GENERAL NEWS.

Shannon News, 31 August 1923, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Sir Maui Pomare stated in the House yesterday that the returns showed that the influenza epidemic was gradually

disappearing. Mr. Philip Field, of the Otaki Post Office staff, became suddenly ill on Saturday and yesterday was operated on for appendicitis at the public hospital. His condition is serious.

The council of the Royal and Ancient burgh of Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, have, by nine votes against seven, refused to allow a ladies’ football match to take place in the public park. Willie Spencer, a naturalised American, won the American bicycle championship for the second successive year, after competing in the last of a series of 18 races. Arthur Spencer was second,' Cecil Walker (Australia) third, Orlanda (Italy) fourth, and Alfred Grenda (Tasmania) ninth.

Voting took place in Timaru on three loan proposals by the Borough Council, amounting to £48,000, for the purposes of improving water, reticulation, kerbing, and channelling, and sewering for the recently added suburb. The poll was a light one, but each of the proposals was carried by a large majority. At the Foxton Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening, the Rev. Frank McDonald made reference to the forthcoming Hickson , Mission of healing. He said he was somewhat sceptical of certain faith-healing episodes, but from personal investigation he was convinced of Divine intervention in the Hickson Mission. He urged his congregation to co-operate with the Anglicans in the preparatory services, which wore 1 essential to the success of the Mission.

A. Queenstown resident who is on a visit to Dunedin, tells us something of the conditions there during the freeze (relates the Evening Star). In the town itself the snap brought extreme inconvenience as compared with tragic distress in "the back country. House taps were frozen, of course; not one resident escaped this —unless he defied the by-laws and allowed the water to run continuously. And it is unlikely that; anyone in law-abiding Queenstown would do this. If one was lucky enough to get, somewhat, enough water to fill the bath overnight, it was a case of using a tomahawk in the morning to break through four inches of ice. On the pond in the gardens (where

skating was indulged in) the ice was eight inches thick, and there was even a thin coating around the edge of the lake. A bowl of water actually froze though placed out in the sunshine. For the sun shone for a few hours a ! day; but it only heightened the glare of the white snow and ice—no perceptible warmth came from it. Inside the homes matters were worse still. A fire might be blazing in a room, yet liquid standing at the other end of that room froze.

An enthusiastic Masterton pig-hunt-cr, accompanied by two companions, froim Wellington and Martinborough respectively, |set out last week-end to secure a big boar that had previously , escaped from their packs, after having on more than one occasion killed a valuable dog. Towards evening the old finder “Scot," accompanied by another young finder, again proved his worth by locating the quarry up a Tough gully. The big holder and “white hope” was then released, and when the party arrived at the scone he had a vice-like grip of the boar's ear, while the finders were extracting their pound of flesh. The place where the boar bailed was a natural fortress, huge rope-like vines overhanging a fallen giant tree. In this natural cage a terrible battle between the three dogs and the boar made--' it dangerous to knife the animal, so the task of shooting was ei] trusted to the Wellington visitor, who skilfully placed a bullet in a vital spot without injury to the dogs. The head was brought in and in due course will be exhibited.

To the “honour” system in the prisons is devoted an interesting paragraph in the annual report of the Inspector of Prisons (Mr. M. Hawkins). “I am convinced,” he states, “that the system now in force in {he four prisions of the Dominion in far and away the best. From time to time we hear a great deal about the ‘honour' system said to be in operation in some of the American prisons. In this connection I am afraid that the general public of this Dominion have no idea as to what is being done in this direction at their very doors. As a matter of fact the ‘honour' system, not in a limited but in a most advanced form, is ini full operation in many of the prisons of this Dominion, and, what is more, is being carried on most successfully. jPe rsfonaUy I must pdmit that the results as a whole have far exceeded expectations, and fully jirtify vour having departed from the oldestablished custom of never trusting a prisoner. The ‘honour' system has proved a success, and has come not only to stay, but, I hope, to be still further extended. For almost forty years I have been engaged in and have had experience of the conditions existing in practically every prison in the Dominion. My opinion should therefore be of some value.”