LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1881, 24 September 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An inquiry into the origin of the tire which destroyed the local State school will be held at the Fox ton Courthouse on Wednesday, October 9th, at 10 a.m. A team of local footballers visit-s ed Bainesse on Saturday, and phived a combined fifteen representing Bainesse and Hangiolu. The home team won by three points f a penalty goal) to nil. Mr 1. S. Commit, president of the Taranaki A. and P. Association, and Chairman of: the Counly Council, lias been selected as the National Government candidate for the Taranaki seat rendered vacant by the death of Mr 11. J. Okev.

The Woodville cheese fa (dory paid out the high price of Is 111 d per pound for butter-far for its last season. The. quantity of milk delivered at the factory was 4,464,19111). It contained 170,695.441 b. fat, and produced 449,9991 b. cheese. Mr Phillip Gibbs, the well-known war correspondent, says;—“The Salvation Army has done some true work out there in France for the comfort of the troops. At the Army hut there is always a cup of hot tea for Tommy, and a kindly soul behind the counter never too tired to serve it out!”

An historic' cannon, which belonged to the ship Endeavour, commanded by Captain Cook, lias been offered to the Poverty Bay Institute. In 1770, while on the Australian coast, the Endeavour struck the Barrier Beef, and in lightening her six guns were thrown overboard. This cannon was the only one recovered from the reef.

A motor car left by the side of a road a I Hamilton on Wednesday night was stripped of everything Hint could he removed. The carburetter, exhaust, manifold commulator, cushions, lamps and horn were all taken. .Judging by the manner in which the parts were removed it is considered I hat the theft must have been committed by a skilled mechanic.

Iridescent pawa shell, which was much used by the Maoris to ornanamenl their wood-work, is to have a trial by a British linn of buttonmakers. Inquiries were received through the High Commissioner, and specimens are being sent from collections of the Dominion Museum. German prisoners on Somes Island have made good use of pawa shell for inlaying on carvings and other wood-work.

Writes ;i Manaia boy anent the drilling at Homo: —Tlio drill is a groat deal different to what it is in Now Zealand, and a obap may just as well eomo into this camp in mufti. Fur instance, they take all the light men out and put them as drivers. 1* does not matter how good a man may he on a gun, if he is not heavy he goes on to I lie driving. Here they train a man for one job only.

We regret to record the death ot Mi's Samuel Howan junr., which look place suddenly at her husband’s residence, !H) Derwent Street, island Hay, Wellington, on Sunday, at the age of 4(i years. The immediate cause of death was heart trouble. The lale Mrs Howan was well-known to old residents of this district, her maiden name being Miss Lucy Thomas, and she was an ex-pupil of the local State school. Mr and Mrs Howan were married in Palmerston North, and have resided in 'Wellington for many years. The funeral takes place at Karori to-morrow afternoon.

Details of a revolver light between anarchists and police at Dacca have just reached Calcutta. A force of police raided a house suspected of being the hiding-place ot anarchists, and three young men opened tire on them. The police, in self-defence, returned their tire, and one anarchist was killed on the spot, another was wounded and died later, and the third secured. A police constable was killed, and a detective inspector wounded, both the latter being Indians. Important cypher papers were found in the house.

Among the working classes in Ireland (writes it Daily Chronicle correspondent) gambling has run viol. The police are earning enormous wages, and a liberal proportion is speculated on racing and toot ball matches. Even shop girls and servant maids have become patrons of the bookmaker. Three-card men are doing a roaring trade, and offer to bet in £5 and £lO notes with their dupes. A group of quay labourers recently lost over £2O in as many minutes. So hold are the three-card men that in some instances they sot up their stands in the principal streets in open daylight.

I canvass around with packet tea, Which takes me everywhere, you

see; And where I go, both far and near, The same familiar name I hear. Especially in winter time, When coughs and colds are at their

prime; I hear at every door, I’m sure. The praise of Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 21

It is slated that there are still.between 1,500 and 2,000 deserters at largo in New Zealand.

Southland sawmills are now cutting an order of 500,000 feet of beech box timber for .shipment to the North Island.

In a political address at Carterton, Mr Hornsby, M.P., declared himself in favour of a referendum on the liquor question on. the four issues delined by the Labour Parly.

An old resident of Hawke’s Bay, in the person of Mr George J. Marritt, of Hastings, passed away on Thursday last, in his eighty-firs! vear.

Mrs Isabella Craig, one of Auckland’s pioneer settlers, died recently at the ripe age of 80 years. There arc 34 grandchildren and 17 greatgrandchildren. Four grandsons are on active service.

