LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2297, 3 November 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The, postal authorities advise that the s.s. Makura, which left Sydney on Thursday last for Auckland, is bringing Australian mails and also an English mail via Suez. The Wellington portion is due per Main Trunk express this morning. A sum of £100 will be contributed to the Great Britain and Belgium Relief Fund by tha Wellington Chamber of Commerce. His Honour Mr. Justice Hosking will preside at a Chamber sitting of the Supreme Court at 11 o'clock this morning, when reserved judgment will be delivered in the case of Cook and another v. Reid and' others, an application for a mandamus to compel the defendants to issue .a .license to the Kumeroa Hotel. In the Police Court yesterday, says a Press Association telegram from Auckland, Joseph Farnworth was fined tho (maximum amount of £100 tor befr ting in the streets. Court formalities were thrust aside for a few minutes by a woman during the hearing of a maintenance case in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday. Her husband was giving evidence in the witness-box when the wife made her way to the side of the box. "Do youbelieve that?" she inquired seriously of the Magistrate. Then, turning, to her husband: "Charlie," she said, "I v/ender where. you will go when you finish?" As "Charlie" did not even hazard a guess at his ultimate destination in the next world, hie wife proceeded to upbraid him about certain misdemeanours real or fancied. Then the Magistrate interrupted and rigid Court formalities were once more enforced. The husband concluded his evidence evidently greatly embarrassed! Then, as he left the witness-box,' his wife'arose and their ways converged at the Court'door. It was evident that the little drama—if one could call it Buch—was to be continued outside tho walls of justice. ' , A retreat for men, to be conducted by the Rev. Father T. M'Carthy, is to bo opened at St. Mary of the Angels' Church, Boulcott Street, at half past seven this- evening. The retreat is to continue throughout the week and conolude on Sunday evening. There will be two - services daily, one at 6 a.m., which will include .Mass and a short instruction, and, in the evening' •a sermon and devotions. In the House of Representatives yesterday the, Hon. A. T. Ngatv asked the Prime Minister whether representations had been made through His Excellency the Governor to the Imperial authorities to allow the.whole of the members of the Maori contingent, to be sent to one place. Mr. Massey replied that representations had been made, but up to_ the present no reply had been received. . • ■ The importation of twenty locomotives (says the "Loco. Record" editorially) is a decision which has been looked upon as inevitable by those who have had an eye to .the railway, management in New Zealand. The expansion of trafßo and the decay of locomotives havo necessarily produced a shortage, keenly felt during the last five years. Of courße it :may be regretted that the t employment. necessary for tho building of these must go out of New Zeal&ad." But so far as regrets go from those who manipulate them, there should not be any, if the manager places his order with thß right firm. We have in New Zealand many excellent locomotives from the Baldwin works, and also one from the • Brooks works. There is no doubt that Price Bros, can build" an excellent engine, and so also can the railway workshops. We have many very excellent wigineß whioh were built in New Zealand,, but it appears to 'us that the cost is prohibitive. If we can get three imported locomotives for the price of two locally made, of the same class, would it not be very foolish, to still go on building in New Zealand?

An interesting find was madei upon the beach at Apia, Samoa, bv a ser-, geant in the D Battery with tho garrison force. The sergeant states that he was shovelling up some dirt on the beach on October 7, when his shovel ran through a packet' containing revolver ammunition. "This being so unexpected," he proceeds, "I became very cautious and began to dig further, For two or three minutes I unearth«l nothing else but ammunition and then ran into a six-chamber modern revolver. I continued digging, but found no more." The revolver, he adds, was evidently placed there by some Germans quite recently, as it bore no sign of rust, and he thinks it was the first "plant" found in Samoa. He had received some very tempting offers for the weapon, hut prizes it too greatly to part with it. The Electric Light Department of the City Council has been provided with a serviceable Albion motor wagon for the facilitation of its work in the City. The chassis wa6 supplied by Messrs. Grapes and Riley, of Wellington, and the body waß built at the tramway oar sheds, under the direction of Mr. Lear. The wagon will carry 25cwt., and yesterday underwent a severe test up and down some of - the steepest streets in the City. A man named Thomas Kelly, who filled himself up with liquor on (Saturday, and while drunk appropriated two bottles of stout from one of Laery and Co.'s carts, was apprehended bythe police. He appeared before Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, and was fined £2, or 14 days, and ordered to pay 7s. costs. At yesterday's meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce letters were received from the Manchester and the Liverpool Chambers of Commerce expressing appreciation of the loyalty and devotion of the overseas Dominions, to Great-Britain during tlie ( present crisis. . Owing to the absence of rain,; says our Napier correspondent, residents of W.estshore, who have no regular supply, have had to resort to carting water from tho freezing almost every tank in the district having run dry. A Press Association telegram received from Christchurch last night stated that the price of bread had -been raised to Bd. per 41b. loaf in consequcnoi of tiOj inorease in the -price of flour..«

