LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 82, 31 December 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A daring robbery was perpetrated in the heart of tho city of Christehurch on a recent night, the Colombo Street office of a laundry being broken into. A right-of-way runs up behind the office, and it was from this back entrance that the burglars made their entry. Contrary to the usual custom a considerable amount of money had been left in tho till, whereas it is generally locked away in the safe. On the morning that the burglary was discovered it transpired that the contents of tho till had disappeared.

Tho tobacco-growing industry in Hawke's Bay is' now on a fairly firm basis, but although tho climates of the two districts have much in common nothing has been done in this direction up till recently in Nelson. However, according to the Motueka "Star," it appears as if this state of affairs is to ba remedied. Mr. C. L. Lowe, a wellknown orchardist, has raised sorao 50,000 tobacco plants in his orchard for experimental purposes, and this year intends to plant some ten acres. Mr. Lowe calculates that an acre of orchard will take 4000 plants, and that seven plants will produce a pound of leaf. Tho experiment is being watched with interest. I Something in the nature f.f a panic was created in Russell in the only hours of last Monday morning as the consequence,o fa report that a launch, with suspiciously fluctuating lights, had been sighted near tho shore (says the "Northern Advocate"). "German escapees," was the uppermost thought, and the matron of the Salvation Army Orphan Boys' Home received a startling shock when she was suddenly aroused by tho authorities and ordered to take all the youthful inmates (20 in number) te tho security of the bush. It was thought that the closo proximity to tho beach was inviting a serious risk. The order was literally obeyed, but proved to bo the outcome, of "nerves," induced by the Motuihi incident, and the children had a time none too pleasant until broad daylight showed that there was no enemy menaco in tho offing.

A mail coach of the type used in England a century ago is being built in "Christchurch to the order of Mr. H. G. Ell, M.P., who intends to run it between the Christchurch Post Office and Kennedy's Bush (says a C.nistelnireh paper). Mr. Ell has taken great pains to secure a coach of correct design, and he has been assisted by a volume of prints of the old coaching days, and has had to guide hmi also the recollections of some tf the eldest; colonists, who well remember the coaches of seventy and even eighty vears ago. The new vehicle, will be drawn by four horses, and Mr. H. !>■ Lance, an expert dnyor of fmir-in-hands, has agreed to drivo.it for an exhibition run around the city, carryin? as many old colonists as ™.i be assembled who have actually travelled in the old coaches of a former age. it will be painted m yel ow, chocolate and red, the popular eilonrs of bam Weller's days, and it wi?l hare the customary boot, under the driver', seat a 9 well as the top seats and the extra seat at the rear whore the guard was mounted with his horn. Under the of the Wellington Social Democratic Party, Mr. H. h, Holland lectured on Sunday evening ;m Alexandra Hall on the subject of the bearing of the Canadian elections and the Australian referendum on conscription in New Zealand. There was a good attendance. A remarkable story is being told by a New Zealand nautical man. who has sailed in many seas and who is at present in Duncdin (says the "Otago Daily Times"). Ho says that on ono occasion the captain of a steamer which was crammed full of war material for Mesopotamia complained of illness just prior to the time the vessel was to cast off from an English port, and was taken ashore. A hurried search was made to secure a captain to take the steamer out, but as no one was available, the first mate, though ho did not possess the necessary tickets, was promoted to captain, and the lines were cast off. The steamer, however, had not proceeded far on her voyage when she was hailed by the commander of a German submarine and ordered to stop. Tha commander then, according to the Duiiedin sailor, wanted to know what had happened to the steamer—"sho was eight hours late." The steamer was then quickly destroyed, and a number of the crew were either drowned or killed by tho explosion of the torpedo. The captain who complained of illness and went ashore was subsequently examined by several doctors, who could discover nothing wrong with him, either organically or mentally, and the sailor who tells' tho story says that he was then committed to take his trial for murder.

Tliis is the first occasion that there has been a shortage of tea in England, and judging from the chorus of complaints people find it more difficult to do without tea than without sugar or butter, wrote the London correspondent of the. "Ago" on October 20. There is said to be a large stock of coffee in tho country, but English people have'never taken to coffee as a bovera"c. It is true that in most English households the art of making gocd coffee has never been mastered; but neither has the art of making good tea When the fact that a shortage (it tea was inevitable was announced in the newspapers cveryono joined mttie rush to the shops to got a small stoelc to last for a few wepks. Grocsrs were besieged by applicants for tea, and their stocks were soon cleared out. Others restricted their sales to lib. to P ach customer and subsequently reduced the amount to 207,.

Again the mouse plague is beginning to cause anxiety in Victoria. With the warm weather has come an increase in tlio number of niiue in country centres. The new Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Oman) will endeavour to keep the wheat harvest now being gathered free from mice by refusing tlioin access to the stacks. Stacking sites which have been decided upon are to bo encircled by galvanised iron fences, and every precaution will be taken to ensure tho exclusion of mice. When the sites have been thus secured the greater portion of the harvest will bo stacked in tho country until required. No low-lying country site'swill bo used, so that the .yheat may not bo subject to inundation by water. If suitable positions cannot be found in centres where- the wheat is giown, the grain will be brought to new sites. At tho present time, when the German submarine pirato and ether relentless enemy machinations infest the oceans of the world, it might be imagined that a seafaring career hardly presents the attractions to the youth of the nation that it used to do in the days before the war, says tho Melbourne "Age." For piracy m reality has little of the glamour and thrill oi piracy in a boy's romance. Nevertheless, it appears that tie youth or Australia still hear the call of the sea. Recently tho Commonwealth authorities called for applications for eight apprentices to sail upon , a " "s-wam-iiU ship, that was recently taken over from the State Government end refitted for oversea work by the Urnmonwealth. Within a day or «ro over forty applications wore received trom the'parents of young hoys and youths to whom tho adventure of a life en the high seas appealed, and the eight positions have been filled without difficulty. .