LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1749, 6 November 1917, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A piece of pure ambergris was recently found on the Otaki beach. Its weight is 11b.

A sharp though short earthquake shock was felt at about 7 o’clock on Sunday night.

Messrs Milne and Stewart inspected the local State school on October 25th and 26th.

Bonfires ■ and the smell of gunpowder, accompanied by loud reports, symbolised the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day last evening. A social will be held in the Presbyterian schoolroom on Thursday evening. A versatile concert programme will be submitted, and refreshments provided. Admission; Adults Is, children Gd. The average attendances for the past four weeks at the local State school were: 347.8, 352.2, 337.8, 343; the average for the whole period was 345.2, out of an average roll number of 386, The pi’cscnt roll number is 387.

The monthly meeting of the local Borough Council will be held on Monday, 12th inst,, at 7.30 p.m. Business: Ordinary. The Finance Committee meets on Friday, at 7.30 p.m., and the Library Committee on Monday, at 7 p.m.

The Paparoa mine resumed work yesterday, after a couple of days’ strike. The dispute was in connection with the cutting and the precise size of props for timbering underground. The settlement was a compromise.

A war economy tip. A Masterton “sport” has taken Paraia and Margerine in the Christchurch doubles. Paraoa is Maori for “flour,” and Margerine is a good substitute for butter. Therefore, he reckons he has a good thing in bread and butter.

A Dublin correspondent says that Roman Catholic prelates in growing numbers are denouncing Sinn Feinism. The latest instance is the Bishop of Clonfert. The Church’s denunciation of the Sinn Feinism movement is the first serious check.

Mr Ben Tillett, the famous leader of the London dockers, who has been doing splendid recruiting work during the course of the war, has at last won a seat in Parliament, after many defeats. The cablegram says Mr Tillett defeated Sir Charles Mallett for the North Salford seat, by 1,277 votes. The New Zealand Methodist Conference, held in Wellington last April, appealed to the Methodist congregations of the Dominion to raise the sum of £IO,OOO for foreign mission by 31st October. The effort has been taken up with zeal, and it is now announced that the sum of £10,623 has been received. Bishop Cleary speaks very highly of the work which is being done by the chaplains of various faiths. Men of the right sort are being sent, he said, and have gained the confidence of the men. The chaplains are a band of brothers. He made many valued friendships among them. They trust one another fully, and help each other in every possible way. Speaking for his own Church, he said he is quite certain that the services of the chaplains are greatly appreciated by the men in the trenches, and he has every reason to believe that the same may be said of the other denomination;?. ' ,w “ ,

“If X get the chance to go to sea as engineer on a transport, may I do so?” asked appellant of the Third Wellington Military Service Board. “You may go to sea as a soldier,” replied the Chairman.

There is ap epidemic of chickenpox in Foxion. At last night’s meeting of the State School Committee a resolution was passed id* structing the head teacher to exclude from school any children jvEq had suspicious symptoms. Some years ago a* section of the road between Pabiatua and Eketahuna was put down in concrete as an experiment. The concrete shows no signs of wear, and the experiment is pronounced an undoubted success.

The Queen of the South arrived on Sunday afternoon, and stuck in the river near the jetty at the Heads. She got off at midday yesterday, and sailed at 2 a.m. this morning, empty. She is expected to arrive on Thursday with a general cargo from Wellington. Says the Pabiatua Herald: — “There are some enterprising people in Otaki. On Sunday night a pig belonging' to Mr Dempster, of the Telegraph Hotel, was killed in its stye and stolen! The animal weighed about 200Ibs. Otaki is the place where the old whalers sold the natives dried dock seed for tobacco, and for years there was a big crop of docks round the town.”

The Admiralty reports that an electrically controlled high speed boat attacked our patrols on the Belgian coast. The attack was defeated and the boat destroyed. The newspapers are puzzled over the electrically controlled German boat. Naval writers suggest that it is crewless and controlled by wireless waves from the shore or by aircraft. Electrical engineers are sceptical, as the Admiralty’s statement is not explicit.

