LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12212, 3 May 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Auckland and Eltham bakers have increased the price of bread to 4d the 21b loaf.

The cable rates to all p'aees in Manchuria and the Peninsula of Kwantang via direct have been reduced to-3s lOd ordinary, 2s 7jd b g, and 2s B£d f Sg..

H.M.S. Challenger arrived in Wellington from Sydney on Saturday, with two cases of scarletina on board. They have been removed to the hospital. Mr Clement Wragge states that the umbra of the approaching disturbance is now over. Reaching the South "Western coastline of the Dominion it will probably prove seveie south from Nelson. ' '•;■.'

According to an Auckland..wire, the Aeon salvage expedition ha-s ai'rived at Christmas island. News.' received by the' Auckland members of the syndicate is understood to confirm the report that theT Aeon had disappeared.

The latest additions to.the Telephone „ Exchange are No. 54, Mr It. J. Drummond's residence, Bastia Extension; 135, Mrs M. McConachie's residence, Mathieson Street; 437,: Nurse Mac Fie, Campbell Street; and 535, Mr H. A. -Moi;ehe'ad's i-esidence,; Glasgow Street.

We remind our readers of the meeting called by the Mayor for this evening to consider the advisability of holdr ing the next Band Contest in Watiganui The meeting will be held' iii the Council Chambers. ; -

A Gisborne wire received on Satur- ; day stated tb at John' 'Wilson who had been, comniittedto^Anick^nd,; escaped from thelock-up. The'sain© wire stated that while a. man named John Watkin was being taken in the steamer Tutea to the Victoria for transference to the Auckland Mental Hospital, jumped overboard and was drowned.

i At. the annual meeting of the Tara--naki Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Association on Friday the directors' report showed the net insurances to have increased during the year from £186,----914 to £194^103. Policies in force numbered 772. ' The premium income increased by £110 and the cash reserve by £869 12s Cd. Fire losses during the year were £150, • against £775 .in the preceding year.

in-connection.'with the purchase of oysters referred to by us on Friday, rock oysters in quantities of not less than one sack may be obtained on application to the Collector of Customs at AVanganui, who will in turn apply by wire or letter (at purchaser's expense) to the manager of the Government oyster depot at Auckland. The paragraph published on Friday made it appear that application had to be made direct to Auckland.

The Garrison Band under Conductor A. Wade gave a most successful concert at the Jubilee Home yesterday afternoon. There was a good attendance of the public, and the excellent music supplied proved most enjoyable, particularly to the inmates of the Home, who have few chances of hearing the Band. During the afternoon a collection was taken in aid of a piano for the Home, and the sum of £4 was received by Misses Jensen and Ballantyne, who are* the promoters of the fund. if fAn eruption of the volcano ,on White Island, which is composed almost wholly ■'of^ sulphur, was seen from the New? Zealand Shipping Company's > vessel Kaipara early on Thursday morning, during; her passage from Auckland to Gisborne. Mr WoVthington, second officer, reports that from 2 a.m. until daylight a continuous stream of black smoke, in which flames were distinctly seen, Tose from the- Island. The eruption was" visible f.'ora a distance of 32 miles. The position; of the steamer at the time was latitude 37.00 deg. south, longitude 17.04deg. east.

At the hockey match on Saturday, between teams representing the C.C.C. and St. Paul's, Mi- Geoffrey Ballard had the misfortune to meet * with a very nasfar accident. A ball, hit by Murchie, oh" the-St. Paul's side, rose, catching Ballard full in the month, knockingVut two teeth, one of which passed through liis lip, and the other completely through his tongue. The sufferer was attended by Dr. Poritt,. who found it necessary to put in several stitches in the lip. It is also feared that several other teeth have been broken at the. roots. We, hope to hear of. the sufferer's speedy re?overy.

A deputation, consisting of Natives of Wanganui, representing about 400 petitioners, headed by Mr R. G. M. Park (Tiki Paaka) and Mr Neville Nicholson (Te; Aohau Nikitini), waited upon the Chicf1 Judge of the Native Land Court (Mr Justice Palmer) on Friday, to request that a regular sitting of the Court be held at Wanganui. In his reply, Mr Justice Palmer stated that it was owing to the attitude taken up by the European population of Wanganui, in/regard to the camping ground of the .Natives, that he had thought fit to move the Court from. that .town. Some, time ago the Native hostelry had been pulled down, and consequently Maoris attending the sitting of the Court had been obliged, to put up with a great many inconveniences. Lately, .however, the Chamber of Commerce had stepped in, and asked the Court to arrange for a continual sitting at Wanganui, saying that land, had been set apart for a camping-ground for Natives engaged at the Court. The people would also assist by seeing that .the camp was properly conducted. Under these circumstances his Honour agreed to the request of the deputation, .and said thafcr the usual sitting at Wanganui would be held within a month.

