LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2935, 22 November 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal authorities advise that the s.s. Manuka, which sailed from Wellington on November 16 carrying Australian and United Kingdom mails, arrived in Sydney on Monday afternoon.

The following is a. copy of a radiogram received from Colonel Logan yesterday relative to the health of the troops at Samoa:—"Health of troops good. Two hospital cases, next-of-km in. Samoa."

The annual summer holidays of the State schools of the Wellington district will commence on Friday, December 15, on the previous .day to which the schools will "break up." The date of reassembly will be Tuesday, January 30. A new war regulation issued under date November 20, revokes all_ those previous regulations by which licenses were required for the importation of goods into New Zealand from certain foreign countries.

The price of flour, says a Press Association telegram from Dunedin, has been raised 10s. per ton, bringing it to £14, less 2i per cent, discount. This makes an advance of 30s. since the beginning of the month. After several suggestions to suitably commemorate the death of Dr, A. A. Martin, of Palmerston North, it has been decided to erect an X-ray and Bacteriological Institute at the Palmerston North Hospital, and to place a bust of the late Dr. Martin in the grounds of the Hospital.

*At last evening' 6 meeting of the John son ville Town Board it was decided that no action would he taken by the hoard with regard to the petition presented to them requesting that the name of the town be changed.

The "Message from the Sea" appeared in the "Warrnamhool Standard" (Victoria), on November 13:—Mr. William Steere, of Raglan Parade, when walking along Shelly Beach yesterday, picked up a sealed bottle, which, when opened, was found to contain the following message:— "S.S. Devon (H.M.N.Z.T., 64), Ist October, 1916. To whom it may concern. This was thrown overboard in the Australian Bight, six days out from Wellington, N.Z., by flic following Weirfngton boys:—Ptes. Knight. Slack, Brown, Halley, Lance-Corporal Snelling. Ptes. Clementson. Gardiner, Henderson, Murray, Pugh, Fleming, Tremain. Please notify Wellington papers and oblige." '

Four more pupils of the Auckland Aviation School have passed their flight test as air pilots. They are Messrs. Cook, Collier, Jas. Sharland, and P. R. Going. The tests were carried out under the observation of Col. Ward and! Capt. Garland, A.Q.M.G. Each' of the pupils made two sets of figure eights in landing, and also showed some skill in volplaning. One came down with the engine shut off from a height of 1375' feet.

The Board of Trade,_ which is_ in the north' conducting an investigation regarding retail meat prices, held a sitting in Auckland on Monday, and heard some evidence. The hoard will remain in Auckland for about a fortnight. It has been rumoured recently that the Terrace School will have its full complement of pupils when it opens in 1917, and that it will be impossible for any more children to he admitted. The headmaster, however, reported last night to the School Committee that he hoped to admit from 120 to 150 new pupils in the new year.

At the Auckland Supreme Court, Thomas Francis Walsh, charged with indecent assault on a child at Gisborne, was sentenced to two years in prison.— Press Association.

Kincma films are a subject of remark in the report of the Church Life and AVork Committee of the Presbyterian Church. The committee "recognises that this form of entertainment has come to stay, and has possibilities for good as well as evil. Pictures representing pugilism, methods of housebreaking and theft, and scenes bordering on the obscene, are unsuitable, and fire tho mind with unworthy thoughts and desires. It is hoped tliat the form of cousorship recently established by tho Legislature will be found purifying, practical, and effective."

An interesting communication has been received by the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke.) from Licut.-Colonel M. Cooke, of the Royal Irish Regimental Depot at Clonmel. The writer states: "I received to-day a cutting from n. Now Zealand paper, passed to mo by the officer in charge of records, Cork, "giving a description of the celebration of the fifty-third anniversary of tho landing in Auckland of tho Royal Irish R-egi-ment. It has given very great satisfaction to all ranks to know that this event has beon.celebrated, and is all tho more appreciated by tho fact that one of your gallant New Zealand regiments (7th _ Wellington West Coast. Regiment) is .allied with the Royal Irish. There is noclue in tho cutting to show who tho originators of the celebrations were, but I am suro you will express in the proper quarter tho an-" preciation of tho regiment for the honour done to them."

The first examination of candidates iu the Otago University Officers' Training Corps (Medical Service),'for "A" certificate n-ill be commenced in Dunedin on Saturday next, when 38 candidates will present "themselves. Surgeon-General Henderson, K.H.P., Director-C4eneral of Medical Sorviecs, and Major J. L. Sleeman, Director of Military Training, v.-ill visit Dunedin for tho purpose of being present.

