LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

ffr. Fred. Wallis, who for some years was in business in New Plymouth and later bought the Rahotu Hotel, has now sold his property and purchased the Royal Hotel, New Plymouth, from Mr. W. G. Emeny. The transaction, it is understood, represents between £125,000 and £30,000.

"What happened after your oar struck the bridge?” asked Mr. J. Stout, S.M., at the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court of a witness who had a very hazy idea of what constituted relevant evidence. "Well,” said the witness, “we stopped.” “No doubt,” was the magistrate’s comment. Bullock teams are not out of date in the Wanganui district. At Ratana a team of eight sturdy beasts is utilised for various classes of heavy transport work, including timber hauling. Though not so quick as the tractor, they are a great dea.l more reliable when a job over rough country is undertaken. At a Wanganui stock sale last week a mare was sold for 7s fid. A number of harness sets were also disposed of at the sale, the auctioneer stating that the vendors, a large loeal firm, had purchased motor lorries and dispensed with tlieir eart horses.

Injuries to the face, necessitating the insertion of several stitches, were sustained at the Newton King wharf at New Plymouth on Monday by Miss Linda Patten, formerly of Hawera. The injuries were received through Miss Patten being struck by the sinker of a fishing line while the latter was being swung preparatory to easting. Within a fortnight or so it is anticipated that an announcement will be made regarding the speeding up of the express train services on the South Island Main Trunk line. The running time of the through expresses from Christchurch to Invereargill, and vice versa, will be shortened by at least an hour. The new eehedulee should be in operation bv about the beginning of May.

A party of motorists who drove to Dunedin from Invercargill last Thursady night had a lucky escape fropi what might have proved a serious accident through a motor-cyclist running in to a trap. When in the vicinity of Edendale the motorists came upon a motorcyclist who had been thrown from his machine and. was badly scratched and bruised, his machine being also damaged. The accident had taken place on a small bridge, and investigation showed that a w-ire had been stretched across it from rail to rail and a length of wood placed as an obstruction. The motorcyclist ran right into the wire, and was brought heavily to the ground, and it was through no fault of the person who put the wire in position that he was not killed. The motorists gave him every assistance and straightened up his machine, and he was able to continue his journey.

That all local body schemes involving the expenditure of large sums of borrowed money should be examined by a commission of experts appointed by the Government before any action was taken was the opinion expressed by Mr. Mervyn Wells, of Cambridge, at a social held under the auspices of the Thames Valley Electric Power Board at Te Aroha on a recent evening. Mr. Wells said he had no doubt large sums of money had been wasted through members of local bodies not .having the ability to rectify weaknesses in the commercial part of their schemes, and he seriously considered that all loeal authorities should submit their schemes to a Government commission of experts as was done in England.

In reporting the fatal boating accident oft the Wangaehu beach the Wanganui Chronicle says: Some months ago, when the big cargo steamer Port Caroline was facing a fierce gale with heavy sea in the South Taranaki Bight, one of her crew jumped overboard. He had been imprisoned in Wellington for drunkenness, and had been placed on board his ship when she sailed. His suicidal act resulted in an epic of the sea, a boat being lowered from the Port Caroline and a most gallant effort made to rescue the unfortunate man, who, it is believed, was not responsible for his action. After four hours’ struggle against the elements, the boat’s crew managed to get back to the big steamer, but the lifeboat was cast adrift, it being impossible to hoist it aboard. After some days the boat was stranded on the beach at Waitotara—a circumstance which it was little thought at the time would prove unfortunate in Waitotara’s history. Yet so it- was, for the suicide of a sailor and the stranding of the boat were destined to rob Waitotara of one of its most promising and popular young men. Owing to the Health Department’s restrictions the Warea Gala'Day Committee have decided not to hold the athletic sports this year.

Visitors to town should investigate the values offering at the Melbourne, Ltd.’s great annual stocktaking sale. These are typical reductions: Genuine Llama hose, yellow label, 4/11; pure wool black cashmere hose, 2/6; lovely Fuji silk, 3/6; 36in, white flannelette, grand quality, 1/9 yd.; famous “Vedonis” winter weight singlets, 4/11; warm soft twill flannelette nightdresses, only 8/6; blankets and rugs also reduced. Delightfully conspicious is the woman whose clothes and accessories are immaculate. Faultlessly clean is the highest compliment one woman can pay to another. And why? Because to say of a woman that her appearance is spotless is to attribute to her the superlative refine meats in taste and person. Th e surest way te retain the charm of freshness in your clothes is to have them Dry Cleaned or Dyed and Pressed, by correct methods at McCULLOUGH’S, Opposite McNeill’s, New Plymouth. Call or ’Phone 697. A special offer is being made this week by The N.Z. Clothing Factory. As will be seen by their advertisement in to-day’s issue, the “H. 8. are holding their Annual “Overcoat Week,” and some great bargains are being, offered in the new season’s overcoats for men and boys, at sample prices. Read our advertisement on page 7, and then secure your new winter coat at a substantial saving. New Zealand Clothing Factory, New Plymouth.*

Applicants for work during the week ended the 18th instant, at the New Plymouth branch of th® Department of Labour were as follow: —Labourers 6, Drivers 2, Cook I, Bootmaker I, a total of ten. Two men were sent to employment.

