LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1533, 8 April 1916, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Good soaking rains commenced to fall throughout this district yesterday, and it is hoped that the prolonged dry season is now at an end.

Mr Thos. P. Henderson, piano tuner, will visit Foxton for a few days as from the 10th inst. Communications left at this office will be attended to.*

A. hint for housekeepers: — When eggs are scarce, a dessertspoonful of vinegar in a little milk, added to one egg, will be equal to three eggs for cakemaking. Corp. Bullard who is at present at Trentham, is attached to the reserves. It is probable that he will go to the front with the Thirteenth’s.

During the month of March the arrivals in New Zealand numbered 1505 and the departures 1868, an excess of departures over arrivals of 863, as against 163 in the corresponding month of last year. The Auckland City Council carried unanimously a resolution urging the Government immediately to bring in conscription in any form suitable to meet the requirements of the Dominion in the present crisis.

A warrant has been issued at Christchurch for the arrest of an employee of the City Council, William Francis Bert Dunn, who Is charged that during the last few days he recieyed the sum of ,£940 and failed to account lor it to the Council. He has been missing since Tuesday afternoon. He got oft to arrange his affairs and to leave with the i.sths on Wednesday, but did not parade, and does not appear to have enlisted. The City does not stand to lose, being protected by a fidelity guarantee. Friday was the last day of the Council’s financial year, and heavy sums were received in rates. The amount was short-banked.

Since the price of gas and the discounts allowed on gas accounts paid by the fifteenth of the following month, have been reduced, the amount of accounts outstanding each month has increased. Before any reduction was made the discount allowed was two shillings and sixpence per thousand feet, and consumers paid their accounts promptly in order to get this rebate. When the alteration in price was made, however, the discount was reduced to tenpence per thousand, and it is now found that consumers are not so prompt in their payments, the amount of discount being too small to make any appreciable difference. The Mayor said last night that instead of reducing the price of gas the Conncil should have increased the discount. By doing this they would get the accounts paid more promptly. An alteration in this direction will be made at an early date.

SEE CHEAP RATES, FRONT PAGES LAIPLAW LEEDS WHOLESALE CATOLOG. Wait! And consider your home economy before purchasing your groceries elsewhere. We claim to give you better service and better qualities. Walker and Furrie, Provision Merchants, Foxton.

A Gazette Extraordinary contains a proclamation summoning Parliament to meet on Tuesday, May 9, “for the dispatch of business.”

Mr James Buglass has received a cable notifying that he has received an appointment with Messrs Vickers, Son and Maxim, Barrow on Furness, England, warships, and munition makers, Mr Buglass will leave New Zealand for England next week.

The Director of Base Records has received cable advice that a sailor named G. Mathieson, on the hospital Ship Marama, had a leg smashed, and that the limb had to be amputated. Mathieson is reported as “ doing well.” Any person knowing the name and address of this man's next-of-kin is requested to notify same to the Base Records Office.

Mr Archibald Allan Thomson, senior member of the firm of Gannaway and Co., master stevedores, met his death through falling off a buoy in Wellington harbour whilst endeavouring to moor the auxiliary scow Echo off the Thorndon Esplanade yesterday. The late Mr Thomson was born in Foxton in 1869 and was educated at Nelson College and subsequently followed a sea-faring life in the seavice of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Co.

In the course of a recruiting speech in the Masterton Municipal Hall, Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P.,* paid the following tribute to the Right Hon. W. F. Massey. He said : “ There is no more genuine Imperialist in New Zealand at the present time than the Prime Minister. While on the floor, of the House in peace time I may be a political opponent, in war time I’m if I will oppose him!”

The cost of the construction of Trentham Camp from the date of inception, together with incidental expenditure, amounted to ,£210,000 and Featberston Camp to ,£145,000, The average cost of running these camps, salaries of training staffs, pay of headquarters, clerks, staffs of permanent supply depots, pay of medical orderlies, the rationing of permanent camp staff, civilian cooks, fuel, etc. (but not the rationing of troops undergoing training), amounted to ,£1442 a week at Featberston, and .£1465 at Trentham.

In the course of an open-air address in Masterton on Tuesday nfght, the Right Hon. W. F. Massey said he predicted that in the early stages of the coming session of Parliament a Bill wottld be introduced providing the power to employ compulsion in the event of the voluntary system failing. The Bill would probably enact that in any district where the quota was not voluntarily filled, the deficiency would be made good by means of a ballot from those eligibles whose names appeared upon the National Register. Mr Massey urged that local committees should use their utmost endeavours to make the register complete. Mrs Gower has presented to the Girls’ Guild a chaste novelty in the shape of a solid silver-mounted emu egg sugar basin. The top of the egg has been cut. and forms the lid, and the interior of the shell is enamelled. The whole is .a fine piece of the silversmith’s art. The guild has decided to dispose of it per medium of a bean-guessing competition, and the president, Mrs Fraser, hopes that the Guild will realise about ,£l2 as a result. Each guess will cost 6d. The egg is on view in Mr Healey’s shop window. When the conditions governing the appointment of a new Town Clerk were being drawn up last night, one councillor asked it it would not be better to have the new clerk in Foxton before Mr Kent-Johnston left, so that he could show him the routine of the office. Mr Kent-Johnston said that in Miss Berthold the Council had an assistant who was quite capable of explaining anything required to the new clerk. She bad in the past carried out the duties during his absence, and was thoroughly conversant with every department of the work.