'The new railway time-table, which came into operation on November" 1, and which was in full working order yesterday, eo far as Palmerstcn North was concerned, wont through tlio day without a hitch. All trains were dispatched at schedule time, and with 0110 exception the arrivals were up to time—the exception being the New Ply-mouth-Wellington express, which arrived five minutes late at- Palmerston. Of course a number of travellers missed their respective trains, but experiences lilce these will soon tend to make travellers remember the change. . The disabilities imposed on settlers in back-blocks and especially upon our women ar<> very great, aaid Sir Joseph Word; speaking at the Women's Social and_ Political League last evening, and in times of sickness and maternity there should bo available free nurses for all those settlers with slender means who require their scrviceß. At his meeting at . Maranui last night, Mr. R. A. Wright again re* minded electors that they , should exauiinei the roll, and bo suro that their namos were registered. The fact that they voted at the last election was not sufficient. A mistake by a poll clerk might explain why some names wore omitted. Ho also urged electors who might be away on polling day to obtain voters' permits, which could bo sent in until the supplementary. roll closed.

A collection taken np in the Napier Roman Catholic churches on Sunday for the British, Belgian, and New Zealand Relief Funds amounted to £25.

It has been stated_ that the export of motor-ears and their parts had been prohibited from the United .Kingdom, but;the British Trade, Commissioner in Wellington states that the fact is that the prohibition applied only to chassis oarrying a load of 25owt. and more, and that this has been cancelled for some time.

Yesterday morning, says our Napier correspondent, a store, a billiardroom, and a drapery shop, at Nuhaka, the two first-named being ocupied by Mr. G. P. Mitchell, and owned by his wife, and the shop occupied by-Mr. Harrison Fountain, were destroyed by. fire. 'The store and billiard-room were insured for £350/ and the shop for £100, both in the Norwich Union office.

The loyalty of the young school teacher who is a naturalised German and in charge of a school near Whangarei was referred to at a recent meeting of the Auckland Board of Education. It was stated that several restrictions had been nmde, one being that, tho school 1 flag should not be hoisted on important occasions. . On Friday last Sir. J. D. M'Kenzie, a member of the board, paid an official visit to the school, and, on making inquiries, foipid that the rumours were quite unfounded, the. teacher adding , that - he had made a practice of teaching the children patriotic songs. 'Hie statement wa9 accepted, with a request for practical proof. This was given, whereupon the teacher and children sang "Soldiers of the King" with enthusiasm.. Mr. M'Kenzie was informed by, parents in the locality that the teacher was capable and highly respected, and they were at a loss.to understand how. the rumours came to' be circulated. ■Wellington merchants who are concerned about the cargo on the steamer Stolberg may be interested to know that on October 13 the vessel was ivt) Macassar, in tlie • Malay_ Archipelago. At that time no information was available: a-a to what was being done with.' the cargo. Regarding the recovery by New Zealand consignees of the extra charges incurred by them in obtaining delivery of ■their goods detained on German vessels, in. Australia, the Wellington Chamber of Commerce recently made some suggestions to the secretary for the New Zealand Commerce Department. The Department has since replied to the effect that the provisions of international law (by which Great Britain had intimated she would abide) prevented the giving effect' to tlio. Chamber's' suggestion that the charges should be debited against the cwners of the detained vessels for recovery, prior <o the' landing back of tlie vessels. .

• "That the Government be respectfully asked to continue unabated- tlia policy of liberal advances under the State Guaranteed Advances Act, particularly in regard to Bottlers and workers." This is, portion of a resolution recently arrived at by a Taumarunui body,' and affirmud yesterday by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.

Local residents and visitors to the Palmerston North Show will be pleased to learn that Godbers, Ltd.. of Wellington, are the caterers. —Adyt.