LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1748, 3 November 1917, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Rev. C. Palmer, vicar of Shannon, will preach at All Saints’ Church to-morrow morning. The amount raised in the Wairarapa district for patriotic purposes since the commencement of the war has now reached £3.49,260 18s lid. Mosquitoes are so numerous in some parts of the Wairarapa that it has been found necessary, for the first time for many years, to resort to mosquito curtains, “There’s no jutiflcation whatever for the high price that is being charged for coal in the Dominion,” said Mr P. C. Webb in the House of Representatives on Wednesday night. Wanted Known: You ean get better groceries for the same money at Wdlker and Fume’s,

A sitting of the Supreme Court will commence in Palmerston on November 12th.

Private P. Maning, killed in Action, was a prominent New Zealand middle-weight boxer. The monthly meeting of the local State School Committee will be held on Monday evening. The young man Crichton, who met with a serious accident at one of the local mills on Wednesday, is making very satisfactory progress. Mr A. Hawke, local postmaster, who has been on holiday leave, resumed duty to-day. Mr Holmes, relieving officer, proceeded to Otaki to-day, to relieve there. Alfred Ernest Craddock, of Christchurch, convicted of fraudulent conversion of trust moneys, has been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Dr Martin, a well-known Wellington medical man, died last night, after a brief illness. The cause of death was blood poisoning. Deceased had the misfortune to prick his thumb with an operating needle. Herrings are reported to bo very plentiful at the Hokio bead, at present. During the week-end, one party of Levin residents secured a cartload of the fish in one haul of the net. The herrings were all a fair size, says the Chronicle.

It is estimated that the number of submarines, auxiliary cruisers, armed merchantmen, and other vessels that are fighting the enemy’s submarines exceed 10,000, of which 3,300 are commissioned small craft. The King held an investiture at Buckingham Palace of two hundred officers, men, and nurses, including Seregant Andrews, a New Zealander, who received the Victoria Cross for daring and initiative in an attack on a German position in July.

The Elliott assault ease was heard at Auckland yesterday. The Magistrate said he would enter a conviction against complainant’s assailants, though he was sorry to do so, but would not inflict a further penalty. Application for costs were refused.

The following notice is being sent out to C2 —home service—men who are not to be re-examined: —‘tYour military medical papers have been scrutinised by the Special Re-exam-ination Medical Board attached to this branch, and the board has decided that you will not be called up for re-examination by the C2 Reexamination Board. You will thei’efore continue on leave without pay until further orders.”

The following is a complete list of local State school prize-winners at the Manawatu A. and P. Show; —Mapping: Hilda Thompson, St. VI., commended. Drawing: Object, St. V., Bert Cummerfield, commended; from nature, Hilda Thompson, St. VI., merit card. Brush Design: St. V., Elvina Smith, merit card; Madge Admore, commended. Brush Design: St. VI., Hazel Newth, merit card. Printing; St. V., Ninean Ross and Everard Cunningham, merit cards; St. VI., Hazel Newth, Alex. Henderson, merit cards. Mr J. Doggett’s horse Strabane, who has been a regular competitor in the Show ring for many years, received quite an ovation when he took his place in the Grand Parade at Palmerston on Thursday. Strabane is now in his eighteenth year, and has never been unplaced in the Show ring. He secured third place in the harness class at the Show, and has now won £lO3 in prize money in the Show ring, a record that will be hard to beat.

It is stated by the Christchurch Sun that some years ago largo quantities of lupin seed were planted in the Rakaia river-bed for the purpose of keeping the river to a more or less restricted course. The lupins have to a large extent accomplished this, and have also been instrumental in very largely abating the dust nuisance in Rakaia township. They have, however, had another effect which was perhaps not contemplated. They have helped towards the deepening of the river channel and the banking-up of shingle on the south side, and the consequence is that it becomes increasingly difficult to secure a constant supply of water to the races which have their intakes some little distance above and below the bridge.