That something in the nature of a vendetta existed on -board a steamer -which arrived in Wellington recently was disclosed in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday, when four Russian firemen appeared, charged with desertion. According to tho story told in Court, thero was friction between tho firemon of Russian nationality and the British firemen. It was alleged on behalf of tho Russians that they were in terror of the British firemen, who had subjected them to very harsh treatment. Tho Magistrate sentenced the men to 48 hours' imprisonment, and ordered that they should be placed on board the vessel. Mr. Dickson appeared for the men, and Mr. Blair for the shipowners.

"What is sometimes referred to as the veiled plague is touched on in the report by tho Church Life and AVork Committee of tho Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. The paragraph reads: "Your committee are of the opinion that increased attention should be given by the Church to the new-discovered and awful pestilence of venereal disease that slays its tens of thousands, while tuberculosis is slaying its thousands, the former causing immeasurably greater personal and domestic unhappiness and social havoc."

At a. meoting of the vTairarapa Automobile Association it was decided that.the road through, -the Featherston Military Camp was one requiring Government assistance. Several of the members expressed the opinion that motor taxi proprietors were not being fairly treated in being called upon to contribute £12 per annum each—providing a total of £960—towards the maintenance of this road, used so largely by the military authorities, as well as private car owners.

Two members' of the United States Department of Commerce, Mr. Frank Rhea and Mr. R. A. Luhdquist, are at present, visiting Auckland; The trip, which will later extend to Australia, China, and Japan, is primarily being undertaken with a. view to bringing before American manufacturers the exact conditions and requirements of tho Dominion railway and electrioal systems and markets. Messrs. Rhea and Lundquist expect to remain in New Zealand for about four weeks.

Since the . declaration of war, ae fewer than 30 members of the Nanier office of Messrs, Dalgety and Co.,' Ltd., have enlisted. Altogether this firm has sent 138 men to the front on half pay, amounting tc £7000, with a guarantee of their positions as well when they return.

The measles epidemic, which has been prevalent in Pongaroa, \Woodvijle, and some ofthe country districts, is now claiming .a good number of victims in Pahiatua. Several cases are reported, and acting on medical advice it has been deemed necessary to close the Pahiatua public school for a week.

During his visit to Dunediu last week, the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Hospitals, visited the camp, near the city, which is now being used as a mental sub-hospital in connection with Seacliff, and is occupied by chronio cases, mostly of senile decay. The Minister made a careful inspection of the whole property, with a view to seeing how far the accommodation could be, increased in order to relieve the congestion both' at Sunnyside and Seacliff Mental Hospitals, and'thus provide for increased classification at these institutions.

"The General Assembly has again convened during the sreat war," said the Rev. R. M. Ryburn yesterday in the course of an address at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church: "Another year of devastation and appalling carnage has passed. Many of our young men have laid down their lives for the cause of liberty and righteousness, and consequently many of our homes are sad with bsreavenient. To all who have suffered! our Church extends great sympathy, and prays .that such may be succoured by the God of all comfort. Tens of thousands of our young men have : freely offered themselves for the sake of right, a great united purpose pervades the Empire, and large gifts have been offered for oppresed peoples and injured soldiers: for these things we thank God. Nothing has occurred'during the year to alter the firm conviction of our nation in the righteousness of the cause and the necessity for the part she has played. Nothing has occurred to alter the strong determination to carrv it through to a successful issue in the interests of civilisation and a frep humanity. Although peace is earnestly desired, it is paramount that no peace should come until international criminals are punished. Law cannot be law and enter into peace negotiations_ with criminals. But we trust that in the«good providence of God', ere next Assembly meets, a lasting righteous peace will shed its warming, life-giving rays upon the waste and : stricken places of humanity."

Sunday last was the 58th anniversary of the departure of tho 58th Regiment for Great Britain, after service in:-the Bay of Islands beginning in 1845. The first regimental • colours unfurled in this Dominion were the colours of the 58th Regiment, now deposited in the vestibule of tho Auckland! Free Library; the first regimental band that played in this land was tho 58th Band, and .three bandmasters of the regiment (Bandmasters Davis, Kearns, and Shanaghan), are interred in Symonds Street cemetoryj Auckland. Over 1200 mon of the regiment took their discharge during their 13 years' residence in New Zealand, most of thorn settling in Aiickland, Taranaki, and Wellington. One soldier of the regiment,became Governor of New Zealand, Superintendent of tho Auckland Province; others were in tho Provincial Council audi, the Legislature of Now Zealand, two becoming Ministers of the Crown; the poet of the regiment dropped the non-paying pen and entered commercial life, becoming a- director of the Bank of New Zealand. Hundreds went on the land and became successful farmers, and thoir descendants are still found in pioneering districts. The only surviving merabor of the regiment alive in Now Zealand to-day is Mr. Free, of Now Plymouth, who, with a- brother 58th' Rogiinent man (Lieutenant-Col-onel Stapp) were the leaders in the engagement at Waiareka, in Taranaki. Lieutenant Freo is carrying his 92 years of age wonderfully well.