LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1778, 19 January 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A torrential shower of rain fell this morning.

“The Herald” will be published at an early hour on Tuesday morning next, Anniversary Day. A pearl worth £40,000 sterling is on view in Melbourne. It was found oft' Broome, Western Australia, and Vveighs 100 grains.

The local school eommittee has made arrangements io purchase several barrels of tar recently washed, up on I!ic beach, for asphalting ai the scliool.

Miss Olive 31. Hay has been appointed to the position of acting 2nd assistant on (he si all' of the local Stale school, in place of Miss A [ox ha m, res igne d.

A magnificent view of the Kaikonras was obtained ai the, seaside on Wednesday evening, and Kapili Island was very distinct. A heavy black ciond obscured Egmont.

“Either this man is a most impudent liar, or else my witnesses are/" remarked a counsel at the YfeHing(on Magistrate's Court. “It’s obvious someone is,” remarked the Magistrate.

The following local pupils were successful iu 1 lie musical examinations at the Wanganui Girls’ College: —Grammar of Music Division 11.: Elizabeth P. Lumsden,, Pena Barber; do, Division I.: Inez Austin, Irene M. Stiles.

The Wanganui Hospital Board (his week accepted a tender of £7,01)7 (plus cost of metal windows) for extensions at the hospital, ineluding a proposed building for diphtheria cases. The highest tender was £11,385,

Advice has been received by the Y.M.C.A. National Headquarters that K. A. Kenner, of Auckland, one of the N’ew Zealand Held secretaries in charge of a Bed Triangle hut in France, has been slightly wounded in the head while on service for New Zealand soldiers.

On Sunday morning last, four Auckland residents left the Geyser Hotel, AVairakei, Hot Lakes District, by motor car, and readied Auckland in (he afternoon, a particularly smart rum ■ The distance is 200 miles, and the actual running time was 7 hours 24 minutes.

An Australian n.c.o. in control of road traffic had orders not to permit troops to use a certain stretch during specified hours. Along came a colonel at the head of his battalion, and was promptly checked. “Do you know who we are?” he snorted. “AAVre the Guards !” The sergeant should have shrivelled to a cinder. But he never even blinked. “I don’t give a hang if you're (he enginedrivers —you (-an't use this road,” he said.

It is well for Tauranga (hat langis are few and far between. The Xew Zealand Herald reports (hat cargo operations on the wharf

at Tauranga have been disorganised owing to (he Maoris, who comprise the majority of the wharf labourers, having gone inland to attend a, laugh Efforts will be made to work the vessels with the crews and volunteer labour until the 'Maoris return (o worlc. The tangi is expected to last a week.

A cable message Jins been received by (be Prime Minister from the Ncav Zealand Governmcni a pent in Xlolbom-ne about the shipment of superphosphates to New Zealand from the Commonwealth. The message states that ships of the Hud-dart-Parker fleet will hriri”' to New Zealand from 1,300 to 1,500 tons early in February, and that the Union Company will bring 700 tons of superphosphates in the present month, and 000 tons early in March. These cargoes will come for New Zealand consignees, and not for the Government.

■ The first Auckland Military Service Board has complimented a. family on its war record. The appeal of John F. M’Kenzie, carpenter, ■Grey Lynn, occasioned the comment. He stated that he was the last remaining son of his widowed mother, with whom lie lived. Four of his brothers went away. One, who went with the Main Body, was killed in Gallipoli, and three were on active service, one for two years, the other for eighteen months, and the third for seven months. The lastmentioned was in hospital wounded. Appellant said his brothers volunteered on the understanding that he stopped at home with his mother. The appeal was adjourned sine die, or until a brother returned from the war,

The postmarks on the latest nini from the United States bear the following’ words : “Food will win ie war —don’t waste it,”

It is unlikely that an attempt wi be made to collect the bachelor tax in Australia for some time, owing to the necessary machinery not having been provided by the Federal Parliament. But the tax is coming.

From Punch: —Says a very plain woman in a railway carriage to a gallant Y.C. invalided out: “Why aren’t you in khaki?” Says the Y.C.: “For the same reason that yon are not in the Beauty Chorus —physically unfit.” It is intended to bring into operation as from the Ist of April an arrangement under which the staff of the Post and Telegraph Department will he paid fortnightly, instead of monthly, as hitherto has been the custom.

Mr M, J. Monk, a member of the Wellington Military Service Board: “1 know a man who was absolutely given up by the doctors on account of tuberculosis, but he has been at the front two years, and it has cured him.”

