LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2745, 14 April 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tlie Defence Minister has been ad-' vised that a careful record has been kept by the chaplnins of all members of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force buried at Lcmnos or elsewhere since tho commencement of the campaign in Gallipoli. A central inquiry bureau has been formed at "Third 'Echelon, Alexandria," where all records have been sent. '(Third Echelon," which is a branch of General Headquarters, lias advised Mr. Allen that the New Zealand Records Office, will furnish as early as possible all particulars they have regarding burials in'Lemnos.

At yesterday's meeting of the. War Relief Association, tlie chairman, in referring to local relief afforded to the wives- of soldiers on active service,, stated that orders bad been given to several for household necessities, but they had been found to be so extravagant that some other means must be adopted of regulating the distribution of rations. In some cases it had been found that families had consumed as much in a week as they ordinarily would in a month. Tho proposal was that they should call in the assistance of some ladies .who would help them in tho matter, which proposal was agreed to:

When the inquest on Archibald Allan Thomson was opened ■ at the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon, Mr. T. Neave appeared, and tendered an apology to the Coroner (Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M.) on behalf of the witnesses, who failed to attend at the appointed time last Monday afternoon. Mrj. Neave stated that the men desired to 'attend the funeral of deceased, and it so happened that it synchronised with tbe time of the inquest. They had no intention of wilfully disobeying the summons to be present, and much regretted that they had caused any trouble. Counsel asked that their failure to attend should be overlooked by the Coroner as one of those' unfortunate incidents which occur from time to time. The Coroner said' he could appreciate the desire of the men to be present at the funeral of tlieir friend, Dut, as they had beeih summoned to attend the inquest, they should have appeared, or communicated with the police. He would accept the explanation, but'the witnesses must understand that if they were summoned to attend any' Court proceedings in future it would be better for them not to ignore the summons. That sort of thing could not be allowed.

/Private W. T. M'Caw, who served in Samoa and in the Dardanelles campaign, relates the, following amusing incident in a letter received by his father, the Rev. James M'Caw, •' of Lower Hutt. Private M'Caw is now in charge of .the signalling section of ihis company, and in possession of a firstclass signaller's certificate. Before enlisting he was on the teaching staff of tipper Hutt-Public School:—"On Friday night we had another all-night march in tho desert. But it was a picnic to the one I told you about formerly. . . . Our colonel is a late Inspector of Schools of the Wellington Education Board. ' But he apparently is unaware that I am a teacher under the same board. He gave m.e his horse to lead round for him' all night during the movement, and by way of reward ho said: 'Now open your mouth and shut your eyes, and I'll ,' whereupon I received a big lump of succulent toffee. Anything more incongruous than an Inspector feeding a teacher of his own district in this way can hardly Be imagined. I-shall remind him of it when next he examines my class. Remembrance of it is a constant source of humour to me."

A striking instance of enterprise, combined with confidence in tho high quality of Otago's horticultural products, is afforded .in the novel experiment made by a leading Dunedin chrysanthemum grower, who has sent a representative exhibit, or blooms of the popular winter flower to the Auckland Society's Show, which will take place to-day. This is the first occasion on which cut''flowers for exhibition purposes have travelled so far north—a distance of over 800 miles.

The-stranding of the Rangatira is likely to liave the effect of further de-. laying tho connecting up of tho Christchurch Tramway Board's power-house with the Lake Coleridge electrical supply. The cables for the Public Works Department) which were to be laid underground from Montreal Street to the board's power-house, are on .tho stranded steamer.

Constable Marks arrested a man in Cuba Street about 6 o'clock last evening oh a charge of stealing a pair of boots from a shop door.

The threatened trouble "at the 'Taratu mine was satisfactorily settled at a conference on Tuesday last between Messrs.. Cbeeseman (general manager) and T. Shore (mine manager) and the, men. The men's demand for an increase in wages was fully'gone into, x and the company agreed to grant a 10 per cent, rise all round, the increase to be in force until the conclusion of the war. The men then withdrew their _ fortnight's notice to terminate theirs engagement with the company,'and there is every reason to believe that things will move 'along in the old amicable way.—Balclutha "Free Press."

The Defence Department has accepted an offer by Colonel W. H. Sefton Moorhouse, of Wellington, of a motor launch for the use of the convalescent soldiers at Rotorua. It is a. new launch of light draught. Colonel Moorhouso offered it for use on one of the hospital ships some time ago, 'but it -was too light for that purpose.

