LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2911, 25 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal authorities advise that the mails which left New Zealand on September 15 arrived in London on October 22. The Riverina, which left Wellington on Thursday, carrying Australian mails, arrived in Sydney on Monday morning. Private Henry Miller, a- member of the Somes Island Guard, died in the Wellington Hospital on Monday evening. The cause of death was stated to be malignant endocarditis, following influenza.

A speaker at last night's meeting of the Land Agents' fend Auctioneers' Association of Wellington, stated that his hooks did not support the assertion that house rents had increased in Wellington. He' had found that out of 135 houses with a rental value of less than £2 a week each, 116 had not had their rents raised since 1910. The increase made had affected only 19 houses.

A new isolation ward for The special cases at the Ohrro Home was formally opened yesterday morning by tho chairman of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board (Mr. H. Baldwin) and the chairman of the Charitable- Aaid Committee (Mr. D. Campbell). Particulars of the plans of this small nddition to tho useful institution on the CXhiro Road were published in The Dominion some weeks ago.

Lieutenant W. H. Watson has returned to Sydney tho winner of the Military Cross. He left Australia as company sergeant-major, went through the Gailipoli campaign, and did not know that he had been granted a commission until the hospital ship he was on reached Durban on the return voyage. The lieutenant declined to say how ho won his decoration, but said that he had had his loft leg smashed by a piece of shell at Armcntieres. Some of the men round him, however, stated that the wounded officer remained at his post under heavy shell fire until the entire company had withdrawn safely. He also entered a burning building, where ho received his wound, but in spite of tho pain secured the compauy Tecords, and crawled with them to safety.

At the Lower Mutt Borough Council meeting last evening the Borough Inspector reported adversely on a certain stable and suggested that it should ho condemned' and pulled down. _ The inspector stated that on visiting these premises on two occasions during the past week stable manure was heaped against the concrete wall of tho stop bank .and on tlio floor of the stable with the usual myriad of flies on and about it.

The chairman of tho Masterton County Council has (says our correspondent) been advised by tho Publio Works Department that tho amount of unexponded grants available for expenditure is much smaller than was anticipated. J

News of the total loss' by fire of the Union Company's hulk Mikado at Suva recalls some stirring stories- connected with her earlier career, j A gentleman who has long been associated with Dunedin shipping circles says she was an old China tea clipper, and some 25 or 26 years ago was clmrtorcd from Now York to Dunedin. The poyage proved to bo probably the longest on record, : for the skipper put into Pernambuco, 1 and there went "on the spree." He proceeded to sell tho cargo to meet his obligations as necessity arose, and finally died. Of tho ci-ow some died from fever, and some Trere killed in street brawls. Eventually a new master bad to bo sent from New York, and he brought the Mikado to Dunedin, just! 18 months after she had set out on the voyage. Legal proceedings arose during her stav in Dunedin, and shei was seized and sold by order of the Oonrt. She was bought by the Union Companv for a liulk, and Captain Shepherd, who took her to Fiji, made the fastest passage from Port'Chalmers on record up till that time —a record which probably still stands. At Suva sho was converted into a hulk, and has continued in use in, that capacity till she was destroyed by ;firo last week. A scarcity of carpenters is still being experienced in Masterton, where a> number of large contracts are at present being put through, j Mr. F. I. Jones, of Wauganui, has received some interesting war souvenirs from his son, Corporal Ireson Jones, who is serving .in: Egypt. Corporal Jones, while out lin tile desert on duty, had tho good fortune to catch a camel, fully equipped, which had evidently been the mount lof a German officer. The "swag" included a fine outfit of underwear, a- jgood camera, an Iron Crops (in case), and other articles. The camera, the Iron Cross, and several smaller souvenirs, were the tokens which cams to hand. Sentence of twelve' moi ths' imprisonment, reduced by the (onfirming authority to nine months, has been promulgated in the case of Bernard Charles _ Stockdale, a xilliery blacksmith, in England, who was recently tried by court-martial for chopping off his trigger-finger to evad * military service. _ His defence was that he did it in a fit of temper caused by being arrested at tho colliery. "Although the war is not ended, I believe the authorities are considering the problem of transporting our soldiers back to the Dominion at tbo end of the great struggle," f aid Mr. C. J. Parr, M.P., in Aucklanc, on Monday. "Indeed, some Canadiai officers told me that they already had a large scheme worked out for tho transport back homo of the groat C madian army, which will reach half a n illion men before the war is over. < )ur" own Now Zealand force will probably approximate 60,000 men in all branchc s at the front before tho war ends; tl at is to say, men in the field, and in hospital, and with the transport and medical services. It will be no easy task to hriiig men home at an early di to. The difficulty, of course, lios in the fact that so muoh shipping will bo wanted immediately on tho cessation • f war for the Canadian, Australian, aDi South African forces, and for the i million Algerians and Morrocans who ai e fighting and making munitions in Fr mcc. It will bo a heavy tax upon th< British mercantile service, and we shall havo to take our turn, along with the others. I should not be surprised if it takes nearly two years after tho declaration of peace before wo got our last man back from Europo." Progress is being made with the scheme for establishing a flying school. in the neighbourhood of Christchurch. The gentlemen who have the matter in hand have secured a site within six miles of the city, closo to the railway lino, and have ordered three aeroplanes. The flying ground is nearly as largo as a third of the Henley aerodrome, and consists of good light pasture land. Lieutenant Scotland spent some days in inspecting the various sites' offered, and considered the one selected very suitable for the purpose. The preparation of the ground will be taken in . hand immediately. Fences and trees will be removed, and minor preparation of the surface attended to. Hangars and repairing shops will be built, and accommodation provided for the staff'and pupils. The pupils will be provided with sleeping and^ living accommodation, lighting and firing, bathrooms, and a stoall library of flying literature.