A well-known Maori chief, Hoto Witara, otherwise known as Te Whakahoro Tarahawaiki, died at Maiigere on Sunday, at the age of 87 years (says the New Zealand Herald). The old man, wdio was connected with all the noted Maori families of the Waikato, was a grand-uncle of the present Maori “King,” Rata Mahuta. ‘ He fought in the Maori War, taking part in battles in the Waikato and Taranaki, his last engagement being at Rangiriri. Among a large number of interesting anecdotes related by Hoto was one relating to the attempt by himself and his father to sink the steamer which ran up and down the Waikato in connection with the operations against the Maoris, They turned a canon captured from the Europeans on the steamer, using the weights from a “steelyards” as balls. The vessel was not hit, but the old chieftain declared that the fonnidable missile just missed the boiler by inches. His characteristic question after narrating the incident was, ‘Whoever designed the god to be defeated by human beings?” Hota Witara and his cousin Honana Maioha, another well-known chief, at one time lived on the edge of what is now the Domain cricket ground, just about the site occupied by the present grandstand, and they obtained their supply of eels from the swamp which is now the'cricket ground.

During the absence of her husband at the railway station, Mrs Henry Gorrie, of Mungaroa, while endeavouring to get water out of a barrel only partly filled, overbalanced herself and wa§ drowned. Mr F. Rout, proprietor of the Foxton-Shannon motor mail sei'vice, has found it necessary, owing to the added cost of petrol, to increase the passenger fares to 4s single and 6s return. New Zealand has some interest in the award of a Y.C. to Sergt. Whittle, D.C.M. Apparently he was not with the New Zealanders, because his name has never come to us by cablegram, but for many years he lived in New Zealand. He was an employee of Mr R. W. Smith, M.P., whose employ he left about five years ago. At the Palmerston Police Court yesterday, David Carter, who pleaded guilty at the Magistrate’s Court to the theft of a horse, harness, and gig at Bunnythorpe on 30th April last, was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. On a further charge of alleged forgery at Napier, on Bth June, he was remanded to appear there on Tuesday next. The accused gained notoriety throughout this district some time ago while posing as a post office inspector and Government official. A statement that there are many Germans and Austrians in Wellington at present working under assumed names was made by Dr. Thacker in the House. He declared that he could point out three within a few minutes’ walk of Parliament. Another thing that wanted looking into by the authorities was the fact that Hun prisoners on Somes Island wex-e allowed to use telephones between the island and the mainland.. He knew this because he had heard them. These prisoners should be properly isolated. Once a Hun, always a Hun. It was quite a simple matter at present for a German prisoner to get into communication with his friends in Wellington, and a very simple thing for him to cause no end of trouble by this. Many New Zealanders have suffered terribly by the war, but few to the same degree as Sergeant W. Mcßride, who has experienced sorrow upon sorrow, until his life has been completely darkened. He belong 0 to a well-known family in Queenstown. He enlisted as a gunner in the Otago Battalion of the Main Body. He was wounded at Gallipoli, and was gassed at the Somme. In addition, he received a shell shock, which destroyed , his nerves and wrecked his health. Three of his brothers wgre killed in action. He and, his eldest brother, John, belonged to the same battery, and John was killed on Gallipoli. One day while standing beside him, Turkish aviators dropped a bomb close to the gun. The two-soldiers were helping to work the gun, and John was blown to pieces. The second brother (Francis) was killed at the Somme, and the third (Joseph) at Messines. Sergeant Mcßride’s sister (Miss Mcßride) undertook work as a military nurse. She was sent to the Mediterranean, and died of malarial fever while on duty. When Sergeant Mcßride returned to New Zealand he found that his mother also had died.

According to the New Zealand Tablet, the new Irish movement of the Sinn Feiners is under the leadership of De Valera, the M.P. whose speeches arc described by Mr Lloyd George in recent cables as “coldblooded incitements to • rebellion.” The Tablet speaks of him as “a young Irish patriot with a Spanish name. Eamorn De Valera (the Tablet says) was born in New York about thirty-four years ago. His father was Vivian De Valera, a Spaniard, and his mother’s maiden name was Kate McCall, a native of Limerick.” He was taken to Ireland when he was only two years old, and was educated at Blackroek College. “In 1910 he married Miss S. O’Flannigan, one of the ablest and most enthusiastic workers for the cause of Irish Ireland. De Valera was one of the first to join the Irish Volunteers, and latex*, when the split occurred, to throw off allegiance to John Redmond. In appearance (the Tablet adds) the Irish leader is tall, muscular ,full of energy, with deep, passionate Spanish eyes set in a face of ivory pallcm*.”