General News.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 21 March 1918, Page 1

General News.

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Business people of Masterton are to observe Easter Saturday as a close holiday. An investment of £10,000 in the now war loan is to be made by the Auckland Education Boajtd, providing the Minister will give his approval. The money will be drawn from the .maintenance fund.

Mr B. Semple, organiser for the New Zealand Coal Miners' Federation, visited Kaitahgata, when he addressed' a combined meeting of Kaitarigata and' Taratu miners. During. th*e course of his address M. Semple stated that at the ' next General Election there'would be & Labour candidate' to contest every electorate in the Dominion. ,

The price of bread in Wellington to-' day is lid per four-pound laof. It is presumed that if auy advance is made it will be raised to Is. Auckland just • raised its price lid, to bring it into line with Wellington. The prices of bread in other places at latest returns, published by the Government were as follow: —Dunedin, Bd;_ Christchurch,,,, 9%d; Hamilton, Palmerston North,Blenheim, Greymouth, Ashburton, Gore, Invercargill, 9d; Whangarei, Botorua, Waih'i, Dannevirke, Wanganui, Taihape, Masterton, Nelson, Oamaru, Alexandra, lOd; Timaru, Gisborne, Napier, and New Plymouth, lid. The executive of the State Miners' Union conferred with those members refusing to pay the levy to assist the men in Australia recently on strike. After ; a deal of discussion, during which the executive produced receipts to show that money had been forwarded to Aus*, tralia, it was intimated that the levy was being reduced from 2%d to 1% per cent. Two of the resisters paid the levy, but thirty still declinod. The general opinion at Bununga is that work will be resumed on Tuesday next. The loss in wages since Friday week amounts td £2000.

At the motor cycle sports at Marton on Saturday, a horse, evidently embned with a mistaken idea of upholding the prestige of the species, got on> to thecourse and attempted • couclusions with the motor cycles in a race which was then in progress. The old gee kept to the course, despite all efforts to get him off, but once round, was evidently enough to convince him that horseflesh was no match against the petrol. It is stated by the Auckland "Star" that an Auckland resident received this week an urgent cable message whieh read: —"Send to Codford Post Office £30. Urgent.'' This was signed -nith a name of someone with whom the recipient is entirely unacquainted. Need:less to add, the £30 was not forwarded. The applicant must have had a lot of faith to pay for a cable and think there were patriotic people in Auckland sufficiently simple to forward £30 to an unknown person. At the same tjme, there is reason to fear that this may indicate an organised system for robbing relatives of men who have gone to fight for the Empire. One Auckland gentleman some few weeks ago received a cablegram signed by the name of his nephew. He promptly despatched £10, but has since learned that no request for money had been sent by the relative. Other cases are known where money has been sent from Auckland in answer to cables received, and it has since been learned the sums had neither been naked for nor received. In the case-of the cable under notice, the request that the reply be sent to Codford Post Office was no doubt designed to give the impression that the applicant is in Codford Hospital. The safest plan would be to send any money to relatives at the front through some official channel. The well-known Australian merchants and shipowners, Messrs Burns, Philp and Co. Ltd., have established a branch in Auckland city. This company, ihas at the present time no less than fourteen vessels engaged in the island trade alone, while their steamers run to all parts of the world. There are no less than sixty branches and depots belonging to Burns, Philp and Co., with a working capital of £2,000,000. The founder of the firm was really a young Scotsman named James Bumsy who landed in Queensland while in his teens, in the year 1862. He is now Colonel the Hon. Sir James Burns, M.L.C., chairman of the directors of the company. Many years ago he helped to establish a regular service between Brisbane and . the newly-formed settlements at Cooktown, Cairns, Townsville, and eventually right round the Australian coast, to the South Sea Islands, Java, Singapore, and throughout the East. The business has grown to such an! extent that the company now have branches ranging from London to Java, and throughout the islands of the Southern Seas, together with being largely connected with subsidiary companies engaged in banking, insurance, planting, and 6thcr industries.

