LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1926, 14 January 1919, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We acknowledge with 1 luniks n. handsome wall calendar from Mr S. Maltar, tobacconist and hairdresser. 0 ll is reported lltai the Allies in(i* 11 * I using Ihe surrenderf-d Zeppelins and aeroplanes for commercial purpose#. ! The Kiny will open Parliament on -itli February, with the resumption of I he* old-lime stateliness and splendour which were abandoned during the war. Mr W. A. Walt, Acting Federal Prime Minister, announced that the plans are. almost completed for the establishment of the tin-plate industry in Australia. A (ire completely destroyed Mr Allan Strang's stables and garage at Awapuni on Sunday. The ear was saved from the lire. The buildings were insured, but the amount is not yet available. The French Mission were entertained by the Governor-Genera! at Christchurch on Saturday, The .Mission received ovations at Timaiii, Camara, and Dunedin. William Love, hotelkeeper, at (trmondviile, has been lined fu and 7s posts for,exposing liquor for sale during prohibited hours. Four men who were on I lie premises were each lined iJ2 and costs. Sydney Patterson, married, aged 34 years, and a native of Tasmania, was drowned on Saturday while crossing on horseback a Hooded river at Charleston. At last night’s Council meeting an itpplication from the borough road overseer (Mr A. G. Huntley) for an increase in wages was acceded to, the wages being increased to 12s per day, with an allowance of four shillings per week for looking after horse and dray. The Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) says that arrangements have been made for the repatriation of about a hundred German prisoners in the near future. These drafts will include men who were captured and internees who have expressed a desire to be sent to Germany. For Children's Hacking Cough at night, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 1/6, 2/0.

Accounts amounting to £827 10s 5d were passed for payment at last night’s meeting of the Borough Council. Seven applications wore received at last night’s Council meeting for the position of roadman, and that of Mr W. B. Brown was accepted. Four hundred soldiers .disembarked from ihe Maunganui at Wellington on Saturday afternoon. The Tahiti, with 950 soldiers aboard, disembarked at Port Chalmers on Sunday. There were present at last night’s Council meeting : The Mayor (Mr J. Chrystall), and Crs. Henderson, Walker,' Thompson, McMurray, Hurley, Hannah, and Bryant. An apology for absence was receiver! from»Cr. Coley. A special meeting of the Borough Council was hold just prior to the ordinary monthly meeting last night for the purpose of fixing the statutory half-holiday for the current year. Wednesday was unanimously decided upon. The gas works manager (Mr "N. C. Baildon) made application at last night’s Council meeting for an increase in salary. The matter was dealt with in committee, and on resuming business the following' motion was (Kissed: —That the gas works manager’s salary he increased to £5 10s 0d per week. A party of Wellington sports while on their way to the Feikling races per motor on Saturday Struck trouble at Levin, where thy ran into another ear, with the result that one. or two of them, including a wellknown Wellington sporting writer, were rather seriously injured. Some of the injured returned to Wellington for medical attention. The will of (lie late Josiah Howard, an elderly sheepfarmer at Waipawa, halves the whole of his estate to “His .Majesty the King," and hopes the farm will he utilised for the ppurpose of establishing an agricultural college. , The property consists of eight thousand acres, and the estate is worth approximately £190,000. A Ministerial visit in connection with the purchase of land for soldiers was paid to the Levin district last Friday, the party including the Hon. D. If. Guthrie, Minister for Lands, Mr W. H. Field, M.P., Mr D. M. McClure, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Mr A. W, Mulligan, private secretary to the Minister. A. committee of residents of the Glum district, consisting of Messrs C. I. Harkuess, A. McLeavey, R. G. Wall, R. V. Brown, R. A. Rolston, and 11. Bowling, met the parly arid showed them some of the farms suitable for soldiers’ settlement.—Chronicle. According to a German wireless, Bernard Shaw, Israel Zangwill, Jerome Jerome, and spiritual and intellectual leaders, jurists, and Labour leaders, including Mr SmiiJie, have sent the following Christmas greeting to the German people: “There is a new era ahead, the modelling of which will be humanity’s united task. Our earnest hope is a step forward in peace and friendship with other nations, thus transforming discord into liannonv so that old evils will disappear, and, in time, the unity of nations will be realised. We send you a message of hope and friendship.” \\ hat is worse than the giving of no help, our Government lends the sanction of ils patronage to agencies of a directly anti-social character—agencies that can have no other effect than to sap the springs of public spirit and pollute the foundations of nobility of feeling. For more than a generation it has legalised in the iotalisator an infant school for gambling, and since the war period it has invoked the sacred name of war-charily as a covering tor (he same demoralising spirit disguised under the name of arc unions.”—Mr A. Erskiuc (act-ing-president), in his address to the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute.

There arc not many New Zealand soldiers who Jun e been wounded six limes and are still serving. This is, however, the case with. Major Newman Wilson, D. 8.0., M.C., the youngest son of Mr R. L. Wilson, of 1\ ainuite. Major Wlsoii left with (he Second Reinforcement as a. lieutenant, and saw considerable ser\ice on Gallipoli , and later in France. He was awarded the Mililary Gross at the beginning of .1918, and the award of the D.S.O. was announced amongst the New Year honours. Before leaving fur tiuj irout Major Wilson was on the of. lice staff of the Canterbury Farmers Co-operative Association at j imam. One of his brothers was killed on Gallipoli, and another lias ret unied.

