LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Britain is taking no cbances with Kgypt, says a Canadian exchange. The Press is not permitted to specify the extraordinary defences erected in the Suez Canal /.one since the abortive attempts of the Turks against Egypt early in the war, but British military experts agree that these defences are now practically impregnable.

Mrs. J. B. Knowles, secretary of the Rahotu Ladies' Patriotic Committee, 'has received a letter, dated December IS, 1915, from the matron of the New Zealand General Hospital, Font de Koubbeh, thanking her, on behalf of the patients, for the ease of goods forwarded by the committee, which arrived safely and provided exactly what was wanted. She also expressed her appreciation of the hard work done by tbe ladies. With a view to demonstrating what the military service rilie is capable of doing in the hands of an exper, rifleman, Sergt.-Major Hart, one of the instructors at the School of Musketry at Randwick Range, recently tir"d 104 shots in four minutes, hitting a secondclass iarget (4ft square) OS times from 300 yards. Tim averages 26 shots per minute, but the sergeant-major has in CO seconds aimed and fired a rifle 48 times. The magazine and clipped cartridges were used. A well-attended meeting of the Egmont Patriotic League was 'held at Opunake on Friday night, Mr. W. C. Dudley presiding. The letter from the Recruiting Board relative to the formation of district recruiting committees was explained by the chairman. After a little discussion it was resolved to defer consideration until next meeting. Monday, March tl, was fixed as French Red Cross Day. An afternoon tea will probably be arranged and also a street collection.

The world's stock of horses is 100.000, of which Russia has 2.5,000,(100 and the United States over 24,000,000. Exports from America during the four months. September to December, 1014, totalled 7.5,000 horses. It has been feared by some that there would be such large numbers exported to the warring European countries as to cause an acute shortage of horses in the United States (says a Washington commercial report). The Department of Agriculture, however, sees no immediate danger of this, and says that America could sell two or three times the number already exported without there being an appreciable shortage of working horses. Those which have been shipped arc mediocre animals, which ordinarily sell for less than 100 dollars, and are of a class which America can well a (lord to be rid. The big demand for horses will probably occur after peace has been declared, when they will be needed for farming. The demand on America will be large, and will probably continue for a number of years.

A sensational (live by the Mayor of Wellington was the outstanding feature of the ceremony connected with the opening of the new' Boys' Institute and tepid bath, on Tuesday night. Move than a thousand people had assembled to watch the proceedings, which .opened with a series of speeches. Mr. Luke was in the chair, and tool; part in a jocular interchange of challenges with the Prime Minister (Eight Hon. W. F. Massey). He did not accept Mr. Massev's invitation to swim round Pomes Tslaud for the Mayoralty of Wellington, but directly the bath had been ollicially declared open. Mr. Luke doffed his coat and vest, and plunged in off the springboard. The gathering did not discover if the Mayor of Wellington could swim or if he was merely seek-in™ to provide a job for a Ufe-sav. The citizens gasped as they ?v,v ti-.r Mayor sink, rise, and sink agii'.n. The tiled bottom looked near, but it happened to be seven or eight feet from the surface. Then Mr. T. Shields, the institute"* swimming instructor, went in, and grasped the .Mayor, and brought him out safely, very wet, but quite cheerful.

Hundreds of unsolicited letters have been received telling of thorough permanent eurc!i which HHEUMO has accomplished. Sufferers from rheumatism——those who wore once victims—have proved the efficacy of RHEUMO-they say YOU can be cured of it. Get RHEUMO to-day. 2s (Jd And is ad. «

The next New Plymouth Winter Show will be held on June 7, 8, 11, and 10. The New Plymouth Golf Club Ims decided to hold the Easter tournament as usual, the proceeds to be given to the patriotic funds.

North Tarnnaki natives have been (lush of money lately. They have got their rents, and are ''carving" it out in a way that only a Maori can. An Auckland telegram says that six cases of infantile paralysis were notified on Saturday. The total in the city and country wan 148, making an increase for the week of lifty cases.

The inquiries into the recent fires at the Breakwater Hotel and Chatsworth House, which were to he held to-day, will be adjourned till a date to be decided on later. To take £7OO off 40 acres of land in the Stratford district would seem almost unbelievable. But, nevertheless, a wellknown Stratford farmer took , this amount off his land last year, £220 from milk and £570 from sale of pigs. It may not be generally known (flays the Hawera Star) that the Taranaki district, from Waitotara to Waitara, has cent 08 natives to the front, and in some cases a father has given two, three, and even four sons.

