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Southland Times, Issue 18818, 11 May 1920, Page 4

Four Chinese couples were married in Auckland last month. A farm of 55 acres, three miles from Cambridge, changed hands a few days ago at £l5O per acre. This price constitutes a local record. The Government Statistician has been directed to collect statistics of industrial manufacture in the dominion for the year ended March 31. The cosd output from the West Coast mines for the week which ended on April 24 was 13,905 tons, as against- 9131 tons for the corresponding week of last year. Arrangements have been made in Great Britain for the establishment of mills for the production of potato Hour. It is hoped the industry will develop on a large scale. Tire value of the gold and silver entered for duly, at Auckland during the month of April was as follows; —Gold, 12,l()8oz it! dwt, valued at £51,155; silver, 154Mozs 14 dwt, valued at £429. It is expected that the soldier patients undergoing treatment at the Chalmers ward (Christchurch i Hospital, whore, orthopaedic cases arc treated, will l>e handed over shortly by the military to the civil authorities. All the letters of a private and personal character seized in the recent raid on the Dublin Castle mail van have been returned mysteriously to the Post Oflice, with the stumped inscription, "Passed by Censor, Irish Republic.” One result of the Hon, Mr Lee’s assumption of the portfolio of Justice is that the anti-shouting law, for so long a dead letter, is to be enforced rigorously. At Wellington recently two young men were lined £2O cadi under the anti-shouting regulations. Masters of oversea vessels are warned by the Marine Department that a small percentage of drifting mines are known to exist in a water-logged condition a fraction of which may be dangerous. This type of mine is hard to see, so the keeping of a good look-out is enjoined on mariners. A Ivlasterton sportsman who has visited the Wairarapa Lake for 15 seasons, states that although wild ducks are numerous this year, they are difficult to shoot, Beter sport will, he thinks, be obtained later in the season. Swans are more numerous on the lake this year than he has ever seen them.

“Most of the American humour is quite unconscious.” This is the discovery which a New Zealand visitor to the United States has made. “The Americans,” he says, “are never intentionally funny, and they don’t seem to have any sense of humour. There are no Mark Twains left; and the awful stuff that passes for humour in the newspapers and in the theatres makes one wonder how such an expression as ‘American humour’ over came to be coined.” An Australian mail is being brought to New Zealand by the Manuka, which arrived at Wellington yesterday, so that the local portion may be expected to reach here by the express to-day. The next English and American mail to reach New Zealand will be brought by the Makura, which is due at Auckland about May 20. The Waitcmata, which left San Francisco for Auckland on April 29, is carrying a large parcel mail, consisting of Soo hampers. A party of 14 Chinese, including a Chinese woman, arrived in Auckland from Sydney by the Riverina on Tuesday. Five of them, including the woman, failed to pass the education test, and will be sent back to Sydney. The total number of Chinese who have arrived in Auckland since the beginning of the year is now 304. There were no Chinese on board the Niagara, which also arrived from Sydney on Tuesday. The arrival of the Riverina and the Niagara in Auckland from Sydney on Tuesday morning within 20 minutes of one another made matters very busy for the Health and Customs authorities. The Niagara, which reached {>ort ahead of the Riverina was, in accordance with the general rule, dealt with first, and berthed at Queen’s Wharf without delay, and the Riverina was forced to lie in the stream for about two hours. When she attempted to berth at the King’s Wharf it was found to be a very difficult task owing to the strong ebb tide, and another two hours elapsed before she made fast.

The sum of £IOOO was bequeathed by the late Mr W. Cooke, of Kaikoura, to the Kaikoura Hospital, the interest to be used in improving and beautifying the gardens and grounds. The Hon. J. G. Coates states that the Public Trust Office’s profits for the year ended March 31 were £78,000, an increase of £15,000 over last year. With the opening of new branches a still greater increase is expected next year. The attendance of soldiers in hospital at curative and vocational classes during the month of March was 28,235. Since April, 1919, attendances have increased steadily, at the average rate of 2000 per month. The total to date is 229,856. This is made up by the four military districts as follows: —Wellington, 77,697 ; Canterbury, 63,319; Auckland, 61,385; Otago, 27,455. The total value of the butter and cheese production of the Auckland district for the year ended June 30, 1919, was approximately £3,187,000 (says the Herald). The value of the butter and cheese received into the grading stores to the end of April this season is approximately £3,170,000. Making an allowance of £90,000 for the butter that went straight into consumption in the early part of the season the total value of the butter and cheese produced in the Auckland district to April 30 this season is about £73,000 in excess of the total value of last season’s output. Full many a belated one, citizen and visitor alike, though mostly buoyed up by good spirits, has been, received through the ever-open doors of a certain Wellington institution (says the New Zealand Times). Never, when the occasion has warranted it, has shelter been denied, and the perhaps rather limited resources of the establishment in the matter of refreshment have been unfailingly at the disposal of the temporary occupants. “Welcome to Our Prince” was blazoned forth in letters of light on the building on Wednesday evening, and as His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales passed along Larnbton Quay through acclaiming crowds he took occasion to inquire what building it was.' On being told, the Royal visitor joined in the quiet smile of his informant. It was the police station. But the Prince was on his way to another institution of the State —Government House.

