Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1922. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2438, 8 June 1922, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1922. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The water tower is practically completed and the lank will be tested next week.

Severe frosts were experienced in this district yesterday and this morning.

The Rev. A. and Mrs Hodge, of Napier were visitors to Poxton yest erda v.

Biennial election of members of the Wanganui Education Board will take place on July 19th. Nominations close on the 2Sfh inst. A. resident of Longburn has rented twenty acres of his farm to Chinese market gardeners at £l4 per acre. On this basis the capital value of the land would be £2BO.

A reminder is given of the sale of work by St. Mary’s Convent in the Catholic Schoolroom to-night and to-morrow afternoon and evening. A musical • programme each evening will add to the attractiveness of the sale.

One of the employees engaged in removing the scaffolding from the water tower on Tuesday, was struck by a piece of falling timber and was temporarily knocked out. Fortunately lie was not seriously injured and was able to resume work yesterday.

Mr Banks gave a private demonstration with his powerful limelight la tern at the school last night. 'The views exhibited were of historical interest and very clear. The parents are invited at an early date to witness an exhibition. Mr Banks possesses a collection of several thousand slides of educational interest.

Mrs Harriott, an elderly resident of Fairlie,* was killed on Tuesday morn in*? at Waslidyke while driving-. The horse bolted and the woman was -thrown out of the vehicle. At the lasi meeting - of the local Chamber of Commerce a vole of thanks was passed to Mr Delaney, local postmaster, for his efforts in securing an improved telephone service up to !l p.in. each evening by connecting direct with Palmerston instead of via Levin. Sir Keith Smith has arrived at Adelaide. He says he missed the fatal trip with his brother by a narrow margin, as he was on the ground sit the time. He did not: understand what his brother went up without him for. Sir Keith is pessimistic about Major Blake’s world tour, and is afraid he will be stopped by the monsoons. He was invited to join the party, but lie wanted to go home. He has not given up flying. The ship’s pels caused much concern among the crew of the Wiltshire, and efforts were made to try t > bring them ashore from the wreck, but the method of rescue was such that only human freight could he transported to the land, and they had to he left to shift for themselves. The crew’s favourite was the greasers’ goldfinch, which, they state, was a beautiful singer. The little feathered friend was liberated from his cage, hut he was very loth to “sign off the ship’s articles.” He circled round the vesS(1 I, and then perched upon one of the masts. After a number of efforts the crew managed to get him away, and he eventually took shelter in one of the trees on the cliff, where subsequently he was heard piping plaintively. The other pets were four eats, one being the ship’s mascot. Two of these were drowned, and the others were left on the wreck.

Cl- M;utin lias given notice to move the following motion at Monday night’s Borough Council meet-ing-:—“Tluit the motion passed by this Council cutting down the wages of its employees be rescinded on the following grounds: (1) That the Council fixes the wages of its employees; (2) That the Arbitration Act only empowers local bodies to reduce- wages when employed on Relief Work; (3) That owing to the intermittent nature of the work, including the time lost by unfavourable weather and the necessity for pushing on with the work, the rates of pay previously paid be continued.”

Sir James Wilson was on Tuesday re-elected chairman of the Manawatu County Council. Sir Jnines Wilson was first elected to the Council in 1893, and has been chairman since 1898. In moving that the chairman be re-elected, Cr. Barber referred to the splendid y.’orlc done for the Manawatu county by Sir James. The ratepayers owed a debt of gratitude to him for the able services he had rendered for many years, and he hoped the chairman would long be spared to carry on his work. Cr. Hunt seconded the motion, and spoke in similar strain. The chairman briefly thanked.the council for the confidence reposed in him. “Duriitg forty years of-political life —very strenuous political life — .sometimes on the top of the wave, sometimes at the bottom, I’ve heard myself at contests described as a wife-beater and several other things on more than one occasion,” said the Hon. G. W. Russell in Christchurch. “However, I’m still on the roll of Justices of the Peace of New Zealand, and I regard that as evidence that I still am an honourable citizen of this Dominion. For fifteen years my work' as a justice was in the smaller towns, where I courts sat only oner; a month — sometimes only .once in three months —and justices had to do all the work, and the work was done well as long "as we were careful not to sentence a man to he hanged, drawn and quartered when he deserved only to he fined 255, in default twelve hours’ imprisonment.’’

It transpires that there was a man on the Wiltshire who had no business there —a stowaway named George Murphy, aged 20, whose story is that lie was unable to obtain employment in Liverpool. Murphy was discovered when the vessel was,three days out, and he did his work with the crew, and, according to all accounts worked very hard and became well liked. After landing on the Great Barrier Ilfwalked to the Katoa at Tryphena on Friday evening, and when wading through one of the flooded riv- : rs lie remarked that it was a strange introduction to New Zealand. He had heard from friends in Liverpool what a splendid place the Dominion was, but his short, experh nee of it made him rather doubtful. Murphy’s chief anxiety when he wa - being landed at Auckland bv the Katoa was whether he would lie arc.-tod and sent to prison. He asked two or three of the rescue party what 'bey thought his chances wife, ami their assurance that in view of the privation he had undergo:: T-y did not think he would b" has '!y ' ied appeared to comfort I'm.'