LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12750, 22 April 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A London cable states that Mr Hall Jones .attended the conferment of the freedom of the Patternmakers' Company upon Lord Ranfurly.

A Dunedin telegram states that an escaped patient from' Seacliff Mental Hospital, who is believed to have been responsible for fires at Warrington, Evansdale, and Waitati yesterday morning, was arrested at Wakari yesterday afternoon.

From information received we have every reason to believe that the sculling championship race between Arnst and Webb will be rowed in Wanganui, it is said in the first week in June.

A telegram, received from Halcombe, and addressed to "Mrs Gilford, ear? of Herald Office," may be obtained by the addressee on application at the telegraph office.

Mr W. Kerr, S.M., presided at a sitting of the Magistrate's Court at Marton. There was no need to call on a justice here this morning, the police not having any business for the Court's attention.

The Bureau reported as follows at 1.30 to-day:— Westerly strong winds to gale; glass fall, but rise after twenty hours; tides high, sea heavy, Tain probable, rivers rising; weather probably colder.

In the. list of candidates for tllfe'eoming Borough Counctl elections, as pab'Ksh-^ ed in last evening's issue, the name bf" Mr Jas. Christie was wrongly printed 'for that if Mr Jas. Williams. As, apparently ,-ithere is some doubt as to the identity of Mr Williams (owing to there being others of the same name), we may say that he is the well-known jeweller of the Avenue.

The barquentine St. Kilda was successfully towed off her precarious position on the South Spit this^norning, and brought up to town. She was compelled, owing to the wharfage accommodation being overtaxed, to anchor in mid-stream., and was later joined by the barquentine Alexa, which was brought into port from Clarence River, via Greymouth.

At a meeting of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers' Union 'the question of immigration was discussed; and it was resolved — "That in the opinion of the Council and branches the conditions set forth in the circular issued "by the central unemployed body for London should be strongly adhered to, and thus prevent a -large number of unsuitable immigrants being sent to the Dominion.

What- might, with but litle stretch of imagination, be called a fine view of the possibilities of Wanganui as a shipping centre was to be seen at the town wharf to-day. The berthage, notwithstanding the wet weather, was a scene of animation, there being no less than three sailing vessels and three steamers working cargo" at the wharf, while out in the stream opposite were anchored two barquentines (the Alexa and St. Kilda), both waiting an opportunity to get a berthage at the already overtaxed wharf to disburden themselves of their cargoes. The sight, as seen from Taylorville or the bridge, was one that has not been witnessed here for some time, for it must be well on to 20 years since so many sailing vessels have been seen in port together. At least one thing was impressed on visitors, viz., the necessity of the Harbour Board pushing on urgently with the wharfage extensions.

At the sitting of the Aotea District Maori Land Board to-day, the President stated that, to 31st March last, the Board had only 3993 acres of land on hand out of the 189,562 acres which had been vested in the Board, while as to approval grantby the Board (that was for land in which, native owners had negotiated themselves direct with lessees) the total number of leases was 440, the area dealt with being 137,678 acres. Of this class of lease there were 102 applications, dealing with some 32,406 acres, still under consideration, awaiting valuations or completion of surveys. 30/n? 23 applications had also been approved of or were under consideration, the area involved being about 19,000 acres. A considerable- number of recommendations had also been made for'Tc moval of lestrictions t > allow of sales ard mortgages, and some 24 had recently been dealt wi f h, . or wcrf jnder consideration, for an area 0^4605 acres, and the bark of it had gone into the hands" of those who were aiaking improvements thereon at once.

Jas. T. J. Dunn, the young man who was remanded for sentence till yesterday on charges— to which he had pleaded guilty — of stealing a pair of boots and a watch and 'chain, valued at JSIO, from a Putiki resident, came' before Mr W. Kerr, S.M., yesterday morning. He was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment with hard labour in respect of the Doots, and to three months' with hard labour for stealing the .watch and chain. The Magistrate remarked that the gaol regime would probably help accused (who is not quite right mentally) to form regular habits, as his was not a case for a mental asylum. On a further charge of stealing a suit of clothes belonging "to a boarder at the Britannia boarding-house, on the 29th March, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, all sentences to be concurrent. The circumstances of the latter theft showed that on getting up one morning he put on his fellow boarder's clothes, walked' out with them, and had since been wearing them, even into the dock, as he had no others to make a change. An endeavour was made at the Court again yesterday by a number of cyclists, represented by Mr McCaul, to prove that* the path alongside the River Bank Road, above the Aramoho Bridge, is not a footpath within the meaning of the Public Works Act. . The cyclists, five in number, had been charged by Constable Bree with riding their cycles on the footpath. They held that there was no defined footpath, and that the footpath, if any, had been made partly if not wlwlN at the expense of the ratepayers adjoining, the Waitotara County Council doing the formation work on a requisition being presented to them. They also held that the idea of the original promoters of the footpath was to constiuct a cycle track, but this bad afterwards been modified. Constable - Bree stated that the path, though imperfect -in places, was quite defined, and IStr W. Ritchie, chairman of the. County Council, said the path was constructed and maintained by the Council, part of the original cost being paid by the adjoining owners. He considered it a path pure and simple, not a wheel track, and thought it a stretch of imagination to say it was laid for bicycles. The S.M. was decided in bis opinion that the path was nothinjr but a common footpath, and said he would need to see a written agreement between the Council and tho rategayers^adjoining to convince him otherwise, as the suggestion for the defence was. entirely ht v»}fil.M;k with tfte usual order or tMngfTand with the evidence ot the chairman of the local body. The offenders, except one"?' were children, and as the informations were laid more as a warning to the numerous tribe of younsr people who use the path for cyclinsr, the S.M. merely convicted and* .mulcted them in Court costs.

