LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1762, 8 December 1917, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dr Thacker, M.P, (Christchurch East), was drawn in the last’military ballot.

As a result of the recent Methodist Sunday school anniversary the sum of £8 18s Id has been added to the school funds.

The Queen . of the South with general from .Wellington, arrived at 5 o’clock this morning, .She will sail again for Wellington to-night with a cargo of wool. *

Man’s needs are two —a hobby and a grievance. The hobby keeps him chasing and the. grievance keeps him kicking—together,, they save

him from introspection, which is death.

There will be a total eclipse of (he moon on the evening of December 28th. The moon enters the earth’s true shadow, not the penumbra, at 7.35, will be central in the shadow at 9,10, and leaves the shadow again at 10,57.

Mr Francis Neilson, a former member of the British House of Commons, was married at Chicago to Mrs Helen Swift Morris, widow of Edward , Morris, the Chicago packer, who died in 1913, worth £8,000,000. Mrs Edward Morris is stated to have a fortune of £12,000,000.

John Donald MSckey, a young man of 22, appeared before the Palmerston Magistrate on Thursday, charged with the theft from a postal packet on October 3rd, and also with fraudulently stating that he had posted a postal packet containing £7, when, in fact, he had failed to do so. On the application of De-tective-Sergeant Quirke, accused was remanded until Monday.

Though the last ballot taken was supposed to be restricted to married rnenswithout children, the list edntains the name of David Fraser, of Caversham, who, has no fewer than twelve children living. One of his boys has returned from the Gallipoli campaign, another is now at the front, while a third will be leaving with the January reinforcements.

The Rev. Philip James Kelly, vicar of Collingham, Yorkshire, is

now Gunner Jim Kelly, of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Mr Kelly cycled to Bradford, proceeded by train to Chester, presented himself at the recruiting office, and so into camp. The living of Collingham he gave up is worth £590 a yegr, and the rectory; tho emoluments of a gunner amount to Is 2d per day.

The latest form of gambling in Mastei’ton is laying the odds as to a balloted man’s changes of passing the Medical Board, says the Times. Ope man who looks healthy enough, but suffers from organic trouble, recently let some of the punters down badly, One woman whose husband was caught in the ballot and passed by the Medical Board made no ret of the fact that her husband would be home within a month of going into camp. Cold feet can beat the doctors.

The Bank of New Zealand is about to issue ten-shilling notes of a new design. The new note is printed in light pink and dark blue. It has the bank’s name in old English lettering in a straight line across its upper half, and the vignettes of New Zealand scenery, with Maoris and kiwis in the foreground, on either side, which are features common to all {he lower denominations of- poles is!ji}e4 )»' thp Bapk of New sealppc|. The j)ii(k poles of the pre.sept isspe will not be iijunediately withdrawn from circulation. They will be re-issued until, by wear, they have become unfit for further circulation.

The half-yearly summoned meeting of the Manawatu Lodge U/A.0.D., was held last night, when the following officers were installed for the yisuing term: —J.P.A., Bro. T. Chaffey; A.D., Bro. W. H. Currie; V.A., Bro. J. Parker;, 1.G., Bro. X. C. Baildon; 0.G., Bro. McPherson; A.D.8., Bros. T. W. Mitchell and F. Woods; V.A.8., Bros, JVV, Jape apd E. G. Martip. D.P. Bro. Mcknight officiated as Installing Master, assisted hy P.A. Bro. Filler. The bal-ance-sheet for the half year ended November 30th was spbmitted, apd disfdosed a very .satisfactory position, the accumulated fupds totalling £S7Q 17s Bd, of which amount 4*35Q is invested ifl War Loan Certificates, COSTS BUT A TRIFLE. While it is often impossible to prevent an accident, it is never impossible to be prepared—it is not beyond anyone’s purse. Buy a bottle of Chamberlain's Pain Balm) and y.ou are prepared for sprains, bruises and like injuries. For sale everywhere.—Advt,

A painful sensation was caused in Wellington on Thursday whenll became knowndhat Mr A. S. Biss, of the linn of Messrs Badham and Biss, public accountants, had died suddenly. Mr Biss was at the Wellesley Club during the lunch hour. He suddenly collapsed, and was taken to a private hospital, and attended by several doctors. He died at a quarter past two, supposedly from heart disease. He was s(j years of age.

When the Supreme Court opened at New Plymouth this week, and common jurors were being sworn in, several applications for exemption from service were made, among them being a grave-digger, who said he did not know at what moment he might be wanted to carry out his work, as burials were made almost daily. He was granted leave, as also was an undertaker. Things are looking gloomy in New Plymouth.

A subscription list for the provision of funds to provide Christmas cheer for the Germans Interned at Somes Island, Wellington,’ is in circulation in Auckland, says the Herald. A statement to this effect was made by Mr Ernest Davis at the meeting of yachtsmen held the other night. Mr Davis added that the would-be collector had quickly left his office when he quoted from a letter from England describing how dogs bad been trained fo bite the British prisoners of war in Germany.