A special meeting of the Foxton Borough Council will be held on Thursday, at 7.30 p.m. Business: To consider tiie mailer of re-piping Awuhou drain at .gasworks, and finance. A meeting of the Gasworks Committee will be hold at the gasworks at 5,15 p.m. on the same day, to discuss the above matters.

On Saturday next the local Girls’ Guild will conduct an open-air stall in Main Street, in aid of the Hod Cross Copper Trail. Flowers, sweets, and cakes will be on sale, and there will be various competitions. The stall wil open at 2 o’clock. Donations and gifts of any kind will be thankfully received.

There are at present-some 21 conscientious objectors at the State Farm at Levin, and about 25 more will be sent to the farm in the near future, when the necessary accommodation has been provided for them. These men have, all signed the undertaking to do non-combat-ant service. Since conscientious objectors were first sent to the farm two of their number, who are Quakers, have joined the Medical Corps. These men found that while at the farm, which is entirely dissociated from military control, (heir obligations have been respected. They accordingly offered their services with the ambulance, and have since been posted to duty on hospital ships. Dr. Trnby King, addressing the National Party, at Kensington Hall, on “National Fitness, the Coal of Reconstruction after the War” (writes (he Post’s .London correspondent), said there was something radically wrong with the social conditions in Great Britain when so large a percentage of those who presented themselves for military service were inefficient. We had received warnings many years before the war, but were too dilatory to heed them. Our main defect was in the proper rearing and nurture of the young. Unless we altered our present social and domestic conditions in 20 years there would be a greater percentage of inefficiency among our young men and women than at present.

“I have done every kind id! work there is to do on a farm,” said Dr. Thacker, M.P., at the Riccarton “Sam Weller Swarry,” on Saturday night, “and 1 am glad of it. If 1 hadn’t 1 should never have know what it really was to bo hard up, for 1 was not always so affluent as some people say 1 am now. Very much the contrary! In my medical student days in Edinburgh, 1 and my mate possessed between us an old silver watch, on which we used to raise ‘thirty bob’ regularly. If my allowance came first, my first duty was to get that treasure ‘out,’ and if my mate’s allowance arrived first, (hen he was duty bound to do likewise.”

The newly appointed DirectorGeneral of American Shipbuilding, Mr Charles Schwab, is chief proprietor of the Bethlehem Steel Works —the American Krupps —and one of the richest men in the world. Although of German ancestry, the loyalty to the Entente of this selfmade multi-millionaire has never been in doubt; in the early days of the war he refused a bribe of £20,()()(),000 offered him by agents of the German Government, as an inducement to him to stop making munitions for the Allies. Mr Schwab followed up his scornful rejection of the proposal by placing his huge works completely at the disposal of the Allies. Born in Pennsylvania 50 years ago, “young” Schwab, as he is still called, had been a farm hand and a grocer’s assistant, when one of Andrew Carnegie’s managers called in the shop, and Schwab boldly asked him for a job.

The women’s franchise came into force in Now Zealand 25 years ago on Thursday last. “ ‘Person’ includes women” was the terse provision of law that revolutionised the franchise system of this country. It was a single line in the Electoral Act, 18(13, prior to which time an elector was defined as any “person” whose name appeared on any eiectora'l roll. For many . years Sir John Hall, the greatest advoeaTc of womanhood suffrage in the New Zealand Parliament, had striven hard to get a Bill passed embodying it, but the restrictions which hamper private members’ legislation had debarred him from success. The honour of getting the reform enacted remained for the Seddon Government, which brought it down as part of its Electoral Bill of 1892, but did not succeed in passing it until the session of the following year.

We have large stocks of Yates’ Reliable and Sutton’s English Seeds. All fresh in this season. Also a number of varieties of choice’ seed potatoes, including the famous Aborbrothock. —Walker & Fume*

A Gazette Extraordinary announces the prorogation oi' Parliament from the sf,h to the 25th 01. October.

There is (great aetivih in t lie timber trade uif the A est Coast ol the South Island. One day last week over 1,000,000 ft. were shipped to Australia.-

Of the total population in France, says General Pan, 10 per cent, had been mobilised, and ot the manhood of the country 35 or 30 per cent, had been mobolised —a higher percentage than that ot any other power engaged in the war.

Admiral#Sir - Boslyn Weymes, First Sea Lord, recently paid tribute to the work of the Salvation Army in the following generous terms: —“Nobody realises better than 1 do the excellent work which (he Salvation Army has done for the Navy, and 1 should like tit lake this opportunity of thanking them, and wishing (hem all success in their magnificent labours.”

