NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2190, 16 October 1920, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A Press Association telegram from Te Kniti states that at midnight the proprietors of a. big boardingliuusc at Kopaki discovered the place to be on fire. They roused the boarders, and the outbreak was located in a cupboard in the kitchen. The place 'burned like tinder, and half the bouse was completely destroyed. After spending £640,000 on the Flinders naval base, which was approved in Sir Reginald Henderson’s scheme of naval defence, the Commonwealth Government now finds it unsuitable tor submarines and destroyers. Hr 11. (,’arroll, of Auckland, has been elected president of the Grand Council of the I.ocomntive Engineers’, Firemen, and Cleaners’ Association, Messrs J. Ewart (Dunedin), and J. Veitch (Christchurch), Dominion councillors for the South Island, and .Messrs J. Balt (Wanganui), and Al. Deimeliy (Wellington), Dominion councillors for the North Island, The general secretary (Mr W. McArloy) was granted three months’ holiday.

A remarkable episode during the recent strike has been revealed. Two employers at the Fiat works were found shot in the streets of Turin. It has now been ascertained that they were tried by a revolutionary court, composed of seven boys and girls, all under their twenty-first year. The intention was to burn the men alive, but it was considered safer to shoot them. The members of the so-called court have been arrested.

'‘ltalians are pouring into New York at the average rate of 1000 a day,” says Mr K. Tanner, who has just returned to the Dominion from America. ‘A small army of them crossed the .Atlantic with ns on the Adriatic, and a more poverty -stricken. dirty crowd of hnmanitv I have never seen in my life. Their poverty was excusable, but no one need be dirty on the Adriatic, and these people looked as ihough they had never Pad a wa.-i) in their lives. They, and the Polish. Hungarian and German dews are linking up as one people in America, l.s it any wonder that: they cannot, think as we English do 2”

As indicative of the thorough going manner in which die M-ilmdist Church in i'.iM.'land has be n dealing villi the question of ministerial slipends, the following an extra "I from I lie report of the Wesl- van Methodist Conference, held at Hull in July hist: “During the past year an important committee has been considering the question of idle values to ministers. Rev. Thomas Kirknp, at, the Confer nee at It nil, presented the report of *he committee in one of the most masterly tinaneial ala lenient s that has heen heard in the Assembly for a long lint'. The ('onferenee unanimously adopted the commit tee's iv.-oinniendarioiis. The minimum ailo a, .-nice to all ministers will b £2BO (in addition to the prm, ision of house. • le.j or an addition of £l2O to the pre-war i Ihevaiiee. whichever is lie- higher amount. Tim minimum allowance for each child will b ‘ £ls 15s, and probationet.s’ pay is £IBO. •if course, there are many dretiils that pay higher allowances than these.”

Hays Die Christchurch "Sun”; This country has'its many opportunities lotgoing racing as it should have; that is, front tin economic standpoint. It cannot be denied that the passion for Turf pastime—which means a day's outing, and a little gamble—is growing. It is the experience of employers everywhere that the workers arc more and- more refusing to allow considerations of production to interfere witli their racing proclivities. To add another 68 days to the list will intensify this interruption in output, and (lie cnimlry cannot afford that. The Prime Minister has himself urged increased production and the conservation of resources as precautions against a possible slump. This Gaming Dill, should it pass, will have exactly the opposite effect. It will mean more idle days a year, and more extravagance.

"Mr Massey made it pretty plain Dial the Government wanted (he money, and it was no use the Chambers killing the Taxation Dill without. being able to suggest bow that money was lo lie secured,’’ declared Mr H. Hart at a meeting' of the Wellington Coni nil Chamber of Commerce. when he reported the result of ft recent deputation from the Associated Chambers of Commerce to the Prime .Minister. "Wo asked for a Royal Commission to inquire into taxation generally, but I do not think we will get it,” said Mr Hart. Mr C. M. Luke slated that the fact that the Government wanted money was no excuse for perpetuating iniquities. Mr Luke was supported by the president (Mr A. Leigh Hunt) in urging that a Royal Commission should inquire into the question, with the object of finding a scientific basis for luxation incidence. The present system was certainly not a scientific one.

The house shortage in Christchurch is still acute, judging f-'om the experience of Alt .Forsyth, of the New Zealand Agency Company. In Saturday's

"Star" the company advertised a liveroomed house to let, and no fewer than 200 applications were received from would-be tenants. Several house-hunters interviewed Air Forsyfh on Sunday and on Alonday morning lie found 90 letters under his officedoor. Every hour and every mail swelled the army of home seekers, and. Air Forsyth decided to hold a ballot. He selected 77 of the most pressing “cases.” and invited the editor of the "Star” to draw the winning number. The lucky marble has been assigned to a lady living at Weedons.

Describing the mountaineering amusements of Ngaruhoe in a lecture at Wellington. Professor R. M. Algie said that one party who-climbed the mountain when it was snow-covered descended in a remarkably exciting manner. They simply sat, down one behind the other, each pair of feet being held under the armpits of the man in front. The leader, who knew the slope to be safe, pulled the human chain into motion and in this manner they glissaded down the soft snow covering 3000 feet before they made their first stop.

"The Hospital” (London) publishes a letter from an Australian medical man making a suggestion for income raising, which, he says, has been carried out in several hospitals in the Antipodes. Briefly, it concerns a license for visitors to be allowed to see their friends at other than regular hours, or. rather, on certain "extra visiting hours" suited to the convenience of the hospital. To obtain the privilege a sixpenny ticket has to be bought, and the sale of those tickets brings in from £3OO to £SOO a year for every 100 beds.

In the preparation of the new football grounds at Rotorua a "pot” of sulphur, amounting to nearly a cartload, was dug out and placed at the side of the playing area. Some person set fire to the heap, and the fumes from the burning sulphur were blown over the adjacent kitchen garden, killing a bed of cabbages and canli- , flowers, besides a quantity of peas, carrots, and silver beet. Sonic of the plants affected were nearly one hun- ■ dred yards distant from the burning i sulphur.