LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1923, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

rim fislunff season ended yesterday in the Taranaki acclimatisation district, t , season, which extends till July ,31, opens to-day.

I'or the first time the carriages on the mail train leaving New Plymouth were heated by steam yesterday morn-

It is srfiid that Eltham has more tailors in proportion to its population, than any other town in Taranaki.

Four bankruptcies were recorded last month in the New Plymouth district, Y-hich embraces Stratford and Eltham, ae well as North Taranaki.

The official opening of the new school at Moturoa, the Central school infant department at Courtney Street, and the extensions at the Fitzroy senool' will taxc place on May 15. The Moturoa committee is arranging an all-day programme, concluding with a dance at night, and the functions at the other schools will take place in the afternoon. All the primary schools throughout Taranaki will close next Friday for the autumn vacation, resuming on tne 15th inst. The secondary schools will close on the same date, but will not resume until three weeks later.

Messrs. S. Vickers and H. B. Lepper have been elected representatives oi the county of Taranaki on the Taranaki Hospital Board. Mr. Vickers was a member of the retiring board, while Mr. Lepper has been elected in the place of Mr. J. B. Andrews, who did not seek re-elect ion. The nominations closed yesterday, and Messrs. Vickers and Lepper were returned unopposed. The N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Coy., Ltd. wisih to draw clients’ attention to their Matau sale, which they arc holding in their Matau saleyards on Friday, May 4, at 1 p.m. Full particulars will toe found on page 8.

Mr. Allen Bell, M.P., who has completed a tour of Whangareo county states, that he found the settlers unanimously in favour of jettisoning a railway policy and substituting in its stead one for the construction of good arterial and main roads. .The new dental clinic at the Central school infant department in Courtenay Street will be officially opened at 3 o’clock this afternoon. Colonel T. Hunter, director of the division of dental hygiene, will explain ih§ system which lias been adopted by the Government to check dental troubles among children. In the act of handling a detonator, Mr. Joseph Goodwin, of Pihamft, met with a painful accident on Monday last (reports the Opiinake Times). The cap exploded in his hand, resulting in the loss of three fingers, and his removal to the Hawera hospital. At a meeting of the council of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society held last evening, it was decided to secure 200,000 brown trout eyed ova from the Hakatarainea and 100,000 eyed rainbow ova from Rotorua. These will be reared in the society’s hatcheries at Pukekura Park, The appointment of a caretaker for the hatcheries, for which a number of applications have been received, was left in the. hands of a small sub-committee.

Judged by the building permits issued in New Plymouth during April by th? building inspector, the trade has been slightly less brisk, though a busier period is anticipated this month. The value of last month’s permits was £BO9O, which included eight new houses, two garages and a concrete store. Fees collected amounted to £33

’Six members of the*Taranaki Education Board will leave by motor-car for Wanganui this morning. They are Messrs A. Lees (chairman), S. G. Smith, M.P., H. Dempsey, R. Masters, M.P., R. J. Deare and H. Tnsull (secretary). They will make a comprehensive tour of the district in order to visit the various schools. E.i route to Wanganui they will inspect the schools at Patea, jfaxwell and Waver ley and the remainder of the day will be spent at some of the scholastic cen tres of Wanganui. NeXt day Marton, Foxton, Longburn, and Palmerston North will be included in a trip which will end at Feilding that night. On Thursday morning the party will leave for Wanganui, via Kiwitea. Kimbolton. Apiti, Rangiwahio, Rewa Rewa, Ruahine, Mangaweka, Ohingaiti and Huntervillo. Visits to the remainder of th.? schools in Wanganui on Friday morning will conclude the trip. The English gold pound is practically an international coin and is accepted everywhere. In its time it has been put to strange uses. When the Germans extracted their indemnity from France in 1872 they placed £6,000,000 in gold as a special war reserve in the Julius tower in Spandau. It was known that a large proportion of this consisted of British sovereigns, and in March, 1915, after the Germans had tapped their reserve, the gold began to flow to Great Britain from Scandinavia. The sovereigns were new ones, dated 1872, and in many cases were still in the same bags as those in which they left the Bank of England 43 years earlier.

An unusual incident occurred at an early hour in the morning at a farmhouse near Morrinsville a few days ago. A farmer went to waken his young Maori farmhand, but there was no response to repeated calls and shakings, the Maori lying stretched out like a corpse, and as far as could be made out the employee was dead. A doctor, a shrewd ex-military man, was hastily called, and after feeling the Maori’s pulse stood back with a grim smile. “Bring me a needle,” he said. The effect was electrical. Hardly were the words out of the doctor’s mouth before the “corpse” jumped from the bed. The Maori was only malingering. A new light on.the character of “Pussyfoot” Johnson, the prohibition advocate, was supplied by the Hon. O. Samuel, M.L.C., who returned- from the United States by the Niagara recently. Mr. Samuel said that Mr. Johnson was a shipmate with him on the way to California last December, and when the “dry’s” champion joined the ’ ship he was regarded by many of the passengers with a certain amount of aversion. He, however, proved himself a jovial companion, with a fund of witty and illuminating stories, and his descriptions of life among the Indians on the great reservations, based on his experiences among the Red Men, proved an irresistible attraction. At the conclusion of the voyage, said Mr. Samuel, “Pussyfoot” was the ship's favourite.

The very narrow escape New Zealand bad from a crisis through a shortage of wheat some little time ago was referred to by Mr. Massey when addressing a meeting at Te Waimakarua. Wheat had to be borrowed, he said, from Australia under pledge to return it when required, and this was fulfilled by getting wheat from Canada at nine shillings a bushel to honour the bargain. It was a pretty close thing. When the first wheat of the season came in New Zealand had only ten days’ supply left. He did not wish to have to face such a position again. Mr. Massey was at the time deploring the fact that wheatgrowing was becoming less profitable and therefore less popular in New Zealand. By the nature of the report of Mr. F. Railford’s (speech at me opening of the Jersey Cattle Clubs’ conference at Stratford on Saturday, certain passages did not clearly express the speaker’s meaning. He said that Jersey breeders were always prepared to take off their hats to heavy producers of any breeds, but they had to thank the heavy producing Jerseys for showing tnat that breed gave the economical producers. Twenty years ago it was hard to find a bull with a herd, but now it was hard to find a herd without a Jersey bull.

The attention of our readers is directed to the fact that the Melbourne Limited’s monster reduction sale has only a few more days to run, Saturday next, the 6th inst. being definitely the last day. There is no question that the savings offered by this great sale are substantial and customers should make a point of attending before the sale finally closes.

To-morrow, at Workers’ Social Hall, L. A. Nolan and Co. will conduct a sale of furniture on account of Mr. M. F. Hansbery, wh6i is leaving New Plymouth. The sale will be held at. the Workers’ Social Hall and furniture is in first-class order.

Inexpensive dress tweeds for useful frocks and skirts at C. C. Ward’s, Ltd.: Good quality tweeds, in heather mixture, stripes and checks only, 2/11 yard, 40 inches wide; very smart, designs and colourings at 3s lid yard, including smart plaids for skirts; special quality in beautiful colourings at 5s lid yard, 40 inches wide; very smart plaids, 54 inches wide, only 7s lid yard.

For Bronchial Coughs, take Wnnds’ Great Peppermint Cure.