“We have heard a good many stories of appellants who are managing farms for soldiers at the front,’’ said Mr J. W. Boynton, S.M., in the Military Appeal Court at Masterton last week. “Our sympathies are immediately enlisted, hut when we go fully into the eases we often find that the appellants have leased the soldiers’ farms and are working them at a fat profit for themselves.”

“Parent” writes: —“I was much shocked to hear the language of a little boy in the street the other day, while carrying on a discussion with another boy. I can assure you, sir, that the language was painful and free. Could not attention be called to this by the schoolmaster?” [The schoohmmter has already taken steps to check bad language uraong scholars. But if parents use vile language within hearing of their children, what can you expect? In any case, as far as the school precincts are concerned, the head teacher is determined to put a stop to it.]

>Some remarks on New Zealand’s war debts and the, country’s capacity to meet them were made by the Hon. G. W. Russell at Nelson. We have already spent £50,000,000 on the war, sand Mr Russell, and we are now spending at the rate of £2,500,000 a month —and, what is more, we are raising the money in the Dominion. “New Zealand is paying its way. Our interest and sinking fund charges are going up by leaps and bounds.” The law on the Statute Book was that all debts must be wiped out in 01 years by sinking funds. The charges for war pensions were rapidly rising, and with old age [tensions, etc., would amount shortly to about £2,000,000 a year. The people had responded magnificently to the charges made upon them.

11l the iiiimiiii report of the liongotea Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., the following reference is made to the largely increased cost of production : —“Year by year, since the outbreak of war, (lie prices of. dairy factory requisites have increased until they now stand at an extraordinarily high ligure. A comparative statement for the years 1913 and 1918 shows that parchment (per lb.) has increased by 100 per cent., salt (ton) by 303 per ceiit., nails (cwt.) by ‘270 per cent., butter boxes (each) by 109 per cent., carbonate of soda (cwt.) by 480 per cent., and soda crystals (cwt.) by 238 per cent. Coal, oil, ammonia, brushware, etc., also show great increases compared with which the increase in the price of butter (30 per cent.) is not worth notice.”.

At Friday night’s football smoke concert, the chairman (Mr M. E. Perreau), on behalf ofthe players of both teams, made a presentation of a safety razor to Mr W. Neville, who had officiated in all the competition games as referee. Mr Perreau asked Air Neville to accept ' the presentation as a mark of the esteem in which he was held by the whole of the players. He had sacrificed a great, amount of time in the interests of football, and the players felt they would like to mark their appreciation of his efforts on their behalf and express their thanks for the capable and fair manner in which he had controlled the games. Mr Neville returned thanks for the gift, and said that his efforts in connection with the game had been “a labour of love.” He assured them that he would always be willing to assist in any way to further the interest of football in Foxton.

No one was really satisfied with the National Government; not even Ministers themselves, nor were the men of the rank and file, said Mr Hornsby, M.P., in an address at Carterton. There were some people who declared that an election should be held in any case, and there was much to be said in favour of that declaration; but what would be the result ? It would be “as you were.” for the Government would go to the country as a National Party, and would unquestionably be returned to power. He would remind them of the solemn agreement entered into by the two great parties; that no General Election should be held till at least six months after the dec* laration of peace. All but three or four members stood pledged. Were they to treat the agreement as a “sera)) of paper?” Would it be just: to the thousands of men absent from New Zealand? How could these vote so as to get an expression of their views through the men returned to the House ?

Have yem tried our Sutal (suitall) Tea, at 2/4 lb.? Specially packed and blended for Walker & Fume.*

The Queen of the South, from Wellington with a full load of general, .arrived at midday to-day. She will sail again for Wellington at midday to-morrow with a cargo of tow.

A Wellington soldier in Codford Gamp, writing to his relatives, says: —“An epidemic of influenza has been raging round the camp, and practically everyone has had a turn at it. It gave you a sore back, weak limbs, headache, sore throat, and then left you feeling pretty miserable. Three of the boys developed pneumonia and died. It might have been worse, for sick parades of a morning were (50 to 100 strong, and in the temporary hospital in camp they had as many as 350 patients down at once, giving the medical men the time of their lives. Out of the 70 officers here only seven turned up for breakfast one morning.

The Levin Borough Council has decided to take definite action to cope with the menace to public safety through the reckless driving of some motorists who endanger life and limb by the disregard they show of the rights of other users of the roads. The matter was introduced by a letter from the Levin School Committee asking the Council to erect two notice boards on the main road, one on each side of the school, drawing motorists’ attention to the fact that there was a school there. It was stated that the N.Z. Automobile Associaion had recommended the committee to ask for the Council’s assistance as it was probable the Wellington City Council would co-operate in a similar direction in the citv.

