LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3038, 27 March 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

His Excellency the. Governor tv-CII renew the Twenty-third Reinforcements at Trentham this morning, and will afterwards inspect the camp, and _ witness the manner'in tho troops aro trained for active service. K. feature of tfie'day's programme will be a demonstration of tho "work of the new service rifle, which lias teen received from Home, and is to. be issued to -the troops. , A. vessel which was to have arrived at Auckland from Sydney yesterday had oh board 681 bags of United Kingdom Expeditionary Force and Australian mails, of this amount, 196 bags; were, for Auckland, while tho balance was .for the south'.- ; .The Wellington . portion should get lie're this afternoon. , The High Commissioner has cabled to th© Aoting-Prinw Minister as follows The' General Post Office intimates that parcels'for prisoners of war in Turkey suspended till further notice. 'Among tho passengers by yesterday's steamer from Sydney was a smaTl body of soldiers from the French South Sea Islands. '

'Among tho passengers who arrived at Auckland from Samoa by the last; island steamer,.were seventeen soldiers —15 on furlough,: bne returned for duty, and one medically unfit. Their names are Sergeant Nordropp_ (in: charge), Sergeants O'Dwyer, Fisher, and M'Carthy,' Corporal Russell, and Privates Godfrey, Lloyd,. Robinson, M'Kenzie, Korr, Sumner, Atkinson, Ross, Lang, Smith, Nolan, and Grogan. —Press Assn. 'Among the men ,who are enlisting in the > city now are some who have done certain Home scrvico duty some time, and! are 110 wheing replaced .by others and given their opportunity to go to the front. •' > , "I regard every race meeting held at this time as a direct public insult to the brave men who are fighting at the front for the Empire and for us," Bishop Julius is reported to have said in Christchurch. One result of, the long dry spell iu "Wellington has been the invasion of many households in- the city by a plague of. mosquitos of a particularly voracious variety. ; Many citizens, unused to the pest, have ' had uneasy nights and itchy days during the past week or two. The high cost of leather is said to have had certain effect on tho boot repairing trade in the city, but jas far as the volume of work goes the trado is busyl The kindred trade of making harness also is busy, but iii .this line, too, the shortage of supplies has hampered operations. ■ , . A further batch of .men from the city will be dispatched to the military training camps, to-morrow Tho strength of the draft is uncertain, but it will most likely be a small one, numbering not more than thirty men. A South Island draft of men will go in at about the same time. Does the granting of a decree absolute in divorce nullify an existing maintenance order? This question cropped up at the hearing of a '• case in the ' Magistrate's Court yesterday. It was ) stated that tho maintenance order had i been issued when divorce proceedings l were ponding between tho parties, and i counsel said they were unable to find . any authority bearing upon the prob- . lean raised. Mr. L. G. Reid, S.M., ob- ; served that the point was an in t erest- , ing one, and reserved his decision. ■ At the meeting of tho Wellington ; Central Chamber' of Commorce yester- ' day : afternoon Mr. L. M'Kenzio'mentioned the matter,of tho calling,up of ' the Second Division. He said every assistance should he-given to'the Na--1 tional Efficiency Bokrd to see t.hn t. ' small traders who would be the chief ' sufferers, were not forced into undue i hardship. He was of opinion that the i chamber should endeavour' to protect • such mon. Action was. deferred, pend- . ing tho meeting of tho members of tho [ division to form a leaguo. , That,there is a desire to cultivate trade between tho various parts of tho Empire is shown by' the faot that tha Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce recently received two letters from traders in Jamaica and one from Johannesburg, in which tho writars express a dosiro to open up business relations ' with traders in New Zealand. . It is reported that the bricklaying trade in Wellington is fairly busy, thai i carpenters and joiners are busy, and - that painters.are very busy. Men »re 1 still wanted for plumbing and gas (itr ) ting. . ■ Employees in Wellington places of 3 amusement propose to form a union and - register under tho Arbitration Act. ' 1 The drought that has boon oxperic enced in tho Wairarapa' during; tho past - month was broken on Saturday ovenis ing (aays our Mastorton correspondent), - whon refreshing rain fell throughout 1 tho district. , You may pay a higher price, but yon 3 cannot buy a richer, more handsome, more g luxurious car than tho . Hudson Super Six. Price alone is powerless to lm- ' prove on its near perfection. Tho vel--8 vety flexibility of the Hudson contented 3 motor, the spacious seating accommodas tion, the deep leather upholstery, and . its beautiful finish, make it a oar to be , proud of. May we demonstrate this 1 car to you? THE DOMINION MOTOR i VEHICLES, LTD., G5 COUKTEfNAY t PLACE. WELLINGTON.—Advt.

