LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 16, 14 October 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The R.M.S. Niagara arrived from Vancouver at 10.30 o'clock on 'Saturday morning, says a Press Association telegram from Auckland, and berthed at the Queen's Wharf. Visiting Ministers and local authorities, who assembled on'the wharf to meet Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, did not board the steamer in consequenco of an outbreak of influenza on board. Mr. Massey f.nd Sir Joseph Ward 'are well.

Referring ■to the suggestion by ' tho Mayor of Wellington regarding the rer patriation of men in Imperial units, Sir James Allen on Saturday, according to a Press Association ■ telegram f/om Auckland, stated that it was the business of the Imperial Government to arrange for tho return to New Zealand of the men referred to. The Imperial Government would attend to the matter, and consequently there was no need for the New Zealand Government to take action.

A brief strike of the coal miners of Nightcaps occurred last • week. Tho men objected to the dismissal of a miner who had refused to do a certain cleaning task allotted to him. A representative of tho Labour Department acted ae conciliator, and tho men resumed work after one day's idleness. The miner was reinstated.

A few 'days ago a paragraph appeared in The Dominion calling attention to the marked shortage of corIrugated iron in Wellington. Iron is so scarce that fences are being pulled down to be sold at the inflated prices now offering. One master plumber informed a Dominion reporter last week that ho not only did not have enough corrugated iron to make a tank, but had not a sheet in stock with which to repair one. Some shipments are due shortly from America.

Relatives of twelve soldiers who have died in Wellington have agreed to ieinterments from different parts of the Karori Cemetery into the special_ allotment for members of the Expeditionary Force. The Minister of Internal Affairs lias made the necessary arrangements with tho local authorities.

On Saturday morning Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., held an inquiry into the cause of the sudden death on Friday morning of Mrs. Mary Bradley, aged 81, who rosided at 10G Northland Road, and who had been a resident of Wellington for about 50 years. It was stated in evidence that Mrs. Bradley had enjoyed excellent health. Dr. Pet tie, who was called in, expres.xnl the opinion that death was duo to heart failure, and the coroner returned a verdict accordingly.

An impression, pretty generally held, that executors of deceased persons 1 estates are ipso facto entitled to emoluments, though tho work may not have been done by them, it wan dispelled at Dunedin last week by His Honour Mr. Justice Sim, who, in ordering to stand over a potitiou for continuation of a report re disbursements in a deceased person's estate, said that the whole of the work appeared to have been dono by the solicitors, and there was nothing to show that tho executors had dono anything at all. "I am not inclined," 'the said, "to make a prospnt of £103 to them just becauso tho beneficiaries are away hi Ireland. There is no 'pain or trouble' shown. rho petition was ordered to stand over for the production of the bill of costs.

' A lecture on "The Progress of Peace Negotiations" was given in the Alexandra Hall last night, tinder Uie auspices of the Social Democratic Party, l>y Mr. - H. E. Holland, M.1 , . Tho lecturer ma do Home observations on the origin of thu war, mid in , tin course, of a discussion of the present wtuation expressed tbo opinion Unit tl'o peace feelers put out by the Germans would bring about, sooner or later, definite pence negotiations. ■

For some time past the residents in tho vicinity of Fablie Terrace have been annoyed by the suspicious actions ol a man who has accustomed himself to pioivlinf,' about the neighbourhood at night time. Complaint was made to the jfolicp, and about 9.15 o'clock _ on Saturday night Constable Graham visited tlio locality and made a search. At the back of one of the houses ho found a man hiding among some timber and bushes. The man was taken into custody, and -will be brought hrfore the Magistrate's Court this morning on a nbarge of boing a roguo and a vagabond. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr. J. H. Gunson) made some interesting comparisons regarding the population of New Zealand at tho old' colonists' reunion last Tlnmiiky. He quoted figures for 60 years bfcok, showing the great strides which in the old colonists's time Now Zealand had made. From a population of 59,41 ft in 1858 ■if. bad increased to 1,103,794 in 1918. 1 The greatest increase- in any "rw period was in the yoar 1874, whbn no less than 32,118 emigrants arrived, although be- , tweon the years 18-58 and 1861 there was' an increase of 40,000. In congratulating the old colonists at' the reunion in the. Auckland Town Hall on Thursday upon what they had done for this Dominion, Mr. Gunson made some interesting deductions in respect to the Dominion's export returns. He said that in the matter of tho oounrnuch to establish, the export returns, which indicated tho true wealth of the country, showed the wonderful progress which had been made. From ",853 until 1914 the sterling vatae of exports had increased from £303,252 to £26,261,447. THe value of tho old colonists' work in this direction, he continued, would never be forgotten, and there would always be retained by this nnd successive generations a high appreciation of the work of the old colonists. Inquiries made in C'hristehurch last week from the highest medical authorities in the city elicited a consensus ot opinion that while the present influenza epidemic is by no means so virulent in form as jn other countries, every precaution ought to be taken by persons affected. Confinement to bed is regarded as an absolutely essential safeguard against serious developments, and care should be- exercised by persons recovering r.ot to come into close contact with others, as the epidemis is easily and speedily transmissible. A. warning is issued, that the present outbreak is not to b& confused with the ordinary bad cold, following upon a chill, which is popularly and erroneously called influenza in Ibis country, lho present epidemic is of a character whWv may develop along serious lmes unless the patient-tokns every precaution against further chill. It would appear that tho remarks made at Kangiora by the Minister of Education (Hon. J. A. Hanan), that the slogan of tho ne-v era winch will begin after the war in connection with education should be o- sound mind m a sound body. Dealing with, this ■ question the Minister laid great stress , on the vital importance to ike future ot the nation of physical health and development with" a view to building up a strong body of men end-women m tho Dominion. They must seo to_ it that the rising generation received such instruction as would enable them to intelligently understand how to care for the body and'prevent physical ills. It was of supreme importance that girls obtained instruction nnd training which would make for the cultivation of health and, right habits-of living. In this connection ho hoped to see introduced into tho Dominion up-to-dato text books, dealing with Ills essentials of healthV-vsimilar to those which had recently been adopted in Canada. A correspondent writes: — "I was ono of those readers interested in your published remarks of October 12 ro General Pau's discourse on slang, ino word "Blighty" is not mentioned, but is derivation, I believe to be a concoction of Hindustani and Arabic, meaning "my land," "my home." Probably our Tommies stationed in Egypt and India used occasionally to get red up" of those countries'and looking torward to their discharge, would exclaim 'Oh, give me Balaadi, its not a bad place alter all.'