NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3970, 13 July 1929, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A fire police corps lias been formed in Otaki, and the meimbers were sworn- in on Monday evening by Mr W. Burns Smith, chairman of the Otaki Fire Board. General Higgins, head of the Salvation Army, will visit Australia in Afpril, 1930. His itinerary will include all the capitals, including Canberra, also iNew Zealand. The new valuations of the Woodville County show a reduction in value of £399,478 on the unimproved value and £265,725 on the tal value. The last valuation, was jnade during-tlie peak period, hence tire reduction. 1 The eighty-fourth anniversary of the assault on Ohaeawai Pa, the most tragic episode in the war :against Hone Heke and Kawiti, at the Bay of Islands, fell on Monday last. The episode occurred on the afternoon of July 1, 1845, when a storming party of about 200 soldiers and seamen made a futile attempt to capture the impregnable stockade. Fivb minutes after the order to charge was given half of the small attacking force.had been shot, and the survivors struggled back with a loss of 40 men kilted and 70 wounded. From far-off London comes the story (related 'by the Sydney Dispatch) of a Wellington resident who, wishing to get into touch with the late Governor-General of the Dominion, addressed a letter: — “Lord Jellicoe, c/o G.P.0., London.” It was returned marked: “Not known here.” The resident, states our London contemporary, is now wondering whether the stones told about the marvellous ingenuity of the Post Office in unravelling mysterious addresses are untrue, or whether the officials are so ingenious that simple expedients such as the consultation of a telephone directory arc rejected. Hollywood is threatened with a serious crisis. Not only is the “talkie” film leading to unemployment on a large scale, but the Americans are finding that to-day their distributing proposals are not meeting with the reception once given them in Europe. A definite rupture has occurred between the French cinema industry and the American film distributors. So acute is' the situation that- it is suggested that the American Government may intervene and propose some method of compromise. As to unemployment, Mr. Wyndhanv Standing, the English film actor, writes: “There is a panic in Hollywood. All the foreign importations are packing up and departing for various parts of South-Eastern Europe. Those whose contracts have not expired are being eoimpensated, but ‘extras’ are being thrown out of work in hundreds, as ‘crowds’ are not required in talkies. Conditions of production are entirely chaoiged.”