Taranaki Herald. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1908.. TARANAKI'S PROSPECTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13662, 28 March 1908, Page 4

Taranaki Herald.

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1908.. TARANAKI'S PROSPECTS.

ing the. last four or five weeks hitve wrought a great change on the face of Nature, aud at thp same tinie have effected a remarkable alteration in the spirit of the people of the province. Six. weeks, ago long faces were worn and gloomy predictious were made about a very trying winter; to-day a cheerful optimism is the rule, and it has the appearance of being justified, The long spell of dry weather and the fiqps together lutve, had the effect of reducing materially the incomes of great numbers of dairy farmers for the latter part of the season, and the necessity for renewing fences, pastures, and in some cas?s buildingsi has no doubt caused some fifcarreinl embarrassment. As an

oft'scis, '"liomrpwr, a'gninfit tliese itlrayrbneks there are , substantial advantages gained in the j?iil^np; of lmul.of cumbering 1 logs and stumps., Then the- manner in* which the country stood the dry' Hreath^r has dispelled once for all i'fche idea so widely Jield, that Taraiinaki epuls not survive a few weelfa' douffht, tfrat the pastures would wither up nndthedairyinff jindnstry' come to a standstill . As [a matter of fact Taronaki stands dry weather very welj, as. is proved by the almost triumphant | [way in which it has emerged from the summer's expedience. Now [the district is almost inundated with land buyers from other parts of the pominion, who are simply I astonished at the luxuriance of the pastures, after reading sen;national descriptions in the outside press of a country devastated by fire. High prices are being given for farming laiwl, and it is significant that among the highest bidders are shrewd experienced men wh6 know from actual experience what the land can proditce. Thesis' an element o^ danger perha^^jn the. extreme prices demanded and giyenin some 'cases, but tipbn the whole the prnfeflecti oi tlie province arid its staptfe in4jistrieff the spirit oi confidence^Liiß mawfo^teo. , overy indication of daiiy produce maintaining excellent prices for

at least another seasoif, nOr is there any cause to fear a serious decline after that. The fall in wool does not affect this province very much; at any rate there is still a fair margin of profit, while the frozen meat market offers a

steady and on the average remunerative business to 'graziers? which farmers might easily share more 1 'largely in if they chose. In the pig there is a large and profitable sburpe of revenue, also for those farmers who make it a side-line of. dairy-farming. All "of these p*rodtfcts are certain to find good markets in the near future, without any sign of becoming unremjunerative in 'year's. , ;^to^ come, 'that being so, and it haying been Conclusively demonstrated that Taranaki, as a province for carrying on these industries, has no I superior, if indeed it has an equal, iin the whole of New Zealand, the prospects may certainly be considered bright for the farming .community. And if the country prospers the towns must prosper al&o. TJiere abundant room for expansion, in aU directons. The 'land already occupied is not yet producing anything approaching its full capacity. The gradual clearing of bush lands, the steady improvements of already established pastures, and the growing productiveness of dairy herds by 1{h(» greater attention given to , breeding and , feeding, all will [tend to increasb r the incomes of ithe farmers individually and collectively. The more the farmers tiara the more fyhey will spend, qiid so the town, trades will exI^and and the towns themselves l&tow. Then tlijpre ; arc hunrdeds d| thousands' of, acres of land in 'tike province' yet ;im touched, and ihese must gradually come into profit, while ihfe pushing on of lfoads and railways will have an "uftporfcant eff ßerlin developing the productiveness .<jf the land. As lar as New Plymouth is concerned there is every reason for confidence in its future. The trade of the town and ! port is steadily growing, mub with the prospect pf the early cdiapletiqn of the harbour tliere is tlic. greater probability of further concentration of trade and industry in .the capital of the province. Jiehi)id us we have nearly two and a half millions of acres, of land within the

.provincial bottndarios, anfl a very large urea oii(sul« tlLe boundaries, -dfiwhidi tliisr will lTecomc tlie outlet,.. Rivals north aiul south, however, are endeavouring to estetblish liues^'of communication With 1 this ,bac]v country by nipans of the Mnin Trunk ' Railway. Auckland mid Wellington merchants will make a bold bid for the trade of the Sloknn and the Ohnrn districts, but distance will tell against them when our lines are open. This is a matter which ought. to receive attention at the sn;me time as the harbour, for the latter depends for success upon ihe' facilities provided for communication with the back country, wliile tl^e, back country settlers will be greatly assisted by the completion ,'of tile harbour, giving them cheaper freights for their produoc and, imports. The. !Mol?au River particularly might be made an^ important highway bf trade for the iity? settlements abutting on its upper reaches. In faefc thpse^s^ttlenients will always ! be seriously hnndicapped by their distance |roiii al,a 1 , port unless the river is made 1 available for theni. More .of "that, however, another •time; td-dhy'we only wish to remind townspeople, that they must not lose sight of their clumces to diaw trade this way from the Vmore remote partfj of tlio province and the lands adjoining its borders.

