LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The operations of thieves in bedrooms of Auckland hotels have been evident of late.

Word was received yesterday by the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society that 180,000 rainbow and -brown trout were on their way from Rotorua and the South Island.

‘Can’t you make any offer?” a Maori bankrupt, was asked at New Plymouth yesterday, ‘"Supposing T pick up a purse with money in it, and can’t find owner—--1 pay then,” answered the Maori.

A blow-out occurred at the Blenheim bore at Moturoa on Saturday afternoon. It lasted about an hour, and the whole place is smothered with oil as a result. No. 3 well on the other side of the road continues active, especially in westerly weather, and there are several thousand gallons of oil accumulated there. The 59th anniversary of the landing of the Royal Irish Regiment in New Zealand on July 4, 1863, will be celebrated in Auckland next month, by a gathering of the surviving members of the regiment who remained behind in New Zealand. Mr. Samuel Tumor, who has just returned from a trip abroad, told a reporter in Wellington that after being in Denmark, Holland, Belgium and America, and in close touch with the producers and distributors of butter and cheese, he was convinced that New Zealand, both as to the production and distribution of butter and cheese, leads the world. A Baldutha resident who has returned from a visit to the Bald Hill Flat, Central Otago, stated to a Free Press representative : ‘"You people down tiere don’t know what cold is. Why* at Bald Hill Flat, Speargrass Flat, and other places in Central Otako I saw wire fences with staiubirds looking like post and rail fences, thick had they become with accumulated ice and frost. Even ihc telegraph wires had sagged badly in places, and looked as. if they might collapse with the weight they were carrying.’ “We are anxious to. renew all bridges in concrete when the necessity for renewals arises,” said the chairman of the Taranaki County Council (Cr. J. S. Connett) when the subject of bridges, in connection with correspondence received, was being dealt with at yesterday’s meeting of the council. It was pointed out, however, that where a bridge had obviously several years lire left in it, the necessary repairs would be effected and a renewal made when the necessity arose later. To-night, in the Empire Theatre, many remarkable photographs and drawings, taken by means of the world’s finest telescopes, will be shown by Rev. Oscar Blundell in the course of his lecture on the wonders of the heavens. The present close approach of the planet Mars to the earth will.be dealt with, and evidence shown that the so-called canals of Mars are not objective phenomena, hut are subjective impressions made upon the eye owing to imperfect seeing and instrumental eqiiipnicnL. Wonderful photographs of some of the richest stellar fields in space will be displayed, and the recent remarkable discovery of vast regions of dark material will be explained.. A notable feature of the lecture will be the part dealing with comets, those mysterious visitors to our skies which have been the surprise and even terror of mankind in all ages, while the sun and moon, and our present 'knowledge concerning them, will Ibe fully illustrated. RETURNED SOLDIERS’ BALL. This, the ball of the season, will take place in August- You are getting good notice to be ready. Particulars later- In the meantime, get your hands white and soft by using Velvet Hand Emollient. A small quantity rubbed in night and morning gives wonderful results. 2/-, at the Friendly Societies’ Dispensary, Devon Street.

“The secret of good organisation is to get someone else to do the work for you,” said the Rev. F. G. Harvie at the farewell social in St. Mary’s Hall last night. Mrs. Sweet, wife of Dr. Sweet, of Auckland, is reported, to have inherited £500,000 through the recent death of her father, Mr. Robert Thompson, of Whangarei, a former M.P. for Marsden. Mrs. Sweet is an only child.

“If your wife can’t cook d.on’t divorce her- Eat here and make her a pet.” This, said the Rev. Hammond in the course of an address last night, was a sample of American advertising which appeared, on a notice-board outside a restaurant he visited in the States.

New York’s cosmopolitan population was referred to by the Rev. R. B. S. Hammond in a lecture at New Plymouth last evening. Of a total .population of six millions, he said two millions were foreigners- There were in New York, he said, more Jews than there were in Palestine, more Italians than in Rome, more Irish than in Dublin, besides thousands of Russians, Poles and other foreigners. Of America’s population of 105 million 27 million were aliens.

Next to the Jews the negroes in the Southern States of America were the most wonderful people he had met, said the Rev. R. B. S. Hammond last nightThere were 12 million of them in these States and they had their own churches, universities, schools and banks, even managing their own news-papers. He had attended a church service where he was the only white .person among 2000 negroes. Mr. Hammond felt shy, he said, but discovered that sitting close to him were three colored ladies whose black features were simply smothered with white face powder. “It was eo home-like,” said the speaker amidst laughter, “that I felt at ease at once.”