"The first genuine attempt at mobilisation on a war basis in the history of Queensland has been proceeding since October 21," said the, Brisbane "Daily Mail" on October 14, in reference to the summoning to the colours of unmarried mail by the Federal Dofence Department. "Men have been pouring into the registration depots throughout the State at an average rate of 1800 per day. Up to last night about 23,000 men had actually reported themselves out of a. possible supposedly in the vicinity of 25,000. 'The_ figures themselves speak with incisive force as to the unhesitating response. It is expected to complete the enrolment in the metropolitan area to-day and in the country up to Ootober 23, according' to tho arrangements in the various district's. It will not be absolutely possible to say until the dates mentioned have elapsed whether many men have deliberately held back. Up to the present, however, it is estimated that tho number so doing is neglible." A Timaru man who is serving with the New Zealand Forces in France mentions in a letter that an Australian battery "has a German field piece firing back Fritz's own ammunition at liTrn. They found a German battery blown up, and out of the pieces they put together one gun. They had plenty of, German ammunition, and were highly delighted at their . fortune and opportunity for the prank."

The proposal for an extension of the school age was supported in Auckland by Mr' E. K. Mvilgan in the course of an address to the Workers' Educational Association. "To me," he 6aid, "it is a matter of profound regret and no little anxiety that such a large number of our children are satisfied with the meagre knowledge-equipment received at the primary school. My remarks apply not to the training itself, nor are they intended as a reflection on the amount of knowledge imparted to pupi! s as a result of our teachers' efforts; they refer to tho limited opportunities for acquiring -knowledge and for profiting by training during the short period of primary scliool life. Many parents do not realise tho importance of education continued beyond Hie primary school stage." i

Plain Clothes Constable Wallace was walking along Manners Street, last o'vening when he observed a woman handling apples which were exhibited for sale in the doorway of a fruiterer's shop. Presently lie noticed that some of tlie apples were missing, and ho at. ouco accosted the woman and asked her if she had taken them. A reply was received in the negative, but not being satisfied ConstaMe Wallace made search. Besides, finding the apples ho discovered several sets of women's underclothing hidden underneath the woman's coat. After arrest a further search at the police station disclosed/a pair of women s shoos in a parcel hidden underneath the woman's dress. As no satisfactory explanation was forthcoming she was charged with the theft of the articles mentioned, and will appear at the Magistrate's Court this morning.