A correspondent writing on Mr Webb's case says he ascertained during a visit to Taranaki that the contention that no one else could take the place of an elected M.P. has been disproved to the complete satisfaction of a constituency up that way. A member of Parliament is now in the fightingline, and during his absence his wife has been very active in communicating with various Departments, on behalf of some of her husband's constituents. The effect, so it is said, is magical. I" that district now-a-days one never hears that "the matter will be kept steadily in view." On the other hand, a most commendable promptitude is displayed by the authorities. "Possibly," says the correspondent, "the hint may be taken by Mr Webb. Moral. In some instances a married M.P. is worth two batchelor ones." Perhaps some enthusiastic suffragette will say there is another moral, which may be pushed home when next election comes round.

POHTioK nr mirofivßu.

•••• ' .cfoiri V . OR O. a 9COBSXfe»'g ▼IEWB.:- ' m..:.. • v-'i.i'. -rffMMt,, •':! •",! Tbat any viaion of Ur Oermaw a weeping. aer°»« th« ; Buifisk and thu» £ opcning sp ariau* to tk» Pa. L" a »«°i? t ejy »Wd i« tb* opinion held by Dr G. E. Iforriioa, Official ' V 1^ r - l°,~ th ? cll i»eMc;Gov«*aitt»at I Mormon, who ia r*turmiag t<* said_in tf u iat»f view ih Sydney l(iBt we«k:—"l io acti ■Mkulh-DM b# ; lis king what effect th# ptm VitwN# & 'm*: neetion with Japam and Ckiaa. "To think, u ia •uggMttd) «&• o«r n mans £91114 come rifht a«roa» kr rail i*' : nonsense. There a,. »w S M im iJ" ns>^ r aaCtki *U»r through Siberia, north •/ th* rirer Amur. • x t ■ 1 afr Mft|iphoa La, aad Utrw ||agiim Fogramtohaia, aid ao oa ilm ■ -is 921% mile#, and n«ht ia «V* 2 .i v S 01 tk * 'BirarT* the.loyal section*bf tlia Biwjuw« i ; "The arrangement of thMfjliaM ia aresult of the agreement* iato previous to and at the «oa*laaiaa of ' the Russo-Japanese War. lai th» trmt place,. th«. Chinese in ISP9 £ri»bt*d tk»' right to Bus*ia to rum. the Ztn% a«roa» Manchuria. That. K f th« M il«; ?o«o°V e *. 6 "®/ Marthl 1898, Bussia demanded tb i&ht to V* connected_,wi|h:Port] Ajsro'r Uf aaotkar line; running from' Harbin. J& tha »o>. elusion of the BufoJtfaajin; War Japan, who had eonqaerad tile Una aa\ far up aa Mukden, wa* (raatad Ut right to the line a* far aa Chaag Cku, 152 milea from Harbin, a' direct -length of; rait from Port Arthar > of 439.miiC8.-r, "t% "So there the ntutioi atanda 4a-f. day The line tiroagh Mantfraria U-,. wards the epen#ea«,if.ia of' three nations. to ports received by haa doa» *x««lle a t, work in polieing Ha'rbim. there ia also the faet to b« reaiembered that Japan has the right to atatioa 3Stroops to every mile of railway ahe aoa--, trols in Manehuria. Takiag braa«k lines into consideration, *h® r «an kaW an army there of 42,973 withbat breaking the condition*. ~ "The only other way to r«a*k the coast is by the railway that raac above the Amur riy?r, The ,Oar«MM>a-are aa far from this rail aa it i»;'froM kere to Port Darwin. The aoußtry ia wild,' bitterly eojld, Uhoapitabtey and tkia project, like the:oth«r, It abtojrd. "It must not "be thought '''fat a moment that the whole of BnaaSa ie die-loyal,..and-the entry ef JapM> into tkc viar on Buasian battlefield* Linnet depend to a great de»l oil! thip, ftetor. If the real loyaliata, wko '«taad far the old regime, are hard preeied aa4 there seems, a. likelihood of their being ,defea.ted, then Japan' would, ao denbt be ready to go to their ateistante. "As"far as the preeent aitaatiom ia. known, however, the poeitiea la the East has not materially ehaagafl."