LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 129, 18 February 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In connection with the violent attack made on the Revs. Stockwell and Miller at Feilding on Thursday night, it appears (says our special correspondent) that a man called at tho residence of Mr. R. Burne just before it occurred and asked to see the Rev. Howard Elliott. Mrs. Burne replied that Mr. Elliott was still at the meeting. _ It had been arranged that Mr. Elliott should stay with Mr. Burne that night, but in view of the visit of the man suspicion was aroused and it was considered prudent for him to stay elsewhere. That night a stone was thrown through one of Mr. Burne's windows and two stones struck the front door.

Captain Malcolm Ross, official war correspondent with tlio Xow Zealand Forces, cables that groat interest was taken in a football match between Welsh and New Zealand tennis chosen in the war zone. Tho New Zcalandors were victorious by fourteen points to three, this being tho third victory they have scored over their famous opponents since coming to the Western front. The same was a brilliant exposition of Rugby, faet, and spectacular. The New Zealand backs excelled in passing rushes. Each team included a number of famous players.

Son:e.\ amending i emulations relative to the sale of sheepskins were issued in a Gazette Extraordinary on Saturday. They provide that the order prohibiting the purchase of sheepskins shall not apply to a purchaser acting on behalf of the Ns*v Zealand Government or in pursuance of a licence issued under the regulations. The military inquiry that is proceediuif with reference to the Motinlii affair has been mistakenly called a "court-martial" in a Press Association telegram. Colonel Patterson, the ofheer commanding the Auckland district, is one of the officers whoso connection with the escape of German prisoners is being investigated, but he is in no sense on trial. No charge has been made against him. A special meeting of the CollegeBoard of Governors is to be held this evening to consider the questions that have been raised by tho exclusion of Borne girls from the High School owing to lack of accommodation. It is possible that arrangements will bo mado to secure the necessary accommodation elsewhere.

Apropos of the- death sentence! passed upon William Kgge.rs M'Mahon, Hie perpetrator of the West Coast murder, an Otngo "Daily Times" reporter was informed on reliable authority that the person who will officiate as hangman is n. South Island farmer in a fairly prosperous position. This individual acted in a similnr en parity when Homiior was hanged recently, and when lie reenirod the fee for the performance of this work ho deducted his expenses from the amount, and handed the balance over to the Patriotic Society in the district where the execution took place,

A simple little "contrivance, which Private Phillip Henry (formerly of tho Government Printing Office- staff, and a son of Captain Henry, inspector for tho Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) secured from a dead German, is an electric Morse lamp for infantry. There is a tiny electric bulb enclosed in a metal caso, which can be placed on the end of a rifjo or periscope,, and so wink back messages from tho front lines, without tho enemy being any the wiser, as the light only ehows on iho ono side. The lamp is fod by n fimnll battery, which is hitched to tho tunic belt'On the letl sido, whilst tho switch block hangs from tho belt on the right side. The contrivance is very cheap, and must bn !i very effective night-signalling apparatus, and of value- for iiso before the telephone wires are working.

A Press Association telegram from Hastings states that tho Rov. Howard Elliott addressed a meeting of about 200 people there on Friday night. Then? was no disturbance of any kind, slid it was iinanimously resolved to form a Hastings branch of the Protestfint Political League. An emphatic and absolute denial to a rumour which has been current in certain parts was given by Sir James Allen, Minister of Defence, in his reply to the Second Division League deputation at Invercargill on Tuesday. The Minister stated that ho had heard it said that he had used every means that lay in hi.s power to postpone the culling up of the Second Division for the reason that ho was afraid to call it up. Ho wished to absolutely contradict that statement, and to say that, so far as his knowledge went, he knew of no Second Division man who would circulate it. For, so far as he knew, every Second Divisionist was just as ready and willing—perhaps more 60 in some instances—to go, as had been the men of the First Division. He did not deny his conviction that it was their absolute duty to clean up tho First Division as completely as possible first, and that he had used every means in his power to postpone the calling up of the Second Division, because he felt that to be liis duty; bait he was not afraid. He had never been accused of cowardice since he took up the portfolio of Defence, and he was not a coward.

The first of Thomas A. Edison's "in-, usible shops" to come to Baltimore dropped anchor olf quarantine (says an American paper). It is a. new ship of British register, and has just been completed after tho original plans by Mr. Edison. As she appears in the harbour the freighter looks like any of tho other hoats at anchor. Tho towering masts, with their massive derrick booms, form the chief feature of the invisible plan, for they are hinged at the deck. When the vessel is entering tho waters infested by TJ-boats these masts aro lowered to the deck in such a manner that they extend along each side near the rail. The smokestack is removed, and any breaks left in the top line are boarded so that the line is straight. In her neutral colours the ship can scarcely be detected on the horizon. Tho decks are low, and in tho danger zone - hard coal is burned so that there is no toll-talo trail of smoke.

In Trentham Camp Orders it is wnounced that 71,116 Pte. M. Holroyd, C Company, Thirty-fifth Reinforcements, having been found guilty by district court-martial of disobeying _ a lawful command given by his_ superior officer, has been sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for two years.

' The suggestions made by Mr. R. H. Johnson, president of the Auckland AEester Butchers' Association, that the Government should take over all abattoirs and meat freezing works, in order to combat the Meat Trust, came before the Auckland Farmers' Union Executive meeting last week. Major Lusk said the Standing Committee had conBidored the proposal, and had decided that it was too great an undertaking to urge upon the Government at present. Mr. L. H. M'Alpine snid the only way to successfully combat the meat trusts was for the Government to requisition all freezing works and run the whole meat industry as a State concern. The report of the committee was received without further discussion.