LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 317, 5 July 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is stated that a company is being formed in Masterton to prospect for silver dn the hills in the vicinity. Good reports are to band of samples which have been procured. "I believe it pays a country to see that a little more than a living wage is paid to its employees." This remark, made by Sir Joseph Ward at the postal employees' gathering, was received with very loud applause. The death of Sir John Logan Campbell leaves Mr. C. D. R. Ward (formerly Judge Ward), of Dunedin, the last survivor of the House of Representatives of 1856—the first House that was elected under the system of responsible Government in New Zealand. Mr. Ward resided in England for some years. A Napier High School boy has handed the Trijbune the following riddle perpetrated by his master: "When was football mentioned by Shakespeare?" The answer is convincing proof that the great bard had known the game—"When Caesar passed out at Pompey's feet after Cassius had made an opening, and Brutus had cut in." Mr. Day, S.M., at Timaru yesterday gave his reserved decision and convicted a Fairlie farmer of cruelty by putting a wire in a dog's nose to prevent it biting sheep. Several farmers gave evidence that the practice was not an uncommon one. Mr. Day said that he had 1 seen dogs in public trials competing with wired noses. Defendant was only ordered to pay costs. A strange bird was shot at Terawhiti a few days ago. On examination it was identified by a Government taxidermist as a Bounty Island pigeon. The expert declared thn.t the bird was probably the only specimen of its kind in Australia. lis customary haunt was the Antarctic'regions, and its presence in Xew Zealand could be only accounted for on the supposition that recent storms had blown it in this direction.

Last year phenomenal prices were realised at the Government auction of the Bullfinch (Western Australia) township lots. Ten per cent, of the price had to be paid down, and the balance by instalments. The Government now announces the forfeiture of 04 out of the 128 lots sold for non-payment of instalments. The sums in default range from £3710 to £8 and total about £IO,OOO. The forfeiting owners include many wellknown mining and business men. It is just possible, says a London correspondent, that King George may be the first monarch to fly. He has repeatedly expressed the desire to niake the experiment, but the Queen has discouraged the idea. However, the King continues to remark that the time is rapidly approaching when he will be able to fly without danger. Meanwhile he intends to display personal interest in aviation. On his return to town at the end of the month he will probably visit Hendon or Brooklands to inspect all the latest devices and improvements.

"Curious" writes as follows:—''ln the light of the Borough Council's professed inability to eop'j with the demands made for electric current, it is difficult to reconcile the waste that goes on by the burning of many of the street lights in broad daylight. Long after the chanticleers have proclaimed the dawn and the average citizen lias set about his daily avocation, the electric bulbs in Devon street cast continue to misguidedly expend their energies on the sunlight. As a matter of fact, the lights have more than once been burning in the forenoon. Is it because each unit of electricity consumed in the public streets represents the payment of so many pence out of the street lighting account to the electric lighting department? One could then-understand the phenomenal increase in the revenue of the depart ment. Anyhow, this is a queer business, this 'robbing Peter to pay Paul.'"' The Taumarunui Press says the slips on the Main Trunk line last"week recall an incident that took place within a mile or so of Ongarue in 1!)07, soon after t.he line was made. A train driven by George Dewes was leaving for Auckland, and- as a good deal of water lay on the line at a certain filling, the driver suspected its solidarity. The banksloped down to a road, and this in turn ran alongside and at higher level than the river. Mr. Dewcs decided to test the embankment with the engine, so he unhooked the latter and r:\11 his 00-ton engine over the crossing. Half over, the entire substructure gave wav with the report of a cannon, and, carrying a section of the road with it, disappeared ' into the river. The rails held for a moment like tightened wires, until the fishplates snapped, and then the great locomotive fell over, helpless, on to its side —fortunately uphill, so that instead of the driver and his mate .being hurled to destruction they were landed on the higher bank. It is only about throe months since the introduction of the Post Office Home Savings Banks to New Plymouth, but already from 1(10 to 170 have been disposed of. The banks, which would prove an ornament on any mantelpiece, are in most cases made the receptacle, by their keepers, of all odd silver, and several "managing directors" have commented on how soon the savings mount up. Some of those in possession of banks do not scruple at including sovereigns in their collection, as has been proved when the boxes have been opened at the post office. Curiously enough, the recent mild .burglar scare was responsible a few days ago for several householders bringing their metal boxes to the post office, in order that (he proceeds might he put in some place of absolute safety. One of them contained no less than £7 in loose silver, while the contents of others, which included gold, exceeded this sum. The depositors include many children, and it is surprising the number of adults with whom the little 4in x .'Sin banks have found favor. The system is very simple. The depositor takes a numbered box and the post oifice retains the key. At any time he may take it to the Department for the purpose of opening it. The money may either he taken away there and then by the depositor, or placed in the Post Office Savings Bank proper. The banks, which have apertures for both paper-money and coins, are small, neat, but hoavv, and it is absolutely impossible for the holder to extract any money from them. The only way to burgle the bank would be hv means of a stout axe, or the like. All a person desirous of procuring a box ha? to do is to fit! in the neccssan- application form, pay a fee of 0:1 c sliillinrr. and. in addition, open up a savings account with a deposit of two shillings. This sum is held by the Post Office against the possible loss of the box. For Chronic Chest Complaints, Wood'd Great Peppermint Curs. 1/6, 2/fl-

A tradesman at Woodville w as handed a cheque to pay an account- of a' few shillings, and after glancing at it gave change as for a £4 cheque. On being invited to look at it again, lie found that it was for £4OOO, and remarked that he had not got the change in the till just then. While speaking to a reporter at Hastings, Mr. J. A. Mallard, one of the representatives of the insurance companies on the Hastings Fire Board, referring to the lire waste that was going on, said that during the past six years £2,500,000 had .been paid by insurance companies in New Zealand.

