LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12582, 1 October 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We have been asked, to acknowledge the . sum of one guinea from Mr F. Neylou, towards the Cavanagh fund. Captain Edwin wired as follows at 12.30 p.m. to-day: — Northerly moderate to strong winds, glass fall slowly, tides good, oca moderate. A slight drop in the glass, a eloud-ob-jcured sky, and a temperature in keeping with the registers since Monday last were the features of the weather reports from throughout the Dominion this morning. The Hawera railway staff intend establishing a fund among themselves for the purpose of a free bed at the hospital. The sum of £\l 12s, the proceeds of a recent social in aid of that object, is already in hand. The harbour works at Castlecliff arc being pushed rapidly ahead, and will be icady for the delivery of stone for the breakwater in a day or two. The railway line from the wharf to the breakwater, round the base of the cliff is practically completed. , Mr W. A. Tate, a well-known Greytown fruitgrower, has added one thousand apple trees to his orchard. He has now 25 acres laid out in fruit on his property. Mr R. W. Tate has just put down two thousand apple and pear trees on his Papawai estate. Other Greytown residents are also enlarging their orchards. Three first offending drunks were fined 5s each and costs at the Police Court this morning. One of £he offenders was further charged with being a rogue and vagabond, having no visible lawful means of support. He requested a remand in order to engage the services of a solicitor, and was granted same till Saturday morning. A member of the Agricultural Association yesterday, who hails from the Wairarapa, in speaking in favour of the Government being urged to take steps to prevent the importation of noxious seed from the South Island, said he had never, before coming to Wanganui, seen such a mixture _ of weeds, noxious and otherwise, as We have here. — ."It's the fine land We have up here," was the explanation given by a well-known member. Various strange causes of death have been advanced by witnesses at inquests, but one quite out of the ordinary kind wap put forward at a coroner's inquest the other day in Wellington. The coroner put the question, and for a moment the witness was puzzled, but light dawned on his countenance, and he announced, , "He was painting- a hospital, and he died of paint poisoning i" The coroner looked astonished and remarked : "I painted a fence when I was a boy, and I'm not dead yet." , An interesting experiment has been conducted by a well-known farmer in Marlborough with regard to the eradication, of Californian thistle. Two years ago he had a paddock of 12 acres covered in thistles, which he sowed down in lucerne. A Palmerstott resident visiting the farm within the last few weeks was surprised to find that the lucerne had entirely killed out the thistle, and not a sign of it was to be seen. This should be of interest to all who have been endeavouring to eradicate thistles from their lands, more especially as stock is particularly fond of lucerne. The new refrigerating plaut now being installed at the Freezing Works will more than double the efficiency of the plant , there. The old plant was designed to freeze one thousand sheep" in 24 hours, but frequently had to do fifteen hundred to two thousand, with nothing to fa!ll back on in case of a breakdown. With the new plant installed the works will be able to deal with three thousand at normal working and between four and five thousand if necessary. The old plant •will be kept as a reserve. The following incident in connection with a certain dairy factory not a hundred miles from Wanganui shows at the same time both the humour and the feeling of the suppliers, as expressed by one of their number. While carting cream from one of the creameries to the railway station, the horse stumbled, throwing the cream can< forward, their contents being shot out on to the horse. The madly frightened animal, covered with cream, dashed wildly down the road pursued by the manager, hatless, coatless, and wild-eyed. Meeting a' supplier, the following conversation took place: — Manager — "Have you seen na^ cream horse?" Supplier. — "Yes." Manager ' —"Where has he gone to?" Supplier! — "Oh; he has gone into 'liquid-ation.' "— Collapse of the manager. During the quarter ended yesterday fclie customs duties (that is duties on good's imported from places outside the ."olony only), totalled .£19,400 17s 8d as agairistr .£20,674 8s od for the third quarter jgf last year, the decrease being accounted for in the reduction of duties on ninny of the most common lines. For the mouth ended yesterday the net total was w£6637 18s 9d, a decrease of .£630 13s 6d as compared with September of 1907. Last month's total was contributed to as follows—Spirits .£1798 16s 2d, perfumed spirit .£4 14s Bd, cigars and snuff j620 4s 3d, cigarettes .£306 ss, tobacco 4*1697 19s, wine (all kinds) .£IOB 16s 3d, ale and beer .£127 13s 2d, other goods by weight, ad valorem, and not otherwise specified, returned 7s 3d under the general tariff, and £98 3s under the preferential tariff.- The beer excise duty for the month was ,£329 12s 6d. Rumours reached town last night that a "strike" had taken place amongst the men employed "by Messrs Niven and Co., Ltd., at Castlecliff, who are putting in the new refrigerating plant at the Freezing Works. On investigating the matter to-day we found the cause of the rumour was a difference between the foreman of Messrs Niven and the casual hands. The foreman states that the men had completed one portion of the work and he could do without them, but offered them further work helping in putting some of the heavy machinery in place. They started on this, but as he considered they were not doing their beat he turned them off. The men allege that the foreman tried to "bustle" them, and then in a temper he told them they could go. They took him at his word, and when he wanted 3onle of them to return they refused. Work has not been interfered with in any way and the foreman states he has as many men as he requires.

Some fortunate buying has placed ua in possession of a splendid range of Jadies' belts. One result, in fact the chief result of this fortunate buying is -that you also will be fortunate in your buying, for now you can buy the most fashionable and up-to-date belts at considerable reductions of ordinary prices. More than half of the belts — and taere are fully two hundred of them — are «amples, aud they represent a manufacturer's new season's stock. He had finished with them, taken his season's orders, and gave them to us at a big discount ot ordinary prices. All the newest and latest styles in belts are represented and the variety is splendid, such as only 'an. up-to-date manufacturer could produce. The prices range from Is 3d to 4a, Ud, but when you see the. belte- you" -will not hesitate to say that they arc Tenlly cheap. McGrucr and Co.