Cost of School Books.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 7 February 1918, Page 2

Cost of School Books.

Wellington, Last night. Hon Mr Hanan, replying to a deputation on the subject of the heavy expense which parents with large families have to bear in the matter of the purchase of school books and material, said he had been gathering information from different countries with a view to submitting to Cabinet a practical scheme to reduce the cost of tpxt books and material in secondary schools. There were a multiplicity and variety of text books, the cost of which was serious. He had asked the Director of Education to go into the.matter and report. Meanwhile local residents will do well to remember tyhat they cannot do better than buy the children's school stationery at Aitken r s, Levin's Leading Bookseller, where the prices are the lowest and the quality the best.

R. K. Stock, a taxi driver, was committed for trial at Napier yesterday on a charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of ft child knocked down by his car on Christmas Eve-.

The reported outbreak of measles at Trentham appears to be in hand. The only additional cases reported are among contacts. The 34ths and 35th are the drafts involved.

A movement is on foot in Christchurch to undertake the production of salt on a large scale from sea water. The necessary plant is to be erected at New Brighton, and use will be made of clcctric power from the Lake Coleridge installation. The Minister of Marine (Hon. T. M. Wilford)' has arranged to pay a visit to Christchurch in connection with this project, which involves access to the foreshore.

Mr Bartholomew, S.M., gave Judgment yesterday at Dunedin in a case in which a restaurant keeper was,, charged with- permitting liquor to be drunk in a restaurant at a time when licensed premises were required to be closed. The Magistrate, in entering a, conviction, said this was new legislation and was very far-reaching in its consequences. The defendant acted bona fide and in the belief that he was within his rights, and he was ordered to pay court costs.

Mr Massey has announced that New will be represented at the next meeting of—the Imperial War Cabinet by Sir Joseph Ward and himself, subject to Parliamentary approval. A short session of Parliament will be held prior to their departure, probably opening on April 9th, to make the necessary arrangements to enable our represents tivea to go toi Britain. The conference will be held in June,- so the representatives should leave before the end of April.

It was pointed out during the discussion at the last meeting of the executive of the Wairarapa Patriotic Asso--ciation that each returned man received two outfits of military uniform upon his return, and only received a sum or 30s for civilian clothes. Mr Hugh Morrison said it was ridiculous to expect a returned man to get a suit of clothes for 30s. They should get at least £5 for civilian clothes. He would mvoe: "That in lieu of the present grant or 30s , the Government provide a £5 suit of clothes, or give an order for tfi« same to the value of £5, the order not to be negotiable." This was seconded by Mr G. R. Sykes, M.P., and chtried unanimously. The Prime Minister In a statement to the Press says: "Up to the end of the year 600 soldier settlers had been placed on the land and were in occupa- ■ tion of their sections. There had been a few failures, but only a comparatively small proportion. The Land Boards and officers of the Lands: 'Department are taking a very keen in- . terest in these settlements and are-do-ing everything possible to assist the soldiers. Just at present these settlers have many difficulties to put up with owing to the very high price of fencing and building material, and even of* implements and appliances, but these high prices are only temporary, and will end' with the war. The Department is setting apart blocks of the best of the bush land now remaining, and when the opportunity offers soldiers will be employed in getting it ready for settlement, making roads and : doing all: ■ the work which is necessary to break in new eountry.

The Wanganui , Military v ' Service Board yesterday adjourned sine dibits decision in connection with the appeal by the ■ Education Board- against the calling up of George Cpojce, a teafther at Beaconsfield. Mr Fred Pirani, chairman of the' Education Board, said; the Board appealed owing to the shortage of tcachers. He said that seventy-two teachers had gone into camp from the Wanganui Education District, out of a total of 191 male .teachers,. Of the remainder, thirty-three were bver military j age, twenty had been rejected, eight were under military age, and three, had been accepted and ' wefe going into camp. There were -no First Division' 1 men left amongst the teachers of tire 1 district, except those medically utiiit, and only fifty-five married men left out of nearly 200. There wrij& not thc'Slight-' est chance of . getting "other teachers without robbing other' districts. The Board had the greatest difficulty in gating teachers for country schools. Tney i had closed a number, but. "Could- not

close more. He 1 considered' the Board could not spare any more teachers.

■"I am his fifth wife—l've found that out," said a pleasant-faced elderly •woman, who appeared in the Magis-' trate's Court at- Christchurch on Tuesday to support her application for separation and maintenance from her husband. Mr Sunt, who appeared for the plaintiff, referring to defendant, exclaimed: "Yes, that's the• man—-I've ; had him four times before. He's *- widower by trade, your Worship!" Witness continued, referring to her hus. band:, "When h« found out that I had not a lot of money he turned, out spiteful and, unreasonable," She concluded by _ quoting from a written document, which she perused in the witness box, her version of domestic happenings, which pointed to her husband being what "might be aptly described as "close fisted," and, to say the least of it, short of temper. In reply to a. question from the magistrate, witness •said that her husband, occupied himself chiefly in doing jobs in the garden and watching her work in thq house. "And sometimes he used to count the scones as I made them," she alleged. She did not add what happened if, later on, her husband was unable to account for the disappearance of one. •

Some idea of the very accurate shooting which is made by big war vessels is contained in a message to London from Mr G. Ward Price in Venice early in December. He states on November 30:—'Three bridges across the Lower Piave, which the enemy was using for supplying his troops in the between the two channels of the river mouth, were yesterday destroyed by'the British monitor • with big gun fire of remarkable accuracy. The distance was 18,000 yards (10% miles), and the three bridges which were the targets lay 200 yards apart. One was a stone bridge which the Austrians had repaired, and the other two were each three yards , wide. On these slight marks the monitor's guns put Jive direct hits out of seven shots. The very first shot was on the target, and the pontoon bridges were each hit at either end, one of them being so effectively 1 cut in two that the aeroplane'observer reported that the middle part of it floated away down stream. A shell was also dropped right into the stone bridge." -

If the world were not at war, humanity would deem the tragedy of the Tel- - low River the greatest disaster of the times (says a writer in -the "Daily ' Chronicle")., China's Sorrow! So they call this mighty devastating torrent, which periodically ravages. the land. Earthquakes and volcanoes claim - ■ their thousands and scores of thous- ■ a.nds, but the Hoang-Ho drowns millions. The Chinese had the cantilever bridges ages before we applied the principle, and they could have spanned this raging monster if it could be kept within its bed. But it cannot. With its tremendous volume of water it brings down and slowly deposits such volumes of detritus that it raises its bed. The Chinese embank and embank to keep it within bounds, but still the river rises. The race between river and engineers goes on from age to age, till boats sail upon a broad expanse of water up in the air, while men walk far below. Then the breach comes, and the far-flung flood, and the devastation and drownings. ( .. ; j