The anminl mwtiirg of the Golf Club as to bp held this evening at 7.30 in jtho- Council. Chanjbfrst [ .The ElthanvArgws says a peculiar rumour is current that a determined attempt is to be made to "bear" the 'butter market. > f The Patea Volunteer Corps has decided to disband, the chief reason being 'that Captain Jl. W. Hamerton is unable to spare the time to> command the /corps. ' The l New Plymouth Gas Company i has just installea atHurle's Fruit Shop a.Lncas Tliermopile'Lamp. This gives 'a- brilliant and steady light, estimated ! at/ 1200 candle-power. This is one of (the, latest inventions in gas lighting. ! A man Waß toilnd looking through a window^ of'tbe Bank of New South Wales at Manilla, New South Wales, after midnight, He Was taken to the police court, aim was subsequently sen" tenoed to three months' imprisonment. Tho man was on the ( wrong side of the window.

'. At the end of* last year there were only 167 iron furnaces in blast in the United States, . as- against 340 ««t the end of 1906.

. Sir William ftftssell has, it is statotl, definitely decided to contest the Hawke's Bay seat again at the general election, and the chaVuces of the fitting member, Mr. Dillon, are said to be remote. In Canada during the year uuied June 30th, 1907, no less than.lUJ99.M-.lt.fr of new railway were brought irit.Voie. Ration, making the total length of working railways 22,452 miles. There *vere at the end of the period fully 300Q miles' undo* 1 ' construction.

, With a view, to considerably, reducing the trust debt-, a speaker at last night's meeting at Whiteley Church suggested that the present parsonage should be. sold and a new one erected, on tha site at the rear of the church, which already belonged to tl?e circuit^

A well-attended meeting was held at Whiteley Hall last night to consider , proposals for the reduction of the debt of £2200 outstanding on the* church and parsonage. The outoome of the meeting is that a canvass will be niacte among members' of the congregation. There is also some prospect of v bazaar on a large scale being held.

Speaking at the Queen Street Primitive Methodist Church yesterday after, noon, the Rev. J. Flanagan, comment-, ing on a speech t given by, the Mayof, said he was delighted to hear the dear old accents of Kfllarney again. This was the first time he had had the pleasure since he had arrived in tfco. Vv minion. '\ *.x. x "The bulk of our prominent .men/^ said the Rev. S. S. Osborne yesterday, "have no church . connection -whatever. ' This is one of the drawbacks we have to contend ' with, in New Plymouth, and I hope the mission {Mr Flanagan's) may be the means of bringing in one or two of these, and then the rest of the' people would come after 1 ' them like a flock of sheep."

The Auckland Star, failing to read correctly a cable received .-.on Wednesday, from London, relating to the percentage of unemployed among members of German and British trades,, unionists, used . the. cable as a .text for an article on "The Workers and Tariff Reform." Our contemporary supports tariff' reform, brit the value of its arguments must suffer from the fact that its statement of premises is so faulty as. to make the percentage of. unemployed just ten times greater than it really is. Really, it borders < on the grotesque to. find a. leading newspaper of the Dominion informing its readers that over sixty-one per cent, of the total labour in England, was ployed in a given' month, instead- of six* and one-tenth per cent. '

. A correspondent to a Wellington paper writes: — "A few days ago I was riding across country., and pulled up at a farm at dinner-time — my usual practice. There were six strapping , girls: and one of the sterner sex sitttttg' at* table, the father and mother taking the head and. foot of the : table in, orthodox style. They eyed me with curiosity, as if a call from a stranger was a rare occurrence. It is a strange fact that of this family, consisting of a 'dozen (same being absent) only the father was able to read and write i These children have been brought into the world and reared up in absolute ignorance. There is no school within many miles. ,The father told jr»e he>had been#sn hisaseciion 45 years, and still had -no road to his land, though he has be£u. , paying rates for 33 years. In the earlyt Says he had to ride a pack-horse to Masterton. A~y miles, and walk back alongside or behind the horse, mostly by pigtracks." •,• ■ * ' V*Y *

