LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2559, 6 September 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The steamer Tahiti, which is bringing the second contingent of sick and wounded New Zealand soldiers back to New Zealand, is expected to arrive at Wellington at the end of this week— probably late on Friday or early ou Saturday morning. As the steamer is bringing such a large number of men the medical examination is expcctcd to occupy a considerable time. The Niagara, which is duo .at Auckland to-day, is bringing an EnglisJi mail via Suez, and an Australian mail, the southern portion of which should reach horo to-morrow . morning. This week's Sydney boat, due here to-mor-row morning, has on board an English mail via Suez and an Australian mail. A movement is being heartily taken up in the Wairarapa district, say,s our Master ton correspondent, to form a' Highland contingent for service abroad. Other districts are being approached on the subject. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) is mak--1 ing arrangements for' a public reception to.be given to the wounded who arrive by the Tahiti, was was done in the case of the Willoclira's -wounded. This will consist of a public reception and aftel-noon tea in the Town Hall on Saturday afternoon next. The arrangements at present are that the stumer will arrive in port probably on Friday ovening, and the work of examining the men on board will occupy a medical staff until mid-day the next day. The steamer will be berthed at the King's Wharf about 3 p.m., and about an hour later the function will take place at 1 the Town Hall. The Mayor requests the nse.of as many private motor-cars as possible, to convey the men from the , steamer to the hall, and. bespeaks a big welcome for the men from the general , public. It is fairly safe to conclude that very little else other than the Tahiti's arrival will matter on Saturday afternoon next. , A Solenin Requiem Mass will be celebrated on Thursday next at the Basilioa of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, at 9 a.m.; by His Grace Archbishop Redwood, in "memory of the Now Zealand Catholic soldiers who havo fallen in tho war. Many inquirers after the condition of those reported wounded in official messages for the past month have not been able to receive replies to the ordinary Government-sent messages, presumably on account of the very heavy casualties which began to pour in after August 6. Some people who havo njade. inquiries through the. Government bureau have been sceptical .that their messages havo been sent, but they can -rest assured that this has been done-in every single instance. During the past few days the staff in Egypt have apparently been making a great effort to catch up to the press of business, and the cablegrams' sent on two or three successive ' days are being replied to in one message. . ' 'i A fire* broke out at 65 Moxliam Avenue at about 10.20 o'clock on Saturday night, and the duelling ajid' contents were rather, severely damaged. The occupants of i/ho house wag Mr. H. Algar, and the owner Mr. Peter Ahradson. The outbreak is attributed to the fact that a fire was left burning in the kitchen 'while the family was out. The building was" insured in the Commercial Union office for £300, and the'furniture is insured in the United ■ office. - Among the interested spectators of Saturday's assault-at-anns was Lieuten-ant-Colonel Oosgrove, A Chief Commissioner of Boy Scouts in New Zealand, who is now engaged in thoroughly organising the whole movement throughout the Dominion. Lieutenant-Colonel Cosgrove .was greatly interested in-the jiu-jitsu display by tho police, and said, that he regarded it as a valuable asset to any man. Several of the Scout Masters bad taken lessons in the Japanese art, and before long he hoped it'would be included in the ordinary currioulum of Boy Scouts. •A letter written from Sheffield on July 3 gives details of a destructive Zeppelin raid made on Hull. . This news comes in a, letter from Mr. John Peck, of the firm of A. Wilson, Peck and Co., Ltd., of- Beethoven House, Sheffield, father-in-law of Mr. W. F. Colley, the English artist and picture restorer, now in Wellington. It says:—"As you will have heard, we have _been short of munitions, butNve are getting plenty of men on tho work now. We have had bombardments and air raids on the East Coast, as well as on the South and London itself. , A whole street in Hull was destroyed; A large drapery establishment was gutted. I believe that the young ladies of the establishment '-were living on the premises up to a fortnight before the raid. There were about 40 of them, and it was exceedingly fortunate that they had been removed, so providentially.'' A meeting of the council of the New I Zealand Surveyors' Institute was .held on Friday. Mr. T. Humphries presided, and the other members present were: Messrs. J. G. Fulton,,J. M'Kerrow* and • M. C. Smith (of Wellington), and F. J. Ledger (of Nelson). .'