Interesting questions arose out of the complaint made to the Prime, Minister, yesterday by a deputation of toinatogrowers from Nelson, that there is danger of their trade being ruined by the competition of tomatoes from Rarotonga. . Only lately has the culture of tomatoes .for export been taken up m the Cook' Group; and course it is done by native labour at, say, 2s. a day, while the Now Zealand grower has to pay 10s. a day for bis labour. One of the suggestions of tbe deputation, was that the New Zealand Labour Laws should be mado to apply in the Cook Groups Mr. Massey'pointed out in his reply that the Cook Islands were politically part 'of New Zealand, and ty would bo difficult for that reason to keep out Cook Island products from our markets. That matter was one for Parliament to discuss, and he promised to givo it consideration. A meeting called for last evening by ths Mayor of Lower Hutt (Mr. H. Baldwin), for the purpose of making arrangements in connection with the Anzac Day celebrations, was so poorly attended that it was abandoned. In a statemont to the Press, Mr. Baldwin said that at the conference of the representatives of local bodies* it was decided that each, suburb should hold a separate memorial service on the day, and it was suggested that in the evening a patriotic and recruitmg meeting might be held. A memorial 60rvico is (o be held in the afternoon of Anzao Day on the local recreation ground, at which the Rovs. A. L. Hansell, J. M'Caw, W. Beckett, and others would speak, and it was proposed .to. ask tho schoolmasters to allow the children to attend the function.

A powerful engine seems to be of tho first-importance to tho successful motor lorry, and this ha 9 certainly not -been overlooked by the Makers of'the Petrol Motor Lorry now on show at the. Dominion Motor Vehicles, Ltd., Garage, 65 Courtcnay Place. These machines nro built to.look after an overload of 50 per cent, on rough country roatls, and on hills of 1 and 12 gradient. Tho chassis generally is powerfully built, and the Makers havo not nc. glected flexibility.- Intending Purchasers should not *inis3 the opportunity of examining thi6 excellent lorry now in stock.— Adtfc

At the meeting of the War Belief As* sociation yesterday a letter was read from a returned soldier who, writing through Messrs. Kinniburg and Tripp, requested the association to allow him tho sum of £50, in order to participate in a land ballot in' Hawko's Bay to take place on Slay 10. Lie explained his position regarding his pay, and said that he could only raise from £20 to £24. He did not require the cash, but a guarantee | that-tho'money would be placed at his disposal if he was successful at the ballot. Mr. Geo. Shirtcliffe said lie thought there was a flaw in the Act in. 'regard to the money required to be deposited by soldiers who wished to go m for tho ballot, and that they should guarantee the sum. TluY was agreed to, and it was generally agreed that favourable consideration should ho given to such cases, and that in. the mean-' time the Minister should be communicated with, urging an alteration of the Act governing these particular land ballots.

Tho tender of Keir's Forwarding Agency, Ltd., has been accepted for two years as from April I,' for jthe cartage of railway stores and material at Wellington.

The tender of Mr. Charles Conrad Aitken has beon accepted for tho right to keep a bookstall at the Thorndon Railway Station. Tho rental is £312, The tender of' Percy Win. Hutton and Co. for a bookstall on the Timaru station, at a rental of £50,-per annum, has also been accepted.

There was a fairly large order paperto bo considered at. last night's meet, ing of the Miramar Borough Council, but the meeting lapsed for the want of a quorum. Tho Mayor (Mr. F. Town, send) and Councillors S. M. Stone and H. Hawthorne were the only members of tha council present, apologies having been received from • Councillors Green, Underwood, and Tracey. This is the first time that a meeting has lapsed since the Borough Council has been in existence.

How careless some people can be in money mattars is attested in the ex« perience of the Wellington Patriotia Society in connection with the recent raffle for the Maraetai Land Company's shares. From all parts of the country money is still coming in, in cheques, stamps, postal notes, and money orders, 6ome with a clear account of .tickets sold with .'those unsold enclosed, but often with money and nothing, save the postmark, to say where the money came from. One envelope opened this week contained a blank cheque and nothing else, but on examination it was found to be a cheque on the same bank as another cheque received by the even mail from tho same place, and was the next number to that cheque, showing pretty conclusivolj *hat tha drawer must have torn off two cheques, and posted them both in separate envelopes to tho secretary. The postmark has been the moans of identification in a great many instances, but there are still cases where money and the butts are still being sent in, though -the raffle has been decided over a week ago. : It was decided last evening to circnlaris" th«so. whose money arrived too late to participate in the recenfc raffle, asking' them if such money could be hold in trust pending the arrangement of another raffle.

