LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 315, 3 July 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

'Fifteen cattle and four horses were shipped by the Rarawa to Onehunga last night. An "At Home" is being tendered to Miss Rosina Buckman at Messrs. May and Arrowsmith's tea-rooms to-morrow afternoon, for the purpose of bidding her farewell on the eve of her departure for the Continent. The reception, to which all ladies are invited, will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. The progress of the port of New Plymouth is reflected by the increased Customs revenue for the six-monthly period ended June 29. The figures show an advance of £OOI 2s 9d on the receipts for the corresponding period of 1911. They are as follows: —From December to June, 1912, £23,090 7s 10; December to June, 1911, £22,729 5s Id. Captain ,J. Black, secretary of the Taranaki branch of the Royal New Zealand Veterans' Association, has received the following telegram from the Hon. T. Kelly:—"Presented the petition of members of the Taranaki branch of the Roj'al Veterans to the Legislative Council on Friday." The petitioners ask that a pension (the amount of which is left to the discretion of Parliament) to he quite apart and distinct from the old age pension, be granted to veterans.

The ; men-folk of New Zealand have minifestcd their patriotic sentiment by their general approval of the new defence . scheme. The ladies of New Plymouth, in common with those of other towns, -will find some scope for their patriotism by attending a meeting of the New Plymouth centre of the Navy League, to be held in the Borough Council Chambers at 3 o'clock this afternoon. The (purpose of the meeting is to assist in the proposal' to present an ensign and Union Jack to H.M.S. New Zealand. The St. Aubyn Town Board met last evening, when the following tenders were accepted:—Belt road culvert, H. McKay, £325 13s 4d; road work in Roy terrace, Newton street and Calvert road, Messrs. Russell and Kyngdon, "£200; gravel (about laOj yards), E. Sole, at 2s 7d per yard. The chairman's action was confirmed in letting a further contract to C. and 'R. Parkin for delivery of about 200 yards of metal from the gaol at 3s per yard. Advice was received from the State Guaranteed Advances Office that the debentures for the £4830 loan are to be signed and returned when required. ' ! I

Practical sympathy is being .shown by members of the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union for the young lady who acted as pianist to Fullers' picture show at Waihi, and who, because she. happened to be the daughter of a member of the new Waihi Engine-drivers' Union, incurred the displeasure of the Federation of Labor, and was dismissed from her situation. Quito a good little sum was dispatched to her a few days ago, and an acknowledgment has been received. The quality of the iincident exists in the fact that the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union is the only body of workers in Wellington affiliated to the Federation of Lahor. It was alleged of John Twyman, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, that he had failed to provide sufficient maintenance for his wife, Ellen Mary Twyman. Mr. C. H. Weston appeared for the prosecutrix, and Mr. A. H. Johnstone defended. On the application of Mr. W T eston. the Magistrate (Mr. A. Crooke, S.M.) granted an adjournment till Friday. Regarding Mr. Johnstone's application for bai'l, Mr. Weston asked that it he fixed at a fairly substantial sum, as the accused had, he alleged, at one time expressed his intention to leave the Dominion without fulfilling his obligations. Bail was allowed in "two securities of £lO each or ono of £2O, and £2O on his own recognisance. Sitting in his civil jurisdiction at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning, Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., gave judgment for the plaintiff bv default in the following civil .cases-.—Henry Weston v. C. W. Coker, claim £6, costs £1 3s 6d; Henry Egarr v. Ernest L. Bott, claim for costs only, £1 ll.i. When the case of E. ■Griffiths v. Fred Inia, claim for £3O for alleged breach of a contract to purchase a motor-car, was called, Mr. Hutchen, on behalf of the defendant, asked leave to defend. This was opposed by Mr. J. C. Nicholson, on the grounds that the requisite time for filing a defence had been allowed to lapse, and, further, that defendant should indicate his defence. After considerable argument, His Worship granted'leave to defend, and adjourned'the case for a fortnight. On the application of counsel (Mr. Hutch-en) for the plaintiff a non-suit was granted in the case in which Okey and Rollo sued the Oaonui Dairy Company (Mr. Grey) for £4B 7s 3d." Costs amounting to £fi 17 S fid were allowed defendant. The granting of the non-suit will pave the way for n fresh action on the part of (lie plaintiff. A round my bed stood Uncle Ted, Jemima. Jane and Florrie; They thought I'd die, hut, hang it, I Was in no beastly hurry. I'd got bronchitis and laryngitis, High was mv temperature: I'm well to-dni', and pleased to say—'Twas Woods' Great Peppermint Cure.

