LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1835, 4 June 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

This morning’s frost was the severest we have experienced so far this year. The Queen of the South is due tomorrow morning from Wellington with a cargo of general.

The weather was beautifully fine for the holiday yesterday. Foxton was very quiet. A number of people visited the seaside.

The Minister for Defence has received advice that the Thirty-sev-enth Reinforcements have reached a port of call, all well. Constable O’Douoghue, of Foxton, is at present in Shannon relieving Constable Condon, who is away on annual leave.

William Ross, a farmer at Marawhiti, aged 70, broke his neck through his motor car overturning when he was returning home from Ashburton on Saturday night.

The Miranui mill, at Shannon, which has been closed for the past two months, will re-commence stripping this week. The flaxcutters started yesterday.

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

A large number of motor cars passed through Foxton en route to the Otaki races yesterday. The carrying capacity of the cars were taxed to their utmost.

At the next sitting of he Medical Board in Palmerston North about 500 men, mostly Class B of the Second Division, will be examined. The Board opens its sitting on July Ist. 1

If a visitor dropped down from Mars and saw the gay crowd off to the races yesterday he would refuse to believe that a war was on, and that the Empire was facing a grave crisis, with rivers of blood being spilt in the cause of Liberty and Righteousness. It’s a great country New Zealand! Indications are that; the Picton whalers are going to have a sue-, cessful season. Word was received from Te Awaite on Monday morning last that two hump-backs were captured the previous day, and that the whalers were out after another. Two whales of the humpback species were also captured last week by’ the Kaikoura whalers. The Otago Educational Institute resolved: That for the maintenance and strengthening of our national system of education, the Minister be urged to take such steps as are necessary for the immediate withdrawal of all State aid, direct or indirect, from primary and secondary schools not under complete State control.

There is a complete Belgian town in England, of some 7,000 inhabitants. It is named Elisabethville, after the Queen of Belgium, and it is in the County of Durham,' surrounded by typical English uplands, green and of gentle oultine. Only a little while ago the site of the town itself was as green and peaceful as its immediate surroundings, for it was farm land,, and had been nothing else for centuries.

A very candid opinion of the mar) who sees in the war a means for personal .profit was expressed hy Colonel Chalfey, O.C. Canterbury Military District, at the Empire Day celebrations at Christchurch. Any, man, said the colonel, who made money during the war, who would have more when it ended than when it began, was not doing his duty. New Zealand was safe because of the Navy. There was no real provision made for those boys in blue who were keeping ceaseless vigil in the North Sea, and it was up to New Zealand to help them. • It is rumoured (says the Taumarunui Press) that the Mormons have made about 40 converts among the Taumaruuui Maoris, and that they propose to erect a Temple of Truth in that district. The work of Mormon propaganda amongst the Maori of the interior calls urgently for enquiry on the part of the Government. So-called elders from Utah have been growing in number and influence, and their doctrines aer rapidly permeating the natives. Just how bad or how disturbing those doctrines, are proving in their operation upon the Maori mind should be quietly, but promptly, investigated by some Stale official.

Caustic remarks upon the amount of drinking which takes place in the Main Trunk district, wore made by his Honour the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, at the Wanganui Supreme Court. Said he: “It is a great disgrace to this Dominion that drinking should take place in a nolieeuse district; it was more than that, in a district in which the Government agreed with the Maoris would be entirely free from this curse. The people had not carried out this promise in the spirit and letter of the agreement made thirty years ago. The blame rested upon the whole of the Dominion. It was a great pity to see working-men spending money in drunken orgies in this district.”

Hon. G. W. Russell, speaking at a conference with the Taranaki Hospital Board, referred to the movement to establish free dental treatment for school children. The Minister said he knew no distinctiton between the pupils of State and private schools. The work of the ehinics should be confined to essential treatment, and they would not undertake high-class dentistry. If dentists were unprocurable to manage the clinics, the Government would arrange to train students, who would be given bursaries and at the end of the course be required to go into the public service for a year or two, the same as the scheme in connection with medical students, who would then become officers of the Public Health Department. He hoped eventually to provide a State medical service.

11l replying to a vote of thanks at New Plymouth last week, the Hon. G. W. Russell permitted himself to indulge in. a few remarks concerning the war situation, Hq said the present was no time for pessimism, as fat as the Western front was concerned. He believed the war was a righteous war, and that Britain and her allies were bound to win. If the Germans should win on land they still* had the British Navy to face. No country could successfully trade across the seas who made England her enemy. The National Government of New Zealand was doing its best, and was united in its desire to.express the patriotic sentiment of the people, that they desired to be there at the finish. His confidence was unshaken. There were great men at the head of the armies, and he believed the newly-appointed generalissimo one of the greatest strategists of the present day.

You couldn’t do better than buy your horse-covers at Walker & Furrie’s. Price only 32/- for the best,*

Included among the 701 officers and men returning to New Zealand by an early transport is Pte. J. P. Collins, of Foxton.

A number of local sports attended the Otaki races yesterday. The Cup was won by Orleans. The totalisator business was very brisk, £26,289 being handled, as against £19,567 for the same day last year. The Defence Minister ( Sir James Allen) speaking at Rotorua, denied the impression prevailing that the Government intended to withdraw soldiers from Rotorua Sanatorium, and stated that Mr T. H. Lowry’s donation of £IOOO. would be used ip the erection of two new wards in King George Hospital, to be named the Lowry Ward.

