LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1806, 26 March 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A further draft of returned soldiers, comprising 7 officers and 71 other’ranks, arrived in Wellington yesterday. Captain J. B. Hine, M.P., was amolig the number. They came from Egypt and Palestine. At the Town Hall supper-room last evening, a welcome home was accorded Lance-Corpl. L. Bullard by- the Methodist Church. The Mayor, on behalf of the Church, extended a hearty welcome to the returned soldier. The members of the National Efficiency Board left Wellington yesterday for Ohakune, where they will lake evidence and consider questions affecting the relief of the settlers of the district devastated by the recent hush tires. *

The output of tar from the Palmerston North gasworks last year was 78,000 gallons, 40,000 of which were used for municipal purposes. A committee Meeting of the managers of the local Presbyterian Church will be held to night, at 8 o’clock. >

A medical examination of the pupils of the local State school was completed at noon to-day. The medical examiner was Dr. Irwin, assisted by Nurse Jenkins. The Amusement Tax, which came into force on Ist November, had, un to the end of February, realised about £13,000, and it is anticipated that the. total receipts for twelve months will amount to about £40,000. *

Up to March 19th a total of 643 soldiers had taken up land under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act. The total area selected is 417,207 acres, the average of 660 acres indicating that a good number of the men have gone in for sheepfarming.

. Harvest thanksgiving services services were held in the local Methodist Church on Sunday. The pulpit was tastefully decorated, and the services were appropriate to the occasion. The Rev. A. Harding conducted the services. A sale of gifts took place in the Town Hall supper-room last night,, and realised over £B.

Replying to the Manawalu County Council’s request for support of its protest to the Railway Department against th e failure to run special trains for races, thus cans-* ing great damage to roads by excessive motor the Kawhia County Council said that Kawhia was not interested, having neither roads, railways, nor races.

Another mysterious lire occurred at Manakau on Thursday night, when a wash-house, partly attached to the school residence, was partly destroyed by (ire at about 31 o’clock. This is the fourth mysterious fire of recent dale, and it appears that an incendiary is at work. In the present instance no fire has been in the outhouse for a fortnight. Arising out of the six o’clock closing of hotels, Mr H. J. Stevens, licensee of Larsen’s Hotel, Westport, is suing the Westport Borough Council for a refund of £7 4s, proportion of license from Ist December. 1917, to 30th June, 1918. It is understood that this is the first case of the kind brought before the Court in New Zealand.

A sidelight o® the phenomenal darkness which prevailed on Tuesday last when the bush fire smoko enveloped Palmerston in total darkness for a time, and partial dark--ness for most of the morning, was provided at the meeting of tho Borough Council on Friday, when the gas manager reported that the consumption of gas that day was a record for the town.

The New York Journal of Commerce estimates the cost of the war to December 31st at divided amongst all the combatants. It is estimated that by July 31st the total will have reached the sum of £31,000,000,000. The daily expendilure of all the combatants is now set down at £30,000,000, of which one-third is debited to the Central Powers, and the balance to the Allied forces.

Here is a sample of how the settlers are taking their losses up Raetihi way. A man was staying aS King’s Court Hotel at Ohakune. * A friend of his came into the diningroom and said, “Hullo, old chap! How’s things?” “Oh,” said the diner, “I got hit for about: £3,000. But 1 would like to get hold of the chap that snepked ray new felt hat out of the hall last night. He’s tho bloke I’m after.”

A little hoy, who had been suffering from infantile paralysis, has not been able to conquer his alarm of the recent fires at Raetihi. It he >ees a red glow in the sky or red. paint on a building, he clings to his mother, crying, “Sparks, mummy! Look, the fire is burning again!” Other children there are in contrast who have already forgotten the frenzied rush for safety of the early hours of Tuesday morning, and who iind it rare fun to play aronnd the ruins of their homes searching for lost toys and other treasures.

