LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At a meeting of the executive of the New Plymouth Pierrots, held last night, it was decided to accede to the request of the Inglewood Patriotic Committee to assist at the big patriotic fete in that town on March 7,

A general meeting of the New Plymouth Pierrots is advertised to be held m the Soldiers' Club room at 8 o'clock to-morrow evening. The attendance of all members is urgently requested. We have to thank Mr. J. W. Langley, of Brixton, for forwarding a copy of the Daily News of November 19, 1917, in response to an advertisement.

A unique record which takes some beating: At the outbreak oi the war Smart Bros, employed at their New Plymouth shop sixteen hands. Eleven men have left the shop for service, and five others, who were former workmen, were also volunteers. Five out of the sixteen have paid the supreme sacrifice.

The Taranaki County Council lias completed the • tar-sealing of the Main load from the Waiwakaiho bridge to the show grounds. This will be greatly appreciated by visitors to the show this week, as it will greatly minimise the dust nuisance.

At last night's meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council a recommen* dation was received from the Borough Inspector that notices should be erected in the streets directing pedestrian traffic to "keep to the right" on the footpaths. The inspector stated that if such a rule was observed it would add greatly to the comfort of pedestrians, who at present appeared to have no idea of observing any order in the streets. It was" decided that such notices should be erected in Devon street, between the Post Office and Liardet street.

Dame Fortune is a freakish wench; she woos or jilts with callous partiality. Just before one of the recent big pushes, a Canadian Tommy received the news that the only relative he had in the world had died and left him £50,000, says London 'Opinion. He joyously passed, the news along to his chlim, an Englishman, who was waiting by his side to go over the top. Then the thought struck him, what was to be. come of the money if his luck changed and he "stopped one?" So there, in the muddy trench, he scribbled his will at the back of his Pay Book, with a stubby piece of indelible pencil, making his pal his sole heir. Sure enough the poor fellow's luck turned. Jn the early hours of the day's fighting he went We«t, leaving Ins friend the richer by a fortune.

"The greatest sale in the history of the firm." That is the unanimous ver~ diet of hundreds of pleased shoppers at the Melbourne's great stock-taking sale which commenced oil the 23rd. inst. Unparalleled bargains will continue, to be offered during the remaining days of -sale, the last day of which iB scheduled for March 15th.

It your throat is sore and irritable take NAZOL; it will give you relief.

At the Masterton Show, by moans of a mock court, commercial travellers raised £SOO for patriotic purposes. All extraordinary affair occurred in North Canterbury 'last week, a motorist being stung into unconsciousness by a swarm of bees. It is reported that the man, J. Clegs, at present, in the Napier Hospital suffering from a deep razor wound in the throat, supposed to have been self-in-flicted, has recently inherited property in England valued at £50,000. A Urewera native woman, on visiting a local ten-rooms for refreshments the other day, noticed her image in a fullsized mirror, and straightway went up to shake hands and rub noses (says the fiisborne Herald.) Her face came into contact with the glass and she proceeded up the stairway in disgust, remarking in her native tongue of the marvellous works of the pakeha. The incident caused some amusement in. the establishment. A Wyndham trooper who is in Palestine writes: Where we are camped at present is a beautiful place, with hundreds of acres of orange groves. The fruit is ready for picking, and we can get as much as we like—and the juice of an orange is just A 1 for mixing with biscuit or even bully beef. There arc immense vineries here, too, and the liest of wine. The Turks, when they skedaddled from the place, left lots of wine in the breweries, and we chaps filled our water-bottles a few times with the tasty stuff; but that is all off now, as the liquor is under guard. Tn the course of the inquest at the New Plymouth Court, yesterday, concerning the death'of John William Taylor. who died from injuries received while bathing in the river at the East End Reserve, one witness (Mr Cross) stated that it was customary for some members of the committee to be in avtpndance when bathing was going on, in case of an accident. The Coroner remarked that in the present ease it was fortunate that Mr. Parker and Mr. Cross were tjjere, and he said Mr. Parker was to be commended for the promptitude with which he jumped into the water and rescued the deceased. Recently a Palmerston North resident had his bicycle removed from the footpath in front of his husineses premises, whore daily it had rested as he worked at his profession. He advertised his loss, and a few weeks later, after vam calls at the police station to see if his missinff propcriy had turned up, was advised that a bicycle was there awaiting ownership. Ho promptly inspected the machine, but, declared it was not his, He was prompted to have another look, and by a defect in the rim of the bn-k wheel was enabled to rectify his error, for the bicycle had been sadlv altered from its previous appearance The back mudguard had been out off half way. handles reversed, and one or two things done to almost completely alter its identity. The trick nearly succeeded, too, .