In reforence to the request made by the Soft Goods Employees' Union to the Wellington Retail Drapers' Assooiation for faster Saturday to he observed as a holiday, tho secretary of the Employees' Union has been informed that the request cannot be granted. Easter Saturday (tho Drapers' Association states) has always been considered by the trade, as one of the busiest dayß of the year, and this was conceded by the union at the recent sitting of the Conciliation Court,. when a complete agreement was arrived at. The drapers' shops will therefore remain open on Easter Saturday, most of them observing it as tho late night.

A deputation from tho Wairarapa Hospital and Charitable Aid Board interviewed Surgeon-Major Robertson, P.M.O."(in the absence of Surgeon-Gen-eral Henderson) on Saturday last, and arranged for tho erection of a building adjoining tho Featherston Military Hofpital, for tho accommodation of relatives and friends of sick soldiers. Writing from Franco to his mother, Mrs. S. A. Gilbert, of Oriental Bay (and late of Woodvillo), Private Neville W., Gilbert, of the Fifth Reinforce-, monts, says that among tho -many things that aro done to hearten and amuse the boys at the front is tho establishment of picture shows. In. his own section a special hall, "100 ft. long and 30ft. wide, had been erected by their own Pioneers, tho Maoris, with seating accommodation for about 500 mon. "We have a piorrot concert for half the programmo and. pictures for tho other half," said Private Gilbert. "J.t is really a very good show, considering where wo are, and, of course, is greatly appreciated by . the boys. : The programmo in design .'is typiqal of New Zealand, and . the proscenium of the stage is painted to represent Maori carving, with a big tiki in the centre, clematis climbing over each end, and, last but not least, Zealand ferns'in. tho corner. Private Gilbert was .wounded at Gallipoli, and, recovering from his,injuries,.went to France, where he has beeu serving for the past year. His interest' in the battlefront thoatro is explained when' it is known that he was the electrician concerned in tho fitting work. ■

Particulars dealing ; with the increaso in the oost.of hospital administration were given by tho Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Publio Health, in the course of , a speech in Auckland'. - Tho Minister stated that in 1896. tho total'expenditure under the heading ,of hospital and charitable aid was £199,000. In 1905 it had risen to £259,000, .and for 1916 it reached a total of £578,000, representing over 10s. a head for the entire population of the Dominion. New Zealand compared with any other oountry in the world, held pride of place for the extension of hospitals and the work <tono in them. At present there were sixty-five general hospitals in the Dominion, with no less than 3832: beds, representing beds for every -1000 ■of tho population. The capital expenditure had increased during the. last ten years from £31,000 to £75,000, and was steadily rising as the older type of hospital g<ive_ place to the more modern- institution. In '1906-7 there were 17,000 porsons under treatment in tho hospitals of New Zealand, or 19 to every 1000 of the population. In 1916 the number had moro than doublet!, being 36,000, or 33 for every 1000. Tho average number of beds rose from 1505 in 1906 to 2617, in 1916. "This is a fine record," added the Minister, "and indicates the progress made in this direction in' New Zealand in Tecent years." ' 1 , , . V

Apropos of the shortage of medical men in the Dominion caused by tho demands made on the profession by the Tvar, the Hoii. G. W. Russell (Minister of Internal and Public Hc-alth) states that ho 'hopes' to he able, in the not distant future, to considerably extend tho. system of baiTsarios at the Otago Medical School. His proposal is to apply to students from the time of their entry .into tho school instead of only to fifth-year men, as at present. The Minister is desirous, iio, states, of scoing ths medical service of the Dominion cra-sn from the ranks of the democracy, asu not from a class only J To accomplish this the' State, he says, : must assist parents in moderate circumstances._ to whom the sacrifice would be impossible if their sons had to bo maintained throughout the-whole of their_ career at tho Medical School. He considers it would be an excellent idea.' if a special fund were created to assist in siicn cases. <

