The Chronicle LEVIN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27. 1916. LOCAL & GENERAL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 October 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27. 1916. LOCAL & GENERAL.

i One month ago to-day the Horowlienua County Engineer considered the Koxton-Levin main road to be in the best of condition. He had never seen it looking better. When he passed over the roadway yesterday, 011 his monthly tour of inspection, ho was astonished to find the highway in a deplorable staite. This was attributable, lie said;, to the exceptionally large number of motor cars that passed over the road on the two days of the Otaki races. The road has little present ! pn-sppet of being put right, for all the money allocated for its maintenance has been expended already, and the County Council is unlikely to increase its ratee. ' It has come under the notice of the ; Lab;,ill" Department (says the ellington Post) that shoddy Japanese foot- ! wear is being imported, into the (Domin- ' ion, and the Department is taking I steps to see that the provisions of "The i Shoddy Footwear Act, 1910," are be- ; iug complied with.

Mr Arcus, the auditor appointed! by the Auditor-General's Department to make audits of all Patriotic Societies' accounts is in Levin to-day to make his audit of the local society's accounts. Levin Coronation Swimming Baths aire to be opened for the season on Wednesday nest, Ist November. .No official functions have been arranged, but hopes have been expressed that the swimming club will arrange to give eclat to the opening diay. The borough council lias decided that no charge will bo made for admission to the baths on opening day.

The "Second to None" Lodge of Good Templars (Pigeon Bay) has had its registration (undier the Friendly Societies' Act) cancelled, on the ground that the lodge has ceased to exist. In all 44 Good Templars' lodges have been treated in this way, and the Government Gazette of 19th October records their obituaries in five columns of type.

The Salvation Army gave an enjoyable band conceits to appreciative audiences, in the Levin hall, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. A vocal solo by Mr James met with special appreciation ; and so did a soprano cornet solo by Bandsman Arthur Close, and a duet for euphonium and cornet by Bandmaster .Robert Clow and Bandsman A. C'ioso. A whistling solo by Mr F. .Tames was another enjoyable iitem. The rest of the program comprised marches and fantasias by the band. The Commissioner of Stamps will apply to the Native Land Court (at Wanganui, on loth November) for nn order in respect to the estate of a former Levin resident. As outlined in the Government Gazette of the cur-

rent issue, the enmmiss'oner's intent : s to apply to the. Court "to remove the administrator appointed in the estate of Wilson Hunia, a deceased native. and to appoint the Public Trustee administrator of the said estate upon the grounds that the present administrator has not filed with me accounts of the said estate, nor paid the. death duty thereon, and has consequently not properly administered the i-aid estate so far as regards the filing of accounts and payment of duty (if any), as required by the Death Duties Act, 1909." "There are quite a number of our chaps getting married tovor here," writes a Mnnaia boy from Scotland. "This is not to be wondered at as there are so many nice girls, and the job is not to catch one, but to escape one. T have met some of the finest girls I have ever set eyes on in Scotland. Their manners and ways of speaking fairly take my fancy." The Stratford correspondent of the Tarnnaki Herald writes: "From what 1 hear of the manner in which papers in connection with the excess income tax have been filled, in, the officials charged witli the duty of assesment have a nice duty before them. What is going to happen when the assessments are made and neighbours compare notes, chaos only knows. How legislators with any knowledge of the capacities of their fellow countrymen could suppose that the returns wero to he satisfactorily filled in by the average farmer or tradesman is a

mystery. I question whether 10 per cent of members of Parliament hare properly completed their papers. The thing; puzzles lawyers and accountants." A New Zenlander writes from Honolulu:—There are thirteen German merchant ships interned at Honolulu whilst wo were there, most of them big vessels, also a German man-o'-war with a crew of GSO. These man-o'-war men drove about the town as freely as others. andi they help to pass away the time by attending the English classes at the Y.M.C.A. in Hotel-street. It is an odd slight to see them trooping ashore with their books. They seem to like the teaching, and evidently in--1 tend to improve the shining hour, for at an examination held just before left they nearly all passed with high honours in English. Here is the difference between the British and German psysehologv. Imagine the crewa of interned English vessels going to school to learn German! At Rangiora E. R. Good, a Justice of the Peace, and a former mayor of the town, was charged with receiving £3 in money andl dividing the amounts into two separate amounts of 30s each, and issuing two receipts with intent to evade the stamp duty thereon. Good was convicted and fined 40s on the first charge and 20s on the second charge, with costs in each case. Two delightful stories of the Babu

Jndinn aire forwarded by a correspondent with the South Africans ill German East Africa. The Indians practically run the railways in German East Africa, and one of the Indian stationmast?rs at some little siding sent the following wire to headquarters: "Station attacked by Germans. Please send soldiers. Am personally proceeding to jungle." In the second case a Babn stationmaster in almost identical circumstances proved that he was made of sterner stuff. He was about the most laconic, competent, deadly earnest stationmaster audi marksman combined that ever lived. A regiment of men. such as he would end the war, for this is the wire he sent: "One hundred Germans attacking the station. Send immediately one rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition."

Mr Frederick Andrew, senior partner in the firm of Andrew and Thompson, solicitors, Lincoln, who d/ied on May 1(j t'h last, aged 7<>. bequeathed the bulk of his fortune of £211,,731 to a home for "poor gentlewomen."