It is stated that a bottle dealer who was permitted to visit Motuihi succeeded in obtaining £ls worth of empty bottles recently, mostly champagne bottles at that. Count von Luckner and his fellow prisoners must have been living like lords, in marked contrast to the life led by British prisoners in Germany. “In America,” said Professor ■Truoblood, in a lecture in Wellington, “it has been made a crime to sell liquor to a man in uniform. I am sorry to say that in Sydney many limes drunken soldiers accosted me in the street, and asked for money to gel back home. I generally said to them: “I think you had better march home; it will do you good.’ ” “I have no money, and spent a most miserable Christmas,” was the plaintive plea in a debtor’s letter produced in (he Levin Court this week. Unfortunately counsel who was engaged in the case had seen the debtor enjoying himself on file racecourse at New Year time, and the two circumstances seemed hardly reconcilable. The Magistrate made an order for payment forthwith.

At the annual meeting of the Auckland Electric Tramways, in London (slates The Post’s correspondent), the chairman (Mr C. G. Teg('tmeier), answering a question by a shareholder referring to a statement which had been made in New Zealand regarding his nationality, said that he had not thought it worth while to take any notice of these rumours. But it might he of interest to the shareholders if he stated that he was born in London, that his father was born in London, that his father’s father was a surgeon in the Eoya! Navy, and had served in the country’s naval wars in the early years of last century; and that twelve of the latter’s greatgrandsons, including his (the chairman’s) two sons, were now serving in the British forces. The statement was received with cheers.

Prisoners who have escaped from German camps have reached England. They relate horrible stories of the punishment inflicted upon Englishmen for refusing to work in the mines. The offender is stripped naked and thrown into a cell heated with hot air and with double-board-ed walls and roof. The heat is suffocating, the only ventilation being a hole the size of a crown-piece. The man sweats and gasps for a time, and is then taken, naked, and made to stand outside in any weather. The extremes of climate are a real torture. If the spirit of the man is still unbroken, he is knocked unconscious by a blow on the head with (bo butt-end of a rifle, and is (lien taken to the mine, and not allowed to come to the surface until be agrees to work.

An unusual letter was read before the First Auckland Military Service Board this week. In his notice of appeal, Albert D. Neilson, of Auckland, stated: “My calling up for service is contrary to public interest, because I am a coalminer, at present labouring for the benefit of my health, knowing that coalminers are exempt in God’s Own Country. I will Ava.it until you see into the matter; do not intend to get medically examined, as I applied for a passport some time ago to get hack to Sunny Australia to follow my occupation, the land of my.birth, and was refused. Not me.” Mr Pine remarked, “Back to the land of noconscription,” Major Conlan said that Neilson was a medical defaulter. As Neilson did not appear, the case was adjourned until February 7th.

“The fact is that people, when they grow old, become a nuisance to their 4 relatives,” said Air John Smith, in the course of a discussion at the Wellington Hospital Board meeting, on the accommodation for chronic invalids. “The relatives do not like to poison them or knock them on the head, but they want to get them into an institution where they can be cared for at the expense of fhe ratepayers.” A member: “We don’t have eases like that.” Air Smith: “Oli, yes, we do. The relatives never come near them. In olden times accommodation for chronic invalids would never have been needed; the relatives cared for them, Notv, if we go on providing the accommodation, people who are quite able to pay for the care of aged ones will take advantage of it. They just like to do as the old Maoris did—put them in a dug-out to die. If they wished to, they could easily find private accommodation and attendance for these people,”

A number of ears passed through Foxton this morning en route for the Wellington races, which commence to-dny.

The Queen of the South arrived from Wellington at 2 o’clock this morning with a cargo of general, and will sail again at midnight tonight for Wellington with hemp, tow and wool.

Growers of fat lambs say that buyers are offering them 4s to 5s per head less for such stock this year than they'were paying at this, time last year (according to the Tima ru Herald).

An amorous British youth was being taken to task for his flirtations. “Engaged to four girls at once!” exclaimed his horrified uncle. “How do you explain such shameless conduct?” “I don’t know,” said the graceless nephew. “Cupid must have shot mo with a machine-gun.’’

An unusual offer has been made to the Kairangn County Council, and it has been accepted. Councillor Cran maintains that the engineer’s estimate of the cost of forming concrete roads is excessive. He has agreed to lay down three chains of road in concrete on the Kangitikei line, and if at the end of the year it proves a failure he will pay the cost of the work out of his own pocket.

A Masterton soldier states that much amusement was caused among the ranks of the New Zealanders in France some months ago on rccepit of an Auckland illustrated paper, which contained an illustration showing “New Zealanders mending their shirts.” As a matter of fact, he says, when the photograph was taken the New Zealanders were investigating their garments in order to deprive themselves, if possible, of unpleasant parasitical acquaintance's.