Mr Joseph Maekay, M.A., who died on Saturday at New Plymouth, was at one time principal of Wellington College for a number of years. Previous to that he had for a considerable period been Resident Master at Nelson College, which he left in June, 1881, to take up the responsible position of Principal of Wellington College. The late Mr Maekay was a man of strong personality and high scholastic attainments.

At the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court, William George Price and his wife, Ella Elizabeth Price, were charged with assisting Frederick H. Paintin and William Price, members of the Expeditionary Forces, whom they knew to be deserters, to conceal themselves, and also with assisting in order to enable them to escape. After the police evidence had been taken, the accused Avere committed for trial. A social afternoon will be'held in the Town Hall supper-room on Thursday afternoon next, for the purpose of raising funds for the enlarging of the Patriotic Shop, in Main Street. There will be games and music, and afternoon tea will be provided. The admission will be by silver coin. It is hoped that everyone interested in local patriotic affairs will attend, in order to collect sufficient to carry out the necessary additions.

The Standard understands? that Messrs F. Kibblewhite and J. D. Aitken (the latter late of the Foxton school staff) have been appointed to the staff of the Campbell Street School, filling the vacancies caused respectively by the transfers of Mr C. H. Warden and Mr Browning. Messrs Kibblewhite and Aitkeh were members of the personnel of a hospital ship which recently returned to the 'Dominion. They take up their duties when the school re-opens to-day. A delegate at the Farmers’ Conference in Masterton moved the following remit: —“That the national flag should be hoisted at all schools and the children taught to salute it on all State occasions.” In seconding the motion, another delegate said that in his district there was a teacher of German extraction who told the children not to salute the flag. ■ Very few school children were taught to salute the flag. It transpired during the discussion that the Wanganui Education Board had directed that the flag should be saluted every morning and the National Anthem sung. Thus patriotism was inculcated into the minds of the children, who were taught not only to salute the flag, but what the flag meant. The remit was carried unanimously.

A question as to the number of fit und eligible officers on the Defence staff was put to Sir James Allen at the Returned Soldiers’ Confei’encc, at Auckland. In reply, the Minister said that beyond the dentists there were recently only two eligible staff officers who had not been on service. The policy was to weed out such officers. .-He promised to issue a return on the subject. As to a proposal that the staffs on hospital ships should, when in England, change places with officers and men who had been serving at the front, Sir James said he quite agreed with the proposal. “I cannot see why the staffs of hosi pital ships cannot be exchanged,” he said. “One has to be guided by experts, however. At the same time, I have my own opinions.”

The cable message regarding Pro - fessor Lomonaco’s successful experiments in the treatment of tuberculosis by saccharine solutions was referred to Dr Blackmore, head of the consumption sanatoxia at Christchurch, states the Lyttelton Times. Dr. Blackmore said that there had been two cablegrams concerning this niattex’, and one had claimed that cures were being effected, while the other stated that those under treatment were showing good progress. It was most likely that the saccharine treatment mentioned was the ordinary sugar solution, and this was not a new thing, As it was used for various kinds of debility, both as a food and a stimulant, being particularly good for the heart muscle. In some of the armies of the Continental Powers a certain ration of sugar was served out each day, especially on long marches. Sugar was also recommended for consumption, in that ife improved the general condition of the patient. He had used sugar on many occasions, but was satisfied only that its effect was purely food value. 'Plain- sugar in solution was not a new treatment.

Despite of all that cynics say, There sometimes is a perfect day; Cloudless and dustless, calm and bright, The day that gives us all delight; The day that comes to compensate For cold, grey winter we’d ne’er endure Had we no Woods’ Great Pepper-. mint Cure. 10

The total collected in Foxton for 'the Red Jersey Fund is £258 8s 2d, including a donation of £3 3s from Mr and Mrs C. H. Symons,

Advertiser wants to purchase a steam portable engine, 14 to 1G h.p. See advertisement for particulars.

During the past three months, 26 cases of diphtheria have been reported in Palmerston North, 57 in Wellington, 19 in Wairarapa, and 45 in Wanganui. The total number of cases reported in the Wellington Hospital District were 255 for March, 401 for April. Mr Peter Robinson collected £l4 in Alain Street on Saturday night on behalf of the Industrial candidate. He got together a troupe of entertainers at short notice, and they entertained the public in good style. When “Peter” sets out to do a thing he does it well, and this is the second occasion that he has raised a 'considerable sum of money , for patriotic purposes. Although the candidate he was supporting only came second on the list, it can be safely said that Mr Robinson made the running. An opportune visit was paid by two Borough Council employees working on the Gorge Bridge near Woodville last week to an old whare , on the edge of the bush. They found a veteran named Porter in a helpless condition in bed. Porter ■was in a very low state, and told the men that he had been lying in the whare for a week and had been unable to move. There was no food in the hut. The police removed the unfortunate man to Woodville, and finally to the Pahiatua Hospital. Porter served in the South African campaign, notably at Alajuba Hill.