The committees of the Yeomanry, Bombardiers, and Grenadiers are holding a meeting in connection with the Battle of the Bullion in the Town Hall to-night at 8 o'clock, when they will bring forward several schemes they have In hand. All those willing to assist are cordially invited to attend. "Joe Powelka is here in the Dardanelles," writes a soldier to his father in the Patea district. As the writer of the letter and Powelka knew each other fairly intimately in their boyhood days at Kimbolton, there should be no question of mistaken identity (says the Press). The Rev. Mr. Haddon, of Okaiawa, informs the Hawera Star that typhoid, which was somewhat general in the Hawera district for three or four months, has now been practically stamped out. Mr. Haddon spoke in appreciation of the good work carried out by Health Inspector Gray and the Hospital Board authorities in this matter. ' The New Plymouth Women's Patriotic Committee having lent part of their rooms to the British Red Cross Society for their work may account for the rumor that a Red Cross Mart is being started at the depot. The Mayoress (Mrs. C. H. Burgess) wishes us to correct this, as her committee has no idea whatever of interfering with the already splendidly organised Red Cross Mart. Mr. W. Lints, organiser for the Battle of the Bullion, attended the meeting of the New Plymouth branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants yesterday. He was heartily thanked for his informative remarks concei'Hiug the Homing campaign for gathering in the bullion, and it was further resolved to co-operate in calling a meeting of all members of the stall' for the purpose of considering the question of rendering active aid in the fight for Bullion Hill.

An eel was discovered in an unusual place in New Plymouth the other day. Whilst sinking foundation holes for the new theatre, next the Criterion Hotel, the contractor struck an eight-inch live eel embedded in the earth, eleven feet down. In the old days a stream passed through the section, which, like most of the middle of the town, has been filled in. Whence did the eel come? That is a question which is puzzling the contractors.

There is r,n impression in many minds that high quality fruit cannot be successfully grown and marketed in Taranftki. On Saturday we were shown at Messrs Webster Bros.' auction mart a very fine lot of apples grown in the Okoke Valley. The fruit is splendidly arown, even in size and uniform in shape, while for cleanness and freedom .from all blights it could not be excelled. The flavor of the apples will compare with the best grown in the Dominion. As a result of the war Xew South Wales is Bhort of doctors and policemen. "This war," said the Minister for Public Health recently, "has interfered with the supply of medical men in the State for 'hospital purposes. The Hillgrovo Hospital," he added, "has been advertising for the last nine months for a junior medical officer, and has not got one yet." The Police Department was short of men to the number of 150, nnd that was the reason, why some re-cently-retired officers had'been asked to return to duty. This shortage affected the patrol work, but he was pleased to say that the force was as alert as ever in the detection of criminals.

Commenting on the recent severe outbreak of infantile paralysis in Auckland city and province, the Herald says that the peculiar features observed in epidemics of the disease In other countries have been displayed on this occasion. Though a notable advance has yhcen made in recent years in the study of the bacteriology of the disease, the search for the means of its dissemination has been baffled by the sporadic manner in which the cases occur. Xo part of the city and its suburbs has escaped, though the incidence of the disease is not attributable to insanitary conditions, in the generally accepted sense of the term, and comparatively few cases have been reported from those congested portions of the city which would be regarded as susceptible to most epidemics. A few cases have occurred in the northern suburbs across the harbor. The incomprehensible distribution of the disease is equally striking in the country districts. A few cases have been reported from Helensvillo, but no others have occurred north of the city area. From Otahuhu along the main railway lino as far distant as Morrinsville and Kilnkihi the disease has appeared in n number of the townships, but never more than a few cases in each locality. Altogether, nearly 30 eases have been reported from tile country districts during the past month. Dr. Hughes states that fully 75 per cent of the patients have been children under school age, and, so far as lie had been able to ascertain there had been only one instance in which two children in one homo had been attacked, whilst then- were many in which there had been only one sufferer among a large family. There is no supply available in Xew Zealand of the serum made by Flemier. the \iueriean bacteriologist, for the treatment of the disease, Reliance lias, therefore, to be placed on the preparation known as urotropin, the efficacy of which has been well proved. The eommi'ltoo's of the Yeomanry, Bombardiers, and Grenadiers are holding a meeting in connection with the Hattle of the Bullion, in the Town Hall on

Monday. February M, when (hey will bring forward several schemes they have in hand. All (hose willing to assist are cordially invited to attend. DIVORCED once and for all are Indigestion and all Stomach Troubles from the human body when Dr. SHELDON'S DIGESTIVE TAUULES are brought jnto use. Pries Is fld and 2s Od. Obtainable even where.