I‘or nearly three vein's past a Gisborne resident has been puzzled ,J .V the occurrence of „ peculiar squeaking noise about bis residence, more especially during the still hours of the night. Despite the utmost vigilance and careful investigation with a lantern from time to lime, lie had been unable to locale the cause of the noise, Avhicb was dislurbing the equanimity of the younger members of the family. A tew nights ago the squeaking became much more pronounced, and an investigation the following morning, as a result of the raising of several boards of the verandah floor, brought to light two beautiful young penguins that had evidently been hatched beneath the house. How they came timer is a complete mystery, as the parent birds had never been seen, although about three years ago f . penguin, caught on the rocks at Sponge Bay. had been brought to the house by a lad, and had subsequently disappeared. *

Convict ions for drunkenness Palmerston .luring 1918 numbered* 210. These figures show a decided decrease- on the previous year’s, when 330 convictions were recorded.. As the result of a legal opinion received from the Zealand Counties Association regarding the licensing of motor vehicles, lluf* Waimea County Council has ed to impose a tax on all moiolTWwn' in the Waimea County, Takaka County, Nelson City, Richmond and Motuoka Boroughs using its roads. Mr R. Semple, M.R., in addressing a meeting at Master!on on Balur-. day night, declared that the Liberals ami the Reformers were in one camp, and would be kept theie. V>e believe lhat'Mr Semple’s,forecast is fairly true. The next general election will be fought between the supporters of a policy to be brought down by the Coalition Government and the Labour Party. The tire bell was not rung during the conflagration on Saturday night which destroyed Mr L• W ulkei s residence iu Russell Street, ihe 4 reason being that the alarm might have caused a panic among: the audience at the picture entertainment. The building was in full blaze as the audience left the hall, and they proceeded to witness another serene of destruction, which is becoming all 100 common locally. . Private advices from Opuuako slate that several deaths have occurred there from eerebro-spinal meningitis. There is no doubt as to the nature of the disease. The Health Department slates that it has not received notification of cases of eerebro-spinal meningitis at Opunake. There are, however, Mime patients in the local hospital suffering from inJlucnza. Discussing a proposal to extend the school age of children, a member of the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute slated on Saturday that this was necessary to give all children equal opportunity to choose and be lilted for their vocations in life. The tendency in the past was to bring up children to earn a living; to-day the idea should be to make (hem huimuw' beings—intelligent citizens of to the State, On goiiig into the scutching shod at Mr W. Petrie's mill yesterday morning, the scutchers found that the place had been entered some time on Sunday afternoon or night, and that a lire had* been narrowly averted. A bale of hemp that was on the scales was scorched ail up one side, and the lire had apparently been beaten out. it is surmised that the trespasser had gone in the shed to sleep, and was smoking when the bale caught lire. lie apparently promptly smothered Urn (lames and decamped. Jr , Says the Auckland Herald:— h the Government is sincere professions of a policy of increasing production and of. encouraging settlement by discharged soldiers, greater energy must be shown in the reclamation of fertile swamp lauds and the opening of the vast areas 3 of idle Crown lands, and some systematic efforts must bo made to enable settlers returning to New Zealand or migrating from Britain to secure holdings on conditions which will enable them to gain a. comfortable livelihood. At the conclusion of the Main Chester Handicap, run at Pcilding on Saturday, there was a demonstration against the judge (Mr J. 11. Perrett) in placing Bronk Uelaval second in that event. Mr Ferrell was quickly convinced that ho had made a mistake, and on returning to the judge’s box ami hoisting Rewi Polo’s number, came in for a round of cheers. The incident was regrettable, as a similar demonstration occurred at the Aslihursl meeting in connection with Comment and Bronk Delaval, hut on that occasion Mr Perrett’s placings were correct, The London Daily Express correspondent iu Brussels states that the Government’s Reconstruction Bill, which proposes [o preserve Ypres, Nieuport, and Dixiuude iu their present ruined state, is in danger of being defeated. The Mayor of Ypres is vigorously urging lld& complete demolition of the ruins and * the rebuilding of the city and the Cloth Hall on the same site, at a cost of £5,000,000. The correspondent adds that the British, Australian and New Zealand troops respect the ruins of Ypres as a sacred spot, which should be unmolested. Many stories are still being ic* counted of remarkable events during the inlluenza epidemic (says the Southland Times). One of the latest to be told, is said to hove originated at a lonely country homestead in Southland, where the father and mother, both stricken with the malady, were being looked after by a mere laddie of live. The hoy, bring unable to manage the job himself, was directed by his father to lay a trail of oats from the fowlhousc to the father’s bed, where the unsus-. peeling bird was captured at a favourable opportunity, plucked by the lather, and boiled, under his direction, by the five-year-old. JhG authenticity of the story, of course, is stated lo_ be beyond question.