LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1829, 21 May 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Girls’ Guild are reminded that owing to the Council Chambers being otherwise engaged to-night, tho meeting will be held in the “Herald” office at 7.30 o’clock.

The weather to-day is squally, and will probably preclude a number of people from recording their votes on the Harbour Board Loan proposal.

The Manawatu Racing Club has paid £4,546 16s lOd to the Government as totalisator tax in connection with the club’s autumn meeting last month. Father Corley, who has been in indifferent health for some time past, is visiting Foxton friends prior to his departure from New Zealand. Constable Woods arrested a military deserter named John W. Reader, a flaxcutter, on Saturday, and banded him over to the military authorities’at Palmerston yesterday. The half-ton of frozen eels forwarded to England by Mr E. M. D. Whatman, of Masterton, has reached there in splendid condition. The eels were taken from the Wairarapa Lake.

At the Palmerston S.M. Court yesterday, James Mitchell, licensee of the Occidental, charged with exposing liquor for sale after closing hours, was lined £lO and costs, and his license endorsed. An appeal is to be lodged. A Gazette Extraordinary containing the names of the balance of Glass B Second Division —married men with one child —who have been called up for military service, will be issued to-day. The list also ineludes First Division reservists who have become of age. A number of local men have already received telegrams. A young man, Edward B, Bertram, charged at the Auckland Police Court with being an idle and disorderly person, and wearing the uniform of a lance-corporal without permission, pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three months' for vagrancy, and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon.

“The medical examination of the Second Division reservists is turning out very well,” states Sir James Allen. “Class A men (married reservists without children) are a little bit below the usual standard, but those of CUts* B (married men with one child), all of whom have not been examined yet, have proved so far a little above the Clash A standard.”

A correspondent in the Christchurch Press makes a novel suggestion in regard to Otira tunnel. The Minister was reported as stating the work could not be accelerated, owing to the shortage of men. The correspondent suggests that, instead of holding so many meetings and interviews, citizens open a subscription list in Canterbury and Westland, the total sum to be divided equally between workers employed on the job on the day the two ends meet. He believes, if that is done, there will be no shortage of labour.

. Erie S. Horn was charged at the Palmerston S.M. Court yesterday for the fourth time with failing to render personal service in that he failed to attend cadet drill required by the Military Sendee Act. On March 25th he was fined £3 and 7s costs, on April 22nd he was similarly fined, and on May sth and 13th he was fined £5 and 7s costs on each of these occasions. In reply to a question from the Magistrate as to whether he had made up his mind, not to drill, Horn replied, “Yes.” A fine of £5 and 7s costs was inflicted, in default 28 days’ military detention.

Some interesting i'aets relating to .the keeping qualities ol‘ butter in cold storage were mentioned by Mr Jas. Prouse at a meeting at Levin on Friday, Ho said that a parcel of butler—l2 boxes—was overlooked in the cold stores in Wellington lor a period of eight years. A dealer bought the butter and it opened up in first-class condition. It had been found that butter retained its quality even after twelve years in cold storage, so when they heard it said that it took a long while for N\Z. butler to get to England, and that it could not be, therefore, as good as an article that was put straight from the dairy on to he market, they could conclude that the statement was made by an interested party.

Private Murray, who arrived with the draft of returned .soldiers on Monday, had a series of seizures at Christchurch, and died in the hospi-i tal at midnight. He was on the way to Hanmer for treatment. His father resides at Otaki.

A meeting of managers of the local Presbyterian Church was held last night. It was decided to cutdown certain trees on the church property. Resolved to inform the Rechabite Trustees that access would be given to the Good Templar Hall on condition that the hall was used for good templar pur- ' poses. It was resolved to hold a social in the schoolroom on Thursday, the 20th inst. Accounts were passed for payment, and routine business attended to.

One of the strange meetings which the war has brought about took place recently in France (says the New Zealand Herald). An Auckland boy, who is a gunner in a New Zealand battery, was struck in the thigh by A’lna chine-gun bullet, which remained embedded in the flesh. By chance he was sent to a Canadian lield hospital. An X-x*ay examination wsp necessary to locate the bullet, and when the gunner was on the table the operator having noticed his name on the list, astonished him by remarking in a long drawl, “Ever beep to ——,” mentioning a Maori place name. “I was born there,” said the gunner. “Well, I guess we’re cousins,” said the Canadian, and cousins they proved to be. The New Zealander’s branch of the family came here over fifty years ago, and he knew as little about his Canadian relations as the Canadian knew about his. But it was left to the wheel of chance to bring the two men together in the X-fay room of a field hospital in France.