LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 10, 6 October 1917, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Minister of Defence announced to the House of Representatives last night that the last portion of the Twenty-ninth Reinforcements- Imd arrived safely at their destination. He slated also Unit New Zealand had now no troops at. sea "The-" railway senvHuts «t Addin ß toii Workshops yesterday passed a rwoluUon trongly protesting, ajta.nst the -.nnction of the Government regarding the cost of living, .and demanding that Parliament shall take action to reduce the cost of commodities or else increase wages by at least two .shillings daily.; Wiling a definite eplT in a-week, the railway delegntes.lp meet and consider further action-Press Assn.

During ,ast financial year the Government expended the sum of .£35,137 on workers , dwellings. The lolnl mii.sj.er el dwellings erected'was F5, »i:.l the Department disposed of evsry one ot them. The coastal steamer Huia returned to port last night owing, it is understood, to a leak being discovered when sho v;as outside. Wellington Reads. outyra.rd Wd'for Wnnganui'antl Ne«- Plymouth. The vwsel sailed at 7.20 ?-™->™* re : turned to No. 13, Quenn's Whart, at 9.20 p.m. .....

The F'liblie Petitions Committee preBPntcd its report lo the House of Beprcwntatives vesterday on the petition or Ernest Short, of Feilding, V™S™S !ur iwtiirv into the action of the Dctwicc Department in railing up his sons i.nder rlaUo 35 of the Military Service Act. Tlnviii" inquired into tho circumstances, the committee is of opinion that the Short family should not have been dealt with under section 35 of the Act as W. 0 Short had enlisted in August, 19U, fhV Iho notice under that section .was U,«l' by mistake, owing to die incomplete stale of the oflicial files; that in tie opinion of the committee under ha circumstances, no .stigma rests on the Short family.

There was great fan in "M Shed .yesterday afternoon when tho Commfcrcial Travellers "scrambled" a caso of odds and ends sent 'in l>v' oiin of the warehouses. Women, with flushed cheeks and eager eyes, eagerly Fcramblcd for the trophies. It was only the steady good humour of tho travellers ami a fresh cascade of "good things" that kept the scramble .from becoming a 'scrum. A house, near Tokomaru, occupied by a family named Russell, was destroyed by firo yesterday .morniug.. Mr. and Mrs. Russell-were absent -from the house, _at niilkine, when the .fire occurred. .*.n infant child, eleven months old, was leit asleep in the house, and perished in the flames-Press Assn. The suggestion made by the member {or Hurt in the House on Thursday that tho Government should arrange with the Gear Meat Company to sell meat for caslj atMhe prices charged under tho scheme in operation in other towns in which meat from' the" 'Government hooks in the freezing chambers'.is supplied for local consumption was mentioned in the House vesterdav ngain- by the Prime Minister. Mr Massey said that he had received .a; report from the Board of Trade on the proposal, and tho board said if meat were supplied from Government stores the prices that, would have to be charged would not bo quite as low as those now charged in the Gear Company s shop.. I Mr. Massev 'added that he would insist in future that meat supplied from lcW stores to butchers- should not be oaded with storage charges. This could be. done without injustice to the Imperial Government. — The exact boundaries of the Hult e'.ectorato can. now bft..stated with certainty. The whole of tlie.Upjier Hutt town district is now out of Hutt electorate, also that part of the Hutt county west of the railway north of Upper Hutt to Wai-.-toko and the Mungaroa district, Uhiteliian's Vallev, Silverstrea-m. Heretaunga, and the townships of Eastbourne ami Day's Bay still rernnin in Hutt district. The committee of the Wellington local branch of the Society of Accountant, has a-ppoinled-.Miv.Tohn S: Barton chairman and Mr. Ernest W.. Hu.nt-local secretary' of the branch for' Hie ensuing Tear A sub-committee has been ft up to arrange meetings to- discus? r,rcfes-. eional subjects and other matters aflectin» commercial interest?. Ihe iirst r.ietti,,"of members will be hold in the n>eetin* hall of the society on .Thursday «« . when the chairman will deliver kcldress on "Municipal Trading. ,[v. <-. jr -Bowden, a member of the local cwn--mittee, and a]so a member of the. -ouiicilof the society, was nppointed to riMWCBcnt the local branch on the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. Messrs. Baldwin and Kaywawl, patent attorneys and consulting engineers, ot 215 Lambton'Quay, -Wellington, >,e«- /,caland, report-that recently they acted as agents in filing the following applies rion for letters patent of New Zealand:•R AV. Rcliofield. AVliakataiie, sectional bomb; T. Anted. Geelong reinforced clothes peg; H. Berry and Co., 1 elbourne, sausage machine; J. L. i.ottei, Otnki, horseshoe tool; H. ii.ckland, necktie support; N. J. fj™*Toko, teat cup holder; .T. H. Cornish, Hamilton, tractor; H. Henderson, Komaiorau, motor; B. V. Weteiev, Auckland, tyre carrier: H. Mason. A\ellui?ton, fencing wire spinner; A. Lyes, Auckland, envelope. . . .