Mr George Price, a Thames pioneer, who died last week, with his brother Alfred started business as ironfounders at Onehunga over half a century ago, but three years later removed to Thames, where it has since developed into a very big concern. Mr Price was in his 74th year, and is survived by his widow, eight sons, and two daughters. Three of the sons are at the front.

According to a return presented to Parliament, the following contributions were made by Government Departments to the last War Loan; Government Insurance Department, £210,000; Public Trust Office, £250000; State Fire Insurance Department, £30,000; Public Service Superannuation Board, £10,000; Advances to Settlers Office, nil; Post Office Savings Bank, nil.

The head-teacher of the local State school desires to acknowledge with thanks the following additional donations to the school games fund:—Mr A. S. Easton £1 Is, Mr Bock 10s, Mr A. Ross a Slazenger racquet for winner of girls’ competition. Mr Jackson desires to state that the interest in . the school shown by parents and others has given the staff and himself great pleasure.

At Huntly on Friday, a widower named Kcrnohan was shot by a married man named Harry. Domestic troubles are alleged, Kernohan having been boarding with Harry. The shot struck Kernohan in the shoulder, and he was brought to the Waikato Hospital and operated on. The wound is not considered serious. Harry was arrested and brought before the court and remanded.

A true though most incredible story is narrated in a recent London Opinion. A British officer, following up the German retreat from the Somme, entered a church and found a black cat secured by a wire to a crucifix. The poor starved animal was screaming piteously. The officer, without thinking of anything but the cruelty to the poor cat, ordered one of his men to cut the wires and release it. The man cut the first wire, and an explosion immediately followed, blowing the man, the crucifix, and the cat into fragments,

Since the commencement of 1914 there has been a steady increase in the monthly rainfall in Auckland (says the Star), until at the present time records of previous years are being easily broken. No such fall as the present year, 1917, has been experienced in the Dominion for over 63 years, even though there are two months yet to go before the year concludes. The total rainfall for the year ending 1914 was 28.54 inches; for 1915, 49,93 inches; for 1916, 67.10 inches; while the total fall for 1917 up to the beginning of October was 67,12 inches.

The late Miss Elizabeth Alexander left some handsome bequests to public institutions in Wanganui, the chief items being £12,000 for a museum and library, £4,000 to the Wanganui Orphanage, £2,500 to the Hospital, £2,000 to the Education Board for the purpose of establishing Technical College Scholarships, £1,500 to tho Presbyterian Horae Mission, and £I,OOO for the founding of scholarships for the Girls’ College. Other bequests include £6OO to St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, £SOO to the Public Library, £SOO to the Old Men’s Home, and £SOO to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, making a total of £21,900. FOR A WEAK STOMACH. Take Chamberlain’s Tablets for the stomach and liver. They enable the stomach to perform its functions naturally. For sale everywhere.

Mr H. W. Richmond is confined to his bed with an indisposition, and it will probably be three weeks before he is able to get about again. In the meantime Mr Richmond announces that his business will be carried on as usual, he having made arrangements with the well-known firm of W. R. Kells, of Palmerston North, to that end. All business communications left at his residence, Coley Street, will receive prompt attention.

“No man,” says Eurico Caruso, the world-famed tenor, “is so wellknown as he thinks he is. While motoring in New York State, the automobile bi’oke down, and I sought refuge in a farmhouse while the car was being repaired. I became friendly with the farmer, who asked me my name, and I told him it was Caruso. The farmer leaped to his feet and seized me by the hand. •Little did I think that I should ever see a man like you in tins here humble kitchen, sir P he exclaimed. ‘Caruso —the great traveller, Robinson Caruso!”

