LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 28, 27 October 1917, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tho Secretary, Genera! Tost Office,-. Ims. been advised .that legal time remains advanced by one hour in Eussia.

At a meeting of the board of the Bank of New Zealand yesterday, it was resolved to donate n sum of XSOCO to the Red Cross Funds (Our.Day),,.the amount lo be equally apportioned anion? the.Pea Cross societies at Auckland, "IVcHmsfem, Christchurch. and Dunedm. i Mr. B. netcher,- M.P., made a.-state-ment in the House o£ Representatives yesterday to correct a statement he had made tho previous day as to the nationality of the man Tirrksma, who was in charge of the lending of, transports in Wellington. He was advised that tlio % mmi was a naturalised British subject. Wing been naturalised in 1910., He «aa born m Eotterdam, and he. had been in Mew Zealand eleven years. In the House of Kepresentatives jester : day afternoon Mr. W. H. Field asked the' Ministpfof Munitions whethev th<* butter 'supplied tb'a transport',.oi which''herhad,mado' complaint the' previous• 'day;; had: been purchased'throtigh; tha 1 '.Munitions Department or not. The Hon. A.- m: Myers said it had not. The shipping company had made the purchase. All the butter purchased' by'his"Department had'' to receive a. Government certificate that it was of first-class grade. .•"

Tho Thole of Otago is more,or less saturated as a consequence of the wot weather which has been experienced, and the primary producers are wistfully longing for a. cessation of rain and for a hot, drv spell. South of Dunedin, states'the" "Daily Times," the Taierl Plain has suffered most severely. Between Otokia and Titri the country is one lake, dotted -with homesteads entirely surrounded by water; nor does there seem to bo any immediate prospect of getting rid of the flood -water. The whole of this portion of tlie plain is lost .for the season. Further south the Tokomairiro farmers complain .that there lias been little, chance, to., sowcrops owing to the soakage of the ground, .and these who missed their chance, when the weather was more settled are anxiously, waiting for an' oppor-. tunity to sow. At present a large area of that plain remains without seed, although the ground has been prepared to receive it- Indeed, quite.a. number, of farmers have had to cultivate their land twico. Comparatively little wheat will be-, grown gcruth of Dunedin this season," as it, is. now too late to sow it, apd the prepared ground-will have to be put to some other purpose. . It is even getting tatoto so.v oats;' ami if the weather, does not quickly change for the better the indications are that a goodly portion of the farmers' labour in preliminary preparation will be useless, Grass is growing luxuriantly, although complaints are made that owing to execssivo moisture there is not much substance in it. The hilly country from whioh the surplus water runs off never looked bettor, and this is an ideal season for this class of land. The wet ground had a tendency to develop foot-rot in the sheep.

Few families have snch a proud record of military sorvicc. to their credit as that disclosed at last sitting of .the Military Service Board at Queenstown by applicant's counsel in the case of Hugh Boss, scheelite miner, Gienorchy (reports the "Lake Wakatipu Mail"). In tho brief mention made of it, Mr. Turton stated that Ross's father and mother were, respectively, 80 and 62 years of age. Their family. consisted of five sons and seven daugl'iters.. Four of the former had an : swered the call of King and country, one..having made the supremo sacrifice, 'one having been invalided, one being in hospital in France, anil the other (as far as he know) still in the trenches. Of the seven daughters, four were in the London Ked Cross, two others were married, but their husbands were fighting in France, and the remaining one was at home ,i.n Scotland looking after the "old people,",to-the support of. whom applicant was .regularly contributing.

Mr. J. Payne asked : tho Prime Minister in the House of '.Representatives yesterday whether it was the ,intention of the Government to take legislative powers to deal with the meat export business on the lines of the committee's report. Mr. Massey said that he intended, to bring the matter before Cabinet before Parliament was prorogued, but his opinion was that for the time" being the Government had all the powers it needed, Mr. Wright a sited the Minister of Defence in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon if newspapers posted in New Zealand addressed to soldiers at tho front had any reasonable, possibility of reaching their destination, ns it was commonly believed that they were destroyed by the authorities in London or elsewhere. "I give it an emphatic denial that newspapers are destroyed in London or olsowhere," replied Sir O'anieg Allen. "They arrive very irregularly."

The attention of wool-growers is called to the meeting to be held at the A. and P. offices, Palmerston North, on Thursday next (Show Day), to elect- a repre-sentative-on the board-of the Controller, Department of Imperial- Government Supplies,; 'l.'his board is to be composed of six members to represent tho wool-gr-oTTors' interests • of- tho Dominion to eit with, the convener when required.

The Minister of Mines (the Hon* W. D. S. Mac Donald) stated -in the House Representatives yesterday that the Stata Coal Mines Department had teen doing soiho exploration work in the Seddonville district, and the Tesult had been that a fair seam of coal had been discovered. A surveyor was in the locality looking out a route for transit of the coal won to the railway.

At a conference in Masterton between Mr Thomas Moss, a member of the National Efficiency Board, and the Chamber of Commerce it was decided to recommend the appointment of business trustees to act in co-operation with the farmers' trustees. \bout ,£lO was taken in connection with the weight-judging competition at tue Carterton show. The proceeds are in aid of the AYairarapa hutment ;n I ranee.

Privat" Reg.' Moore. secon-A son of _ Sir, F T Moore,'-of Johnsonville. writing! from Sling Camp, England, on September 5 says:—"Just as mv reinforcement was leavin" for Franco l"was ordered to stay behind to supervise the running of camp transport and kinema motors. While training here use was made of mv services for this work, and I was asked to. volunteer for a permanent post at a good salary. J. felt that I would be considered a slacker bv the men. witli whom I had trained if T did so, and declined the offer. 1 felt, a bit slack at the belt when I was on red to stop in camp while my comrades marched away, but a soldier has to obey orders or be pub in the 'clink.' So here I must stay till further notice."

The Wellington Afar Relief Association lias received the following letter from the Cape Town Anzac Committee-.—"At present we have 26 New Zealanders and over 200 Australians in hospital here, whom we visit once or twice a week, and supply with fruit, tobacco, cigarettes, toilet requisites, and Australian and New Zealand papers. We also send returning New Zealand and. Australian ■hospital ships which call here fruit, tobacco, newspapers, etc. The newspapers are forwarded to us direct by the Australian Red Cross Council. ' Visiting troops passiug through Cape Town are entertained, a stall being set aside for that purpose. The Australian Red Cross Has given us financial aid, and several Australian friends have sent donations. If New Zealand could aid us financially we would esteem it greatly, as it is not possible to appeal in Cape Town tor pureiv 'Anzae' needs, there being so many couth' African war funds, which naturallv come first. We have two New Zealand la'dico on our committee, and the treasurer, Mrs. Kotherhnm, is fromAuckland. The secretary is Mrs. \\v Luml, 'Afralia" Flower Gardens, Cape 'I'own."