GENERAL NEWS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9392, 12 March 1909, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

Charles Hay, of Dunedin, leaves lor England, |via Suez, on Sunday for the purpose of represen fcing i the Dominion at the Dentists’ International Congress. A meeting of ladies ■convened, by the Mayoress of has been held to promote a fond for ' establishing a memorial to t|ie brave stewardesses who were lost in' the Penguin wreck. It was decided to collect funds to found and endow a bed In the Wellington Hospital for the use of any stewardess incapacitated by illness. If the funds warrant it beds will be provided in other New Zealand centres. The Basham Concrete Company, formed at Eltham, has now been duly - registered and is about to commence operations,. About 30 chains on the Eltham road will be laid with the blocks as a test, and if the experiment proves the success which the promoters of the Company anticipate, the present method of road construction will be revolutionised. The idea of the inventor is to place the blocks so as to form wheel tracks on the road. The Prime Minister has received the following acknowledgement of donations in aid of sufferers in the Italian earthquake: “I thank yon feelingly in the name of the Government and nation of Italy, for the generous contribution of the citizens of New Zealand to the assistance of sufferers in the recent earthquake.— Giolitti, Premier.” At the Patea S.M. Court on Monday, before Mr A. Turnbull, S.M., W. Wright, Government grader at Patea, proceeded against Q. M. Gardner and K, L. Wilson for exporting on February Bth butter contrary to the provisions of the Dairy Industry Apt, 1908, the offence being that whilst the boxes purported to weigh 561 b they were short of the weight. 1 Mr E. Barton appeared for the Department, whilst the defendants did not appear. A fine of £2 and costs £2 3a was imposed.; The Stratford correspondent of the Taranaki Herald says: ■ “ Dame Kumor says that certain bntter factory directors who strongly opposed selling at lid, and a tick are shedding tears of sorrow, and have arrived at the conclusion that a bird in the hand is worth two in, the hush, especially when it comes to consigning. The same applies to cheese, the sale by the Kaupokonni factory at making their suppliers’ chins hang over their chests like the dewlaps of the balls of Bashan, but the others (the consignors) I would commend them to the 17th verse of the 20th chapter of Exodus. , Mr D. M’Laren, M.P., in a letter to the Hon. A. W. Hogg, Minister lor Labour, complains that the Agrioultnral*Labourers’ Accommodation Act is practically a dead letter. ‘‘l received a letter,” says Mr I M’Laren, ‘‘from the Otago Agricultural Workers’ Union informing me that general discontent is brewing owing to the present conditions and unless something is done in the near future trouble will eventuate. I understand that the above ■ union has already communicated with yon asking you to have the qualified officers appointed and inspections proceeded with. Seeing that the Act was passed in November of 1907, it seems monstrous that the administration of same should be left so long in abeyance.” A peculiar case is reported from Ngaruwabia where / an old man named McDonald, familiarly known as “Old Mao” throughout the Waipa died soma time ago near Ngarn,wabia, without friends or relatives in the country and to all appearances without any money or property whatever. The local constable, while going over the few effects which the old man left, found some papers, amongst which was a ticket for i the winner of a recent Melbourne Onp, carrying with it a prize of £4OOO. Nothing is known of where McDonald came from or whether he had relatives, or friends, so that the money can be secured. The question is to whom is it to go? This is how a breezy writer sums up an Australian race meeting (the thermometer it may be mentioned stood at 150 in the shade): ‘‘Before the first race started the committee was drank, the clerk of the course was boozed, the stewards were tight, the judge was half seas over, faniveller was sbickered, and owner was intoxicated) > several Jay Pays were toned up to fighting pitch Sandalwood cutters were full of fight and beer—and the crowd were verry fu’. ( The racing was not of a very high order? and at times it was very difficult to tell whether the horse was winning one race or losing the previous event by two laps. The judge couldn’t decide and the crowd couldn’t see. Wilbui? Wright, says Fred T, Jane \ in St. James’s Bndget, is responsible lor something like a slump in snbmarines and it is extremely probable that the aeroplane’ will play havoc with them and also with mine fields. From the air the sea is singularly transparent, and once submarines are spotted they become harmless, becansejjtbe slowestjof ships can easily move away from them. The prophets all say that the flying machine will render the battleship useless, but, taking one thing with another, it is more likely to give it a fresh lease of life. However, the practical flying machine has not' yet arrived, and that I fancy Is rather further off than most people imagine. There is a tendency to -draw conclusions from the rapid evolution of the motor oar, and forget that, after all, the motor car is only a very swift and light adaptation of the traction engine (not very much altered with some types of carl). There is no heavier-than-air sky traction engine for aeroplanes to evolve from —the path has to be felt all' the way along. The liberal distribution of allowances to school committees and the amount paid annually for maintenance by the Hawke’s Bay Education Board was referred to at the last meeting, of the Board by the chairman wiio said that the Board gave more to committees than any other board in the Dominion. The allowance for 1908, based on an average attendance for the year, was 6s 9d, and the expenditure on maintenance of school buildings for 1908 per school was £22 12s lOd, In 1907 the average allowance was 6s 7d. The following comparison with amounts pair] by other was prepared by the secretary;—Auckland 5a 10r), Grey 3s 9d, Marlborough 4s 6d, Nelon 4s Bd, North Canterbury 6s 6d, Otago 6s, South Canterbury 6s 4d, Southland os 7<l, Taranaki ■6s 6d, Wanganui 4s 9d, Wellington 4a 6d, , Westland.-3s Bd. The average expenditure for all Boards was 5a 2d, It will he seen chat the Wanganui Board is not very high on the list.