LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 138, 28 February 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Minister of Defence has received a cable message stating that the Thirty-third Reinforcements have arrivod at their destination safely.

The Third Wellington Military Servico Board will hold its last sitting tomorrow. It is understood that the board is to be disbanded because there is not now sufficient work for throe boards.

After to-day (February 28) the importation of Australian Hour into New Zealand will be prohibited. The bakers, 'who use Australian flour largely throughout the Dominion, say that the- result of the prohibition will mean bread of u very inferioi quality and texture.

At the Cliristchurch Magistrate's Cjurt yesterday James llcdgers, importer, was lined £5 and £3 Bs. lid. costs for a breach of the Post and Telegraph Act in having forwarded matches through the post.—(Press Assn.)

The chairman (Mr. C. E. Daiiiell) announced last evening that the Public Trustee had reported on the Harbour Board's Superannuation Fund. At the present time the fund was £29,000 in credit, and 265 members of tlio staff were members of the fund. The receipts last year amounted to £1123, to which had to bo added a bonus of £bD, Riven them by the Public Trust Office, part of a general division arming the customers of the Public Trust Office, of which they were one.

At a meeting of the provincial section of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association, tlio following executive was elected for the ensuing year:—Messrs. W. C. Weston (lion, treasurer); C. H. Walker and H. V. Duigan, representing North Island proprietors; Messrs. P. Bond, C. East, and R. J. Gilmour, representing the South Island proprietors; Mr. F. Pirani, chairman; Mr. A. M'Nicol, lion, secretary.

The run is on "NO RUBBING" Laundry Help, "GOLDEN RULE" Soap, and "GOLDEN BULE" Candles. Mrs. L. Reed, Taraiwki Street—Advt,

The finding of a district court-mar-tial held at 'J'rentliam Camp on February IS, having been confirmed by the Commandant, New Zealand Military Forces, ia hereby promulgated:—20,144 I'nvato A. J. Ham, B Coy., Thirtyfifth Reinforcements, found guilty of: (1) When on .active service deserting His Majesty's service; (2) losing by neglect his equipment, clothing, and regimental necessaries. Sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for six months.

Tho fullest advantage is being taken by tho schools of the City Council's offer of free entrance to tho Tβ Aro Daths on four afternoons in tho week, and in theso warm days the children lite delighted with tho innovation As there would be altogether too many children in tho baths at the one time, if all the children went on the same flay, tho headmasters have arranged a rolii, by which each school or fjioup of schools will have thoir own day Tho privilege of free entrance to the baths will, before the season is out, mean that many hundreds of children will have learned tho rudiments of swimming, and. at. tho same time, benefited their health, by the vigorous, oocn-air exercises the recreation entails. The movement to throw the fcitlis open to tho school children of "Wellington may'bo the thin end of the n-edge for compulsory swimming, so persistently advocated by tho New Zealand Swimming Association as one of tho essentials of health and even life tiifilf. At the Wellington Centre's rwiniming carnival, to bn held at the To Aro Baths on Saturday afternoon, several races for school children are included in the programme, and tho much-coveted Duthie Cup will be competed for by teams of four from the different schools.

One of the features of the Town Hall meeting on Tuesday evening was the cumber of people in the big audience who were flagrantly disloyal in their conduct. The meeting was opened, as many meetings are in these days, with tho singing of the National Anthem, and as a matter of course the people siood and sang. But there were many vslip kept their seats. Tho percentage was so small as to be negligible in considering the character of the meeting, but there were at least a hundred people in different parts of the house who made themselves conspicuous in their refusal to acknowledge loyalty to their King. A deserter from camp was arrested by Constable M'lntosh in the backcountry of Mackenzie County, nnd was brought to Tiniaru on Monday. He was placed under military guard, and bent to Wellington. Tho deserter was to have returned to camp three weeks ago, but failed to do so, aud missed the boat by which his contingent left. Tie adopted a very cunning method to avoid detection, says the Timaru "Herald." Considering that he would be safer in the Mackenzie than in Timnru, ho took the train for Fairlie, with the object of securing a position on a wayback run. He arrived at Fairlio with ■\ green shade over ono eye, a pronounced limp in one leg, and generally bore the appearance of having been_ so cruelly handled by the war machine us to excite the sympathy of nil who saw him. By the time lie reached his destination, however, the invigorating air of the Mackenzie had caused his ailments to disappear as by a miracle, and when arrested he was sans eyeshado, sans limp, and sans everything save tho appearance of a well man who had never been touched by sword or bullet. Even the coachman _ who brought him down did not recognise in him the same man that he had taken up a few days previously. At last evening's meeting of the Harbour Board it was decided to agree with the City Council's conditions regarding ' pavements and a temporary water service in respect to the subdivision of reclaimed land at Cablo Street.

"Those boys have got a new schorae for evading drill now," said a ser-geant-major in the Christchurcli Mutrifctrate's Court, when a number of Senior Cadets wero charged with failiug to attend drill. "They ro harvesting now. That is a very good tiling in itself, but the remarknblo feature is that they don't decide to f;o harvesting until'the day after the summons is served on them."

The collection relating to the narly history of New Zealand tlint is being worked up by the Historical .Committee of the Board of Science and Art consists of two sections, viz., printed papers and manuscript documents. A very valuable addition to the _ formr>r has boon received at tho Dominion Museum from the Dunedin Athenaeum in the form of sets of the Ants and proceedings of the Provincial Councils of Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and Otago, together with similar official publications. These early works are now almost unprocurable, and are a valuablo addition to the national collection. An interesting early Look, Matthew Flinder's "Terra Australia," published iu 1814, has been received from Mrs. D. Scott, of Wellington. Reeont purchases include a fine calfbound copy of "Cook's Threo Voyages," published by "William Anderson in 1781, which contains an "authentic, entertaining, full and complete history of Cook's voyages undertaken by command" from 1768 to 1780.

At an inquest on tho body of Alfred Henry Jones, who was drowned in Manukau Harbour, a verdict of accidental drowning was retoirned, and the coroner' added a rider to the effect that the owners of pleasure launches should be compelled at all times to carry lifebelts for their working crew and a lifebuoy with 15 fathoms of light line attached and ready for use at any moment. Ho also stated that after hearing the evidence he had no doubt the deceased s life could havo been saved had his launch been provided with a lifebuoy and line, as the deceased rose twice within a few feet of where lie sank alongside of tho launch. The coroner was informed by Captain Gibbons, harbourmaster at Onehunga, that the Harbour Board could not compel owners of pleasure launches to carry life-saving appliances , or limit the number of passongers carried by them.

It is some considerable time since iiie Now Zoaland Acadomy of Fino Arts has held a sketch exhibition. At a meeting of the council held last night h was decided to organise and hold, an exhibition of colour sketches and black and white drawings at the Art Gallery shortly after the Easter holidays. The dato of opening was fixed for April 20 next.