The he. dquartei's of the Agricultural Department for tliis district, so long s'tntionod at Palmevstom North, are to be removed to the Weraroa Kxpcrimen--ta] Farm in the near futureA .Native Land Court, presided over by Judge Gilfedder is sitting at the Levin Courthouse to-day.

In ccnintc'iion with the Church of England bazaar to be held oil Tuesday and AVednes-day next, in the Century Hall, the following is a fairly complete list of stall-holders- Plain work stall: Mi sdanies Gapper and Phillips and Miss Goodbehere. Girl's Friendly Society stall: Mesdnmcs Brown and Stealey. and the G.F.S. members (names will be published latter)- Produce stall: Mcsdames Butt, Clark, and Kivkcaldie. Sweets and soft drinks stall: Mrs Bull ami M iss McX'ickle. Ton-roam : Mesdames Stockwell and "VYeller, assisted; by the G.F.S. girla. Now potatoes of first grade, brought np to 3id per lb, or about £32 10s per toil in the Auckland makret on Friday. A representative of an auctioneering firm str.ted that tbs was an exceptionally high price, the usual price for early potatoes being about 2{d per lb. In Levin new potatoes are being retailed at 4d par lb. A Press Association message from Gisborne reports that at Pntutahi last night a hor.se to "William Gelyc. a drover, was destroyed by fire and a little child three or four years old was burned to death. Gediye is away at Opo'tiki. Mrs Godye was attending tlie children in a back lVJoin, and found the front room, where the little one was, in flames. She was too late to rescue the infant. Tlio

house was completely destroyed. Rather a remarkable twin record (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) attaches to the Di'.nnevirko soldiers, Privates A. H. Palmer and Sullivan, of Rua Roa. They went into camp together, went through it together in the same company., left by the same boat, trained: together in England, went to France in the same boat, were baptised (with bullets) together, went to hospital in England, lying in beds which are together—and were tended by two former Dannevirke nurses. On Tuesday afternoon a motor car belonging to Mr J. E. Fitzgerald, of "Wellington, was destroyed by fire near Motuiti. The car was* a new twoseater Pick, and had been purchased at the Hastings show at a cost of ££425. It was being driven through to Wellington, a tin of benzine being carried At the back. Apparently the tin. was leaking, with the result that the back of the car became saturated with benzine, and by some means caught

aliiglit. The remains were afterwards purchased by Mr T. Powell.—F'oxton Herald. Before the war broke out two sisters of a well-known family became engaged to two Napier Iboys. They were about to be married 1 when the happy events had tto he postponed owing to an unfortunate accident which happened to a brother of the two* sisters. Then the war broke out and both the engaged men enlisrted. They left in the same regiment. 'Last week one of the sisters received a letter from her intended husband telling her all was well. Tt was followed five minutes later by a telegram from the defence Department conveying the information that he had been killed at the front. Barely an lrour later the other sister was informed by telegram that her future husband

also had been killed. Both boys had fallen in the same fight on the French front. ■Levin Defence Rifle Cinb "will hold its annual general meeting this evening (Friday) in the Century Hall, beginning at 7.45 o'clock. Regarding this week's London wool sales, the N.Z. Farmers' Co-operative Distributing Company has received the following: cablegram from the company's London agents: "Wool sales opened fine crossbred 7} per cent., medium and coarse 5 per cent, dearer; little merino offered, but appears five per cent dearer." Since the beginning of the war sixteen members of the Levin Lawn Tennis Club has joined the New Zealand forces and have been sent to the front. Of this number Private Mills and Lieutenant Foss have been killed, the former in Gallipoli and the latter in France. The members remaining with the forces are: Mesrs Sandeman, Reading. France. Pringle, Clark, Fryberg, M. Mclntyre. J. Mclntyre, Harper, Jamieson, Holdaway, Coney and Dr. Davies. Another member, Mr Stuckey, has returned from the front. At last night's meeting of the club, M'r W. Hughes suggested that their names be inscribed on a. roll of honor and hung in the club's building at tlhe | courts.

At Wellington S.M. Court yesterday Scoullar Company Limited was proceeded against on a charge of a breach of the war regulations in allegedly supplying flax matfcrresses and pillows of a quality not in acccrd with the terms of the contract. The case for the Crown alleged that the average weight of a number of mattresses supplied was 14Jlbs, and should have been 181bs; further that many were filled with sour flax, rope ends and dust sweepings off the floor, rendering them unfit and insanitary for use by the troops. The saving effected 'by supplying lightweight mattresses was from °Hd to 6d" each. Mr Macassey, for the Crown, said he understood that the cost of flax was from ljd to 2d per pound, and a '151b mattress would «:ive Keoullnr ami Company -lid to Gd per mattress, or a saving oil 3-21 mattresses short delivered at ss, equal to £80. Workmen witnesses stated that they had been instructed by the foreman to make the mattresses to 161b and to use floor sweepings and rubbish to fill up. The foreman and manager denied that such instructions were given. Judgment was reserved.

A patriarchal father finds his fame emblazoned in tho pages of the New Zealand' Herald, which reports that the other day, at the age of eighty, he registered the birth of his seventeenth child.

Recently a pet sheep owned by Trooper Lincoln Armstrong was auctioned at a concert at Akaroa, and realised no less than £100 for patriotic purposes. Later the sheep which was returned to owner, was auctioned at a concert at a small place called Duvauchelle's Bay, and the bids realised a- further sum of £83 16s for Rod Cross Funds.