LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 287, 7 May 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The actuary of a big insurance company in the United State* w.iy.s that slender women are better risks than those who are stout. Single women live longer than married women, and the average business woman outlives her business brother. A woman who in 301b under normal weight is a better risk for an insurance company than the Woman who is 301b over.

Another old colonist ium passed away in the person of Mr. William Liovctt, contractor, Wha died at liis residence, Grcv Lynn, 011 Friday. Deceased arrived at Howick, Auckland, in 184(i from Glasgow, and saw hard times in fclie old days. He. fought in tlu>. Maori war with the Royal Engineers (volunteer). After the war he carried out some big railway contracts in. the Waikato, mid later settled in Auckland. The Prime Minister »liile» thftfc toe intends to have uow legislation drafted to deal with the problem of strikes 1 . It is usually impossible, he says, to sue a union, instead of its members, and if a union that is working under the Arbitration Act goes on strike, its registration should be suspended until the Court has made an enqniry into itlm whole position. "The Government," Mr. IMassey "has no wish to he unnecessarily harsh or severe upon imionn the members of which admitted, that they were wrong by returning to work, and it is only anxious to do what is right, and proper by protecting those men who stuck t" their employment during a very serious crisis."

Australian (mails, ex Willochra at Wellington, will arrive here to-night. Mr. Arthur Inglis has been appointed second inspector of the Southland Education Board. Mr. Inglis has been head teacher of the North School, Invercargill, for some years, and was two years ago preident of tile Southland Teachers' Institute.

Next September two students at the Greenmeadows Roman Catholic Seminary —Messrs B. J. Ryan and A. Cullen—will be sent to Rome witli the object of qualifying for the Doctor of Divinity degreer. Mr. Ryan is the son of Mr. J. Ryan, Wellington, and Mr. Cullen is a nephew of Mr. •!. (.'ullen, Commissioner of Police, anil a son of ex-Sergeant Cullen, of tile Police Force. Before leaving New Zealand they will be ordained deacoi.

Mrs. Godley, wife of General Godley, in a letter to Mrs. G. W. Browne, of New Plymouth, states that the fund raised throughout New Zealand for the encouragement of senior cadet shooting amounts to £2049, which enables the promoters to provide a silver cup and medal for competition in every company in the Dominion. General Sir lan Hamilton has consented to present the Taranaki cups and medals at the parade to be held in New Plymouth on Wednesday, May 20. It appears fairly certain that if New Plymouth wants anything better in the way of shipping communication its own business men will have to provide it (comments the Inglewood paper). That there is full employment for a medium zed boat there is no room to doubt, but the outward shortage has always to be considered, and no local service would be able to take the dairy produce loading away from the Union boats, though it is just possible that an arrangement could be made between the two services about the outward cargo, rather than having both servieea Tunning one way practically empty. It is for the New Plymouth people and those importing through that port to see to the provision of a better and more up-to-date service.

The Wellington town clerk states that among the numerous applicants for work who have presented themselves at the Town Hall recently there have been a number o£ those who wore concerned in the strike last year. Coming after their two months' enforced idleness, the difficulty which they have experienced in obtaining anything like regular work at tho waterside 'has brought them to the end of their resources. Now that the slack season on the wharves has come, the pinch is being felt, and exstrikers are among the many applicants for iany kind of work which the city has to offer. Help is 'being afforded wherever it is possible, in some cases to the extent of supplying bare necessities, in the way of food, to the wives and families of these men.

Captain W. J. B. Benson interested n Sheffield audience recently with the following description of the Kikuyu natives:—"They are not beautiful, but they are wonderful to behold, and highly interesting. What they latk in raiment they make up for in what they are pleased to consider ornaments. A ia.rge hole is cut in the lobe of the ears, and this hole is gradually distended until it is capable of holding jars and tins which once upon a time have held jams aiul potted meats. These and similar things, which they have doubtless picked upon hunting expeditions, the men stick into the distended lobes of their ears. I heard of one man who essayed to put an ox-tongue tin into his ear, but broke the lobe in the attempt, leaving the two ends dangling like tassels. When it is windy and they annoy him. he ties the two ends together in a knot." An electrical invention, which, it is claimed, will do away with waiters ;n restaurants and hotels, is being experimented with in Paris. Each table in the restaurant is to be fitted with a frame hearing the menu and a series of electric "press" buttons corresponding with each item on the menu. The customer sits down before the already laid table, with a pile of plates and silver on one side, chooses the dish which he prefers, and presses the corresponding buttons in turn. In the kitchen of the restaurant the number of the table and the number of the course required are signalled on a screen to the chefs and their, assistants, and in a few seconds a steaming hot dish appears in a little lift at the side of the diner's table. . The customer helps himself, presses a button, ana the dish disappears as silently as it came, leaving at the side of the plate a little aluminium ticket indicating the sum to be paid.

A name that was familiar to readers of the newspapers fourteen years ago was recalled to memory of the British Ambassador in Washington Inst month. The notorious General Villa decreed the confiscation of a large ranch near the American border, and the owner appealed to tile Ambassador for protection, lie aiid that lie was the General Snyman who led one of the Boer commandoes) against Mafeking in ISilft; and he presumed lie had the right to claim British citizenship. He had left South Africa after the war. taking his family and what was left of his fortune with him, and had settled in Mexico, where he had prospered until the evils of civil war afflicted the country. The British Legation made representations to Cieneral Villa at once through the American authorities, and the decree of confiscation was revoked. The Empire has been able to render some little service to a mian who shook its dust from his feet in ttager after the Peace of Vereeniging.

A Gazette Extraordinary further prij rogues Parliament from May Bth ts Juil 5 th. 11

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the accession of King throne of England. The New PljflßttlM post office flag was flown in honor of' the event.

Yesterday morning, upon the motion of the Canterbury District Law Society, tho Ccurt of Appeal made an absolute order to strike Walter Shaw, of Timaru, o.f the rolls of barristers and solicitors of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Telephone subscribers, who have suffered from a superfluity of "rings" on windy days, and a combination of other evils on other days, will be pleased to learn the installation of an underground metallic circuit is steadily proceeding.

The "Walkure," the direct steamer chartered from Hull to New Plymouth by Mr Newton King, should arrive a,ny day ijow, and will certainly not e later than Sunday next. As she is direct, without touching even at I opart, no more definite information will be available, and New Plymouth's |hrst direct steamer must be expected Various "false alarms" 2, i h 1" expected. Indeed, ruLvLM • t . a OU P of optimists waxed enthusiastic at tho sight of a Waitara boat on Tuesday. fr^ 6 i?l ain Ca . ble , to Cover the district from Pitzroy to the new hospital, including Vogeltown and Westown, has been completed, and yesterday a start was made with splicing up the varionß lengths of the main cable. This mw f tr h te °P era «on, as great care must be taken to keep the Japanese paper insulation free from damp It requires several men, a tent'fly (over tho men) and a hot air motor. Fitzror will be tho first place served with the new system, which it is claimed will eliminate contacts" and similar evils. Eaefr cable contains over six, hundred wiresj