NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1767, 20 December 1917, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A. story of lioav lie came to enlist was told by the petitioner in a Native divorce case at Gisborne last week. He said; “I went to see my uncle off at Tokomaru Bay. We both got drunk. He said to me ‘What about enlisting?’ I said, ‘What about my .wife arid child?’ He said, ‘I am married with two children, too, but we can fix that up at Auckland.’ We hopped on the boat and found ourselves in camp.” (Laughter). Word has been received, regarding the recent prices realised under the Government commandeering of wool scheme (says the Christchurch Press) that Mr G. Gerard (Mount Algidus) gained top price, 40d per lb., for scoured merino pieces. This is top price for Australasia. Mr Gerard also gained top New. Zealand price for scoured merino fleece, 42£d lb. The top price for greasy merino broken fleece (Christchurch sold clip) was gained by Murchison Bros., Lake Coleridge, IC-Jd lb. America has a few things to teach even so wise and well-read a man as Lord Northeliffe. One thing he has noted is the a'mazing.difference between America and Britain in dealing with the drink problem. Britain is fooling with it, and America is taking it by the throat and mastering it. Uncle Sam is getting into the stride in every way in preparing for war. What chiefly struck Lord Northeliffe was the intentness and sobriety with which the Americans are setting to work, and he cites as very typical the way in which the saloons within five miles of the great camp on Long Island were dealt with. “One morning I read that all saloons within five miles of Yaphank had been closed. Nothing more was said about it. Nodiscussion preceded the matter. There were no abstruse calculations as to compensation. The United States is at war; saloons are not good for war, close them. That’s all there was to it.” An interesting point was decided in Sydney on December 3rd, in an action heard before the Chief Justice (Sir William Cullen) and a jury of four, in which Arthur J, Mather sued the Bank of New Zealand to recover the sum of £IOO. Counsel for plaintiff said the case was without precedent. Mather, having received a crossed cheque for £IOO, forwarded it to the Bank of Australasia at Petersham, with instructions that it be placed to Mrs Mather’s account. Subsequent inquiry dieted the fact that the cheque had not been received by the Bank of Australasia, but it had been presented at the defendant bank and paid across the counter. As the cheque had been crossed by two somewhat light parallel lines running transversely across the cheque, it was contended that the defendant bank should not have cashed it. The defence was that the cheque did not appear to have been crossed, and as it was duly endorsed it was paid as an open cheque without negligence on the part of the bank. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for the amount Canned. "May I beg most earnestly that greater thought bo given to the girl’s future life work, and that she be not pushed haphazard into some respectable occupation, however unsuited she may be for it?” said Miss Butler, head mistress of the Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, in her annual report. “So many girls who are utterly unfitted to teach, try to enter the teaching profession—and not only do themselves a grave injustice, but also the children who are entrusted to them. To my mind it is all a part of the discipline and training of a girl (hat she should be taught to choose her future career in those fields where she is most fitted to work, and where in consequence her work will benefit the community most. It is time that w.e cease taking a selfish outlook on life, cachfin turn hunting for minimum work and maximum pay, and remember our duty to our State and our neighbour. We have paid a high price to learn the value of discipline, and if we mean to maintain our position as world leaders we must remember our responsibilities, and study community interests, and our children must have the best, and only the best, handed to them, and they must be taught that each has his or her station in life, and the work that they will do best is the work for which they are best fitted. There must be no wastage of material. So, may I ask, that as part of your patriotism you will make it your business to find the niche in life into, which your dgugh • ter will best fit.”