LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1823, 7 May 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thursday being Ascension Day, the following services will be held in All Saints’ Church: —10.30 u.m., Holy Communion, 7.30 p.m. Shortened Evensong and address. / There will be a “working bee’ on the local bowling green to-morrow. "Work will commence at 10 o’clock in the morning, -and continue all day. All members able to do so are requested to put in an appearance, Mr W. L. Fitzherbert told the Appeal Board at Palmerston North on Saturday that he had lately put a transfer through of land in Kairanga at £l2O an acre! It is understood (says the Post) that several telephone connections in Wellington and .Auckland have been cut off, at the direction of the Post and Telegraph Department, because it is alleged they have been used for purposes of betting in connection with race meetings. The penny bank operated by the Auckland Savings Bank in the interests of the children' of Auckland is steadily declining in popularity. Five years ago there were 22,000 depositors; now there are only 12,000. Last year there was a decrease of 1,800 depositors, and a drop of £773 in the amount deposited. There has been a 'steady decline in the figures for the past half-dozen years. Mr J. Muir Barr, the manager of the bank, attributes the change to the influence of picture shows. A SURE INDICATION. Hoarseness in a child subject to croup is a sure indication of the approach of the disease. If Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy is given at once, or even after the eroupy cough has appeared, it will prevent the attack. Contains no poison. For sale everywhere.—Aclvt,

Mr H. A. Lamb, .'Government Audit Inspector, is at present in Fox ton, on official business. Mr W. J. Scollay, hemp grader, who replaces Mr Stewart, transferred to Wellington, arrived in Foxton yesterday, and" took up his duties to-day. Constable O’Donogbue is at present in Palmerston North relieving a constable who ‘is on leave., He will return to Foxton for duty in about a fortnight’s time.

A great increase in the number of rabbits in the Waikato is reported, A small party of trappers in a fortnight secured no fewer than 1,300 rabbits within four miles of Hamilton.

Some of the early crops of maize in the,Bay of Plenty district are now being picked. The yield on the whole is not us heavy as was anticipated owing to the heavy storm experienced in the middle of February. The death rate among children of the orphan home at Pupatoctoc, Auckland, has been remarkably low. The home was opened in 1860, and since then only four children have died.

As an instance of the increase in the valuation of property in the Matamata township, it is stated that a property in the main street, which eleven years ago was valued by the Government at £BOO, is now valued at £I,BOO. The Government is not yet in a position to indicate the action to be taken in regard to importing wheat from Australia. The Dominion threshing returns, so far, do not enable authorities to form a definite estimate of the season’s yield, as much of the grain is still in stack. The Minister of Agriculture is hoping to gain time by having estimates made of the approximate quantities of wheat in stack.

The lure of the earnings to be secured by trapping rabbits is said to be enticing men in different parts of Otago from their employment in essenfital industries. Among those who are said to be forsaking work of national importance to become rabbit trappers during the winter arc men of military age exempted from sei'vicc because of the employment in which they are engaged.

Apropos of the shortage of labour caused by the war, the Whangarei County Council at its last meeting received two unique accounts. They were from two women (one married and the other single), the amounts totalling 16s in each case, the charge being for eight hours’ work at the rate of 2s per hour in clearing away a slip on Wlumamiki road on a Sunday. The accounts ‘bear a footnote: “No men available.”

During the year' ending March 31st> 1917 j 39,022 acres of lease-in-perpetuity land was converted into freehold, the amount received by the Government being £40,183. Tho total area of Crown land converted into freehold was 10,524,314 acres. Debates amounting to £50,047 were made to Crown tenants by the Government. The total area of native land in the Dominion on March 31st 1917, was 0,730,818 acres.

There appeal’s to be little demand by returned soldiers for laud in Otago. Some months ago portion of the Clifton Estate, near Balclutha, was thrown open, but it was not in request. Last week the Westcott Settlement, near Roxburgh, was on the market for discharged soldiers, and only three 'applications were received for 20 sections. The area of 1(J of the sections runs from 17 to 50 acres, and of the remaining four Irom 211 to 403 acres. The lowest annual rental is £2l 3s, and the highest £155 14s. An additional form of; religion came under the notice of the First Auckland Military Service Board on Tuesday, when Robert J. Strong,' a single man, classed lit, appealed as he was the only minister and Sunday school teacher of the Swendenborgian Church iu New Zealand. Appellant said he was minister of the New Church since Christmas time, when he returned from America. All, his time was devoted to the church, for which he had set his life apart. To Major Conlan appellant said he went to America at the end of 1915, and'was ordained in Philadelphia in 1917. The appeal was adjourned sine die. Trouble has arisen at Mr T. T.’ Robson’s wool-scouring works at Avonside (says the Lyttelton Times), Some of the employees have refused to work alongside a man who was born in Germany, Last, weelf'one of the employees definitely refused to, work with the man. The employee was asked to resume work, but refused to do so, and Mr Robson told him in that ease he could go. He left the works, and three-other men have followed his example. The employees do not object to the man being engaged at the works, but to having to work with him when a certain class of labour has to be done in pairs. The man’s mother is German, but his father is a Servian. He has lived in Christchurch for thirteen years, and in Australia for thirty-three years; he once belonged to the Australian Naval Reserve, and his only son is in the New Zealand Army. Mr Robson stated that the man -was an effi-. cient worker, arid had been employed at the works for a fairly long time, and unless his dismissal was made necessary, by a Government regulation his services would be retained! For better scones, for lighter pastry, for more delicious cakes, use “Hudson’s Baking Powder—- “ Bound to Rise.” W. D. Bauckham, Fostoa,*

“You are not paid for attending night after night at the Supreme 1 Court library reading up the law on a ease,” said Mr Justice Hosting, at the Auckland Supreme Court,, to counsel in'a case when the matter * of a solicitor's bill of costs was under review. “Of course, we don’t know the law,” he added, with a smile,” “but we are paid on the assumption that we do.” Ninepence per pair on the fence is the price being paid for rabbits by the Central Otago companies, and at this figure some remarkably handsome cheques are being made (says the Clyde correspondent of the Otago Daily Times). £3 per day is a common thing for an experienced trapper, and I am told that one fortunate individual in the Matakanui district, who harvests his catch per medium of a motor car, actually caught 200 pairs in one day. The factory and the canning works are working at high speed to cope with the lai’ge quantities being sent in, and, owing to the scarcity of labour, are having some trouble to keep up with the work.