LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1833, 30 May 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A final reminder is given of the social to be held in the Presbyterian schoolroom to-night. A good programme has been arranged, and the ladies will provide refreshments.

A Wairarapa reservist, who was called up in the ballot on Tuesday last, was presented by his wife in Masterton twenty-four hours later with twins!

A cordial invitation is extended to parents and the public to attend the Empire Day and King’s Birthday celebrations at the local State School to-morrow afternoon, at 2.30 o’clock.

Sir Robert Stout had a doughty letter in the London Times recently giving cogent reasons why he regards the retention of Samoa as necessary, not only from the British point of view, but from that of the natives themselves.

A special meeting of the Foxton Borough Council will be held tonight, at 7,30 o’clock. Business: To adopt balance-sheet for year 19171918, and estimates for year 19181919; to discuss Works Committee’s report, Town Hall matters, etc. The Finance Committee meets at 7 p.m. An inquest was held at Palmerston on Tuesday to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the death of Daniel Gynie, who died at the Palmerston Hospital on May 2nd. Dr Peach said that death was due to deceased drinking a poison similar to Jcyes’ Fluid, and a verdict was returned in accordance witli the medical testimony.

We have been asked to warn boys against throwing stones and breaking street signs. One recently erected, indicating the Beach road, has been broken and several others damaged. iSigns on the road to Palmerston and Levin have also been riddled with shot. Such Avilful destruction deserves condign punishment.

The planet Mercury is now favourably situated for observation as a morning star, having reached an elongation of 25 degrees west of the sun. At present it rises slightly to the north of due east about 5 a.m., or two hours before the sun. Venus, somewhat higher in the sky, is also conspicuous as a morning star.

Advice has been received of the death on 30th March, at Nottingham, England, of the Rev. James Flanagan, a celebrated minister of the Methodist, Church. Some nine years ago he conducted a big mission in New Zealand, and he is still remembered by many hundreds of the friends he made at that time. About three years ago lie paid another visit to the Dominion on a visit to his son, Mr H. Flanagan, of Wellington.

“Practical jokers,” with a criminal tendency, have been again at very mean mischief in Wellington (says the Post). This time the pests have been squirting indelible ink on the dress of women and girls. On Sunday evening the back of one light blouse and skirt was thus sprayed with thick ink, and the clothing, was completely spoilt. The sufferer, a young woman who earns her own living, has failed to see the funny side of this kind of crime.

At this critical juncture of the war, while yet the enemy’s vanguard gathers, it is heartening to read in a recent American paper such a, passage as the following;—“Trust the battle line of England, the Indomitable! Of all the peoples of history, none more than the English have shown the strength that comes in the light with back to the wall. The last ditch is where England lights best, and there she will fight best to-day if forced to it by tho most tremendous military pressure the world has ever known. Thank God our boys are fighting at her side, even if it be but a few of them! May they carry to her the assurance of our faith and glory in her. May they sweep aside the ancient prejudices that have made us grudge England her fair meed of trust and honour.”

If you sniffle and sneeze and feel ill at ease, If your sight gets blurred and you sag at the knees, You may bet your life it’s a signal sure

t'ou’re in need of Woods’ Peppermint Cure. So don’t get worried, and don’t grow sad, Thousands of others have been as bad; Your influenza won’t long endure If you take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. —Advt. 1

The fact has been reported to the police that counterfeit half-crowns are being circulated (says the Southland Times).

Otaki has made quite a name for itself with records in the vegetable line. A new one has been established by the production of an ironbark pumpkin of 1501 b.

Up to the end of February of this season, 16,500 tons of butter had been produced in New Zealand, Which, at the price arranged fox’, would amount to over 21 millions sterling.

An employee at the Cromwell Canning Works lust week undertook to remove the hides from 500 rabbits in an hour, and amidst an interested audience accomplished the feat in 50 minutes.

Owing to the very boisterous weather conditions on Friday evening last, the euchre parly and dance to have been held in the Catholic schoolroom was postponed, and will be held to-morrow night. The price of admission is Is Cd.

Mr J. Morgan, of Levin, owns a cow that holds her own up well. Tho animal is seven years old, and for two days recently gave 801 b. of milk, test 4.2; butter-fat, 3.34 —total points, 51.52. The cow was in milk six mouths when the test was made. Last year South Australia dug up 7,213 tons of copper, valued at £902,475. This was 66 tons less than in 1916, buf it was worth £BO,000 more. The production of iron increased to 328,386 tons, worth £359,723, The grade is over 60 pc., and millions of tons are available. An Ashburton resident was greatly surprised last week by receiving a cable message from England purporting to be signed by his son. The message contained the following words“ Well, cable six pounds.” The son referred to was. invalided home some six months ago. Somewhat of a rccoi’d has been established by Mr P. Gillon, of Grccnpark, who sent 20 fat lambs to the Belfast freezing works in the South Island. The carcases of these averaged 61.31 b., the highest weight being 761 b., and the lowest 521 b. The total xveight of the 20 carcases was 2,2271 b.

What is said to be a most effective way of dealing with gorse on the roadside is being carried out by a farmer in the Greenstreet district, Ashburton. Instead of ploughing the gorse up, a traction engine is used to flatten it down. After a couple of rollings it withers and dies.