There is a keenness in the air that prompts thoughts of warmer underclothing —and as far as the men are concerned we can supply them every need. Both English and Colonial mills contribute of their very best and we can give undershirts and underpants m any desired duality or weight. In the fine to medium weights and qualities the English goods cainot be excelled. Prices for either undershirts or pants range from 2s lid to 10s 6deach. Of course the colonial goods are all fine wool and in many cases have a special unshrinkable finish and they ate also made m much heavier qualities. Colonial garments range from 4s 6d to 10s 6deaeh. — McGruer and Co.

To-night and on Saturday night the 3.50 p.m. train from V\ ungauui to Ilawera, and the 4.35 p.m. truin to Palmerston North, will stop at the Racecourse to pick up passengers. A goeds train with carriage attached will leave the Racecourse St 5.10 p.m. for Marton. Some gentleman in. the N.S.W. Legislative Council once found it in hi 3 heart to taunt the late Sir Julian Salomons with being a Jew. Sir Julian turned to him and spoke straight out. "I am a Jew," he said. "I was born a Jew, and I should be a poltroon and a coward, as well a 6 a fool, if I -were not proud of belonging to a race which has given an Isaiah to the world, the Psalms of David, and all the mighty mysteries of the Bible, upon which the civilisation, the consolation,* and the happiness of the world depends.

London without hansoms! The idea

(cays a writer in the London Oaily Mail) '..seems almost on a par with that of Lon-i-idfen, without the Thames. Yet the hanV eom'is fast disappearing, and the taxicab •is illustrating the law of the survival of the fittest. ■An answer given by the Home Secretary in the H4use of Commons a day or two ago shows that whereas in 1903 there were in London 7490 hansoms and only one motor-cab, on February 1 of the present year the number of hansoms had fallen to 4747; while the number of motorcabs had risen to 2925. I Recently a patient in the Oamaru Hospital (says the North Otago Times) underwent an operation of a peculiar character. Some time ago a swelling appeared

on the side of the patient, which continu-

eu to increase in size and painfulness. An operation was perfoimed at the hospital, and wart of a long and much corroded needle was extracted. The patient had no knowledge of how the needle got there, and how it had worked to the place from whence it was extracted. All the patient has any distinct knowledge of is the decided relief that was afforded when it was extracted. ■ A scheme to deal with tailings, wh'ch quartz-crushing mills iiave allowed to run down the Waiotahi and Moanataiari Creeks at the Thames, is being put in

operation by a syndicate headed by Mr H. H. Adams, a leading mining investor in Auckland. For over thirty,-hve years the tailings from the batteries have been accumulating on the mud-flats which fringe the town, until there must now be many thousands of tons there The crushing appliances in use in the early days failed to save all the gold, and it was washed down the creeks to the foreshore. Mr Adams and his partners have secured the right to treat the tailings by the cyanide process, and are about to carry out the work on an extensive scale. A dredge costing about £3500 has been built at the Thames to lift the auriferous silt for conveyance to a battery close by.

A new use is to be made of rabbit skins, which are now being tanned by means of a rubberised process in use at a factory at Bermondsey (writes a London correspondent). This fur is taken off and the skin subjected to certain treatment which gives the leather a wonderfully durable character. The skin, when treated, cannot be torn, and becomes toughened and hardened to such a degree that as a leather it will be capable of many uses not hitherto thought of. The syndicate promoting the business in London are said to be making inquiry in Australasia in order to see if it is possible to obtain more 6kins than are now sent in the regular course of trade to the home markets. Most satisfactory accounts have been received by the syndicate holding the patents of the leather. A company will be floated^ro work the enterprise. The rubberised process can bo applied to any. kind of skin, and the resulting " leather" has .many of the qualities of rubber.