LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 307, 16 September 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The mails which loft New Zealand for tho United Kingdom on July 23 last have arrived'at thoir destination. The coal trado inquiry is to bo opened at Auckland this woek. The members of the Board of Trade have loft for Auckland. At the Canterbury Aviation School yesterday morning, states a Press ■Association telegram from Christchurch, ' a record altitude flight was made by Colonel C. M. Gibbon, Chief of the General Staff, and Mr. C. M. Hill, instructor, in a 100-h.p. machine. The> clinrbed to a height of 5600 ft. The Minister of Public Works (Sir William Eraser) has laid down a rule that in tho expenditure by local bodies of Government grants for public works the local. bodies must not pay more for labour than lis. per day. Some difficulty appears to have been experienced by some local bodies in getting men at this rate, and thoy have applied to tho Minister for permission to pay higher wagos. Tho Minister has replied that be will not permit the payment of any higher rates of pay in the expenditure of Government grants. If tho local bodies cannot do the work at these rates tho Publio Works Department will do it. x During the Italian Red Cross Day appeal, made recently in London, tho Prince of Wales wrote to tho lion, secretary, expressing his appreciation of the noble and sympathetic work which the Italian ■ Red Cross is performing. Tho Prince, who has seen the orgaui-, sation's work in Italy, sout a chequo for £50, and "hoped that the appeal would meet' with every success." Tho Trumpet Band played selections in the hospital grounds yesterday, and gave enjoyment to a large crowd of listeners. A collection which was taken up. amounted to £7 16s. 7d. The v Post Office receiving box at tho Karori cemetery gate will in-future be cleared daily at 9.30 a.m.; those at tho Karori East Post Office and at Lancaster Street will be cleared daily at 10 a.m. The first European born in the South Island died at Blenheim a few days ago—Mr. John Guard, who first saw the light at Queen Charlotte Sound in 1830. In 1834 tho barque Harriet was caßt away on the beach at Okahu, near New Plymouth, and deceased, then a child in arms, and his mother were taken prisoner by the Maoris, and kept in the pa by one of tho chiefs for some months. Eleven of the crow were killed. Tho others escaped with deceased's father in a whale boat, and on their arrival in. Sydney the matter was reported to the authorities. The warship Alligator, with 100 troops, came over to New Zealand, and after some fighting deceased and his mother were rescued. At a late hour last night the Fire Brigade received a call to Pipitea Wharf, where somo lumber had caught fire. The brigade was promptly on tho 6ccno, and the fire extinguished. The Minister in charge of the Cook Islands iias secured a large number of young plants of tho true Panama palm for planting on the various islands of tho Cook Group, says the Auckland "Herald." The intention is to establish the Panama hat-making and matmaking industry, which havo proved so profitable in other tropical countries. ' A convalescent home for soldiers at Wanganui, formerly a largo private residancc adjoining tho hospital, was opened on Saturday by the Acting Prime Minister (Sir James Allen)?" It will accommodate twenty-live soldiers, and there is ample room for expansion.--Press Association. Allusion was made by Mr. C. Rhodes at the. meeting of the executive of tho Auckland Patriotic Association to iho provision made by the Defence Department at King George's Hospital at Kotorua. Mr. Rhodes said he had recently visited the institution in question, and was surprised at the lack of provision for the comfort of the men. "Our men there," he said, "are getting much less consideration from tho Defence Department than they are entitled to. I should be very sorry indeed to see a son of mine there." He went on to say that he thought it would he appropriate for the association te tako the matter up. The place was lilso a barn, and if the men did not go down town to sonm of the other institutions thoy had to spend their evenings in that portion ot the placo in which iill recently there were no windows. It was resolved to refer the matter to tho Rotorun Committee for a report as to what is beimj done for the men in tho wav of providing them with comforts at tho institution mentioned. Tho colour effects of n "Mitchell slideeasy" tie are always pleasing. See our range at is, 6d. Geo. Fowlds, Ltd., ManI ners Street.—Advt,

A policeman discovered a fire in the Otago Club at Dnncdin at 3 a.m. on Saturday (states a Press Association message). He burst in the front door and roused the inmates, numbering nineteen. The fire originated in the upper floor, and burnt through the roof. The firo brigade suppressed the fire in fifteen minutes. Considerable unavoidable damage was done by water and smoke, probably amounting to from £700 to £1000. The building was owned by the Standard Insurance Company, and the club was insured for £2000. Tho fact that a- sailing vessel brought a cargo of sulphur to Auckland some months ago (reports the "Herald") was mentioned on Thursday by the president of the Employers' Association, Mr. A. Spencer. There were, he pointed out, abundant supplies of such material in New Zealand, and it seemed remarkable that foreign dealers should be ablo to send it to us at a profit to themselves. The movement to persuade woolgrowers of New Zealand to express their gratitude to the Navy and mercantile marine by giving at least half of the profits received from the sale, for other than war purposes, of surplus wool by tho Imperial Government is making good progress. The fund for the benefit of dependants of sailors who have been wounded or have lost their lives in defence of tho Empire will bo known as "The New Zealand Shecpfanners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seaman Fund." The trustees are the Hon. W. D. S. Macßonald (Minister of Agriculture), Hon. D. H. Guthrie (Minister of Lands), Hon. Sir Walter Buchanan, M.L.C., Sir J. S. Wilson, Mr. J. C. N. Grigg, Mr. W. D. Hunt, and Mr. E. Newman. Mr. T. R. Lees, of the Department of Imperial Goiernment Supplies, is honorary secretary. A pircnlar, signed by Mr. Newman, originator of the fund, is being sent to 24,000 sheopfarmors. Sir James Allen, N Acting-Prime Minister, in a letter to the promoters of tho fund, says: "I am in strong sympathy with the suggestion that farmers should join together and ask, that the surplus wool profits beyond the price paid last year I should be'devoted to the dependants of sailors of tha Royal Navy and mercantile marine who have done so much to keep the waters open. The movement, being spontaneous on the part of the woolgrowers, will be of the greatest value." Mr. 'P. Fraser delivered a lecture last night at the Alexandra Hall on "Tho Red Flag." Mr. Fraser gave a good deal of history in tho course of his address, in which he sought to show that the red flag has in many ages been the banner of the revolting lower classes in society. Now it was the international flag of Labour,, and was -acknowledged as such in ' every civilised country. It was the flag of the French revolutionaries, the flag of the Commune, tho flag of the Russian Revolution. Mr. Fraser said that tho red was not the emblem, as was commonly supposed, $ violence and bloodshed,' but the emblem of the blood-bond of brotherhood among men. It stood for government from tho bottom ti| tho top, whereas every national flag stood for government from the top downwards. He had a little to say also about the Russian Revolution, and he referred to the possibility of its being .crushed out by the Allies as a "danger." ■ '