"I hare been very much impressed by the great -interest taken in New Zealand by the people in this country," said Mr A. .IT. Baskerville; manager of the New Zealand professional football team-, in the course of a recent interview -with the London correspondent of the Auckland Heralds "They are always asking us questions, and many seem anxious to go out if they could get there without its costing all, or nearly all, of their money. Nnmbers of people who are able and willing to work, aud who would do well in New Zealand, can't scrape together? ev£n £10 towards their passage money. Yet they would make excellent and valuable colonists. The lower middle and labouring class appear to find great difficulty in getting tho sort of information they need, ft would hen capi* tal thing if some capable man could go about among these classes to supply such information in a roadily understandable form. lam sure it would do much good,"

An cmdpavour to introduce .lanlovn lectures as tfn aiU to pdttf»ation ' fn t?io schools of tho Dominion ifc being made by Mt John,GUclurjfift, who is no,w in New Plymouth. ' On' thfl afternoons of Thursday and Friday iho children of the Fitferoy Sefeool 'asAe<nb*ptl to listen to Mr <rilchrist deliver his lectures on "The Animal Kingdom" and "A Trip Round. the World." Over 100 pictures of mammals, birds, 'reptiles. . fisli, insects, etc., were shown and tLceouipaniod by explanations dehorn of teehnjeal terms., 'die great feature of this lecture is thetrock put in by the* niicro)scopio fixing;.. Byr means of this the whole of the ehildro.iv at tho one time e£n see the result of, a magnification. At tho conclusion some amusing sketches of oats and "dogs from* the pencil of Louis Wain, were! shown. -'The second lecture- was an exposition of political geography. A large diagramtnaiic picture of the hemispheres showed the position of the continent*. The trig bngan from Port Chalmers and proceeded by way of the Fijis to .Australia; Japan, China, India, Africa, Europe, North and South Amefica and back across the South Paoific from Pnnamato Wellington. 1 A case bearing some rather peculiar features engaged the attention of Dr. Me Arthur, 'STMU at Wellington. A blacksmith sued his late employer for damages for wrongful, dismissal,' and the latter urged' ai his defence that the claimant' hadbeen a very bad workman and did not knbw his trade. It appeared, however, that the employer had given the claimant a "reference" on the latter's dismissal, recommending him to employers as a good wArlcman. Taking this a8 v a text, Dr. MjbArthnr delivered a .veiy 'pointed expression of 'opinion on the subject of testimonials in general. As often as not, he said, they : were not wdrth the* papeaf 'they were written on, arid werelaerely given by an employer ah a kind of palliative to a workman on his dismissal. He warned the blacksmith then before him never fegaih to say a man was a competent tradesman -when he was not, or ;that he had, dismissed th^jtoan in ordei* ;to make room for a relative to whom he had promised work, when he got rid ;of him he could not perform 'the duties that might be expected of ihim. It was; always best 1 to tell the ittuth- in this matter, as in- every .other, jsaid hia'Worsnip, and A ti» more likely >tbat the^ blftqk,smi:th also, thinks so at/ •the present moment, for his monial" lost him his case, nnd with it several pounds.

jj Tho coal coQSiiimption. ., of . tteej New [South Wales Railway Department now |totals about half a million tons a year~

I A Melbourne motorist, Mr. E. F. .'Miller, has distinguished, himself by 'driving- his car — a 30 h.p. — to the lop Jot Mount Kosciusko, which is 7176 ft. Sabove sea level. ) The Rotoiti to-night is taking the jWirth's Circus to Auckland. A special train will leave town for the breakwater at 11.30 p.m. Ordinary and 'through express passengers may conjnect with the steamer by this train. ; A man who had been locked up by a t pol iceman who found him drunk- in iSilver Street was brought before Mr H. jS. Fitzherbert, S.M., this morning. fTIiP erring one pleaded guilty and stated ho was a first offender. His Wor-j >hip convicted and discharged him. i A little critical observation often strange facts. After the last |roce at the Taranaki Races on Thursklay the band played a few bars of "God Save the King." Looking about jthc writer could only notice two men {having removed their hats. I When Lord Plunket was about to lay Ithe foundation-stone of the GraftDn ■bridge at Auckland he remarked — ap•.propos of his being an Irishman and used to rain — that "he had certainly •been asked to perform a very Irish job in laying the foundation-stone on {the parapet of tho bridge."

