LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1889, 12 October 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

residents of Auckland over !)() years of age died last inoiilh.

The estates of 277 deceased persons were placed under the charge of the Public Trustee during (he month of September.

The Japanese steamer Hirano Mani lias been torpedoed, oIT (he British coast. There were 320 aboard, and 300 lives were lost.

A man av.-is lined £2 and £2 costs at Wellington yesterday for illtreating a boj'se which jilihed at pulling a load np a steep grade.

During August the iTihlic Works Department employed 2.551 men (251 artisans and 2,200 labourers). Of these 1,100 men were engaged on railway construction, MOl on road works, and 107 on public buildings.

Alex. Main, a married man, aired • I I, whilst riding a motor cycle into llawera yesterday, collided with the mail train, His right arm, collarJmne, and two ribs were broken. Main was taken to the hospital, and his condition is serious.

A meeting of the local branch of the P.P.A. will be held in the Presbyterian schoolroom on Tuesday evening next, at 7.00 o'clock, to make arrangements for (he forthcoming visit of the Lev. Howard Elliott, Dominion organiser.

Numbers of dependents of soldiers on active service still seem ignorant of the fact that they can have free medical treatment,'in accordance with arrangements made by (he Defence Department: with public hospitals. Numbers of applications for the payment of private practitioner.--’ accounts continue (o come to the Wellington War Belief Association. The committee has decided (hat, as a general rule, such requests will be declined. — I],II. Tribune.

Is Slate Operation of the Liquor Trade a success? At Carlisle, where Britain has established Slate Public Houses, Drunkenness has decreased over GO per cent. But Drunkenness decreased by the same ratio all over Britain, where License slil) prevails. Why ! The answer is simple. The hum's of sale have everywhere been reduced to 51 per day. This explains reduced drinking in Carlisle. In'short, partial prohibition in the form of fewer hours, has wiped out nearly two--1 birds of (he Drinking. Total Prohibition would eompjetc the good Avoi'k. Don't be misled. Investigations into conditions at Annan revealed that, the State Pub. Avas making girls drunk as Well as men, and State Alcohol equalled Private Alcohol in its demoralising effects. Prohibition .succeeds. State Control fails. 38 The fame will increase and endure Of Woods’ Great Pappermint Cure; All people who try it continue to buy it, Because its effect is so sure. For sore throats and coughs and catarrh Its praises are spreading afar: •Tij certain and sure the fame will endure Of Wood-’ Great Pepp origin t Cure.

The Hew W. 6. 'Williams, the assistant superintendent at' the Maori Mission of the Wellington Dioeese, will he the preacher at All Saints’ Church to-morrow night.

Mr Stevenson, proprietor of the local cordial factory, met with a painful accident last Tuesday. When starting the gas engine, the handle became disconnected, and struck Mr Stevenson across the nose. The violence of the blow broke the nose.

The Government Statistician ot Queensland has issued the following return, showing the number of live stock in Queensland on Ist January, 1918: —Horses, 733,014, an increase of 35,497 compared with 1917; cattle, 5,310,558, an increase of 550,901; sheep, 17,204,288, an increase of 1,079,975; pigs, 172,099, an increase of 42,900. At the Wairoa S.M. Court, T. Bonder, station ’manager, was charged with altering a seditious statement in the private bar of the Wairoa Hotel,' to wit; “I hope the Huns will come here and beat you, and the Massey crowd. The Huns would make as good bosses as ” (naming a local farmer). Accused pleaded guilty, and was lined £SO, with costs £4 Bs.

A new ten-shilling note has just been issued by the Bank of New South Wales for circulation in New Zealand. It is printed in scarlet lake ink on a very pale rose-tinted paoer, in which liny watermark “Banlc of New South Wales” is worked with a zig-zag border. The design of the new note follows that of the bank’s issue in higher denominations, but the lettering, oi course, is different.

One of (he subjects set down for discussion af the Health Inspectors' Conference in Sydney is; “Is it the opinion of the society (hat in the interests of public health, by the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, particularly luborcu■iosis from those infected to the healthy, the Department of Public Health be urged to take such steps as may be considered expedient to suppress the dangerous, silly, and unnecessary custom of kissing?”

A striking evidence of the shortage of labour was to be seen recently not far from llakaia (says the Christchurch Press). A lady, wife of a well-to-do farmer, undertook to drive a dray, with a spring earl tied behind, from one farm to another, some distance away. The task was accomplished successfully, (hough on (he way a traction engine was seen coining. It was then a race to see whether the lady or the engine could get to a certain gate first. The lady Avon.

Members of Parliament have received official information that Parliament will meet on Thursday, Oetuhei"’24t1). It is generally understud that a topic which will loom largely in the discussion of the people’s representatives will he the cost of living question, and one of the prospects for the coming session is that the (lovernment’s action in respect to this important question, and in respect to its action over the Cost of Living Commissioners’ report, will he strongly criticised. The investigations in connection with the recent burglaries in Auckland disclosed /he growth of a band of young men in the city whose behaviour had been developing through larrikinism to crime. The outbreak of interference with motor cars which preceded the burglary incidents bus been traced to several of the youths concerned in the burglaries, and these young men appeared to have been infecting others with a lawless spirit. Four youths admitted in Court that they had taken a car out of a shed and had driven it about until it broke down. On a charge of damaging the car, two of them were lined £5 each and ordered to pay for the damage.

