The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, May 2, 1912. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1038, 2 May 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, May 2, 1912. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An electrical storm was experienced in this district last night.

Several articles of local interest have been unavoidably crowded out ot this issue.

In the Masonic Hall to-night, Mr John Robertson, M.P., will deliver a political address. The chair will be taken by the Mayor at 8 p.m. A well-attended meeting of the Presbyterian Ladies’ Guild was held at the residence of Mrs Alex. Speirs, Seur., yesterday afternoon and a most enjoyable time spent. Mrs Thomson was elected president and Mrs Simpson secretary. From inquiries by a Timaru Post repo. . it would seem that Ihe shortage 01 labour in South Canterbury at present is acute, It is impossible to obtain men, and the position is worse now than ever it was. The supply of mill hands, crutchers, and ploughmen is very short. One reason put forward for the dearth of labour is that the harvest is late in the south, and many of the men have gone to Otago, where good wages are offering. The Levin Chronicle says in respect to the Levin-Great-ford railway :—“ We should like to see a revival in Levin of the movement in favour of a deviation of the line from Levin to Greatford- This route, it is well known, would shorten by several miles the distance between Auckland and Wellington, besides which it would effect a further saving in haulage charges by reason oi the line it would provide, in contrast against the hilly and sinuous lineway now laid between Levin and Palmerston North. The Levin Borough Council, the Horowheuua County Council, the Foxtou Borough Council, and the Chambers of Commerce of Foxton and Levin all should renew without delay their former advocacy of this deviation.”

For an absolutely inapt quotation the one adopted in a recent issue ol the “ Maoriland Worker” would be hard to beat, says the Petone Chronicle. Referring to the reply of the Hon. the Minister for Defence to the anti-militarists, the “Worker” declares that if Mr Myers is as good as his word the paper’s readers “in the mining centres can expect a crusade of prosecution.” And then the “ Worker ” asks everybody to remember that “ Freedom’s battle once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffl’d oft, is ever won.” The whole trouble is that the “ Worker ” and all who follow in its train want the other fellow to do all the bleeding. When the day of battle begins, the shirkers will light out for the mountains — or any other old place where there is no danger from the enemy’s bullets. The “antis” will bequeath all the bleeding to other lellovvs’ sires and other fellows’ sous. We received a communication this morning from Mr Kdward Newman, M.P., informing us that he had written the Chairman ot the Mauavvatu County Council asking him to convene a conference ot delegates from local bodies in respect to the extension of the tramway from Foxtou to Marlon, and to discuss the question of light railwa} s now being considered by Cabinet. Mr Newman says the time is now opportune to move in the matter. By a strange co-incidence the Mayor also called upon us, stating that it was his intention to convene a similar conference to discuss the DeviuGreattord or Marlon railway extension. Relereuce to these matters will appear in a subsequent issue.