LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12734, 2 April 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr Walter Grey informs-us that he will be a candidate at the approaching Borough Council elections. He will take an opportunity later on of addressing the burgesses, and placing his views before them. A desperate-looking land hunter, who had taken part in 23 ballots of Crown lands, mournfully told a representative of the North Otago Times tbat he had crown grey in the effort to draw the right marble, and had given it up as a bad job. The fund for the endowment of a bed. at the Napier Hospital in memory of the two stewardesses who lost their lives in the Penguin disaster was closed yesterday, the amount necessary (.£SO) having been subscribed. The rainfall at the MoumahaM Experimental Farm for the past month wa5,4.86 inches. Eain fell on 11 days during the month, the maximum, 1.98 in, falling on the 29th, and the minimum .Olin, on the 19th. The fall for the corresponding month last year was 9.29 in. Mr George Silcock received a wire from Blenheim yesterday stating that his entry of White Leghorns at the Blenheim egglaying competition had secured second prize, being beaten by only 10. The figures were— Edelstein 1251, Silcock 1241, Browne 1233. Mr Silcock is to be heartily congratulated on tne position secured by his birds. A meeting of the Manawatu farmers was held yesterday to discuss a proposal of the Wairarapa and Bush branches of the' Farmers' Union to establish a co-operatwe freezing works. The matter will be further discussed at the annual meeting of the Palmerston branch of the Farmers' Union on Saturday. Mr Balsillie was appointed to attend a meeting of delegates to discuss the question at Woodville next week. An instance of the carelessness of some people in sending money through the post has iust bedtt brought under the notice of the Marlborough Herald by Mr Northcroft, Chief Postmaster. He was handed by a sorter a letter which contained a pound note. The letter was unregistered, and bore the Palmerston North postmark. It was contained in a flimsy envelope, which ' had burst open at each end, the money being plainly visible. Fortunately for the addressee it fell into honest hands, bufr had it gone astray the sender would have been mainly to blame. While a large number of Port Darwin residents wore visiting the steamer Otrthrie to wish bon voyage to Dr. Strangman. a well-known lady resident fell overboard and was rescued with difficulty, says a message to a Sydney paper. Two gentlemen plunged into the sea and assisted her to the jetty piles, where she was supported until assistance arrived. A gentleman who felt that all possible should be done to save the lady preferred to do his ..rartby proxy. Accoringly he pushed a black boy into the sea, and instructed him to save the lady. The native resented the voluntary immersion greatly, and sulkily declined to do more than save himself. The secretary of the Wellinsrton Chamber of Commerce has written Ho the Premier as follows: — «! have the honour by direction to draw your attention to the fact that it is higrhly desirable in the interests of the Dominion that earnest efforts should be made at the approaching Tariff Conference between the British Government and that of the United' States of America to secure better consideration and more favourable terms of admission into the United States of New Zealand .wool, hemp, and dairy produce, and to respectfully suggest that urgent -representations be made to the British Government to that effect. There was quite a buzz at the wharf on Saturday morning, writes the Bluff correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, arising out of the departure of -the natives on their season's mutton-birding. A number have come from North Otago and Canter? bury this year, and the contingent shipped at the Bluff totalled no fewer thaiTSO to 80. The coastal steamer Dorset was engaged to convey them. The steamer will go to Colac Bay, where the Western District residents will join, and from there she will go to the South ' Cape Mauds, Evening Island, Murder Cove, -and Moggies, the last-named being her furthest south destination. At the Bluff 12 truckloads of baggage were shipped. Following the public enquiry into the allegation against a teacher at College Street School, the committee at Palmerston North last night made the following recommendations for submission to tbe Education Board:— "That any punishment exceeding four strokes with a strap be given by or in the presence of the head teacher, and the offence and punishment be entered in the school log. Assistants shall not be allowed to punish pupils in their class unless such assistant is in charge. Punishment shall only consist of either strapping, detention, or imposition. No punishment of a ridiculous character shall be allowed." It was also resolved that the inquiry shows that the management generally of .the school was practically all that could be desired. Quite a large number of people appear to be under the mistaken impression '.that registration on the Parliamentary electoral roll entitles them to vote at the forthcoming Borough Council and Mayoral elections. It is as well for them to note, therefore, that this is not so, and in order that they may exercise their privilege on the occasion referred to, they sould be on the municipal roll — technically known as the "District Electors' List." Full information as to the qualifications necessary for inclusion in the .municipal roll can be obtained at the Borough Council office. Those wishing to vote on the half-holiday question must also be on the District Electors' List. As there is a large number of qualified people who lave not yet register■ed, they should lose no time in doing so. The list closes on the 14th inst., the election being held a fortnight later.