A Sydney cablegram states that a heavy gale is raging on the coast of New South Wales, and shipping is being : delayed. The following are the principal Taranaki estates of deceased persons sworn for duty last month:—James S. Young, £8049; Arthur Gibbs, £{SB4O; John K. Mackay, £983. At the quarterly meeting of the Shipwreck Relief Society in Dunedin yesterday it was reported that £42 had been forwarded to the Mayor of Greymouth In aid of the crew of the Kotuku, and £ 5 each to two widows of men who were lost in the dredge Manchester. Twelve years had been spent by one applicant in unsuccessfully following land ballots. His persistency and patience were rewarded at Norsewood, when he and his son drew sections side by side. When this became known he was given a round of applause by his generous opponents. According to the usually well-inform-ed Paris Gaulois, King George had a considerable hand in settling the British coal strike. It is alleged that George V. sent for Mr. Asquith and told him, with some heat, that if Parliament wouldn't turn to without delay and end the appalling business, his Majesty would see what he could personally do in the matter. Later, he carpeted Mr. Bonar Law, leader of the Opposition, and spoke strongly on the infamy of making party capital out of a national calamity. The Matin, another Paris paper, says that the King told Mr. Asquith that, if he didn't act, he himself would call the coalowners before him at Buckingham Palace and confront them with the spokesmen of the miners. "The owners had supposed," says the Matin, "that a king must always be on the side of vested interests." By the way, George V.'s uncle, William of Germany, once had coalowners and miners up before him, and read the owners a severe lecture, with salutary results. A commission appointed some time ago by the Swedish Parliament to investigate the advisability of granting maternity pensions to women industrial workers, has recommended that, as the birthrate among these classes is steadily increasing, a certain sum should be granted to women workers during their confinement, and a further weekly grant as long as they remain at home for the purpose of nursing their babies themselves. In Austria it is proposed that a very advanced maternity pension scheme be tried. This, besides providing for the very poorest class mother, embraces also the women ■ of the lower middle class. The various clauses propose to give free attendance of midwife and doctor, and, if necessary, a trained nurse; a premium amounting to nearly £1 a month to each mother who nurses her child for three months, and a further allowance if the period is extended to six months; and the provision of special rooms in the factories where the mothers can leave their babies in the charge of trained attendants.

Speaking in the House of Commons on May 8, Mr. Lloyd-George said he had been surprised to hear Lord Robert Cecil say that the conditions of labor in the agricultural districts of this country were on the whole more favorable than those in the industrial districts. He thought the reverse was the case, and thajt a good deal of the trouble in the industrial districts was due to the fact that the conditions of labor in the agricultural districts were so unfair to the workmen, The conditions of agricultural labor were, he thought, a matter to be inquired into. If they got a supply of sturdy, healthy, strong men. who were not getting more than 15s a week in the rural districts for long hours of continuous work, labor which was called unskilled, but was very often skilled labor —(hear, hear) —there was a tendency to depress the labor market in the matter of wages. In some districts he knew the 'agricultural laborers were paid £1 a week, although the country was not very fertile and the districts' were far removed from any great markets. This was good for the farmer, however, as he got a better class of men and more contented men. In the Home Counties, on the other hand, in districts within easy reach of great markets, the laborers were paid only 15s or 10s a wek. There must be something radically wrong with the whole system which worked out this way. It' was not an economic wage. These were things which lay nearly at the root of these questions, and more especially the question of unskilled labor.