Agirl of eleven years c'amc before ah Auckland Magistrate' the other day for theft of an unusual character. Chief Detective M'Mahon oxplajned.that the girl , had formed the habit of peeping into 1 a letter-box at tho. gate of an Ellerslie resident, and eventually began to take letters from the box, look through them and tear them up. After some days she .came across a letter containing a £1 note. Tho money she toot and.hid in a.stone wall, fearing to take it homo, lest the theft be . detected by her parents, and when sho was found 'out a, feif days later tee money was. discovered in. the wall, lhe little girl Was engaged-by'the Magistrate in a course of admonishment delivered in the form of question tod answer on the subject of interfering with 1 other people's goods, and she was finally put on probation for threo months. ,

' A number of piocos of aluminium from a Germau Zeppelin brought down in England have been [received by Mr. Herbert Page,' of Messrs. Lovm and Co.'s staff, Wellington, from hiiyfatlier in England.. The Zeppelin-concerned W3? the first'brought down on' English soil—not the one brought down in tho Thames and which sunlc shortly afterwards, but ono of tho ten which raided England on October 2, 3914. This ono was hit, and descended in flames about 16 miles from London, and all the crew porished. The aluminium,' which was shown to a Dominion reporter yesterday, is finely tempered, and while of surprising strength is exceptionally light. The joints are lightly but sciimely riveted. This Zeppelin 'was broken up. The engino was taken to London for examination by expert engineers, whilo the aluminium framework was cut into small pieces and sold for tho Rod Cross Fuhds. It "is Mr. Pace's intention to hand the small amount, of material ho has received over to somo couunittee, who will sell it in' Wellington for a patriotic fund. Tho old complaint about tho unsatisfactory writing of pupils leaving public. schools was mado again last night at. the mooting of tho _ Wellington School Committees' Association. The question was raised by a. delegation from tho Kilbirnio School Committee (Messrs. Wallace and Clark). They urccd that .writinc was an essential mibjeot, to which more attention should bo given. . A great many subjects were taught which/wore not essential, and the time and the attention now. devoted to. these subjects could with more advantage he devoted to writing. It was a deplorable fact, they insisted, that'writing in. the schools was a nocclcctcd subject, and was bad. This opinion was. generally supported by the .meeting. Tt was decided to refer.the matter to tile committees for their consideration. .

Tlio plumbing work undertaken by the. I'ctone Borough Council yielded a' profit of £213 net in a period of about eighteen months. W.l i \C.A / . cannot be" bothered with in-, ferior gualitjr goods; only the beet find favour with tnem( heneo their enthusiasm for "No Uubbing" Laundry Help. Thinker Note Book given free with every ts. packet of "No Eubbing."—Advl. ITirst quality Linen Collars at pre-war prices, 9d. each', or 4s. 3d. the half-dozen. Geo.-Fowlde. Ltd.. Street.—AAvt..

A practice shook was held at FsS& Ballance oil Saturday. The*shooting at a "cruisor" 2000 yds. away was good, and a "submarine's periscope" was hit at the fifth attempt. j Ono of 'tho trustees appointed iii the Wairarapa by the National 'Efficiency Board is (says our Masterton correspondont) of opinion, after making olose inquiries, that there are a number of exempted mon in the district wjio could be spared before the Second Division is called up. At the meeting of tho, 'Potons Borough Council last evening tho following motion, proposed by Councillor D. M'Konzie, was passed:—"That it bo a recommendation from this council lo the Government that tho strictest supervision ho exercised in the medical examination of recruits for war purposes, bo as to guard against unnecessary hardship on tho men who. are \ taken overseas, knowing that laxity of medical inspection, of recruits has revealed the fact that many, soldiers who . left Now Zealand were unable to proceed beyond Britain owing to physical disabilities. Apart, from the economic question of cost and the humane consideration of tho person, we ask thai this state of affairs be-speedily rectified." ; At the Petone Borough Council meeting last evening it was stated that it was expected to have tho motor 'bus running on April 16. , ■ ' Mr. John Babington's application for a public hall license for the Oddfellows' Hall, which is to be converted into ' a pioture theatre, was granted by. tho Petone Borough Council last evening, Bubject to the usual conditions.