The weather bureau reported as follows ftt 1.30 p.m. to-day:— Westerly strong winds to gale, glass fall slowly, tides high, sea heavy, rain, probable, rivers rising after sixteen hours. The date of the lecture on the work of the Nimrod's Antarctic exploration expedition, to be given by Lieut. Shackleton at "WSis Majesty's Theatre (Christclmrcb), has 'been fixed for Wednesday evening next. Some Maoris secured a thumping great eel in the Oroua-Kiritaki stream on Sunday last. The monster turned the scale at 35lbs, and measured 6ft 3in in length. There were 14 young trout, about 6 inches in length, in the stomach of the cccl. Owing to the retirement of Captain Edwin, Government Meteorologist, the familiar words, "Capt. Edwin wires ac follows," no longer appear at the beginning of the weather telegrams. The wires now emanate from the "Weather* Bureau." Electors who are entitled to votes at the coming Wanganui Borough Council elections are notified elsewhere that claims for enrolment on the District Elector's list will close on the 14th inst. Form of application for enrolment may be obtained from the Town Clerk. Mr E. N, Liffiton notifies that the offices of the Standard Insurance Company and that of the Wanganui Building Society and Land Agency Company have been temporarily removed to offices opposite the Bank of Australasia, pending the re-erec-tion of the Rutland Chambers. It is interesting to note that Mr Liffiton has been in occupation of the offices he is now vacating* for upwards of 35 years. At a meeting of the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association on Saturday Mr Horton stated that the growers in Hawke's Bay did not know how to pack fruit for export. L*r Tasmania they wrapped the apples in brown tissue paper, and only one size of apples was placed in each case, so that they could tell how many apples went in each box. He would, he said, be going to Tasmania in the course of a vetk or so, and he would arrange with Mr I'eacock, jam manufacturer, to ship a sample of half a dozen cases of Hawke's Bay apples, with a Tasmanian consignment, to England, in order to see how they will open out, and to test their value ou the English market. The origin of destructive fires is often shrouded in mystery, and an incipient fire at Outramon Wednesday, fortunately disin time, shows that both the cause _nad the discovery may be novel and cvV^ous. A cyclist riding by the Outram Hotel at 5 o'clock in the morning was surprised to see the door of that hotel apparently ablaze. Dismounting, he found that the lamp above the entrance had become overheated, and having melted part of the mtal work of the lantern, was emptying its ignited contents down upon the panels of the door. The cyclist gave the alarm and the flames were quenched with a few buckets of water. As showing the "nerve strength" of the i Maori woman as compared "with that of our fair sex,- we might mention that at a ; recent v tangi our representative observed a I jocular Maori lady with a string of flax, at the far end- of which was an energetic mouse. That mouse just galloped about looking for a place of safety, and like most domesticated mice sought an abode in the j folds of a petticoat, which didn't concern the hilarious dusky damsel one little bit. About* half ran hour afterwards our representative came across the same monse, with three .Ijoys at the other end of the flax, and the way that mouse struggled to retain a grip of the land would have done credit to the most ardent freeholder. — Huntervillej^Expj;ess. „ . , A correspondent in a Blenheim paper says: — "In all that has been published about the bravery, considerateness, and absence of .panic marking the conduct of those who were on the ill-fated Pengfiin when sb /rent down, I think that jusitec has not Deen done to one man — -Mr Loosemore, the third officer, who stood on the bridge burning the coloured lights to enable the crew and passengers to get out the boats and rafts. I have been repeatedly told by one of the survivors that the action of Mr Loosemore was courageous and unselfish in the extreme. The r <-ht was pitch dark, and but for the contia.i^d illumination given by Mr Loosemore the scene would have been one. of stiil worse confusion, with perhaps total loss of life. The lights burned on the bridge enabled those who did get ashore to locate and reach the rafts and boats in the boiling fa. Mr Loosemore stuck to his post to te very last, not even delaying to equip mself with a lifebelt, and went r.>\vji with the ship. Was there anything n>< re courageous and unselfish in the whole >-ad incident?" :