Quite a convincing argument in favor of marriage as a means to long life would appear, at first sight, to be offered in the census figures for conjugal conditions. There were in Australia, when the census was taken last year (says the Age), ten married men who had reached the age of a century, and three married women who were centenarians, Unfortunately for the stability of the argument of how to live to a hundred though married, which the Commonwealth Statistician might have been expected to derive from the census for the information of the public, it appears from other figures that the widows and the widowers enjoy the longest lives of any mernhcrs of the community. There were twenty-four widows still blooming at 100 years and seventeen widowers who had managed to extend their existence up to that term. So that all the

evidence is in the favor of the widows and widowers. The nineties, too, afford convincing testimony in support, for between the ages of ninety-five and ninetynine years there were twenty-seven married men and fifty-nine widowers, four married women and 114 widows. The proportions are maintained down the scale of ages until they cease to be of any value as evidence of the fact that while a man or a woman who is married may hope to attain 100 years, the chance of the widow and the widower is, after all, superior. ' Eight men and two women who were described as never married had reached the age of 100, but, as the likelihood is that they might have forgotten for the time l>eing whether they were ever married or not; they do not affect the case for the widows and widowers. Divorces were a great deal more difficult to obtain in the good old days. Only one divorced man attained the ago of ninety-five years, but whether because divorce was difficult or because domestic infelicity preceding divorce had the -effect of lessening the term of existence the figures unfortunately do not indicate in the slightest.

The cinematograph might be said to have "commenced business" in a very humble way. Even the great Edison declares that he did not foresee any great commercial possibilities resulting from his invention. Yet, within a few years of its conception, the cinematographic entertainment has become a world-wide institution a consistent source of amusement to millions of pleasureeeckers./ To those about to enter the "gilded" rank? of picture theatre proprietors, or to those who are dissatisfied with their present operating machine, the Ernemann "Imperator" Bioscope cannot be too highly recommended. It is a machine which projects a flickerless picture, ami it is of perfect rigidity. The Ernemann has been installed in practically all the up-to-date picture theatre in the world, owing to its clearness in projection, its simplicity of operation, and its remarkable wearing qualities. Full particulars in regard to the Ernemann r.io=cnpn may be obtained from the sole agents. Harringtons N.Z. Ltd., Willis street, Wellington.—Advt.

An Ot.ijro country constable was not inclined to take any risks when obtaining evidence in support of a charge of selling liquor after hours. It is stated that one night, shortly after 10 o'clock, he found a' couple of residents just about to enjoy a glass of beer each. He immediately wanted to know their names, and to make sure that the drinks before them were of the forbidden strength, he drank them both himself. In giving evidence in support of the charge, he assured the Bench that the glasses standing before accused when he entered the bar contained beer—he could swear to that, because he had drunk them himself to make sure!

The people of Haapai, in the Tongan group, which was devastated by the hurricane some months ago, have not so far felt the results as much as was anticipated, but according to news by the Island steamer Tofua, which arrived at Auckland last week, the natives will suffer a good deal in about two months' time, as by then the copra which has been coming from the outlying islands, and so keeping trade going, will cease. This copra has been made from the fallen nuts, and when it is done there will be nothing till the next crop. There is a big shortage in yams and taro owing to the effects of the hurricane, and the Haapai people will have to go on short commons for some time.

'•'When the war broke out, we all had to serve—every man, whether he liked it or not," said Mr. W. C. Kensington,'retiring Under-Secretary for Lands at a recent social function at Wellington. "I was only seventeen at the time," he went on, "but I had to serve, too. We talk much to-day about our Terirtorials and their compulsory training, but I can assure you that in those early days everybody had to serve in the defence of the country, whether be liked it or not." Mr. Kensington then described how he saw the officers and men shot down in the storming of the Gate Pa. He was serving in the howitzer battery at the time, and could see everything conected with that disastrous incident. He paid a great tribute to the memory of Major Heaphy, who, though weak in body, was endowed with the greatest pluck that he ever saw in any man. Surveyors worked in troublous, dangerous times then, under covering parties, and so he went over the whole of the Waikato then a waste.