LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1715, 22 May 1917, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr W. J. Scolley is at prosenl relieving Mr James Stewart, I he local hemp grader, who is on holiday leave. Tin l last eligible piper of the Wairarapa Caledonian Society, Piper Owen Welch, has come of age, and has enlisted for active service. The tirsl event at the forthcoming Carnival to he held on .Jane 4th will take place at 11 a.m., in order to get the programme completed by 4.30 pan. The procession to the racecourse will leave the Borough Council Chambers ’at 10.30 a.m. The marshals are Messrs McMurray, Gahites and Wainwright. On Thursday next Mr W. 10. Portescne, of Cullensville, Mah.akipawa, will have attained his 100th birthday. Mr Portesque, who is still hale and hearty, and in possession of his faculties, has been 77 years in New Zealand, having arrived at Port Nicholson (then called Britannia) on January 41 h, 1840, “Workman’* writes protesting “that despite the Board of Trade’s fixing of Is 7d per jb. for butter, that 'is 8d per lb. is being charged locally for same.’’ The retail price of butter has been lixed at Is 7d per lb for this month, whether for cash or booked, and Is 8d per lb. for next month, June. Any breach of this regulation carries a minimum penalty of £lO.

A remarkable instance of family service came before the Military Appeal Board at Invercargill last week. The appellant was a young bushman. He was supporting bis aged parents and sisters. His father was 73, and his mother recently had one leg amputated at the thigh, as well as all the toes of the remaining foot, as the result of a burning accident.. Appellant’s only four brothers had voluntarily gone to the front. Two of them had been killed, and one other wounded four times, but he and the fourth brother were still at the front. Appellant himself had enlisted with the Alain Body, and been turned down. Xow, through one of his forefingers poisoning, he required to have it amputated.

•If a statement is true, and is certified to, To accept it as such is a wise thing to do; It is futile to argue and wrangle and doubt If there’s nought to wrangle and argue about. If you suffer from Coughs, bronchitis, or cold, Seek relief at the druggists where “Woodses’” is sold; A glad restoration to health you’ll assure, If you ask for Woods’ Peppermint Cure. 5

A committee has been set up by the Masterton A. and P. Association, consisting of Messrs D. M’Gregor, W. Perry, and A. M’Donald, to report on the possibility of securing a farm of suitable area in the Wairarapa district, to- be used as a training farm for soldiers and also a home for shell-shock - men.

On the morning following a particularly dirty' dust-up, Auzae Bill bared his shoulder and showed two or three comrades a wound that looked just about awful enough to slop a horse. “Name ’o thunder!” cried Jim, “ain’t you showed it to the doctor'?” “No,” replied Bill, “not me!” “But, ’strewlh! don’t it hurt ?” “Oh, yes, it ’arts. But I ain’t goin’ to pamper the thing.”

At last night’s public meeting re the forthcoming carnival, a communication was received from Mr W. Boss, stating that he would donate a hale of hemp to he disposed of by the Committee, provided the oilier millers would make up the quantity to a lon (value about £SO). The offer was accepted with thanks, and the Mayor is taking the mallei' in hand.

In a recent issue of tlit* Kaikoura Star appears the following advertisement, signed by J. B. M’Bae, of Blackball, and witnessed by Air Raymond Gibson, solicitor: “1 wish to contradict a statement which I made to the effect that a man drawn in the ballot could be bough! out. Such statement was made by me in mistake, and was absolutely without foundation.”

As a result ul' a (-(inference between (lie lessee of 1 lie Town Hall and (lie Mayor this morning, t.he former has placed the hall at the disposal of the Committee for the purpose of holding a Patriotic Concert on the evening’ of Carnival Day, dune 4th. The Mayor desires (o acknowledge Mr Knewstuhh’s generosity in meeting’ the committee in this connection!

A picturesque Maori War veteran in the person of Mr George David Thomas, of Wanganui, is dead. The deceased soldier served through the Indian Mutiny, and arrived in New Zealand with his regiment in (he early sixties. He enlisted with the 2nd Waikato Kegiment in IStiti, and afterwards joined the Armed Constabulary Field Force. Mr Thomas, whose wife survives him, had two sons at the front. The other son was killed at Gallipoli.