"There are in the Dominion 45 liarbora controlled by boards," said Mr. J. Blair Mason in bis presidential address at the Civil Engineers' Conference, "25 of w]iich have a collective loan indebtedness of nearly ,C 7,120,000,,120,000, with, assets other than cash valued at £8,440,000, and total annual charges for interest and sinking funds amounting; to £350,000. The loan indebtedness of the terminal and main ports, viz., Auckland, Xapier, Wellington, Lyttelton, Timaru, Dunedin and the Bluff, amounts to £5,400,000. Most of these, ports possess landed property of great prospective value, notably at Auckland, Napier, Wellington, and Duncdin, where the endowments of land and land reclaimed from the sea are city lands and the sources of considerable revenues which are in every ease increasing every year."

When it was mentioned by the Hon. Mr Wilford at the Napier deputation concerning the alien question recently tbat all the Germans from Fiji had been deported to an unknown destination in Australia there was some eomment as to why all the Germans in New Zealand could not be so interned. Mr. Wilford explained that in Fiji after tho See Adler incident strong representations were made to the Imperial authorities to have such a step as was takan carried out. All the German population, which numbered about 50, came vinde* tho bending of suspicious and. consequently were interned. Similar steps would be taken and had been taken in New Zealand wherever there was cause for suspicion. Otherwise the Government was powerless to deal with them. Tn connection with this matter Mr. Wilford denied a statement current in Nov,' Zealand that there were no IMtish people whatever allowed at large in Germany. He knew definitely, he said, that there were.

What, according to the story told by the man most interested, A\as a brutal case of assault and robbery, occurred in the vicinity of the Town Bridge, Wanganui (says the Chronicle) shortly after 9 o'clock oil Thursday night. Farly yes. terday morning some men employed in the wharf sheds discovered a, man named Spice, believed to be a visitor from Awapuni to (lie raees, lying bleeding in an apparently badly mauled condition under a tarpaulin. He was in an unconscious condition, with svn ugly wound on the left side of the head, and his face badly cut. ITe was at first thought to be dead, but, after the police and a doctor had been summoned, he revived sufficiently to tell his story. The last'he remembered, ho said was being at Foster's Hotel fire at about !) p.m. on Thursday. He left there and proceeded to walk towards the town bridge, and was followed by two men, one or whom, he alleged, held him down while the other robbed him, And that was all he remembered. His watch money, and even his boots were taken by his attacker*. The mail was removed to the Hospital, and on inquiry last evening it was ascertained that he was well on tlie way to recovery. The police have the matter in hand.

George Walsh is the star attraction at Everybody's to-night anil to-morrow in the Fyx feature 'The Island of Desire," an adventure-packed story in which the favorite George, adds still further to his reputation for clean, vigorous subjects with plenty of thrills interspersed.

An interesting sporting picture in two reels will be introduced with the new programme at the Empire this thurs<lay in "The Great Pendleton Round Up," 191G-17. The popularity of thilt great event in America is shown by the enormous crowds attending the unique display. The truly remarkable display of horsemanship on the part of cowboys and cowgirls, the wonderful results obtained with the lariat or lasso, the wild daring shown in "bull-dogging" wild cattle and breaking untamed bronchos, and the fearlessness and skill on the part of all who contribute to the most sensational form of sport ever seen, help to make this film one- of the lao&t remarkable ever seen