten acres of native bush adjoining his farm at Bell Block. He has now twenty acres, which he has fenced anil planted with young native, trees, with a viw to preserving the bush, lie is to be commended for his action in this matter. It would be a good thing for the district if more men took nil interest in preserving the native bush.

A resident of Manawatn. who has been on a trip down South, states that the country in South Canterbury is looking magnificent after the recent rains. Stock are also looking remarkably well. Some of the country which he passed through would bp dillicult (o beat_ in any part of the world. All Australian friend who was travelling with him was greatly taken .with that part of Xew Zealand, which he had not seen before.

The services to-morrow in the Whiteley .Memorial Church will be conducted by the Rev. T. (!, Brooke. The annual liome Mission sermons will be preached, and the oil'ertories will be 011 behalf of the Home Mission funds. _ Mr. Brooke has been general secretary for this department of the church for the last three, years, and has been successful in creating a truer and deeper interest in the needs of the backblocks.—Advt.

Now Plymouth theatregoers will be pleased to learn that Rickards* vaudeville company are to appear here oil November (i and 7. An Ashburton resident who lives in •lose proximity to the platform where ;he Ashburton County ■Council liberated the German owls over a year ago, states that three of the birds have been about liis homestead for some considerable time. He has taken great interest in tho birds, and has watehed them carefully, but he has never seen them attack a sparrow, nor has he seen any proof of their destructiveness on small birds. The annual self-denial effort of the ■Salvation Army ended yesterday, and the New Plymouth corps gathered' in the splendid sum of £2O5 —a record for the -orps. The returns are not yet complete. It is perhaps not known that every member of the organisation, not only vigorously collects, but himself or herself subscribes. Mr. Buick, who has been a most vigorous collector, has, during his campaign, covered 400 miles on foot, and has achieved fine results. The "inspector" system recently adopted by the Railway Department is causing many residents of Petone anil Lower Hutt to express indignation. The idea, they claim, is causing them much inconvenience and unnecessary worry, Tt is pointed out that prior to the inauguration of the system the tickets were cheeked only once by the guards on the section. Now they are almost invariably checked twice, the second check being undertaken by the guard or the inspector. . An amusing story is told of a patient in a mental institution who labored under the delusion that he had discovered the elixir of life. His custom was to make a mixture of garden soil and water, and then asked permission to leave the institution for a few hours. When he returned from the little outings it was noticed that lie always had some money. This puzzled the authorities much. Accordingly they set a watch, and discovered the discoverer of the elixir doing a roaring trade with the sane public!

On the authority of one of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's most intimate friends, the Montreal Herald, a Liberal organ, announces that the late Premier, had he not retired from oflice. would have been offered the presidency of the International Peace Tribnnal'at The Hague. It is said that Sir Wilfrid was the unanimous choice of President Taft and the English. Government, and that Lord Strathcona. as High Commissioner for Canada, had been commissioned to offer the post to the ex-Premier. The Rev. T. 0. Brooke, who is in charge df the Home Mission work of the Methodist Church, in conversation with a News reporter yesterday, said he was fully in accord with the sentiments expressed in our sub-leader in yesterdav's issue anent the Maori. He says that his work bring him into close contact with the Maori life. During this year he has visited over forty Maori settlements, and he is convinced that the salvation of the Maori lies in individualising his lands and compelling him to work. The present system of allowing the Maori to live on the rents of his lands Mr. Brooke describes as nothing short of a curse to the native race.