Says (he New Plymouth News: — Some years ago a deserter from the navy was engaged on work on a Taranaki dairy Parm. A busybody “put him away," and he was arrested. A New Plymouth gentleman of casual acijuaintanee interested himself in (he case, ami (he sailor was let down lightly. When the war broke out lie volunteered for. service in the colonial forces, and went through (he campaigns in Gallipoli and France. How-heroically he behaved may he judged Prom the Pad that he was awarded (he 0.C.M., and now has won 1 he highest honour in the power of a* soldier to gain, namely, the V.C. The New Plymouth friend thinks his intercession on behalf of such a man when lie was down was well worth while.

Can prayer turn a bullet ! In the opinion o 1: Rev. H. B; Hcwett, who addressed a 1 airly large congregation in St. Paul’s Cathedral, 'Melbourne, on Sunday week last, prayers ean not only turn bullets and save soldiers’ Jives, but if sullieient people eould be got together in the world to pray, the war eould not go on. Jn combating the theory of some learned divines that the value of prayer lay only in its subjective influence upon the person praying —in bringing the soul of the supplicant nearer to God—the preacher emphasised that the whole life of Christ had been a revelation of the supreme value of interces.sionnry or petitionary prayer. He said that when the Germans began their great retreat to the Marne in the early and very critical stage of the war, Lord Roberts, talking with Kitchener as the* news arrived, exclaimed, “Only God could have done this, Kitchener!” To which Kitchener replied simply, “Yes: somebody must have been praying.” For Chronic Chest Complaints, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, 1/6 and 2/6.

The wives of 02 members of the Expeditionary Force will arrive in New Zealand with their husbands on a transport due shortly.

To-day's Patriotic Shop effort is in aid of St. Uunslan’s Hospital for blind soldiers. This is a most, deserving institution, and it is hoped a fair Mini will be raised locally.

Mr Lansing says the rumour of the Kaiser’s abdication, which has been frequent lately, is insignificant unless it meant abdication in favour of democratic Germany.

Speaking at Inglewood, Mr C. A. Winkinson, M.P., said ■that four years ago the Labour Party in Parliament declined to accept a seat in the National Cabinet, and so accept a share in the responsibility for carrying on the country during a ■lime of great crisis. To-day they wanted to assume the whole control of the Government.

The following is the Levin Municipal gas report for the past mouth: —Number of consumers, 372: met-ers-in use, 370; engines in use, 4; coal iu slock, 40 tons; coal received during the month, 57 tons; coal carbonised, 57 tons; number of street lamps, 48: number id' stoves

in use, 137; quantity of gas manufactured, 073,500 cubic feet; total output, 008,500 c. feet: gas made per ton of coal carbonised, 11,800 c. feet.

A meeting of managers of the local Presbyterian Church was held last night. Matters connected with finance were discussed, and it was decided to urge upon the congregation the envelope system of giving. The following delegates were appointed to represent the local Committee at the district committee meeting to be held at Foxton at 11 a.m, on Monday next: Messrs Claris, Jno. Boss, Thos. Henderson and Parkes.

A defeated candidate for a seat on the - Wanganui Education Hoard received congratulations from a Hongolea School Committeeman yesterday for work carried out at his school. “Why congratulate me ?” said the candidate. “Well, we tried to get work done by the Board for years. Then the election came on, and we asked for a shelter shed and a room to be painted. Workmen were sent, and we not only got the room painted and shelter shed erected, hut the whole building painled and broken windows put in. If it hadn't been for yon waking them up, we should have still been waiting.”

Some dn vs ago, Mr Oeorge Witty, AM*., telegraphed to Sir -lames Allen, Minister of Defence, pointing out (lie advisability of mil sending miy fresh men into camp until (Im large iinmunl of sickness which Inis been of bile in the Wellington camps Inis passed, and the emnps have been properly .fumigated. On Saturday Air Witty received the following reply from Sir .James Allen a

The medical officers consider it quite all right .for (he men (o enter cani|), and 1 agree wi!!i (hem that (hey are better looked after in camp (ban in civil life.'’ To (his message Mr Willy has telegraphed as follows; “Yonr reply is an insult (o every civilian home.”

Since the National Government was formed —in August, 1015—• (here have been nine by-elections. In roue oP these (lie National Government nominees have been returned —Pahiatua, August 17th, 1010, Mr G. H. Smith; Hawke’s Bay, March oth, 1017, Sir .John Findlay; Bay oP Islands, March 10th. 1017, Mr V. 11. Heed; and Wellington North, February 28lh, 1018, Mr J. P. Luke. 01 the other live elections, one (Southern Maori) was won by an Independent, Mr ,1. TI. W, Urn, The- remaining' Pour Pell to Labour representatives: Grey, December 3rd, 1017, won by Mr P. C. Webb; Grey, May 20th, 1018, by Mr 11. K Holland; Wellington Central, October 3rd, 1018, by Mr P. Fraser; and Taranaki, October 10th, by Mr Smith.

A rather dramatic incident occurred at the Patea railway station on Tuesday afternoon after the arrival of the mail (rain. Lieut.-Col. C. 11. Weston, of New Plymouth, had just received a hearty welcome Prom some local friends, when Corp. P. If. Tinney, of Taranaki representative football fame, warmly greeted (he Colonel. The latter stared hard for a moment, and then, shaking Corpora! Tinney by the hand, exclaimed: “Why, surely you cannot be the corporal who helped me out of actidn on October 4th last year!” Corporal Tinney solemnly assured him that he was, and the pail' spent the remaining moments before the train left in chatting over the anxious time spent near Gravenstafcl exactly twelve months ago. Corporal Tinney, it may be mentioned, was on that occasion making his way to a dressing station-, after being wounded in the Gravcnstafel battle, when he overtook Colonel Weston, who was himself severely wounded, and assisted him on his way to the dressing station, which both reached safely, although they had to journey through the German barrage on the way. It; is a long step from Passchendaele to Patea, but tnily it’s a small world, after all. —Patea Press.