The Chronicle LEVIN: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6th 1916. LOCAL & GENERAL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 November 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6th 1916. LOCAL & GENERAL.

A heavy gale lias been experienced in t-he east Coast of Britain and the wreckage of five ships have been washed ashore in the Britsol Channel. There was heavy loss of life and forty-three bodies have been recovered. Professor \V. T. Mills, who for a considerable tiino was a prominent agitator in Wellington, is, according to the latest American exchanges, cue of the Californian candidates far the United States Senate. He is standing in the Socialist interests, two of the ;planks of whose platform are the total exclusion of Asiatics, and the putting into operation of an educational test in con nection with all other immigrants.

A peculiar accident happened at Shannon last evening. At about .5

p.m. when Mr T>. E. Porter, who is well-known in the Manawatu diistrict. was endeavouring to start his car, he slipped and broke a leg. It was deemed advisable to 'bring him on to Palmerston and for the purpose the midnight Aucklan.d-bou.nd express was stopped at .Shannon and the victim was placed 011 board. On arrival hero he was removed to the hospital. Manawatu Times.

The revenue of the Dominion shows an increase of £995,316 for the seven months ending Ootobr 3'lst of the year, when compared with the corresponding period of hist .year. The increase in expenditure was £289,813 About £1,000,000 a week is spent <Jireetly or iiidirecil.y in trying to check the ravages of insect pests that prey on the crops in the United States. The pests eat, according to Government estimates, above £100,000,000 worth of food annually which brings their c-u.jt un t" * ,'p,- £200,000,00P a yea. clear loss. Tn every State effective war is waged on these pests. " Every weapon known to science is employed. But no sooner is a particular pest conquered in one part of the country than it appears in another. Emphasis has been placed in recent years on insect destroying birds, and these are being protected in all kinds of ways. l»a.ws against the use of bird feathers on hats are part of this protection, and in man.y State forest areas have been established as birdi refuges. The system under which stipends of clergyman in the Auckland diocese are paid through the vestries instead of through the diocesan office was condemned in unmeasured terms bv Bishop Averill at the Anglican Synod. "The system." he said, "is a disgraceful one, and :if men hatli not large hearts and large souls they would never consent to take Holy Orders and to he treated in such a way." He said he knew of many humiliations to which the clergy were subject under the present system. They should be paid their stipends in an honourable and 'respectable way, «nnd this couldi be done only through the diocesan office. "The clergy.—• "*• the bishop added, "have feelings as well as other people. They have to live, many of them on a miserable pittance and at least it should he given to them in a decent way. At present it is not given to them in a decent wav."

A cable message from Mexico city .states that Villa's bandits robbed a train and stripped the passengers naked Chihuahua fitate s overrun' by rebels. The bandits are cutting the ears off captured C'arranzists, sending them back to their comrades as a warning. The new rapid-telegraph system recently developed in Germany has been adopted by the imperial administration and has been installed on the busy lines between Berlin and other German cities. The transmitting machine has a keyboard similar to that of a type-writer and can be worked without difficulty by any typist while the message is recorded in perforated writing on a tape by the receiving machine. Both the transmitting and receiving machines ordinarily make 720 revolutions .per minute, transmitting one character at each revolution, but in order to adn.pt the work to the electrical conditions of the line, the speed may be increased to 1,000 or reduced to 200 revolutions per minute.

Chatting recently with an office! of the department, says the "Journal of Agriculture" for October, a Marlborough farmer put in a good' word foi - the small bird. He mentioned that many years ago. when the birds had net multiplied to their presnt num. bis in liis disrict, the barley crops were frequently ravaged by caterpillars. As showing the severity of the pest, he told of a case in which a neighbour's barley had been wiped out by the caterpillar. The insects then began to cross a road dividing the destroyed crop from a paddock of barley on the opposite side. The owner of the .threatened field succesfully met the invasion by driving a roller up and dow.n the road, crushing the caterpillars in masses. Of late years (presumably owing to the increase' in the numbers of birds) Marlborough has been free of the pest.

