LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1775, 12 January 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There are.2B inmates— 22 males and six females —in the Old Pf op t s Home at Awapuni.

f “Our schools should be the true training ground for love and brotherhood, where children arc mr, separated from children because o their parents’ beliefs.”-Sir Robert Stout.

It was stated by a witness at a sitting of the Military Appeal Board in Masterton that his farm at Akitio produced 250 bales of wool, 5,000 lambs, and 200 calves. He also stated that he passessed two other farms.

An explosion of. gasoline vapour occurred aboiu'd the. coaster Echo at Napier yesterday. The ship was undamaged. Amongst the cargo for Wairoa were leaking cases of gasoline. It is presumed the spirit got into the bilge and was ignited by a light in the -hpgine-roora.

The re-examination of 02 First Division men called up after the sixth ballot and of First Division men classed as 02, will commence as under; —Wellington City, 525, 15th April; Manawatu, 310, 13th March; Wairarapa, 240, Bth April. In a lecture in Invercargill, Sir Robert Stout said: “We have heard much of late of Belgium, Rumania, Switzerland and Serbia. The area of New Zealand exceeds the total area of all those four nations. The population of those nations was before the war 20 millions of people.” A very large number of officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces returned to the Dominion during the past for'. Tight —-no fewer than 2,94.1, 2,090 landing at Auckland, and 151 in Wellington. The total comprises 140 officers, 12 nurses, and 2,08!) men of other ranks.

Another whale has been washed ashore, this time on South' Spit beach, near Hokitika. On a recent; afternoon (says the Guardian), when the steamer Defender was in the roadstead, the whale was' disporting itself all round the steamer. Next morning the whale washed ashore on the beach on the south side of the river. It was about 54 ft. long, and was alive when it came ashore.

A fine shearing record was put up by six men in Mr W. ,1. Poison’s shed, Mangamahu, on Ist January, (he grand total of 1,589, the highest tally being 300 by A. Wilson. This is the highest record ever known in the district (says the . Wanganui Chronicle). This tally, however, does not equal that of W. Villa, who shore 339 ewes and lambs in one day at Taihape recently. This is be.ieved to be a world’s record.

The liile Mr Peter Stewart, who died at Levin on Sunday last, took his share of work on public bodies. He was a member of the Manawatu County Council from its inception until his removal to Levin, and later a member of the Wirokino County Council before it was merged into (he Hoi’owhenua County Council. He was one of the promoters of the great system of water races which has so enriched the Horowhenua plains, and for some years he was a member of the Levin Domain Board.

It would appear that the supply of labour for the harvesting operations in the Marlborough district is considerably in excess of the demand (says the Express). Some men, visitors to the district, are complaining that they have been unable to find work, and that they were misled by representations, made as the season was approaching that work would be plentiful. It is stat - ed that some harvesters are practically stranded, and are offering their services for less than the regulation wage of Is 6d per hour.

The Pahiatua Herald relates the following incident: The story is (old of an Auckland gentleman, a Britisher, whose business occasionally brings him to Pahiatua. He had hooked a reserved seat by the Main Trunk at Auckland, only to subsequently discover it had been commandeered, by order, he was told, of an officer. The traveller perforce, had to stand for most of the journey, and great was his surprise and indignation on learning that his “reserved” seat wa 1 * occupied by the notorious Couxit von Luekner.

In the course of a lecture at Invercargill, Mr Clement Wragge, told an amusing story of a schoolmaster in the North Island. “While lecturing in the town,” said the meteorologist, “I thought that perhaps the kiddies would be interested in my lantern slides, so I wrote asking the schoolmaster to bring them along. Imagine my disgust when I received a reply to the effect that he hadn’t time to bring the children to every ‘monkey show’ that visited the town. My pictures of Saturn and its rings, of the hydrogen Haines of the sun of the universe—a ‘monkey show!’”