The secretary of the Wellington Patriotic Society (Mr. J. Lewis) reported at last evening's meeting; that he had that day received a, cheque for the sum of £521 10s., representing the value of the tickets personally sold by Mr. John M'Master and his two sons, in the Maraetai Land Company's shares raffle, of which they were the generous donors. The sum realised by_ \ the Messrs. M'Master represented tickets sold in the Wairarapa.

By the re-arrangement of the tramway time-table, following upon the opening, of the Constable Street extension, residents of Seatoun were placed at a disadvantage in reaching the city before 8 p.m. . They required to leave Seatoun at 6.56 p.m. to be in town by 8 p.m. The Mayor of Mirama'r (Mr. Y, Townsend) told a reporter that since the last meeting of the council he had been looking into_ the matter with tho result- that certain alterations in the running of the cars have been agreed upon. A car leaving Lambton Station 'at 6.41 p.m., and a car leaving Seatoun at 7.16 p.m., have been inserted in the new • time-table, and the 7.1 p.m. car from Lambton and the 7.39 p.m., car from Seatoun will be discontinued in the first week of May.

The value of the buildings commeno. Ed in the Miramar Borough during the year ending March 31, 1916, was £14,224 10s. TheHalance : sheet submitted to the Circuit quarterly meeting of the Hutt Methodist Church showed total receipts £99 45., and the expenditure amounted to £103 19s. At the Taita Harvest Fes* tival sale £2 4s. 9d. was realised.

On April 10 a letter appeared in The Dominion headed "A Hotelkeeper'a Grievance" and signed "A. A. Penfold." The Department of Labour, informs us that this gentleman was evidently not aware of the provisions of the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1913, Section 8, under which the Arbitration Court, as provided by that section, made the provisions of awards referred to.

The list of. registered midwives in New Zealand is published in'the current Gazette. ■ *

Winter is here. You can get That you s desire in overcoats from 325. Gd. to 905.; Raincoats, 455. to 90s. At Geo. Fowlds, Ltd., Manners Street.—Advt.

The domestic help problem pleasantly solved. Thanks to "No Rubbing Lidry Help" for washing clothes clean without rubbing or injury. Wellington Grocers.—Advt.

&. NEW ZEALAND ENGINEER'S PRIVATE OPINION-, OP THE STUDEBAKES.

TBe Tourist Motor Co., Hastings, knowing that wo ara closely interested in Btudohaker motors, have forwarded to us a copy of a lengthy business letter sent them by Mr. AIV H. M'Lean, the en. uineer of their firm, who is at present in. Detroit, investigating the claims of the 1916 models of the great American automobile manufacturers. The Tourist Motor Co. havo very courteously given us permission to publish extracts from the fetter, and we extract the following paragraph as likely to interest owners and prospective owners of Studebaker cars : - ''Mv honest opinion.about the btudebaker car is that it is tho best value for money on the American market, and as far aa (misSi and workmanship are concerned it is second to none. I consider that we would be foolish to take up the'agency for any. higher priced car that is built here, because if we repaint the Studeonkor and equip it with wire wheels, it would be equal to tho Minerva in appear, ance and quietness of running. The en. gine ia the cleanest designed one that I havo inspected." It may be explained that Mr. M'Leau's mission to America was to secure the agency of a high-priced American car to take the place of the firm's Silent Knight Minerva agency. There is a good market in Havrke'e Bay tor the very best oar obtainable, regardleas of price.' Mr. M'Lean's hone6t opinion regarding the Studebaker is that there is no American car on the market better than the Studebaker at any price. The nve-6eater touring Studebaker. (4-cylindor, 2a h.p.), with electric self-starter and electric lights, sells in New Zealand for <£3M, Clio three-seater Studebaker, with same equipment, being priced at .£335. Adame, Eld., N.Z, Importers of Studobakor Motors, Christchurch, Pnlmerston North, YVaiiganui. Agents—Tourist Motor Co., Hastings; Auckland Motor Co, Auckland; Newton King, Stratford and New Plymouth; Tombs and C 0.,. Hamilton. We are ooen to receive acer.t6 for the Weitmgton territory. _ Applications to be raade to Adams, Limifr.-d, Christchurcli,-i ■idvt.