A suggestion that banana growing should be experimented with in New Zealand does not meet with much encouragement from Mr T. AC. Kirk, director of the Government Horticultural Department, and wrote on the subject to the Auckland Industrial Association, intimating his conviction that banana culture could not he a success in our climate. He pointed out that while plants of the banana family had been grown here, nobody had yet been able to produce a good bunch of bananas. Mr Kirk also drew attention to the fact that the Cook Island bananas, grown in a climate much more favourable than that of New Zealand for fruit, were not of as good quality as the bananas grown in a warmer climate.

The unfortunate experience of a man who had too much faith in other people's honesty was told to the Military Service Board at Auckland last week. The appelant, a Cl man with a sick wife and two children, had purchased a small grocery business. Most of the people living 1 in the vicinity were women whose husbands had gone to the war, and liberal promises to pay when monthly allotments were received Jed him to establish a credit business. When settlement of the bills was finally requested, however, there were many more excuses than payments, and he was compelled to sell out. “I lost my money,'but I would not sue them when their husbands were away,” he remarked. “J suppose it wa.s my own fault for taking it for granted people were all honest.” “You won’t make that mistake a second time!” remarked the chairman.

A New Zealand nurse, writing .from London nnder date -Inly 20th, says: —“We are very strielly rationed now. We cannot Imy meat, hotter, tea, or sugar without coupons. Wo eaeli have our sugar boxes, which we put out each day, and receive our Tijoz. ration daily. Already I have saved in three months enough to make a small tin of toffee. It is very rarely that we can buy sweets —most sweet shops are closed. Chocolates, if procurable, are 4s per lb. Fruit, with the exception of oranges and cherries, is unobtainable. The Government has commandeered all fruit for jam for the army. Oranges are 5d each, and are only a’l'out the size of a small egg. Cherries are 3s (id per lb., and bananas 5d each —when we can get them. Peaches are 3s each. It would surprise yon if I told you some of the prices. Bacon and bam are not rationed now. W? are getting a supply from America. The card system of ration hook has done away with <|ueues, and rich and poor are served alike. It is much better for the poor. We get plenty of plain food. For a short time we onlv had lea once daily.”

Billy Sunday, I he great American evangelist, was horn in the Tnitod States in 1802, and when one month old his father died. His mother had a hard struggle to maintain a home for herself and three children. At 12 years of age Billy and his elder brother entered an orphanage, and two years later went on a farm. Billy became a well-known athlete, and achieved fame in Chicago as a professional baseball player. His conversion was the result of idly listening, with some of his player friends, to an open-air service in the streets of the great city. He became assistant-secretary of the Y.M.C.A. at Chicago, and later acted as advance agent for Dr. Chapman, the well-known evangelist, on a mission tour through the States, Immediately after relinquishing this position he entered on his remarkable career as an evangelist and social reformer. He had been continuously engaged as such since, and at present has engagements for mission tours two years ahead. Billy Sunday, in New York recently, during a ten weeks' mission, nightly addressed congregations of 25,000 people. Why bother making cakes when there is such a good assortment at perreau’sj* , . .

Forty whales have been captured by the Te Awaite whalers this season, to date, which eclipses all previous records, says the Picton Press. Last season's total was thirty-six. The present season is approaching its close, so far as hump-backs are concerned, but a sharp look-out will now be kept for “right” whales, which generally make their appearance at this time of the year.

We clip the following from Saturday’s War Cry:—“Our specials for last week-end were our Divisional Commander, Brigadier Toomer, and Staff-Captain Haines, it being the latter’s first visit to Foxton. Owing to a fire in the town, which completely destroyed an hotel, bil-liard-room, and drapery shop, the usual Saturday night open-air meeting could not be held. On Sunday we commenced at 7 a.m., preparing ourselves for the day’s fighting. In the Holiness meeting the Brigadier introduced the Staff-Captain. His talk and the Brigadier’s Bible lesson were both helpful and encouraging. A nice number of people came along to the afternoon meeting, also again at night. Our specials did their best to make the meetings bright and interesting, and their efforts will not be in vain. Monday night, after a short programme, the Staff-Captain interested the audience with incidents of his experience while in charge of Roto Roa Island. The lantern slide pictures of the house, the Officers; and the work of the inmates, as well as scenes of the Island, were very interesting, and altogether a happy time was spent. Our Bandmaster is at present having a much needed rest, and Sister Mrs 'Ward has been far from well and unable to attend meetings. We trust these comrades will soon be in the ranks again. The Trade Sergeant has been laid aside during the winter months, but is now able to attend meetings again.