A farmer who gave evidence before the Cost of Living Commission in Wellington, gave it as his opinion that the cost of living might he cheapened by economy and proper cooking. Nowadays, he said, girls were being trained for ollicc work and were neglecting household accomplishments. Their ignorance of domestic matters was deplyrable. A Chinaman, who recently died at Arrowtown, Otago, had been in receipt of benevolent aid for a period of 12 months and his death disclosed the fact that he had a banking account of nearly £2OO. This case only leaves to conjecture the number of similar cases which may exist, and should cause very searching enquiry into all applications 'for relief. Under the will of the late Mr. Henry Hayman, senior partner of the wellknown firm of P. Hayman and Co., each servant in the employ for ten years and twenty years, in each branch, received a legacy, those coming under the latter receiving double the amount of the former. The presentation of the cheques to the Wellington branch took place on Tuesday. Royalty is a payment extorted by owners of coal lands for permission to dig coal from the ground.- The royalty on the coal .burned on one round trip of the Lusitania between Liverpool and New York amounts to £B4O. Thus the amount paid bv the White Star or any other line in royalties to the owners of the coal lands is far more than enough to furnish all that is needed for the safety of the passengers and crew without raising rates. The finances of the Patea Harbor Board are apparently in a very strained condition. The overdraft has almost reached the limit of £3OOO. and the shipping of the port is, as is usual at this time of the year, anything but brisk. Next month some £7OO is due in interest ami sinking fund on the original loan of £30,000. In addition the harbor is crying aloud for the services of a dredge. The Board is now considering the question of a,rating area.

It is not often that instances occur in J which quite young children help each : other in an emergency. Two little chaps, aged six and three years, respectively, behaved in a truly "heroic manner towards a comrade, aged about five, on a farm in the Kaiapoi district, The five-year-old boy, when mounting a pony, broke one of his legs, and found himself in a very awkward predicament, as it was some considerable distance from the house. And here was where tlie assistance of iiie other two proved serviceable. The elder of them carried the sufferer several chains and over a gorse fence, until he himself became exhausted. Then the little three-year-old youngster tried what he could do, and succeeded in getting his injured companion another .short distance to the house, where surgical aid was obtained. The doctor's verdict was that the youngsters were > deserving of the highest credit. i It was interesting to learn, said the Prime Minister at the St. Helens' Hospital opening function at Wellington,! that the cost to the country for each child born in these maternity homes was only £1 17s (id. This was" better than having to pay £5 5s per child, as was proposed in Australia. (Laughter). ''The Hon. the Minister for Public Health." he continued, "who has just been addressing you, lias no less than fourteen children. He is the sort of man we must have in the country, because we do want population." (Laughter). Since the St. Helens' Maternity Hospitals have been established in New Zealand, said the Hon. G. AY. Russell at the opening of the Wellington Nursing Home. 4608 children had been born in them, and 1771 eases had been attended to outside by nurses from the institutions. Out of that number only twenty-two deaths had occurred. Tins was a magnificent record, seeing that tl e average rate of infantile mortality in New Zealand was calculated at 5-VL- per cent.

From all the districts in the neighborhood of Taumarumii come accounts of a moro or less heavy fall of snow at the end of last week and the beginning of this (writes the correspondent of the New Zealand Herald). A local resident was amongst those who had to walk round the hill at the Horopito slip after midnight last Saturday. The snow was falling fast, and the passengers made the most of their opportunity and snowballed each other with great enjoyment. Two or three inches of snow fell at Rangitaua and Ohakime, and a greater depth at the Waiouru Plains. No snow fell in the sheltered valley of Taumarumii, and it is a quaint sight to see'the goods trains come in from the south with a burden of snow that has fallen on them while passing through the high plains. The school children here have a good time when this happens, and gather the snow from the waggons to pelt each other. But is a hard time for the en-gine-drivers and firemen, who are exposed to the bitter weather.

A verdict of "Felo-de-se" (self-murder) was returned at the inquest at Daisy Bank, near Wolverhampton (England), on a schoolgirl, aged"l2, named Louie Pope, who drowned herself in the canal. The girl's mother said that she had some word* with her daughter during the morning. Afterwards the girl refused to go to school, and when her father Cains home at dinner time she said: "1 am not going to school for you or mother." She went away, and not long afterwards ,the witness saw another little daughter bringing home the clothing of her sister. The girl had a most ungovernable temper. If she did not get what she wanted she always said: "I will drown myself or stop a motor." Replying to the coroner, the mother said that her daughter was very truthful and intelligent and full of life. At school she was a good girl, but she had lately taken a dislike to going. Annie Pope, aged 9 years, said that when Louie went to the canal she followed, and 'her sister said: "If I could catch you I would hit you." Not long afterwards the witness saw her sister undress, place her clothes on the ground, And then slide from the side of the canal into the water. The witness picked slip the clothes and ran home screaming. No one was near. The coroner said there was little doubt the gild committed suicide, and the question was whether she was insane. It seemed to be a deliberate act, and if she murdered herself, then a verdict of felo-de-se would have to be returned.

SUFFERED THREE YEARS. ' "For three long years i suffered continnnlly from relaxed throat and cold on the chest," writes Mr. J. R. Craig, junr., 4(i7 Nicholson street, North Carlton, Victoria. ''l could npt shake the cold off. I tried everything without getting any relief. A friend recommended Chamberlain's Cough Remedy, and I am very thankful that he did, for I cannot sneak too highly of it. It gave me immediate relief and quickly cured me." Sold by all chemists and storekeepers,