LOCAL AND GENERAL
The prohibition of the importation of wheat, flour, bran, and pollard is announced in a Gazette Extraordinary published last evening.
Official statistics, prepared by the Government Statistician on tho basis of reports from the wheat-growing districts, show that the area under wheat this year is 293,000 acres, an increase of about 55,000 acres on last year's area. Tho urea under wheat in' this country in 1913-H was 166,771 acres, in 19U-15 it was 229,600 acres, in 1915-16 it was 329,000 acres, and in 1916-17 it was 238,000 acres. Tho yield.in 1915-16 was unusually low, so that tho Dominion did not got tho full benefit of the increased area in that season, 'Die prospects for the present 6eason are reported to be good. South Cftiiterbury farmers aro very well pleased with the look of the fields at the present time, and are hoping that the yield will be above rather than below the average.
A complaint that it is unsafe for children to play on the Basin Eeserve owing to cricket balls flying from practice at nets placed near tho fountain was made to the Wellington Cricket Association last evening by the secretary of the Publio Schools Cricket Association. Under such circumstances, ho said, teachers hardly cared to take boys to practice. The trouble seemed to bo that tho practico pitches now encroached on the part of tho ground previously set aside for tho uso of children, and also that much more practice than usual was 'ooiDg dono before 5 o'clock. His associati&n hoped for improvement in the matter, because the danger was n real one. The Cricket Association left the matter to its Ground Committee.
Strawberries are fairly plentiful in Wellington at tho present time. The spell of warm weather brought the fruit into the market, mainly from tho Auckland district, with a rush, and ono result haa been a certain amount of waste locally. The retailors were asking Is. 9d. to 2s. Gd. for prime boxes last weok, and Wellington did not buy freely at these prices. Stocks were carried forward, and yesterday strawberries that had deteriorated through keeping wcro being offered as low ns Is. a box. Auckland fitrawborries nro likely to come forward in considerable quantities during the next fortnight. The local strawberries aro a little later ( and tho crop in the Wellington district is roported to bo generally small. The Auckland growers report a good season.
A Press Association telegram from New Plymouth state* that a conference ol Anglican clergy and laity had before it yesterday a proposal to form a Taranalri Diocese, embracing portions of Auckland and 'Wellington. Bishop Averill presided. It was decided to take immediate steps to create a separate dioce.se and raise an endowment fund of .£20,000.
The introduction of chamois to New Zealand was primarily due to Admiral Ritter von Hoehnel, of the Anstrian Navy. They were tho gift of tho late Emperor of Austria, who warmly approved the Admiral's suggestion. The animals arrived in Wellington in 1907, and were liberated in tho Southern Alps shortly afterwards. Here thev appear to have done well. Chief Guide P. Graham, writing to the general manager of the Tourist and Health Eesorts (Mr. B. Wilson) as recently as October 28, said: "I linvo pleasure in reporting that when the guiding staff were working on the Ball Hut track Guide Lippo saw eighteen of thn chamois on tho track near tho Blue Lake Stream. Ho had quite a near view of them, and all appeared to do in splendid condition. When at tho Ball Hut a few daya ago I also v eaw quite a number of footprints round and near the Ball Hut. The marks wero quito fre3h, and the chamois had apparently been there that morning."
A petition for a rise of ono shilling a day in wages was received by the Hntt County Council yesterday from the men in its employ. Tho matter was allowed to stand over for the new council to deal with.
Mr. Rodger Banson, tho eminont statistician, of Wellosloy College, Boston, has gathered tho following interesting figures from a closo study of war casualties:— Under present conditions, whore manpowor is being saved, no more than ono in 30 is killed. Only ono in 500 loses a limb— a clifince no greater than in hazardous conditions at home. Mr. BabKon's conclusions aro T»i8oil on the mortality figures of tho French Army for tho full three years of war. Attention is called to the fact that present fighting is not claimins anywhere Hie number of dend recorded for the first two yenrs. Ho snyfl:—"Most of the wounds sustained in tho trenches are clean cut and nro of a nature that a few weeks in tho hosriilal ronko tho snMect fit ns ever. But i! 00,000 French soldiers have been discharged on account of wounds during tho three years of war. Most of the wounds received in the (ronehes nrc on top of tlie head, simply scalp wounds. Practically sneaking, a wound is either fatal or slight, with but few in between those two oxtromes." <
After thirty-throe vonrs' continuous service, Councillor -T. Wnkwiani has retired from Hie TTnlt County Council. . Councillor T. EH wards, who had been for nini< years on the council, nlso has retired. Councillor Edwards ' s removing to Ashhurst. Yesterday each was presented willi a Gel; of carvers by (he councillors and the staff. Councillor W. Tfowell made the presentation, nnd referred to the good work the councillors had done.