“Of course we shall win.” says Lovat Fraser in Ihe London Daily Mail. “On tha I glorious day of October 31st, 1911, out beyond Ypres, when our line was broken and all seemed lost, one of our best generals, since killed, stood looking at the great wave of advancing Gernmns. His companion muttered that things were black. The general turned with eyes ablaze, and said: ‘trod will never let those devils win.’ In that strong faith we. must go forward and build this shattered world afresh.’-'

An Auckland correspondent: writes to a friend; “On Sunday, from the lop of ML Eden, I saw a ship lying in the stream which appeared to be sinking by the stern. She moved in to the wharf, however. In the afternoon I went down to have a look at her. She was the U.S.S. Co.’s latest and the linest cargo boat: ever in this port. The sinking appearance in.the distance was evidently caused by the weird design painted on her sides, in red, green, brown and grey. It was ‘camouflage,’ I suppose, and might make her look, from a periscope, like a sinking ship, or an island, or almost anything.”

The gratifying announcement Avas made by Mr Clapham at last week’s meeting of the Hastings Borough Council that the Municipal Theatre would pay its own way without costing the ratepayers a penny piece. The regular expenses of the theatre, interest, sinking fund, insurances, caretaker's wages, etc., amounted to somewhere about £25 a week, and it was a matter of great satisfaction that these expenses were all being met. “It is a great thing,” he added, “to think that the people of Hastings and district have the comfort of such an up-to-date theatre without the prospect of paying an extra penny by way of rates.” Poxton ratepayers have not been called upon to pay a penny in rates for the local Town Hall since its erection.

There are ghouls in New Zealand as well as in Germany. One variety, says (he Taranaki Hews, is the memoriam card dealer who searches the casualty lists daily, and sends along immediately a soliciting circular, and samples of the work done, to the bereaved relatives. We were recently shown one of these circulars. It contained verses of doggerel that would insult’ (he memory of any soldier. .Attached was a portrait of some poor soldier whose relatives had succumbed-to the importunities of the pushful card vendor. It is too much to expect a display of fine feelings or decency from this class of people, but surely even they could postpone (heir unwelcome obtrusion' until the bereaved ones had a little lime to recover from their blow.

Another of New Zen hind's pioneer settlers pnssed away at Palmerston yesterday, in the person of Mr T. G. Graham. The late Mr Graham was horn in Gloncestershire, England, in 1829, and in another week would have been 8!) ,v«urs of age. He was a student of the London University, where he matriculated. Arriving in New Zealand by the ship Hanover in 1802, he secured an appointment as teacher in a Native school in Poverty Bay under Bishop Williams. He left Poverty Bay just before the historical massacre in that province, and took up a position in the Bank of New Zealand in Auckland. As an officer of the bank he resided for-' periods in New Plymouth, Wanganui and Wellington. The late Mr Graham leaves a widow, live children, seventeen grandchildren, and one great-grandson to mourn their loss. The sons are Air Walter Graham (of Palmerston N.) and Mr Percy Graining (of East Coast); while the daughters are Ales dames Harris (Wellington), Crook (Petone), and Grove (Tawhatai, Eketahuna). Deceased was an elder of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian ChurcHj ;

Cabinet has decided that the minimum wage for married men in the Public Service and also in the Postal Department shall be £lsfyper year. No alteration is to be made in the salaries, of unmarried men. The effect of this decision is to put the men in the general Public Service on the same footing as railwaymen.

At the Palmerston Police Court yesterday, a young Chinese woman named Ning Fung was charged that on or about February, 1918, at Auckland, being of Chinese nationality, she entered the Dominion of New Zealand without paying, or having paid for her, the sum of £IOO poll tax, contrary to section 34 of the Immigration Act, 1908. The accused, who is about 20 years of age, was arrested at Feilding the previous day, and brought to Palmerston by Detective-Sergeant Quirke. The woman maintained a stolid demeanour in Court, and when charged with the offence did not reply.

The spectacle of a civilian at the front is such a novelty as to invariably create a mild sensation amongst the boys out there. A brigadier tells a good story of a recent inspection by Sir Douglas Haig of an Overseas division. The Com-mander-in-Chief cantered up in fine style with his staff. Behind him there rumbled a motor car bearing the High Commissioner of the dominion from which the troops had been drawn. The High Commissioner, in his London garb —barring the top hat —looked the most conspicuous of anyone on the review ground. “Who’s the civvic, Jim?” asked one of the rank and tile, in a loud tone. “Him?” \ replied his neighbour; “why, he’s the official photographer.”

An exciting motor 'car smash occurred at Puha, near Gisborne, last week. Air J. G. Johnstone, of \Vinjure re, was motoring along the road, and in negotiating one of the several bends at this point the front wheels swung over the edge, with the result that the car went over the hank. In addition to the driver, there Avere three or four of Air Johnstone’s children in (he car at the time. It dropped a considerable distance. Air Johnstone states that in falling it overturned twice. Fortunately, no one avus seriously injured, although one of the children fell out, and the vehicle landed on its side Avith the child partly underneath. The ear was lifted up, and happily the injuries all told were not of a serious nature. The car avus damaged, one of the back wheels being completely broken.