LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 81, 5 April 1916, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Contributions are desired for the Red Cross sale on Thursday. Next week'o sale will be in aid of the French Red Cross.

The rainfall at Scddon during ?ilarch was 3 -76 inches, spread over ten da.ys. The heaviest iall was 52 points on the 18th.

Somewhat-unexpectedly the American scientific yacht Carnegie, which left Lyttelton on 6th^December of last year, 'to circumriavigate the globe in southern latitude, returned to port on Saturday morning, the voyage having thus occupied 120 days.

The ActingrConsul for Belgium in Christehurch -Mr Cyril J. Ward) acknowledges receipt from, the Girls' Friendly Society a.t Ward.of the sum of £6 10s. The Belgian Relief Fund has also earned £.6 10s as Government subsidy on Marlborou.!>;h contributions forwarded during February-

The question of, urging the Government to introduce "anti-shouting" legislation will be discussed at a massed meeting to be held in the Auckland Town Hall this evening. Bishop Averill will preside, and will delher an address. Monsignor Mahoney, Catholic administrator of the Auckland diocese, will also speak.

During a thunderstorm on the night of March 20 an employee of the Whangarei Heads Freezing Works, named'C. Mackenzie, had <V narrow escape of being struck by lightning. A vivid fash passed through the open windows of the room where he was sitting, and, striking a mirror above the mantelpiece,,'shattered it to atoms.. The heavy plate-glass was reduced-to a dust-like powder, and the air of the room was filled with the particles. Mr Mackenzie escaped unhurt.

A remarkable Bible revival is in progress among the British soldiers quartered* on Salisbury Plain and elsewhere in England. Already more than 10,000 oiV the .troops on Salisbury Plam alone have, joined the Pocket Testament, League, and have agreed to read a chapter daily, and over 3000 have declared their acceptance of Christ and enlisted- Under the banner of the King of Kings. One result is said to be a great improvement in* the morals of the soldiers, less swearing, and less drinking. ' \

Owing to the shortage of paper supplies, the Feilding Star, has found :it necessary to.'reduce.,'.-the ; size of its sheet temporaril^Siln;commenting on the fact, the Staivsays that in common with daily^fpapers throughout New Zealand, it has not been able to get its regular., supply'-of paper, from Canada, owing to the. a shortage of ships, which have been v-omman'deerefl to carry munitions from America to Britain, France, and, Rvissia. TKe cost of printidg paper has gone up tremendously, owing; to the war, and to-day it looks as if paper caiinot be gbj across the'seas at any price.

A meeting ,of returned soldiers was held in the Soldiers' CHub rooms last evening to form; „...&■ committee to manage the Soldiers' Club. Those present were; ■Sergeant Simson, Cor-; poral Reid, Privates .O'Neill, March, and Gridley, >and , Messrs : Conn,--Wra.tt, Payiitoiv'siiicl'-Thompspn.-' The election of officers resulted' as follows': Committee, Sergeant Simson (chairman), V 'jiridley.,.- 1?. . March, and G. O.'NeiJl; _, secretai'y, It. Thompson^. It was •decided .that on Amsac Day rotmmexl soldiers will parade 'f, requirjSil. -/Ptie. committee, will inefto, oh MOjiidAy next to draw up i^iles for, the'jmauaigement of the club.-* ;:..: ..-.';:,...':.:.: :. .. /; , -.

Drs. diilton and Farr, of .Canter-bury-College, waited on Sir Joseph "Ward". to-day and asked the Government to give a grant of £500 to help to publish Sir Douglas Mawson's results of his Antarctic expedition. Dr. Chilton said that most of the expense had been borne by Australia, but a lit tie more, help was needed. Scientifically Sir Doxiglas Mawson's was the most successful of the Antarctic expeditions. It wo (lid p'uifc him to have the ■.grant extended over several years. Sir Joseph Wa^d said that the request called for fair consideration. The Government should recognise its responsibility by doing a little help to Sir Douglas Mawson. He would mention the request when the Government was considering votes, for the financial year.