The Auckland gold returns for the month of April total £117,066, compared with £111,725) for April of the previous year. , ■ ;

The notorious Lobster Bath: at Rotorua, in which a sad fatality was recorded early in the week, a young Aueklander on his honeymoon being the victim, is situated in the Kuraw reserve. It is to the. uninitiated a veritable death trap. From,a depth of some four feet there is a drop into a deep hole, with clean cut overhanging edge 3, into which the occasional visitor falls, and if not an exnert swimmer, he gets under the edge and is drowned. Natives and residents who bathe there in hundreds are aware of the danger, and the Government have a conspicuously placed notice, warning bathers, and disclaiming responsibility. The pcol has a square of come 20 yards, arid" with the excention of one deep hole is uniformally shallow.

One of the <?lephant3 employed at Wirth's circus in Sydney narrowly escaped kising several* joints of his tail one Saturday night recently, when they wero chewed by the big brown boar. The elephant was engaged in hauling the bear's cage in the arena, when a fly led to his swishing his tail through the bar;;. The tear instantly pounced upon it and. holding it, in his paws, proceeded to try to eat' it. The elephant pranced widly, and his" roars were pathetic. The attendants seized animal forks and all sorts of implements, *nd the peanut boy dexterously juggled a whole basket of nuts near th© bear's nose; but only the- severest proddings compelled him to let go. .Fortunately, the elephant is an - .animal that takes troubles philosophically, but the following day lie spent gazing dejectedly at his tail, which now resembles a piece of ancient rubber hose.

A nuv£. named Crombie -was nearly blown to., pieces at Picton a few days ago (says an exchange). He was carrying a sack containing a charge of gelatine, powder, and .detonators up the face of a hill on the western side when ho trod on a water-pipe and slipped. The bag fell, and he thinks a detonator must have struck his foot, causing an. explosion.. .Crombie had the presence of mind to kick the bag further away and.clear,himself. TJie forca of the explosion sent him down the hill, and, his clothes being afire, he dashed into the eea. His mates immediately went to the rescue, to find the skin was taken eff his face hands, and arms, h:s hair was singed, and his legs scorched, but from the neck to the waist there was' not a .mark. His face was ■ blackened with the powder. At the spot where tlio explosion occurred there is a holo in the hill auita two feet deep. Crombie is now in thj* local hospital and will bo ready fcr work again soon.

Residents in Botany Road, near theLakeside -Woolecou'ring Works, Sydney,, were roused from -their sleep about six o'clock one morning recently by the • sound of smashing timber and buildings being;* .hurled with violence i/> Mpther Eavtn. Above the noise of wreckage, strange trumpetings rose,, and startled people-rushed out-of doors in sleeping: garb in anticipation of the crack oi' doom being in the vicinity. No doom was to be iound, but a bolted elephant was providing crack with a lavish trunk. This Jumbo earns his living as a side issue in a circus, but on that morning he was..taken from the romance of the tents and the comfort of the sawdust t? drag a waggon laden wiiih waste material through the gloom oi: tho. sleeping city" out to Botany. Whether the iudignity of the load annoyed him or,^ as has been advanced, a gun shot scared him, is not certain, but the fact is demonstrable that *he became unmanageable. 'J3ad he,kept, to. the • road\y ay all might - have* been ' well. but he made a dash at a terrace of houses. He. banged through a fence and nearly knocked out one side of a; weatherboard cottage. Then he sot off through the nearby back yards, leaving behind .him. a . trail of. smashed fences and overturned outhouses. Finally," 'he- tore through the dividing fence of the Lakeside Woolscouring works,r and/'t spied the night watchman. That worthy, from all accounts, did not stand upon, thie order of his going, but ■went—unobtrusively,' but with much epeed. Yet, my lord the elephant had seen him,;*ahd the onlookers were afforded; the; strange spectacle of a man streaking-,-, for,>? fn© rising sun pursued by several tons of enraged elephant and a bounding waggon. En route to the sun-rise the leviathan brought lib in the woolscouring works, wnere he parted company with his waggon! Hi§ attendant, who had pluckjly attended on his charge as well as he could, there captured the e:caped animal, and; quietening him, conducted him .back 1' ttf the place whence he had dome, subdued'and very disreputable.