LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume XLV, Issue 10633, 5 February 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

An English coroner has .expressed the opinion that ""mothers never put matches under look and key till they haiv© lost one or two children."

In Silesia/ glass bricks of a durable kind are now used for building 1 purposes*. Mawiyi of the residential houses am construfcted, of thesel bricks, which are made in various tints.

Mr Millar states that the railways have cost the country about £2,000,----000, and it will be bis endeavour to administer the ■Depaa-tmient in the best interests of the Domini ocqi.

It is .generally reported (says the. Dominion) that tihie financial stringency is not so pronounced in the dairying districts, where there is every month a steady supply, of cash available as a result of iadvantse made on shipments.

Evidently next to the timber industry the consumption of liquor in Tai hape comes & good second. Mr Wallace, the local ibottle merchanit, 'nf armed us (Mangowieka iSlettler) he recently 'Collected: no less than 5001) dozen empty beer bottles at Taihape!

One of the projected reforms of tin Young Tuirk paiiy is to rid th? streets of 'Constantinople from th'j dogs which infest them*. All the dogs are to be shipped to various islets in the. sea of MWmora, where they will ;be fed and cared for until they die » natural death.

Seven years ago Police-coßst<tl.ue Smith of Kingi's Lynn, . detected a mam tnamied Itiidhlardl Dawson poaching, but Dlawsom ■ disappeared until the other day, when the officer met h'm. by chance jjad arrested him. Dawison was 1 sent to prison for 11 days in default of payingl a. fitae.

Great trouble 'has befallen a family named Hall, living at Saxmiundham. Less than a nioniith ago, the father, lAJlfred .Hlalf, fell, from a cart and died from- his injuries. A fortnight ago his w'dow expired after a few days' illness, and now a - grown-up daughter has suceißnfaed to pneumonia. The two sons left arc-both deaf and dumb.

Two. 'brofhei-s, James. Campbell, aged 12, and Gordon Campbell, aged 7 recently went out on a farm £t Stonehengei (N.S.W.), shooting haa-es. James oa.vrJed a double-barrelled gun on his shoulder, a,nd, seeing some parrots, hastily caught hold of it next to the trigger, when it exploded, blowing off the side of. his.-brother's head. -Death! was instantaneous.'

Ait the meeting of the P. aaid 0. Steamship Company recently, tlie chairman (Sir Thomas Sutherland) said it was intended next year to introduce Chinese pigs into' England., and he 'believed they''would be carrying these pigs in thousands by means of refrigeration. There had never yet been a Chinese pigi in England, but they niight even prove a competitor to frozen .mutton a.nd -beef.

Some curious clauses were contained in the will of Mr Robert Duikinfield Darbishiro, a Manchester solicitor, recentPy deceased. He'^directed that his body should be c.rema,ted and 'the oiabCs scattered "nn some plantation for restoration' to. the world which .1 have found so delightful.

The funeral was to be conducted. in the most secret manner possible 1, without any formal tamntouinceraierat or the sending of any invitations.

Mr Cornelius iSnyder, of Paibei^on, New Jersey, recently lost his nosiJ owing to sui Operation. The surgeons graifted one of Mr Sniydier's fingers to replacei the nose. Hisl arm and head are placed in a plaster oast, and wiil; rem'aiinj thus .for three weeks', when the gurgeoriis-- ecq>&ct that the finger will become united to Ms face. Them the finger will 'be amputiaited at the joint, tiius givingl Mk'Snyder an es<sellenit nasal substitute, so fa,r as ap ipearances anei concerned.

The critics of tthie Goveimnifimt. find it most convejriiient to launch, forth their invective on the subject of finance, as figures aire ait best not an atbraotive study, a.nd the great- majority of the electors are not disposed todevat©muicli*ime and effort to thithorough "study of wha,fc .they erroueously .consider doss not immeduiitely oonceiTi. them.. Theirefore,'it is; easy for the faultfinders to accuse the Government of "heaping up hupe surpluses" a,t the expenise of legitimate requiremients, when, a liberal margin is allowed, and to as vehemently inveigh against ."reoktoss finance" when the figurrteis on each side of the ledger more; nearly approximate. Sir J. G. Ward*- poljoy his once more beea vindiioaitted (says. tihe,,Gore; Sjbajjd^ird).,,. though at the sfiiinei time it would he folly for us to trade too much upon past successes, dmtioin and economy are to bel etoinmended, but the per petual ..raisinis;-of aJairmist--cries can only biung discredit on those responsible.

Thei Hon. A. HV Hogg, in charge of the Roads Department, tokl a 'Wellington reporter that two or three stone-crushers aa-e being imported by tihiei G-overnmient. "One i« already avwork," he added, "and it is intended t o introduce several others with a view to hiring them out to local boddes. It is anticipated thait they will be very useful in places where O'rdinairy road matall iand . shingle i^ scarce, and wfiiare haird rook and boulders are to be found. Other road machinery of an. up-to-date type, such as motor lomets, capable of con«veying metal, and iat tih© siame time consolidating the Toads, will be experimented witihi ,and_ if they aire found serviceaible it is probable: that a number of them will be imported!."

Sir Robert Hark, the veteran, In-spector-GeDiea'al of the Chinese Customs, says that he once, in Pekin, sat out a banquet tha.t lasted fotn 17 consecutive, howl's. There w.e|rei 123 courses,' and he tasted them all. This would seems at first sight to. take a lot of beating. Yet Mr Ward, the American envoy, who tried to interview the Emperor Hiiemg-JTung in 1859, tells how he was entertained'- to a dinner that lasted! from. noon, one day until six o'clock am the evening of iha day following. The total number 1 of courses is not givm, but Ward mentions that he had to giive in after- partaking of 138 different dishes, "whereuponi his hosts wonHered greatly"—presumably at his abstemiousness. Probably, however, the Esquimo banquets last longer than any others', and the quantity of food swallowed 3s (also proportionl--ately greater. Ross records "that seven of his party of natives onoe ate continuously for $$ Ihiours, during which time they consumed 2001b of s»al meat.