LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3082, 12 May 1917, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An - Order-in-Council gazetted last night fixes the maximum price that may be charged for machine-dressed seed wheat at one shilling pur bushel more than the. price fixed for othor wheat.. This price for milling wheat varies from month to month, •in terms of a schedule of rates gazetted some tune ago. The question of whether or not the erection of new freezing works in various. parts of Now Zealand had increased the demand for slaughtermen in an uujustifiablo way was raised before the Third Wellington Military Service Board yesterday bv the Military representative, Captain Spratt. The freezing companies, said the captain, had extended their works in order to take advantage of high prices and profitable conditions, and so they had increased the number of ''boards" that required to be filled. But there had been 110 corresponding increase in the numbers of cattle and sheep slaughtered, and it appeared that the Defence authorities were being asked to exempt slaughtermen m the interests of the companies. A smaller number of works, omploying fewer men, could handle all tlie stock by extending tho season slightly. Expert evidence and the opinion, of the board were against Captain Spratt. It was mentioned that prompt handling of fat stock _ wasnecessary if loss was to be avoided; that additional freezing works tended to increaso flocks and herds, and that the new works were particularly valuable at tho present tira9, since theyprovided storage for meat and so assisted to tide over the periods of shipping shortage. The work of building and otherwise' preparing the new segregation at Tauherenikau is going on steadily. Men from each of the four military districts will be encamped in tents in the camp area, the groups of tents, cookhouses, latrines, etc., being at the corners of a large square. Tlie troops, will only meet 011 parade, and tlie different companies will be made up entirely of men from certain districts.. Yesterday, Surgeons-General Henderson, Director-General of Medical Services, and Colonel Hiley, Director of Camp Construction, visited the camp. The Auckland Racing Club Committee lias donated £1000 to the Salvation Army Institute at Featherston. —Press Assn. A solid-looking tower has been built on tho Salvation Army Institute. at Featherston Camp, in which is being fitted the clock that used to tell the hours from tho tower of the New Zealand Insurance Company -in Queen Street, Auckland. The clock, when completed, will show four faces, and .will strike the hours. At night the dials will be llgnted with _ electric lamps. In the tower building will bo a library _ upstairs, and writingroom downstairs. At the Magistrate's Court, Wairoa, James Andrew, alias Watson, a public carrier, was committed for trial on four charges of theft, including pigs and benzine. —Press Assn. Sergeant O'Halloran, of Lambton Quay Police Station, who is transferring to Dannevirke, was yesterday afternoon presented bySenior-Sergeant Emerson, 011 behalf otWe members of tlie force-at Lambton) with ?, silver teapot. ' ■ The Wellington RcSnrned Soldiers' Association has received \i gift of two hundred free admission tickets to the Cherniavsky. performances. The case of a man who had been retained in one of the training camps for nearly a year as' a member of a band was mentioned before the third Wellington Military Service Board yesterday. The soldier had been granted leave evontually.in order that he might resume his work, as expert knifeman in a pig-killing establishment, and the. employer was asking for an extension J of tho leave. Tho man was a skilled worker in an important industry, said the employer, and he was doing better service in overalls than lie appeared to have been doing in'uniform. The leaking of camp music could be undertaken by nieu who were not required in industry. The military representative had nothing to say against this view of the position, and flic board deoMed to recommend that the bandsman should bo granted extended leave without pay. Tho Union Clothing Company have forwarded a cheque for £100 to tho Y.M.C.A. Trench Fund. A cheque for £6*2 10s., half proceeds of tTie sale of somo land in Wairarapa, on behalf of Mr. A. 11. Perston, of Kelburn, has also been received. At the Auckland Police Court,.George Olson, master of the trawler Muriel, owned by Sandford, Ltd., on a charge of trawling within forbidden limits in Hauraki Gulf, _was fined £0 on each of two charges, and a. formal order was made for the confiscation of the vessel.' —Press Assn. Crews of "wind-jammers" are citen cosmopolitan. In the Magistrate's Court yesterdny,'in a case in: which an application was made to have'a seaman bound over to keep the peace, amcng the members of the crew called were a Norwegian, an American, a Greek, a Japanese, and a Dane. In the Supreme Court yesterday, the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, sentenced Edward Alfred Walsh to three years' reformative treatment for steal-' ing from hotels. Prisoner was already serving a term of imprisonment forsimilar offences at Blenheim- arid Napier. .The thefts for which he was .yesterday sentenced wore committed at the Masonic Hotel, Wellington, and the Masonio Hotel, Palmerston North. Driver J. T. Kent, R.N.Z.A., has offered to the Mayor a section at Reikiorangi for tin growing of potatoes. In the list of Smilar offers which was published yesterday tho name of Driver Kent was given as "Mr. Driver." The committee of the Second Division League ask us to state that a badge which is on sale. in .the .city has' ,no connection whatever with the league. So far as tho comniitteo have been able to ascertain, the badge lios been produced privately. A serious outbreak of diphtheria, at Gisborno is taxing the accommodation of tho hospital, tho wholo of the isolation quarters'being now fully occupied with diphtheria, together'witlr other j infectious cases (states a"recent issue of the "Poverty Bay Herald"). Additional accommodation is being provided in an adjacent building. The total number of patients in the institution generally (including, those in the isolation buildings) now' numbers 120, and the medical superintendent and _ h.is staff are experiencing a. busy time. So far one case of infantile paralysis has occurred this season, and unfortunately tho caso is a rather severe one. interviewed 011 the- subject, Dr. Bowie stated that the diphtheria rases wero coining from scattered localities. Fortunately many of tho cases were of a. mild character, and so far there had boon only ono death. Putting his. arm. "around the waist of a. e;irl of 12 years' of age, against her will, led to a mau appearing before Mr. T. A. B. Bailey, -S.M.„ on. a charge of common assault (says the Christchurch "Sun"}. Remarking that ho felt it his duty to protect young girls, the Magistrate inflicted a fine of £10, with the alternative of two months' imprisonment.