It is customary and right that all entertainments should open or closq with the National Anthem. This is an expression of the people’s loyally. At a township not far from Palmerston the other evening (says the Standard), the orchestra opened with a selection, and as the music, commenced, the audience rose in expectation of the National Anthem being played. When the selection proved to be a lively two-step, the audience hastily sought its seat, trying to look unconcerned, hut the effort was quite unsuccessful. We are informed that a lower set of false teeth wore found in the gullet of a kawhai caught in .the rivet this week. The fish was sluggish in its movements in the water, and appeared to he in a bad way when thrown out of its native clement. By a strange coincidence a well-known local railway official lost a set of ivories while suffering from an attack of malde mer when fishing in an open boat over the bar a few days previously. We are not informed whether the teeth recovered from the gullet of the now deceased kawhai arc the identical set which found their way into the briny." i _

Instruction in swimming is being given in a number of Taranaki schools. The number of pupils who could swim in the schools so far visited are as follows: —Waiongomi, 5 out of 23; Inglewood, 5(5 out of 113; Kaimata, 15 out of 78; Tariki, * 7 out of 23; Midhurst, none out of 43; Durham Road, one out of 25; Norfolk Road, 10 out of 38. The scarcity of suitable swimming places was the cause of there being so few swimmers at some of fliel schools. At Midhurst, where none of the children co|ild swim, a suitable hole was found not far from ■ the school, and the piaster will, before the holidays, commence giv-. ing the children lessons ip swimming. At the last meeting of the UUiki Town Board a breezy letter was received from Mr Byron Brown, forwarding rates due, and stating that the rates looked large as compared with past years, and, at first sight, gave a man a start, but; that was natural,seeing that every Briton had a right to growl. However, he never wrote a cheque with more pleasure ” in his life, and he to seo the board at last had the pluck to lash out regardless of the votes of the people. The town could not bo improved without collecting rates, and town improvements did not drop down from heaven, and it did not rain progress. He hoped the board would remember this, and start to spend the extra half-penny on something that would give showing to the town. The board decided to thank Mr Brown for his letter. j

I have met quite a number of flying men on short leave from France during the last (says a correspondent in a London paper of a recent (|ate). They tpll jpp {ho whole front is (Hspgssifjg {he, rp? markable ajr achievements of ft syoung lad of nineteen) who belongs to Glasgow, and only joined the service about a year ago. He has already been overwhelmed with honours both by the British and French Governments, and I am told that some of his daring exploits alto-< gether exceed anything that has ye(j been accomplished during the war* He was given an extra bar to his D. 8.0. the othcii day for coolly, landing in the grounds of one of th«jenemy’s aerodromes and accounting by gunfire for the occupants as they left theij* her{hs. Having completed his hp returned u{|; harmed to our own lines, and celebrated the opc-asma by looping fliQ loop several times before he finally > touched the ground. The Wpr Office, with their usual red tape, niukp it impossible for his name to bn mentioned; but sooner or later thq world wjll be {olfi, ’ , REASON ENTHRONED. ' Because meats are so tasty they ' are consumed in great excess. This leads to stomach troubles, biliousness and constipation. Revise your diet, let reason and not a pampered ' appetite control, then take a few* doses of Chamberlain’s Tablets, and you will sooif bp well again, Jfyjj sale everywhere. —Ad v L * \

A press message from Wellington says: A report has been published here that Sir James Allen is likely to go Home next year to relieve Sir Thomas Mackenzie as High Commissioner, and that if a meeting of the War Cabinet . takes place in April as intended he will probably be in England in time to represent New Zealand there.

It is impossible to get dwelling houses in Feilding at the present time, says the “Star.” Cr. Brarnwell said at a recent Council meeting he knew of-a.case where a big institution proposed to send a married man to its Feilding branch, but had to substitute a single man because there were no dwellings to be obtained. Other similar cases could be mentioned.

Pte. Yates, who Is in hospital in England, in the course of a letter to a Foxton friend, says: “I am still confident that the war will end soon. I don’t think the Germans will require much beating in the spring. However, with the Americans ‘guessing’ and ‘calculating,’ we are sure of victory this time next year. Was two weeks at a seaside resort in France, a most beautiful place. X was struck with the fashions there. A great many ladies had their ‘coming out’ dresses on —very much so at the top and bottom. Anyhow, they are fine women.”

A humorous and characteristic paragraph from a recent letter from Pte. Yates, late of Whitaunui: — “Spectacular sights are the beautiful signal lights sent up by the enemy at night; the white parachutes in which the balloon observers escape when attacked by enemy machines. T can imagine hearing some of the ladies say, ‘Oh, how lovely!’ The men’s part of the war is good Irish stew to-daV, iron rations (bully-beef and biscuits) tomorrow, and lumps of real iron the next day —not old iron, good new iron, sometimes served with poisonous gas, tear gas (which smells like pineapple), and sometimes as a delicious dish a few machine-gun bullets and aeroplane bombs are thrown in. Mud and slush is plentiful. All seats free; no extra charge for sitting down.”

The sleepy little town of Monterfil, in France, was thrown into unsual excitement some time back by the news that one of its inhabitants, Madame Delalandc, had after sixteen years of married life, applied to the local Court for permission to resume her rightful sex. At first treated as an indelicate joke, it later transpired that the “lady” in question was really a man, and, as such, wished to regain his civil rights. After juggling with this, intricate case for weeks, the Justices at last decided to rectify this strange sex blunder by declaring Eliza Dubrcul’s marriage null, and changing the Christian name to Elie. Thus while losing a much-respected citizen, Monterfil and France arc richer by an able-bodied fortythree year-old man, who, endowed with a line physique and robust constitution, lias just been drafted into the army.