At Kltham on Saturday U. Mealy, alius D. Seely, was scute need to three months' hard labor for the theft of a metal watch, valued at 30*.

Jt is understood, says the Star, that a branch of the Employers' Federation was formed at a meeting held at Hawera on Friday. A chairman and committee were elected to act temporarily until, at a further meeting to foe held at a later date, a permanent committee will he appointed.

Oh Friday the Hawera Comity Council had much the same experience as the New Plymouth Borough Council—the tar boilers catching lire. The Star states that about six hundred gallons of tar were destroyed. A new engine for driving the mixing plant was very hnilly destroyed. This is the second tar blaze there within three weeks.

The Hawera Fire Brigade has parted with an old relic (at one time a decidedly- useful appliance) in its handmanual lire engine, having disposed of it to the Feathcrston camp authorities. It was the first fire extinguisher purchased by the brigade many years ago, and was used in the big fire which swept over the town on August 29, 1895.—Star.

At the annual meeting of subscribers to the Hawera Public Library the bal-ance-sheet showed subscriptions as £lB5 6s 4d, and Government subsidy £2t lis 4d. Books and papers absorbed £BO 17s fld, and salary £93 6s. The president stated that the library was ,£l2 better off than in the previous l)'ear. Mr. F. G. Kimbell was re-elected president, and Rev. J. R. Shore vicepresident. Thanks were tendered to those who had assisted the library during the year. The Inspectors of Stock at Xew Plymouth and Stratford recently purchased in the Whangamomona and Stratford districts a further supply of horses for the Expeditionary Forces. Nine were purchased at Whangamomona and thirteen at Stratford, all being trucked to the remount depot at Upper Hutt during tlie week. Some tip-top animals were secured, both of the cavalry and artillery type 3. —Post. New Zealand is apparently "under the eye" of the Germans. A contemporary quotes the following pnrngraph from the Lnneburgcrheidt Naehrichten, a German newspaper:—"As soon as Germany has command of the seas, which,will be before long, we would advise our Government to turn its attention towards an island named New Zealand. It would not take much to get possession of it, because they have only boys as soldiers, and are too far away from Britain to get any help from there. It is a very fertile land; it produces an enormous quantity of butter, cheese, beef, mutton and wool, all products much needed in our country. • The country is also rich in gold, coal, oil and other minerals. The first nation of the world—Germany —ought to be in possession of it." A remarkable record in journalism has been achieved by Mr. George K. Sims, whose itwo-thousandth consecutive "Mustard and Cress" article appeared in the Referee in December last. Mr. Sims, therefore, has written this article for SBV->- years without a break. In an interview with a Daily Graphic representative Mr. Rims confessed that he had often been tempted to take a week off, "but I never gave in. Sometimes I have been seriously ill. I have been through almost every variety of operation and trouble, but I have always managed to get three columns of 'Mustard and Cress' into Fleet Street every' Saturday. I have written it in storm at sea, among the Kabyle mountains, in the desert of the great Sahara under a palm tree, among the Spanish gipsies in Naples—in nearly every big city of the United Kingdom, and in almost every part of Europe. Never in Hoiloway (touch wood). Tt is no credit to me: it is my constitution which I inherited—vitality and powers of recuperation, so that you can be carved up by a surgeon on Friday and on Saturday write your three columns and send It down by a special messenger. But I attribute my ability to do my workplays, pantomime, stories, poems, I have done almost everything except a five-act blank-verse tragedy—not so much to -obust health, which I have, as to the faculty of dismissing my work from my mind the moment the allotted amount is done."

The Motor Transport Co. intend putting on its Cadillac 9-seater car for a special trip to Mokau next Sunday, providing the inducement offered is sufficient. A launch will meet the car at Mokau and sail up the river, one of the most picturesque in Xcw Zealand. The inclusive fare is 20s, and bookings may be made at the Tourist League's office. Particulars are advertised.