At Ihe Magistralets Court at Pukekohe last week, before Mr Wyvorn Wilson, S.M., a man named Pora Patrick Keane, a labourer, formerly employed by the Franklin County Council, was charged with having published an utterance indicating disloyally. Evidence was given by a Greek fisherman, by Samuel Andrews, and by Constable Hargreaves, that accused in a restaurant at Pukekohe on Ist inst. used languaging cursing the English, He stated that be would tight on the side of Germany againstEngland any day. He was convicted and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, x\fter an exciting chase lasting from the 16th to the 2-11 h March, the police have captured a Dalmatian, Vladimir Carevich, who is charged with the theft of property and money valued at £SO. Care-l vich escaped from custody at Kaitaia on the 16th, making his way south. By the combined action of the police and settlers he was recaptured at Maungatapere on Saturday, when making for DargaviD le. It is alleged that he stole two horses on the way. When arrested he offered no personal violence. He was nearly captured on Saturday night near Whangarei, but es-t taped by jumping from a precipice and making off into the bush. ‘

There are at present 35,000 bales of wool and 4,000 bales of hemp in the Wellington Harbour Board's stores. Other produce held in store by the Board includes 108,000 crates of cheese, worth £7 a crate. While driving to Bulls last Monday week, Mr G. S. Langley, of Ohau, lost a coat containing a pocket-book and letters of value. Finder will be rewarded on returning same to owner, or by. leaving at this office. In respect to the recovery of the body of the late Mr William Hamer in the river on Sunday night, we are informed that Mr Stan. Reeve dreamt that the body was caught under a log near the spot where it was found, and reported his dream about 10 days ago. Wliile a married man named Thomas Casey was handling a horse at Mount Cargill, Dunedin, on Saturday afternoon, the animal kicked him on the head while he was in a stooping position. He was taken to the hospital, where he died on Sunday night from a fractured skull. Pedestrians along one of the main thoroughfares of Christchurch were the other afternoon treated to a somewhat unusual sight. Two lady cyclists collided, one falling to the ground, scattering her parcels in all directions. The other managed to keep her feet. Putting her bicycle against, a verandah post, the latter proceeded to assist her less fortunate sister, only to receive a smack across the face'from the enraged one. A gentleman standing near was slow to help, doubtless lest he should receive similar treatment, and was knocked down by a passing motor car.

A Carterton lady resident, win* has a few fowls and ducks, went to feed them on Tuesday morning, as usual, and lirst found a duck dead with its head nearly off. Entering I lie fowl house, a hen was seen in a similar condition, and another on a nest with its head drooping over. Going closer to examine . this, the lady was considerably startled hy a weasel jumping out from beside the hen. She quickly got outside and shut the door. The old proverb says that you cannot catch a weasel asleep. This lady had him sure, and a neighbour came in and ended his career with a club, and the weasel and liis victims were buried together.

There were very few Christmas cards sent this year, and most people cut down their presents to toys for the children (writes a London correspondent). Those who did exchange gifts bought only the simplest things or gave foodstuffs as the greatest favour they could confer. Fancy the wife of a famous general receiving with joy 21b. of fresh butter from a friend in the country, and a well-known actress a dozen newlaid eggs from an admirer on a farm. Several women I know received apples or potatoes, and pheasants and woodcock went to many others with good wishes tied round their necks. At one Christmas party the favours for the ladies were little home-made silk vanity bags, and instead of a powder-box inside there were four lumps of sugar! The Palmerston Times, commenting on Mr P. C. Webb’s sentence of two years’ imprisonment, savs:—. “He is to be congratulated on having escaped the terrors and miseries of the battle line. In gaol, or in the tree-planting gang, he will bo well clothed, fed, and sheltered; and he will enjoy the realisation that, amongst a certain section of the community, he will be regarded as a martyr. If the Germans were by any possibility to get through to New Zealand, if our women and children were in danger, P. C. Webb would probably regard' it as • a great deprivation if he were not permitted to strike a blow for freedom. As the fighting happens to be occurring twelve thousand miles away he prefers to become the Sir Oracle of local dissentients and malcontents. In the meantime he is out of action, and to that extent is givirig aid and comfort to the enemy. But the logic of the situation is inescapable. It is the men in the firing line twelve thousand miles away who are guarding us-here more effectively than if they were in a dug-out fighting a, defensive campaign in New Zealand territory. Mr Webb has put up a very plausible defence for his attitude, but the fact remains that it is his skin rather than his honour as a man and a citizen that has come unscathed from the ordeal, fie has earned the pity and contempt of every man and woman in whose veins Hows the red of a Britisher.”