In John Ayscough's" book, "French \\ mdows, is given a terrible picture of n. 1 ronch village from which the Germans m<l been expelled by tho advancing Allied nrmies. The author paesed from olio house to another "finding in eaoli the snmo ruin, havoc, spoiling, desecration, filth and shnmo; you would say that bunds of malevolent apes had been lidding spiteful, senseless, ingeniously destructive carnival there, as though long kept under by tho superiority of man, ilrey had seized a moment of anarchy for rovenge— not revenge of an injury, but of man e hated superiority. So they had outraged man's sense of decency and revcreuco; had marked for peculiar insult and desecration tho things man holds sacred by Nature—the privacies of his womonfolk, the play of his children, the ulirino of his henrth." "It's the. only place where whiskies are sixpence!" was a reason advanced by a member of the Stratford County Council why Eltham was chosen as tho headquarters of the Taranaki Counties' Conference. At the Magistrate's Court yesterday tho police were only ablo to present two inebrintes, first offenders, and Mr. W. G. Riddoll, S.SL. who presided, convicted and discharged them. Tho present etato of tho roads in tho Hutt County was tho subject of a report by,the county inspector of works to yesterday's mooting of the County Council. "The roads throughout the county," _ ho eaid, "are in liiir to medium condition, and aro only kept so by continuous patching. We have no crushed metal for the Lawry Bay-Day's Bay Boad, and have had to resort to tho method of breaking by hand, which I cannot say pives fiio best results where motor traffic is almost continuous. Tho West Hoau, from Paekakariki to Wnikanae, has considerably improved since the crushed metal has been used." In the Juvenile Court yesterday, before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., a twelve-year-ol(l girl was charged with stealing £1. She was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. "In a straight talk to my girls," said an. experienced schoolmistress, "I advised those who were looking forward to earning their own living to avoid blindalley occupations. So many girls leave school after the summer holidays that I am always anxious about their future. Nowadays, comparatively few need hope to eettlo down as married women in homes of their own, so everyone should at least prepare to be self-supporting. It is very tempting to start off with something easy and that requires little exertion. But it is the hardest path to tread in tho end. For women must grow old; move and more sfirls of to-day are realising this fact, so they are looking out for occupations that offer possibilities of expansion and chances of earning increasing salaries." The small bird nuisance is stated by the Nelson "Mail" to be moro pronounced than ever in the Nelson district this senson. Field crops in some instances have been practically ruined, and great damage has been done in some orchards. Ono orchardist who was expecting to gather several hundred cases of greengages has lost the whole of his prospective crop, birds having stripped the fruit buds from the trees.
Mr. Herbert Cvowther, who was formerly Collector of Customs at Westport, referring to the West Coast robbery when interviewed by a Christchurch reporter, said that nobody could be very surprised that such an outrage had occurred. Such a robbery would present no overwhelming difficulties to a desperate, determined well-armed man. Mr. Crowther recalled that he was on duty at the West Const some sis or seven years ago, and when acting as. agent to the State mine it was part of his duty to take the pay of the miners to Seddonville fortnightly. Ho carried between i£lsoo to ,£2OOO, mostly in notes of £H denomination, but including about ,£SO in silver. He used to leave Westport about i p.m. by train, arriving at his destination at fi.3o p.m. In the winter, of course, the journey was made in the dnrk hours, and after leaving Granity,' anything might have happened, there being but four officials on the trainnamely, Mr. Crowther, the driver, fireman, and guard. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for a desperado to have mounted the train and hold up those on board. Stoppages were made at sundry flag-stations, where parcels, etc., were dropped. Nothing; ever did happen in my time, added Mr. Crowther, but the possibility was ever preBont before me, <uid I took what precautions I could think of. Dr. Valintine (Inspector-General of Hospitals) was at Invercargill on Thursday last, and met the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, to whom he expressed his opinion of the- Invercargill Hospital ,in no measured terms, says a southern exchange. In fact, ho condemned the whole establishment—lock, stock, and barrel—ias a back number, and recommended that a start should be made on a new hospital at Kow, where the board had a fine and suitable property with plenty of ground. The over-crowding in the. present hospital was terrible, and to this ho attributed tho fact tfiat no fewer than fifteen of the nurses had been down this year with diphtheria and eight with scarlot fevor. 'The kitohen conditions were horrible, and tho provision for the Btoring of food disgusting," he said, and hie only commendation was for tho operating Toom and nuTses' homo, They had 122 beds in a. hospital built to accommodate 69, and owing to the over-crowding there was no means of classification, and they had infective and septic cases in practically the samo ward ns the surgical, and adjoining the male and female wards. The Wellington Patriotic Society's band will play selections at Newtown Park this evening.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 43, 14 November 1917, Page 4
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1,863LOCAL AND GENERAL Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 43, 14 November 1917, Page 4
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