LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 174, 12 April 1918, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Cabled advico has been received by the Minister of Defence that one of tho Now Zealand hospital ships which is outward bound from New .Zealand has- reached a, port of call.

Sir Joseph AVard, iii reply to a question as to whether any brokerage or commission is being paid to tho Commercial Travellers'" Association on subscriptions to the AVar Loan collected by members of the association, emphatically states that such is not the case. On tho contrary, the commercial travellers are lavishly spending tlieir own time and money in a patriotic effort to assist this Dominion in the great struggle for liberty. Ho warmly commends their patriotism, and suggests that their example is well worthy of imitation, and he would welcome similar effort on the part of other drCanisations.

It was stated at the Military Service Board yesterday that on three days last week the Harbour Board was one hundred men short. •■•

The Defence Expenditure Commission, headed by Brigadier-General" Sir Robert Anderson, spent the whole of. yesterday in Featherston Camp, inspecting its working and routine. The Commissioner will stay in the camp until Saturday, and will then-proceed to Trentham and-make a similar study of camp Ufa and systems. -No evidence is being taken, the purpose, being to see' both camps before resuming the taking of evidence in Wellington on Tuesday.

The Napier resolutions asking the Governor-Ueneral to remove from among his advisers those of German or Austrian blood, and requesting the Government to remove those of the same nationalities from Government offices, was considered last night by the Invercargill ■ Borough Couucil. The general opinion.expressed was; that there was a lot to be said for the Napior protest, and thore was room for further Government action regarding aliens generally. The matter was referred to a. committee, whien will draft a' resolution rather less drastic and pointed than the Napier proposal.— Press Assn. , '

■ The animal meeting of householders for' the purpose, of electing State school committees in the various districts will be held on Monday, 'April-22. Nominations for the committees must be,in the hands of secretaries by Monday next (April IS). • : -

Kcferrinsi. to the exceptional financial conditions under which the New Zealand and Australian soldiers go forth to fight, Mr. George A. Highland, now in Wellington, who was in New York as late as February last, says that the American soldier is paid 30 dollars (£6) per calendar month, and there is no Government pension scheme for him to fall back upon. Instead of that Congress has made it mandatory on all life insurance companies to accept a soldier as a. "good life" once he has been passed as fit by the military medical authorities, and that on payment of six dollars a month (out of his thirty) his next-of-kin w'!i receive 10,000 dollars (£2000) on his death, 10 dollars (£2) a week for total and 6 dollars (SOs.) a week for partial disablement. In this manner Congress has side-stepped a pensions •scheme and placed the onus on the soldier himself. "Up to the time Mr. Highland, left the States the insurance companies were carrying ovnr 300,000,000 dollars in war risks, and the amount was increasing by leaps and bounds.

At a meeting of the- Featlierston Borough Council held on Wednesday night it was unanimously resolved to give support to tho representations being made- to the Wairarapa Hospital and Charitable Aid Board as to making allowance to old-age pensioners who are inmates of tho institutions under the. hoard's control. In this respect Wairarapa stands in a position of isolation, no »raiit being made for "pockot

money. ' . . .-. '. Tho regulations under which advances may be made to discharged soldiers under Section 2 of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Amendment Act, 1917, are published in this weeks Gazette. ■• ■ ■ ■

A charge against the. City Council w;is made at the annual meeting of the Wellington Rugby Union last evening by the chairman (Mr. D. D. Weir), who said that the city had playing "rounds but did not know how to make the best use of them. There prevailed a false notion that playing grounds should be treated largely as ''show" grounds. Tho following are the largest Auckland ' subscriptions made to the War Loan to date: Auckland Savings Bank, £100,000; Colonial' Sugar Refining Co., ■£100.000; Now Zealand Insurance Co., £50,000; South British Insurance- Co-., £50,000. .

At the invitation of the Wairarapa Hydro-Electric Investigating Committee, Messrs. Templin (olectrieal engineer) and Toogood (civil engineer), addressed a mooting of representatives of local bodies in Masterton ou Wednesday night. It was stated, in the course of the address,, that the estimated cost of the Waiohinc scheme was £120,000. The aununl charges would i> run into £13,000, and the estimated I iirofit on consumption in sight was i £13,834. The following resolution was ! unanimously carried:—"That the committee 'in charge of the hydro-electric scheme be complimented tip o,l " lc wor ' c j it lias undertaken, and that this meeting expresses the hope that the committee will continue until the scheme is brought successful issue.

A team of Wellington cricketers, under the captaincy, of W- S. Brice, visited Otaki on Wednesday, and played a local twenty-two, captained by E. Cliiridge. Otaki batted first, "and made 08 runs, B. Ferguson being top scorer with 25. J. S. Hiddleetono took fifteen wickets and W. S. Brice five. Wellington scored 175, mainly through the efforts of Brice, who hit twelvo fi's out of his total of 141 (not out). J. Bodgers bowled best for Otaki, taking six wickets. Tho visitors appreciated tho hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Blathwayt, of the Otald Maori College, and tho manner in which Mr. F. W. Christians arranged tho trip.

Whilo on their way to Home Bay, Motutapu, in a launch mi Sunday afternoon, a party or six picnickers had a fortunate escape from a serious accident. Just as the launch was turning into the bay the, engino stopped, with the result that tho launch started to drift towards the rocks. A number of shots were tired with a rifle to attract attention on shore, hut they were not heard, and the boat drifted on to tho rocks. Thoro was a heavy swell running, and there was dnnger of the launch being smashed. The furnishings were thrown ashore, and two of the party, Messrs. E. Ball and R. Newdick, attempted to land on tho rocks. They wero rather severely cut and bruised, while tho launch by this time had rather a sovern buffeting. A motor launch was brought to their rescue by Mr. C. Bailey, who towed the boat to the shore. She was beached nearby, with her decks awash, but all tho party were landed safely.

... A_qucsfcion...about-kmfciiio life, insur.-. anco policies on tho lives of members of tho Expeditionary Force who have fnllen at tho front was nsked. in the House of Representatives by Mr. V. H. Heed yesterday. Mr. Reed said that ho had heard of cases iu which men had died ' who had kept up tontine policies for 15 years, maturity being at 20 years, and tho dependants had received from tho compauies only tho amount of tho payments made. Mr. B-ecd suggested that as these men had been "good lives" from an insurance point of view when they went to fight for their country, their dependants should Bhnre in tho benefits of tho tontine at., maturity. Sir Joseph Ward, Minister of Finance, said that he would have tho inntter inquired into, but it seemed to him that there was this difficulty—that an arrangement of this sort would destroy the whole tontine system.

A man named Henderson was-knock-ed down by n tramcar. in Cuba Street last evening. Ho was cut about the head. Ho was taken to Mr. L. M'Kenzie's pharmacy, and attended to by ])r. M'Evedy. Later ho was sent to tho Wellington Hospital'.