LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2743, 11 April 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

, His Excellency the Governor has received the King's command that no dinners, reviews, salutes, or other celebrations shall take place this year on the occasion of His Majesty's Birthday.

Up to the present commercial expressions aud marks have not been admitted by the regulations in the text of deferred an<l week-end cable 'messages. The Postmaster-General announces that ho has made arrangements for such expressions and marks to be now-admit-ted. Each letter in such expressions will be counted and charged for as one word. The concession is liable to be withdrawn-when the use of code language in ordinary messages is again permitted.,

Complaints have been heard from, time to' time from returned soldiers who are ordered back to tho front that they are not given a chance to obtain commissions in tho Reinforcement drafts. On this point the following sentence in a letter received by tbe Defence Minister from General Godley is interesting:—"l think the mattor of Reinforcement officers is on a much better footing now, and that there is really a most satisfactory balance maintained between those coming from New Zealand and those looking for commissions here." Mr. Allen explained that the object of the scheme was to fill half the vacancies in commissioned ranks by promotions in tho field, and tho other half from officers sent forward with the Reinforcements.

The shortage of ships is daily engaging the. attention of the Prime Minister. "Communications are' passing," said Mr. Massey yesterday, "between tho New Zealand Government on the one harid and tho Imperial Government and the Australian Government on the other hand, with the object of remedying to a certain extent the difficulty that has cropped up, principally on account of the Matatua and the Rangatira dropping out of the schedule for May. There is just a possibility, I am informed, of the Rangatira being floated off.' The Matatua is capable of being repaired, but theso repairs will fake some time."

"No, I don't want to be submarined again," said Mr. Ashmead Dartlett yesterday, referring to his experience when H.M.S. Majestic went down. "Thank heaven, we had ho women and children on board, so it was sauve qui peut.from the start. ■ Wo had six and a / half minutes to get clear—the boat sank in this time—and 1 think I was off in tho first half-minute. I was in pyjamas'. My life-belt was not blown up. I did think of blowing it up, but decided that I would not waste any wind on it—thought perhaps it would keep me afloat inside mo as well as inside the belt. So I got over the side without anything." Good swimmfr'? Mr. Bartlett was asked. N "No; but I reckon I could have swum the Channel that morning."

Referring* to the foreshore improvement work now in progress at Oriental Bay, the Mayor (Mr. J. P. .Luke) stated yesterday that he hoped . that the council would keep this work going. It was not intended to rush it, but thero.wSs no reason why a portion of this very valuable work-should not be dona each year, as ho considered Wellington to be sufficiently wealthy to carry on such a work out of ordinary revenue.

Residonts of Grant Road North are complaining of a certain section of land on that road being mado a tip for the deposit of street sweepings, drain silt, and manure. At the present time, when the City Council is urging people to clean up their places, the existence of such a tip .in "a thickly-populated part of tho City is arousing consider* able feeling among the people of that neighbourhood.

A powerful engino seems to be of the first importance to tho successful motor lorry, and this has certainly not been overlooked by the Makers of the Petrol Motor Lorry now on show at the Dominion Motor Vr-hicles, Ltd., Garage, G5 Courteimy Place. These machines are built to look, after an overload of 50 per cent, on rough country roads, and on ■ hills of 1 and 12 gradient The chassis generally is powerfully built, and tho Makers have not neglected flexibility. Intending Purchasers should not miss tho opportunity of examining this excellent lorry now in stock.— Advt.

Tim Minister of Labour should into:--veiiß at present juncture in favour of the labour-saving qualities of "No Rubbing Uuii<lry Help" for wishing clothes clean. Wellington Grocors.—Advt. . .

Tho statutory meeting in connection with the proposal to raise v. loan ot £25,000 for providing a portion of tho Karori Borough with water and drainage (a work to be carried out by tho Wellington City Corporation in terms of a special Act passed last session) is to bo held at tho JJarori Borough Council room on Thursday next. The portion _of the borough proposed to be provided with water and drainago is .that area which drains into the Kaiwarra Stream roughly, that portion to tho northward of Church Hill. _ "You. can have no idea of the exquisito boredom of lifo on the Western tront," said Mr. Ashmead Bartlett to an Interviewer yesterday. "Someone has described warfaro as 'six months' boredom and an hour of excruciating fear There is no doubt ab.;iit the boredom on tho Western front. After I had been there six weeks 1 couldn't have written another line aboiiS tho Western front without descending to utterly worthless stuff. y ou can't see anything. The country is so interminably flat—broken only by a hedge here and there or a few poplars. There is no£ an eminence that you can climb to see any distance. Nowhere can you see much more than a quarter of a mile. It was very, different in Gallipoli. there we were always getting dramatic surprises, and we did know what was going on." Tho Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke), accompanied by the City Engineer, and as many of the members of the City Council as can make it convenient, intend to pay a visit to-morrow' morning of inspection to works completed during tho past financial year and those at present in- progress. It is only on such occasions that one can readily grasp the great deal of work that is accomplished during the year by the City Engineer and his staff—works that are helping to make, Wellington as municipally perfect as sound ideas and conscientious achievement can make it with the moans at our disposal.