Two accidents occurred at Tadmor early on Friday morning (states the Nelson Colonist). A party was returning to tho Sherry from, a dance at Kiwi when the trap capsized over a bank near..; ho Tadmor .school. The noriipants received :t severe shaking, fiid Miss Araoldy of Spring Grove, had her arm broken in three places. The horses attached to the trap afterwards bolted up the Sherry Hill and collided with a sulky, with the result that the occupants were injured. Miss F. Hanger had her wrist dislocated, end Miss M. Eiekette sustained concussion of the brain

A qualified lady dispenser called at the Auckland recruiting station recently, and offered her services as assistant dispenser on ta hospital ship, or as a motor ambulance driver. The officials, were compelled to inform her that they had no power to accept her offer.

The death occurred in the Auckland Hospital on Saturday morning of Ernest Herbert Hay ward, a child aged 2-2- years, who was badly scalded at Kohimarajna last week. The boy was staying with relatives at a camp, and while running at play fell over a "biily'' of boiling water.

The flax grub has been particularly troublesome of late. It eats tho outer skin of the leaves, thus exposing the whole structure to rot. Tho plague has become so bad that the Government has instructed Mr David Miller, one of its experts, to tour the Dominion and investigate, and for that purpose he is .to see all the principal flax swamps, beginning in Otago and Southland.

Mr T. A. H. Field, M.P. for Nelson, received a telegram on Monday from the Hon. W. H. Herries, Minister for Railways, stating that the matter of the Annesbrook railway crossing would receive earnest consideration. Mr Field is continuing to urge on the Government tho necessity of doing something to render this crossing less dangerous to persons using the road.

A lire which was attended with fatal consequences occurred at Palmerston North on Monday night m a three-roomed cottage, occupied by a man named Lawrence and his wife. Lawrence left his wife a few minuter previously to go up town for medicine, and shortly afterwards the fire broke out. The brigade were quickly on the spot, and rescued Mi,b Lawrence from the burning hons« with her clothes burned from her body. She >va,s removed to the hospital, where she died yesterday.

"They have a police union in some parts of Australia, _ and . they are going to have a police union in New Zealand soon," said one of, the speakers at an open-air gathering in Post Ofr.ce Square; Wellington, on Sunday afternoon. "A rule of the union will be that no policeman will ev?r go on duty against strikers.", TJie speaker added that in the good days to come no newspaper l'eporter Would allow his notes to bo used in court, proceedings arising from trade uaion disputes. ,'

In connection with the statements concerning the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, which have, evoked such 'controversy in Hamilton and throughout the Waikato >.. district generally, ChaplainOaptain'Blamires, in the course of a lecture on his experiences at Anzac, endorsed, the statement's of SergeantMajor" Pnrdom as to the conduct of the men as a whole, and stated that while a few—-certainly not more than & per cent.-^-had succumbed to temptation, the . .overwhelming majority proved pure, manly, and trne, and he characterised the statement to the contrary as a "damnablelie.". This remarjc was greeted with vociferous applause, which broke out again later when Major Northcroft thanked the chaplain for so forcibly refuting the slanders, which, he said, hai caused the parents and friends of the men much pain and anxiety.

Further information lias come to the knowledge of the police concerning the man "James Frazer," who 'was sentenced at Auckland on Tuesday to three months 1 imprisonment, 'with hard labor, and not move than twelve months' reformative treatment, for taking a girl away from home without the consent of her Toother. It transpires (says the Star) ihat the man's real name is Henry Fraser Marshall, and thnt he if. an habitual criminal, hailing from Sou Ih America . At the hea ring. cm Tuesday the police were; not satisfied that the man was a first offender, and they have since made careful inquiries. Hi> arrived in Auckland on 16th March last, coming, it is understood, irom Feilding. In the Police Court Marshall gave his age ns 27, but documents' bearing the date 1903 show tbait he then stated the year of his birth as ISB3, which vouid make him six years older than stated, and 17 years older than the girl in the case. .Marshall is a native of South America, having been born at Monte Video. He told t^e police in Auckland that he was a native of Xe.v South Wales.