An act of bravery was witnessed' at Paekakariki a few days ago (says the Otaki Mail). A nine-year-old lad named McCormick, partially deaf, was riding his bicycle across the railway line just as the Auckland express was passing. A 12-year-old lad named Bruce Anderson was nearby. Seeing the danger, he rushed the boy off the line at the risk of his own life. The express thundered by, leaving the little fellow safe from harm. It is understood the lad has been well rewarded.

Sir George Hunter (Waipawa) has presented a petition from electors ox his district asking for “an inquiry into the aggregation of land in New Zealand. and especially the trafficking in Native lands in the Waipawa electorate.” The petitioners ask Parliament to take such action as will prevent the sale of Native lands to large landowners and to inquire into the case of Riria Waiapu, of Takokino, Hawke’s Bay.

The Manaw’atu Times states that the livery stable business, Which was threatened with extinction in the years of plenty, is coming back, more especially in the country towns. Farmers are laying by their motors, which in idleness consume neither tyres, benzine nor oil. They furbish up the old gig and buggy, and enjoy the reins and whip in place of the wheel, though the pace seems slow.

It is interesting to note, says an exchange, that when he was in Taranaki a year or two ago, Mr. H. R. Green, of Kairanga, took a strong fancy to a certain black and white cow, and asked for a price to be placed upon it. He was given an option of £325. Unfortunately. however, the cow met with a. slight accident, which prevented the sale from being completed. This the cow that was sold recently ac the record price of 650 guineas. It is estimated that the Sydney news-, papers will lose £400,000 during the coming year as the result of the reduction in tlie price of .papers. In referring to the reduction, the Sydney Sun remarks:

"A newspaper is a factory. With white newsprint as its raw material, it converts this by various processes into the journal which you buy in the street. The processes concerned are expensive—they appall the average business man who happens 'to peruse them—but all these are as nothing in the general expenditure as compared with the newsprint costs. Every reader knows that during the war there was a shortage of newsprint which amounted almost to a famine; he knows that prices advanced even in a greater ratio than the prices of other commodities; he knows that during the past year there has been a falling market; but he does not generally realise that newspaper proprietors are still paying a big price per ton for it. It is not too much to say that the other costs of producing a newspaper have increased nearly as greatly as in the case of the raw material, and that with the larger papers at twopence, and at three-halfpence, the proprietors have by no means been overcharging the public.” The foregoing applies with equal force to New Zealand newspapers, who are still paying well over a hundred .per cent- more than pre-war prices for newsprint.

McGruers, the Progressive Drapers, announce their winter sale in this issue. They have considerably reduced every article in their shop, and in many cases cut the price in half for this event, and having no old stock, the public are getting bargains in the latest and most up to date goods, bought direct from London at less than London prices. A number of good dairy cows close to profit will be sold at next Waiwakaiho sale. See advtThe Farmers’ Co-op. will conduct a clearing sale to-morrow on behalf of Mr. C. E. Honeyfield, on his farm at TTawera. Sec advt. on pege 8 of this The N.Z- Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., will hold a clearing sale tomorrow, on account of Mr. Frank Lane, at York Road, Midhirst. Details are advertised on page 8 of this issue. Here is why “Fairy Wonder” Dry Soap is such a phenomenal success: It does away with practically all rubbing and boiling. It does not rot the clothes. It makes no nasty scum. It obviates undue rinsing. It is delicately perfumed, and it leaves the hands 'beautifully soft and smooth as silk. It cuts wash-day in half. Ask your grocer for it. Men’s socks are cheap at the Melbourne’s Great Sale now booming. For instance, Bruce and South Canterbury knitted, 1/9 .pair: Roslyn heavy knitted ribbed socks, 2/6 pair; Mosgiel line knitted socks, 2/3 pair; all wool pure wool black cashmere socks, 2/6 pair. Prevent scale in boilers. MEXICAN BOILER GRAPHITE with the feed water stops formation of hard scale. Doesn't injure inside of boiler. Booklet from R. P. M. Manning Co.. 139 Albert Street, Auckland.—3.

A few shillings spent in the free us* of Nazol to protect the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose and throat from Coughs, Colds, and Sore Throats, eta., is better hours of