Coal is beginning to reach Christchurch from the colleries at Broken River, on the Midland Railway. Situated on the Canterbury side of the dividing range, these colleries are tapping a coalfield that was first discovered very many years ago, but that could not be utilised except for local purposes, owing to the lack of railway communication. Counsel was appealing against a conviction for theft at the Palmerston Supreme Court this week. “Suppose,” he said, illustrating his point in mitigation of his client’s action, “that I am authorised to place my hand in your pocket and take out one shilling, and I take two?”. “Then I am afraid I would have to run you in,” replied His Honour, smiling.

figures which have been compiled relating to the conscientious objectors to military service at Home show that 72 raeu have served senteuces of two years’ bard labour, and of the 5,236 who have been handed over to the military, 4,680 have been courtmartialled for refusing to obey orders and sentenced to hard labour. Further, 3,515 have been court-martialled once, 592 twice, 502 three times, 68 four times, and three five times, while 18 have died since arrest.

The late James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New Yoi’k Herald, who died at Nice, in the south of France, early in May, on one occasion startled the police authorities at Nice by suddenly running his large steam yacht at full speed for the shore, and stranded her stern on. He was surprised when the police came on hoard and enquired into the matter, and informed him that it was very lucky that no one had been killed, as in that case he would have been tried for murder. In reply, he said that he thought, the yacht being his property, he could do anything with her. He apologised, and got off with a fine and a caution.

Another argument in favour of utilising the water-power of the country was put forward by Mr T. H. Fegan in a lecture on “Waste Products of New Zealand and their Commercial Value” in Auckland. Mr Fegan was dealing with the numerous uses of nitrogen, knowledge of which he gained during a recent extensive tour of the United States and Canada, when he mentioned the cheapness with which it might be obtained in New Zealand by the proper utilisation of the magnificent water-power of this Dominion. Not only would the utilisation of this power mean a revenue of £12,000,000 per annum, he said, but it would place New Zealand well in the forefront for the production of carborundum and calcium carbide. He deprecated the use of coal-tar for footpaths, and mentioned the many by-products of this now practically waste material. Then there were possibilities of the refuse from slaughterhouses. As an instance, he spoke of the thyroid glands of animals, which at present are thrown away.

Cover your cow to-night, and increase your milk supply. Best white duck covers 17/6, at Walker and Furrie’s.*

The London Press Bureau states: The Postmaster-General announces that the parcel mails from New Zealand posted between 11th and 19th March were lost at sea through enemy action. The Auckland Provincial Farmers’ Union approved the action of the directors iii entering into negotiations for the purchase of the extent sive business and premises of Laidlaw Leeds, and authorised the increasing of the capital from £IOO,000 to £600,000. The negotiations # are not yet completed. 1

Through the misplacing of two linos in the Mayor’s appeal on behalf of the Red Jersey Fund in our last issue, the names of the candidates in the voting competition were mixed up. The candidates are; Miss Rita Admore (Tradesmen), Miss Mavis Coley (Farmers), Miss Muriel Petrie (Flaxmillers), and Miss Stella Robinson (Industrial).

“The Government has two duties regarding the settlement of soldiers on the land,’* stated the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, Minister for Agriculture, at the Farmers’ Conference at' Masterton. “The first is to provide land for those returned men who want it; the second is not to put any man on the land unless he has a reasonable chance of making a financial success of the undertaking.”

Mr Payne, who was recently transferred from the Queen’s Park school, Wanganui, to the headmaster,ship of Campbell Street School, Palmerston North, died last night. Death followed an attack of pleurisy. The late Mr Payne was one of the foremost teachers in the Wanganui Education district, and his loss will be keenly felt by the Boai’d and those who were associated with him in the teaching profession.

Sir Arthur Conun Doyle, in a letter to the London press, writes:— “We should have shot three leading German prisoners when Nurse Cavell was murdered, and two submarine commanders for the murder of Captain Eryatt. German prisoners should he picketed between hospital tents, and any captured bomber should be executed with the notice that a similar fate awaits all those captured at such work. If the Germans attempt a reprisal, lot us have counter-reprisals, sharp, stern, and relentless. If it must bo war to the knife, let it at least be equal for both parties.”

The Otaki Mail says that a man who was turned down by the Medical Board for heart trouble boasted that on the morning of his examination he had had no breakfast, “but smoked three packets of cigarettes and drank three whiskies.” We know a better story than that. It is of a young patriot of a northern town who had a heart with a leaky valve. Yet he hid that leak from the doctor, underwent those grueling nine months’ training with our Main Body in Egypt, and actually fought for three weeks on Gallipoli before his heart collapsed. Ho dropped dead in the middle of a' fierce fight—and was hot touched by a bullet.

A deputation from the Wanganui Harbour Board and business peopla of the town waited upon the Minis-* ter for Railways (Hon W. H. Kerries) at Wanganui on Monday, in eonueetion with the sorting charge of Is lOd per ton levied by the Minister's Department at shipping ports. After the case for the deputationists had been placed before Mr Hemes*, he replied that the charge was made at various ports as the Department could not be expected to do the work of sorting goods without payment. The amount was bused on a careful calculation. He could not remit the charge, as it was a Dominion one. He pointed out that if it were arranged for goods for Palmerston and other stations to be put straight into the trucks from the vessel, the sorting charge would not be made. As far as Wanganui was concerned, he was prepared to repeat an offer made by the Department in 1913, that the Harbour Board should take over the wharf shed, paying £7OO per annum for the building and the land needed. The deputation expressed regret at the Minister’s attitude in the matter, and later decided, to hold a conference on Tuesday concerning the Minister’s offerregarding the wharf.