The late Mr. John M'lndoe, who died at Dune'din last week, was an active Ireemason. For years (says the Dunedin Star ') he occupied the position of District Grand* Secretary of Otago and Southland; he was a Past Master of Lodge Dunedin, 931, E.C., and Past District Grand' Senior Warden; and he was greatly liked and respected by all'the constitutions in Masonry. It was as a soldier, however, that the deceased 1 was best known to the man in the street. He joined the Dunedin Navals as a gunner in 1879; resigned when he went on a visit to Sydney: became a-member of the E Battery in Christchurch in 1894; on his return to Dunedin two years later was appointed lieutenant of the Coversham Rifles under Captain Milne; and m 1886 was transferred to the staff of the Ist Battalion, Otago Rifle Volunteers, _as lieutenant and. quartermaster, receiving his commission as captain in August, 1888. He acted as quartermas-' ter in tho equipment of tho 4th and sth Contingents for the Boer War, and continued to perform those duties whenoyer required right up to the time of his last illness, he being the quartermaster at the last camp at Mandeville under Colonel V. S. Smyth. Volunteers and others agree that he was a model quartermaster. Mrs. M'ludoo survives her husband. '

The meeting of the Senate of the University of New Zealand called for this week, to consider chiefly the results of the degree examinations held in November last, has been postponed, as the report of the examiners in England has not been received. The University agent in London notified by cablegram on February 28 that the report was being posted by the last Vancouver mail, but it has not come to hand by that route, nor by tho Suez mail which arrived in Wellington yesterday.

■ The liner lonic, now in tho Dominion, is still under the control of tho Imperial Government.. In oriier to meet the demand for passages from tho Dominion both to England and' to South Africa it has been agreed to carry passengers. Tho company, however, is not' responsiblo for delay in sailing, interruption or cancellation of the voyage which may be occasioned 1 by the requirements of the.lmperial authorities. Such eventualities, however, are considered to bo remote.

The inquest into 'the cause of death of Archibald A. Thompson, late of the firm- of Gannaway and Co., who was drowned in the harbour on Friday afternoon, was to have been held in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock. After waiting threequarters of an hour, no witnesses appeared, 60 Mr., D. G. A. Cooper, Coroner, adjourned the inquiry till i p.m. on Thursday, April 13.

If those who congregated at the entrance to the Petone Woollen Mills yesterday morning, in consequence of a rumour that an attempt was to be made to re-open the f acotry expected any kind of sport they were disappointed. Three young men who came from the Cityand were making for the mill were the targets for, some badinage. "Why don't you wear khaki?" "Do yoo. get £1 per week like wo did?" were questions asked them by shrill voices, and an escort of women workers inarched with them to the mill. Towards evening arrangements were made by the girls, who were by then reinforced, to organise a "tincan band," and lead the young men back to the station. A fairly large, crowd assembled by 5 o'clock to witness the fun, but the fun was badly missed as tho men were driven citywards in d motor-car.

Mystery shrouds the cause of a fire which occurred in a shed in Kent Terrace yesterday morning. Mr. K; I?. Moycs, a taxi-cab proprietor, had a cai .stored in it, and at about 10.30 a.m., the shed, which was locked up, was seen to be 'ablaze. Tho City Fire Brigade was summoned, and tho flames were quickly suppressed, but not before tho building anil its contents had been badly damaged. Tho car was insured. A special meeting of the City Council was held yesterday afternoon to discuss what action, if any, should be taken in the case Richardson, M'Cabe and Co. versus the City Corporation, in which judgment was recently given against the Corporation by Mr. Justice Hosking. After the pros and cons of tho case had been gone into by tho council (in committee), it was decided' that an appeal should be made against the decision of the Supremo Court.

The British "Lancet" describes how by purifying thousands of gallons of soapy water daily a continuous supply of clean water was obtained for soldiers' baths'in the field. The used water was passed into a tank, and there had slaked lime thoroughly mixed with it by means of a windmill mixer constructed from a couple, of old bicycle wheels and a hop-pole. The water'was then passed through a charcoal filter six feet square, and appeared quite clear, free from dirt, soap, and lime. The method of purifying was devised b'y Captain Basil Hughes, of Bradford, and Captain H. Norman Goode, of the R.A.M.C.

, While cycling to Karori on Saturday afternoon, Mr. C. J. Jacobson, of the Customs Department, met with an accident, and injured his head and legs As he was cycling along the road the skirt of his macintosh caught in' the wheel of his machine, with the result that he collided severely with abarbwiro fence. Lieut. Henderson, who happened to be passing in his motorear at the time,, conveyed the sufferer to a doctor, who attonded to the injured man.

Mr. John Hopkins, who has just completed an engagement for the Masterton Carnival Committee, will lcavo Master? ton for Wellington this morning, en route for the South Island, where ho will manage the tour of Mr. Frederick Coleman, the war lecturer.

Winter is here. You.can get what you desire in overcoats from S2s. Gtl. to 905.; Kaincoats, 455. to SOs, At Geo. Fovlds, Ltd., Manners Street.—Advt.