At last night’s public meeting re the forthcoming’ Carnival to he held on the racecourse on dune 4th, the subject of a Queen Carnival was discussed. The Mayor said this item was one of the principal sources of revenue at a previous patriotic effort, and personally he was in favour of it, and was prepared to work for its success. It was stated that the last queen competition engendered a certain amount of feeling in the community. After one or two amendments had been pul to the motion, it was (jecided to eliminate the contest.

In ii spool'll delivered in the House of ('ominous, "Mr Lloyd George [inid a tribute to the sendees of the press, lie said he eoiild not say whether lie ought to treat newspapers as a luxury, a comfort, a stimulant, or a necessity of life. But he thought if men had to choose between their breakfast and their newspaper, they would choose the former. “Still," added the Prime Minister, “there is no doubt that they have been of enormous assistance to us in the effective waging of the war. (Cheers). There is no better proof of that than the brilliant success achieved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his recent war loan —(cheers)- and I am sure that he would be the lirst to acknowledge that that success is in a very largo measure due to the patriotic support given to him by the great newspapers of this country.”

John Nevil Maskelyne, news of wiiose death was cabled on Saturday, was born in 188!) and educated at Cheltenham. He appeared as a conjurer at the age of 10, and became known through his exposure of Davenport Brothers’ cabined and dark seance in 1805. He lirst appeared in London in 1870, and was at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, until 1!)()-1, when he became lessee of St. George's Hall. He has published the following works: —“Modern •Spiritualism," “Sharps and Flats,” and “The Supernatural?” One of the most famous tricks invented by Mr Maskelyne was the “box trick” (180(1), which is now to be seen in some form or another wherever illusionists of high skill give exhibitions. It is the familiar trick in whch a man is put into a box scarcely big enough to hold him, and the box is locked, wrapped up, and corded. In a few seconds, while the box is hidden behind a screen, the. performer escapes, without apparently disturbing the fastenings of the box in any way. Maskelyne and Levant issued a challenge with a forfeit of £SOO for the discovery of this trick, and a claimant appeared who did a box trick similar in results to the original one. The challengers, however, declined to pay out, claiming that their trick had not been discovered, but only imitated, and the case was taken into the House of Lords, which sustained the judgment of the lower courts, and decided that while the secret had not been discovered the trick had been successfully imitated.

Suits made to measure, 72/-. Special offer for one month. 25 allwool Tweed Suitings to choose from, and we guarantee you a good tit. Don’t miss this opportunity at J. M. Barr’s Big Bargain Stores.*

In a speech at the Commercial Travellers’ Club, Auckland, on Saturday, the Hon. A. M. Myers said that he was confident that the‘tonnage difficulty would be cleared up in a few months. . The Imperial Government had undertaken to .advance two millions sterling on account of meat in store a wailing shipment. Look for the British or Empire, .-.tamp on everything you buy, from your grocer, your draper, your chemist, your bootmaker, or any shopkeeper selling imported articles. Jus! now we cannot expect to get what we want in .all eases, hut do your individual bit, and assist your own Empire by showing your individual preference for Empiremade goods, not now only, but in^' v I lie Years ahead of us.

Wanganui is now the fifth in New Zealand, the latest contained in the Gazette showing that the population consists of 19,546 persons, made up of 9,261 males ami 10,285 females. Auckland has a population of 134,099, Wellington 95,208, Christchurch 92,4.13, ami Dunedin 68,729. Next to Wanganui comes Invercargill 17,(870, Napier 14,742, Palmerston 14,003, and Timam 13,930.

The merit of whey as food for calve* affords many opportunities for argument among dairymen all over Taranaki (says the Strafford 'Post), and the voice of a champion of casein whey no less was heard at the meeting of the Midhnrst suppliers this week. Mr Lirniell said he now possessed calves fed on casein whey, and he could say that they look well, quite as well as most people',-, and belter I ban some. They were on new milk for about three weeks.