.The sub-committee' set up to interview the' Public Works Department, on the subject of calling for tenders for survey work by tie Department, presented an interim report, and'stated that it was not ill a position • finally to report upon the matter.- It was resolved that if possible representatives of tlie Institute of Civil Engineers be joined with the sub-committee of the New Zealand Institute of. Surveyors. The'-council'had written to the-Lands and Survey ."Department intimating that, in the opinion of the council, it was desirable that computators in the Land Transfer Department, should he trained, men prior to being appointed. A reply was received stating that it had been decided that the chief computator in all their surveying offices should be a qualified surveyor. .. '. 'A Press Association-telegram from Wanganui. states that Win. Webb and P. Hannau are both in solid, training there for the sculling match, which takes place in three weeks. . .. In the, presence of a crowded congregation at St. Patrick's Church yesterday, says our Masterton correspondent-, Monsignor M'Kewia, V.G'.j was invested by Archbishop Redwood with tho robes of a domestic prelate of the Holy See. An eloquent sermon was; subsequently preached _ by ■ Dean Power, of Hawera,' who paid a warm tribute to the work done by Monsignor M'Kenna and congratulated him on behalf of the clergy and laity. Tho offer of the New Zealand Insurance Company to donate to Auckland City an up-to-date electrically-driven clock, to take tho place of tho old town clock, has been accepted. The new clock, which will be erected on brackets at the third floor of the company's new building in the northern city, mil have three dials; each from 4 feet to 6 feet in-width. ' "There is a very strong feeling, in Canada," said Mr. Robert Laidlaw, jun., who returned to Auckland by the Niagara, "against the action of the British Government in placing the great munitions orders in-the hands of Pierpont Morgan and Company, of New,. York. The Canadians complain that their companies have not received a fair share of business from Morgan; who has given it to United States concerns. In consequence of this the Canadian firms accepted an order from Russia involving an expenditure of £16,000,000. An immense wave of-loyalty is sweoping over Canada, and there is tremeiidous military activity."

The railwaymen of the Dominion havt not been slow to respond to the Empire's call. Up to date 1375 employee?. in this Department of the Public Service have 'either, gone to the front, arc in camp, or have enlisted, and ara waiting to be called up. This comprises approximately 10 per cent, of 14,000 railway employees of New Zealand. All branches of the service are represented, and nearly all recruits are single men. Four sons of Mrs. A. M. Hellaby, Mountain Road, are (says the Auckland "Herald") commissioned officers on active service with the British forces in France. She has received a cablegram giving the latest news of them'. Lieutenant J. Arthur B: Hellaby, Royal Engineers, has crossed to France. Lieutenant Frederick A. Hellaby,- Ist Devonshire Regiment, who has been oil active service during the past year, has been appointed battery officer of a ma-chine-gun section. Lieutenant R. Sydney Hellaby, 29 th Battery, Royal Field Artillery,' is .now in the firing line at Ypres. Lieutenant J.- Hellaby, Royal Horse Artillery, 2nd Indian Cavalry Division, is now in England on seven days' leave. According to some Wellington booksellers the taste of the public is being affected by the glut of war books that are flooding the market. Up till a few months ago there was iii evidence an insatiable appetite for, any book based upon the - international upheaval,. and in particular for those works which : set out. to explain the causes leading up to the war, and Germany's war propaganda as jset forth by Bernliardi. Of late, however, the taste had undergone a 'change! the reading'public beinc; more inclined to revert to novels which liad no bearing on the international conflict. Still there was a big sale for magazines, which were pretty well loaded with war articles,-- .based :on actual experiences, or which'were pun* ly imaginative.' An'inquiry was made at the Free Public Library yesterday' as to the class of literature in demand, and there it was stated works on the great war were still in active demand by subscribers to the lending library, and also by those who patronised the reference dbpartmont; One effect of the war was a diminished output of r.ovols. Many writers of repute -liad turned their attention. to the allabsorbing topic, and a- proportion of them were on active service, which in time will mean another cror> of stories of a realistic character, but in. the meantime the output of romantic novels had decreased in a very marked manner.'' '