a Twenty-two men helped to carry Mrs. iEhsman, post-mistress at .Tornngton, iNew South Wales, sixteen miles oiv a •stretcher over very 4 rough and inbun■tainous country te Emmavilie, where ■she was placed in the hospital and on for appendicitis: They -started at 6 a.m., and reached' Eramaville at 6.30 p.m. The humane conduct of the men was of no avail,, tor the unfortunate woman died the following day. ' The Ujiion^.S. Coltoany advise that the Rotoiti and \TaJkWuna , will exchange running at, NexvNiMyniouth on Tuesdaj' next and xpill resume the time table previously : in force. Murirfg the winter months. Under the winter running the Takapuna will leavlb for Wellington on Tuesday anJd the Rotoiti on Thursday, instead of Tjiesdayi and Saturdays, as at present! Dnrinj* the winter months steamers will. leavet{"\VeHihg"tqn for New Plymouth on Sundays (via Nelson) and W.eduesddya (direct). . „ After eating tinned ,sheep?s tong'ne at tea-time, seven persons ai French's Hotel, Orange, New South )Vales, suffered from ptomaine poisoning. They were Mrs. Kiilip (Cobar), Mrs. French, Mrs. Paul (wife of the lj/ecnsee), ,Mrs. Paul, sen., Miss Williams (housemaid), .Iveron (miner), 'Waitfwright (coachdriver), and , Cashman (railway employee).. „'. MetUf&JU ai4 ?waa calle<i^»ud six eventually recoveredj but; Mrs. Paul, sen,, who is 86, fa in a v^ry low state. The Stratford Post reports that a Magistrate staying at one of the hotels in the town on Thursday. night was relieved of his gold watch and chain next morning. He left his bedroom to have a bath and on returning the watch and chain had disappeared. A similar theft took place at a Hawera hotel lately, when a young man lost his pocket-bdok i containing a £6 coffee, it being* taken from his coat pocket while he was having his bath. Guests at hotels should bo on their guard against this rather ' common method of theft. «,.... A remarkable accident, due entirely to thoughtlessness, Happened at Princess Bridge Station, Melbourne. '&&■*' ''drew Everson, 45, was at work on a new footbridge. In v order to accomplish his work Eversoh was slung over the 'side, of the bridge in a cradle, bat insufficient allowance had been made for drains passing underneath, , and as one engine ran into the station the top ! of the funnel struck the workman's legs and threw him off the cradle on to one of the carriages,, whence" he>-fell on to [ the permanent way. Everson was I taken to the hospital in a serious con- ! difion.

In the course of his speech at the laying of the foundation stone of the Graf ton Bridge at Auckland, his Excellency the Governor, referring to the fact that the bridge spans the Cemetery Gully, said to those assembled: — "You aro erecting across this gully a splendid memorial — a ' testimonial to those who were responsible in a greau measure for the greatness of Auckland, and to the increasing signs of the nationality of New Zealand. When yon remember those who lie below, you are raising a memoriul to the work they have done. In the cemetery beneath where we stand repose the bones of Governor Hobson — who died here, worn out, struggling to do his duty— and many men who held important posi- : tions in Auckland in the past. There lie- the ashes of soldiers who died here in defence of their Queen and Empire, and the volnnteer colonists who fought shoulder to shoulder with them for this? til on strijggliiig country. In the cemetery, also, lie tit© bones of sailors who died on the Manukau bar, and many others who worked here with a pick and shovel, but had to change them at times for the rifto for the future of Auckland and this country. Therefore I venture to think that this memorial that springs up from amongst their bones, is'one of >yhicli you must be provid. In connection with it, I would like, if I may, to make a suggestion. It is this: That upon this bridge be placed some tablet or ornamentation suitably inscribed, calling the attention of the passed-by to the graves of those who lie belmy— tho pioneers of tUis splenditj municipality and city."

Mr J. H. de. Carteret, who has been a niissioner in Western India for the past eijiht years, will snoak at tho Hospe.l Hall, Shaw's Buildings, to-morrow evening. On -Monday evening Mr de Carteret will speak on mission work among orphans in heathen villages.

Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second Otoups) aro notified that subscriptions will be due and payable on Monday at the Secretary's Office, Currio Street, from 9 a.m. to 12.30, from 1 p.m. to '5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. —Advt. ,'.'*, The Salvation Army. — 7 a.m., tTnited Prayer Meeting; 11 a.m., Holiness Meeting: 3 p.m.. Praise Meetfng; 6,45 p.m., Salvation Meeting. Friends will please note the evening service will commence and close a quarter of an hour earlier than .usual. — W. Avenell, Captain. — Advt.

Rev. James Flanagan, of London, will conduct service in tho Queen St. Church to-morrow morning at 11, and Rev. James Guv at 6.45 in the evening. Mr J. H. Stephens, singing evangelist, will preach at Fitzroy at II a.m., and Mr P. StewartMn the"evening at 6.3o.— Advt.