The relative worth of the sovereign (20s in the years 1910-13) in terms of commodities hut expressed in money was los 7jd at the end of September quarter. At the 30th June last it was los 9jd and at the end of June, 1915, 16s 9d. The price of flour at South Island; ports has been increased 1 by another 10s per ton, making a rise of £1 per ton in the past few weeks and bringing it to £13 per ton free on board at southern ports. The Government has been advised by the Imperial authorities to ensure that all crossbred wool is shipped to London or to such other Allied ports as the Imperial authorities may advise. A possibly unlooked-for effect of the war ie the quietly extending use that is being made of Esperanto in prisoners of war camps in France, Russia, and Germany. An instance of how confusion arises over the nationality of men engaged in the gum industry' (says the Auokland Star) was provided by the recent a.ntishouting cases, in which one of the defendants (Michael Ravlich) was referred to by counsel as an Austrian gumdigger. As a matter o-f fact lie belongs to family which is contributing loyally to the forces of the Allies. One of his brothers left New Zealand with t)he Ninth Reinforcements and another was. killed wliie fighting with the Serbian troops some time ago. By natonality he is a Jugoslav.

Another popular concert and "sendoff" is being arranged by the local Patriotic Society to take place at the Century Ball next Thursday night. The "Pierrots" who made such a hit a few weeks back are to the fore again with a novel performance as the "mysterious minstrels," in which some of the latest jokes and stories and local hits will be heard. The price of admission —one shilling—should ensure another bumper house such as greeted the last performance

A country lady recently visited one of the largest stores in Oaanaru and purchased some £5 worth of dress lengths, blouses, lingerie, and sundries, leaving the parcel to be delivered. The parcel hoy entrusted 1 with the delivery of the goods to a country boy who passed the gate of the purchaser. His instructions were to throw it over the gate. Burning with friendly zeal he heaved the package over the first gate on the neighbour's property. .But the gat© chosen opened on to the pig stye wherein were two old sows with 32 piglets of more tender age. The lady waited until a late hour for the parcel which d.'d not come, and when her spouse bore their matutinal sustenance to his swine, n sad sight met his eves. One old sow was fighting with her brood for what had been a dress length, and other youngsters were! tewrifng apart a blouse.

The largest dam in the world says the Melbourne Adgus is that at Assouan, on. the XiiJo, with a capacity of 35,840,000 COO cubic feet of water, o'r not much short of 1.000.C00,000 tone. Burrinjuck in New South Wales by the way, conies second with 33, (530,000,000 cubic feet. In the recent rains enough water fell an New South Wales and Victoria to fill the Assouan, dam more than 100 times. The figures showing th.e amount of water which fell in this great downpour are staggering. A cubic foot of water weighs 'IOOOoz., or 62ilb, and on. the basis it can be calculated that one inch of rain means a fall of 100 tons on an acre, of ground. It is estimated by the Commonwealth meteorologist that the average fall over this area of just over 400,000 square miles was nearly four inches. This rpy>"esents a fall of roughly 100,000,000.00 ) tons of water, 250.000 on each square mile or very nearly 40 tons per acre. Some districts, of course, got as much ns 1500 cir 2000 tons per acre. Enough rain fell in these two States to form a lake of 1000 square miles—SOmiles lo"sr by 20 miles broad, with . an average depth of 133 feet.

The Waiirairapa Age sayslt ;is stated that 'at a school visited by the organiser of that strange body known as the Service League," the .boys destroyed all their rulers on discovering they were "Made in Germany." We do not know whether the organiser is proud of this wanton act of destruction. The rulers were .probably purchased in good faith before the outbreak of war, and their destruction means nothing more nor less than a levy upon poor parents of the children. It is all very well to encou'rage the children to buy Bri tish made goods. It is quite another thing to teach them: to be recklessly extravagant. We may next hear of boys taking German made axes ajid destroying the pianos in their homes, because the latter were made in Dresden. The "National Service League" should be made to understand that loyalty and madness are not synonymous terms. ■ Mr J. T. Martin, official enumerator, lias kindly supplied, us with the census returns of population of the borough of Levin and Otaki town district. The total number of peo.ple residing in .Levin borough is 1030; of this number 709 are males and 861 females. The total for Otaki is 810. made up of 437 males and 373 females. The ordinary monthly meeting of the Horowlienua County Council will be held on Saturday next at 9.30 a.m. A letter dated September 24th from Private R. A. Pringle, A.S.C., reached the Chronicle office this morning. It was written at Addington Park War Hospital, Croydoa, England. Croydon is about 15 miles outside London. "Bob" had been sent to hospital because of an attack of enteric, but was [ feeling quite well at the time of writing and was expecting to be sent to the hospital for convalescents at Homecliurch. He understands men who have been, attacked by enteric are not sent back to France, so it is possible he will be kept in England until the end of the war. Speaking of the Zeppe'in raid on whicli one of the airships was brought down he says that though the bombs fell 15 miles away they shook the hospital severely. It was fine to see the beams of the searchlight following the Zeppelins and the anti-aircraft guns firing on them. The letter concludes: "England is a. great country but say what you like give me old New Zealand before the lot of them."