An application before the Auckland education Hoard to declare void the election of a country school committee was based on the fact that a vote had been recorded by a person who lived in a lent, and therefore was not a “householder.” Another protest was recorded by a man who resented new settlers coming into tin* district and affecting the harmony which existed between members of the old committee, thereby being, incidentally, a. .factor in the applicant's non-suc-cess at the (‘lection. The Hoard declined to lake action in either case.

Two Bluff fishermen had an* exciting experience one day last week while lishing off Dog Island. They had been troubled for some time by a shark clearing their baits and driving lish away, and when the monster again approached they hated a hook with a 401 b. grouper and successfully hooked the shark. An exciting light followed, the shark towing the launch for over an hour before tiring and rising to the. surface, when the fishermen killed it. The shark look two hours to low to Bluff, and when landed tipped the scale at 1 ton 2 cwt., measuring 14ft. I in. from tip to tip, and Oft. bin. around the girth. It is unfortunate for the fishermen that a monster of (his size has no morg. commercial Value than a showman’s lent.

In an interview in Auckland, Mi'-y It. Suzuki, a Japanese merchant ■ who has been touring Australasia, was emphatic in urging upon his own Government and that of Australia and New Zealand the extreme necessity for combination and organised effort in maintaining the trade of the Paeilic. Air Suzuki said: “For many years New Zealand and Australia have misunderstood Japan and her people, (ml now that; so much depends on co-operation and combined organisation, I think it is our duly to realise that after the war Germany is not to enter the Facitic with her merchantmen, and the only way to prevent that is to work together for the betterment of (he people directly interested in the Pacific — Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Japanese. By excluding Germany from the trade, we are going to maintain peace in the Pacilic and realise the broad possibilities of its trade and turn them to channels of mutual benefit.”

“During my last turn in the front line J was sent through the Tommies’ lines to ask their Vickers to raise his lire,”. writes a New Zealand soldier to a friend at Gore. “That; Vickers was away back in the Tommies’ supports, and to get there i bad to get through the Tommies’ lines, and those Tommies were having a little picnic of their own, taking and losing and retaking (presumably to while away the time, I could see nothing else in it). They were arranging a counter attack just as 1 got into their lines, and they were sure a bit nervy. One chap stuck his bayonet point uncomfortably near my supper, and said: ‘Alt! ’Oo goes there?’ and I suddenly remembered I had forgotten their password. 1 never felt my loss of memory so much before as I did then; moreover, 1 was never cured of mental aberration so ■quickly. 1 said, “New Zealander.* •Kiwi,’ ‘Anzac,’ ‘Maori,’ anything to appease that stalwart Tommy and to induce him to remove his bally point from my supper, for 1 was beginning to feel exasperated—perforated, in fact. Then suddenly I said “Bully beef.’ That was their password, and the situation was saved. I went on my way rejoicing and singing out ‘bully beef to every sentry 1 met. I verily believe that ‘bully beef’ saved my life, for you sentry said ‘Pass, Bully Beef,’ and by Gawd chum! 1 was just about to pull the trigger!’ ”

Wanted; Housewives to realise that it pays to purchase groceries and household requisites at Walker; and Fume’s.

Mr W. E. Barber has donated a Shetland pony to the Carnival Committee for disposal, and Mrs Jas. Barber a fat lamb. It is hoped to raise a considerable sum from this source. The suspension bridge that Air Joseph Dawson is erecting for the Tamj Hemp Co., Ltd., over the ManaAvatu river will be 475 feet in length, or the longest heavy trallic bridge in New Zealand. It is warranted to carry a tram load of eight tons. One of the concrete toAvers is just about finished. It is sixty feet from the foundations, ’or fifty feet above the deck. The Aveight of the towers is estimated to be about a hundred tons. Considering the Aveather, the state of the river, and the difficulty in securing material, surprising progress is being made with the Avork, says the Palmerston Times, Wanted KnoAvn: You can get better groceries for the same money at Walker and Fume’s.