There are 53,000 miles of telegraph wires in New Zealand and 270,000 miles of telephone wires, enough to encircle the earth more than a dozen times.

The grouse liberated in Tongariro National Park last spring seem to be thriving, word having come recently from Waimarino that a hen bird with a fine brood of 14 chicks had been seen near the foot of the Tauhungatalii. A Masterton resident recently received a letter which was addressed to him in the year 1920 from England to India While he was on his -way back to New Zealand. The letter has been travelling round various post offices for five years, and has now reached its destination.

Discovery has been made of a big slate deposit adjacent to the Buller Gorge and Hie main gorge roadway. A right over the area, which is estimated to contain 1,000,000 tons of shite, has been secured by two prospectors. The field is said to be the first of its kind discovered in New Zealand or Australia of a commercial value.

A guest at a leading Napier boardinghouse received an unpleasant surprise on discovering that a comb lying on his dressing-table had burned half away, while the table cover contained a large smouldering hole. - The contributing agency was the ray of the afternoon sun playing on the carafe and igniting the comb. There was a frenzied rush by the occupants of the adjacents rooms to see if similar misfortune had overtaken them, but their fears, fortunately, were groundless. A suggestion that a tax should be imposed on bobbed and shingled hair is the latest to come from England. Were such a tax in operation in New Zealand, Dunedin, says a local paper, would supply a rich harvest to the Government, as inquiries have elicited the information that over 30 women and girls have their hair bobbed” each day. There is then to ibe taken into account all those of the fair sex who have had their hair shorn. The tax on motor-ears, it is remarked, would fade into insignificance if a “bobbed and shingled” tax were placed on the Statute Book.

There has been a heavy mortality among cats during the last twelve months, and as a result the feline population of Canterbury is less by some hundreds than it would have been in ordinary circumstances states the Christchurch Press. The disease which has taken such a toll of life is a form of gastric influenza peculiar to eats, and has no effects' on animals of any other species. The affected animals act as if they have been poisoned and there 4s no doubt that large numbers of them have been buried by the owners under the impression that neighbours had set poison for them. The disease is described as being akin to distemper, and in the great majority of eases young cats have died from the effects of it. Unless the slok animal is taken in hand immediately there is little hope of successful treatment. Fully-grown eats appear to be immune from the disease.

A Maori woman, Hera Matewhitu, said to be 108 years old, died at Huntly on Good Friday. She was generally known as “old Ngawai,” and dated her birth back to 1817. She has thus lived in the reign of six British sovereigns and was born only two years after the battle of Waterloo. When quite a little girl, Hera Matewhitu must have been familiar with the terrible name of Hongi Hika, the Maori Napoleon, whose swift raids and massacres greatly reduced the Maori population in the North during the early "twenties.” She was 23 years old before New Zealand came under British rule with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The Waikato wars found her a middleaged woman and living in the centre of a district where the hostilities were fiercest. Before her death Hera Matewhitu had the rare privilege of seeing her great-great-grandc'hildren growing up around her—the fifth generation. The reserves placed upon the Lynmouth sections (known as Veale’s Estate) are extremely reasonable. Seventeen sections are priced at £55 each and four at £<ls each (see advt. this issue). When one considers that these sections are within the borough, that water and electricity are available, it is to realise how wonderfully cheap they are. All the sections are wefl elevated and the view is a very extensive one. The Mahoe Street sect gm is level and close to trams, and the upset is £125. The auctioneers will he pleased to take prospective buyers to- inspect these properties.

The annual meeting of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society will be held at the Soldiers’ Club, New Plymouth, this evening. As matters of interest affecting hatching operations dining the coming months and other questions of concern to anglers and shootists will be discussed, it is hopeel that there will be a large attendance of both town and country enthusiaste. The Railway Department advertises in this issue particulars of train arrangemente and excursion fares in connection with trotting races at New Plymouth on April 18. Attention is directed to the cheap excursion tickets to be issued from Hawera, Lepperton, Waitara and intermediate stations.

New goods are showing in endless variety in all departments at C. C. Ward’s Ltd. During the last 10 days over 40 cates of newest drapery have been opened up and marked at attractive selling prices. Remember all goods are bought direct from the manufacturer. This means a saving for you. Call and have a look round. Better value always at C. C. W ard’e.

If you have never tried Richmond Best Tobacco, ask your tobacconist for it. Price 2s lOd per oz plug or lOd per oz. cut. Its pleasant fragrance and mellowness will appeal to moat pipe smokers. Smoke it yourself, and then decide whether or not Richmond Beet was "made for you.”

McGruer’a are again in the front rank with the latest goods supplied from London and Paris by their own Home buyers These goods are offered at prices that are well within the range of all, but quality has been maintained. Take a walk through our shop; see the goods! You will buy your winter and easter outfit at McGruer’s. Ths Photographic Season is here. Anything in the way of Kodaks, flimsy papers, mounts, albums, developers, devel oping or printing, write to Abram's "Quick Fhoto Service” Pharmacy for quotations.