Referring to the menace of Sinn Peinism, the Rev. J. Standring, in the course of his sermon in the Middlemarch Presbyterian Church on Sunday night, protested against the circulation throughout the Dominion ofa denominational paper which was sowing rank treason so far as its power and influence went. If the same course were adopted by other papers, he said, they, would be promptly cheeked, and if it occurred within the lands of their own Presbyterian Church such a cry of detestation and denunciation would arise as would end the scandal.--! Otago Daily Times.

At the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian War the Germans complained that the French had bombarded the open town of Saarbruck and used the forbidden bullet. A dispassionate historian, who read the Riot Act to all warring peoples, declared, fifteen years later, that this report, “falsely and purposely propagated, covered with the cloak of reprisals much that came afterwards.” We saw the same thing for ourselves in regard to gas. What the Germans first said and have since done to the Belgians are an exact copy of their procedure in respect of the French oivil population of France 47 years ago.

During the hearing of a by-law case at the Palmerston Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Mr W. G. K. Kenrick, S.M., said some of the offences by motorists showed the necessity of local bodies bringing in a by-law permitting no one to drive a car until the driver had passed an examination requiring him to have a reasonable knowledge car and ability to drive. In some eounti’ies, said Mr Kenrick, drivers were required to pass a very stiff examination, and to have a technical knowledge, and to acquaint themselves with the oil consumption and running capacity of a ear. These regulations made for competent drivers.

From Messrs Whitcombe ami Tombs comes a copy of a sixpenny pamphlet, “The Story of the Teeth, and How to Save Them/' by F. Truby King. This little but very practical work of 32 pages has been issued by the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). Its purpose is to convey to parents and others in a simple and interesting way the leading facts concerning the nature, growth, and development of the teeth, and especially to show how they can be safeguarded. Diagrams and illustrations emphasise the text. Dr. King rightly argues that the destiny of the nation is primarily in the hands of its mothers, and “The Story of the Teeth” is a, valuable help for those hands.

Statements with regard to the circulation of immoral literature in the public schools were made at a meeting of the Auckland Education Board last week, says the Herald. It was stated that two girls attending a suburban school in Auckland had been expelled for having immoral literature in their possession. Letters received by the board indi- -•

cated that children in other schools in Auckland were being contaminated by the distribution of literature of a low, immoral, and disgusting type. Scholars in country schools were also reported to be coming under the baneful influence. The matter was considered by the board in committee, but it was decided that copies of certain of the matters mentioned should be given to the police, to whom also should. be handed letters at present in the possession of the board.

The annual festival services were celebrated at All Saints' Church, Palmerston N., on Sunday, and were conducted by wl-Rev. G. Y, Woodward, vicar, of Karori, and formerly vicar of All Saints', Foxton. In the afternoon the children’s service was held. Sunday School pupils were present from All Saints’, St. Peter’s (Terrace End), West End, and Hokowhitu, there being in all about 700 present. Gifts of eggs and flowers were made, these being afterwards distributed among the public and private hospitals. At tho conclusion of the service the old English ceremony of “Clipping the Church” was gone through. This consists in the children linking hands round the exterior of the church and singing the hymn, “We love the place, 0 God,” the ceremony being symbolical of a child clinging to its mother, and was introduced here by thQ Rev. Mr Rosher, formerly of All Saints’, Palmerston. —Standard.

Fresh supplies of Lettuce daily a| \Vaifeer & 3tei§’§,‘

At last night’s School Committee meeting a letter was read from the Chairman of the Education Board in reply to a request for the erection of a bicycle shelter. The Board’s chairman stated that the erection of such convenience was considered the peculiar prerogative of the Committee or parents, but if the Committee invited donations application would be made to the Department by the Board for £ for £ subsidy. Committeemen were of opinion that the erection of the shelter came within the Board’s scheme of capital expenditure. In view of the Board’s laxity in dealing with subsidies on previous sums raised, the Committee decided not to take any further steps in the matter, except to instruct the head teacher not to allow children living within a half-mile from the school to lumber the quadrangle with their bicycles.