How they do it elsewhere! Mr J. A. Matheson, of the Alsace Company, relates the following apropos of the manner in which touring theatrical companies are treated by the Invercargill Council. Last year Mr Matheson was touring manager for the J. C. Williamson Figman Comedy Company and on arrival at Danncvirke was faced with the task of securing accommodation for forty people on a race night. The only two licensed hotels in the town were booked out, likewise the private hotels. The Town Clerk was appealed to for assistance, and that gentleman, putting all other duties aside, spent six hours amid pouring rain visiting private houses. Every member of the company was provided for and in not one case where there was room was a refusal given. “Dannevirke is only a small town compared with Invercargill,” added Mr Matheson, “yet it can apparently show this place points when it comes to municipal enterprise.”

Before its absorption by the Mail, the Nelson Colonist, in an editorial, made the following comments;—“ Very few of the general public have any real conception of the cost of carrying on a daily paper supplied by cable and telegraphic services; fewer know how T enormously the cost of production has increased of recent years. Before the war, changing conditions led to substantial increase in cost; during the war there were further advances, and to-day the rate of increase is more rapid than at any previous time. The position to-day as compares! with 1914, is that wages have increased 50 per cent., and all materials used in manufacture have greatly increased in price, the staple commodity in newspaper production, newsprint paper, showing an enormous advance. During the war newsprint advanced to three times the prewar price and more. To-day there is a shortage in the supply, and prices in the open market are from five to seven times those of 1914, while the prospects are that for several years to come the cost of newsprint will be higher than in 1919.”

j Present-day land values were referred to | at the public dinner at Inglewood by Mr ' Newton King, in the course of his reply to the toast of “Farming Interests of Taranaki” (slates the Stratford Post). lie said some i c. are should be exercised in the land boom i going on, and, in saying that, he remarked ■ that he was not a pessimist by any means. : He knew of farms having been sold at a ; high figure which were not worth the money. I Jt was a question of where a safe invest- ! ment finished and speculation came in. I Some were buying farms that they never 1 intended to go on if they could help it, but with the object of turning it over at an advance. Land booms were dangerous, and always had a following effect. He admitted that land had to rise, because the products were now of very much higher value than in the past. It appeared to him that the people were going too far in some respects. He desired to call their attention to this state of affairs, so that they might consider it more fully; and because they all knew he was not. a pessimist he believed his warning might have some effect.

Speaking of the shortage of bouses for teachers, the Minister of Education (the Hon. C. J. Parr) said the Department proposed to begin a modest building programme try erecting half a dozen houses for married teachers, who could not find accommodation in the backbiock areas. An interesting experiment, he said, was also being tried with small movable houses for the accommodation of single teachers, especially female single teachers in remote districts. Often it was found impossible to get lady teachers to go to certain districts, because of the lack of suitable board. It Ls to meet such cases that these movable houses are to be tried. They will consist of two rooms merely, and they will be built on wheels or runners, so that in the event of the school attendance falling a great deal or the attendance rising sufficiently to warrant the appointment of a married teacher, and the erection of a new house of a permanent character, the house oa wheels may be taken to another place where it may be more needed. The idea at present was that the movable house for, say, a lady teacher should be located alongside a farmer’s residence, or, say, a committeeman’s house, in order that the teacher might have some protection, and yet might have at the same time some privacy and comfort. This was not always possible under existing circumstances in remote districts.

Food is a subject, which has a morbid fascination for the unfortunate city dweller, who, owing to modern conditions is robbed of the privilege of earning his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, as his forbears did when they lived nearer Mother Earth. The man who uses his body as Nature intended can generally eat- anything, and does not suffer from those qualms which beset the mortal doomed to paved streets and sedentary 7 toil. At the close of his lecture at the Leys Institute, reports the Auckland Star, Dr J. S. Reekie had to answer a pretty stiff examination paper at the hands of the audience. On the question of salt, which has as many adherents and opponents as freetrade, the doctor pointed to the craving of certain animals and savage races for it, and gave it as his opinion that it was an essential to human diet under the present-day conditions. The essential hydrochloric acid in the gastric juices was derived from common salt. “No, I don’t think a diet of entirely raw food would make the race stronger than it is,” was his answer in regard to another fad. He explained that some foods could be advantageously eaten in the raw state, but man as at present constituted required the use of fire in preparing his meals. The doctor mentioned that he had seen photographs of some children in Mesopotamia driven into the diet of Nebuchadnezzar, owing to the privations of wartime, and they had actually exploded. Their stomach distended to bursting point. Before man could live entirely on raw food he would have to be provided with a new interior.

Willie Chan, the Chinaman who was arrested on Saturday by Constable Burke on a charge of breaking the provisions of his release on probation in Auckland, appeared before the local Court yesterday afternoon and was remanded to appear at Auckland on Thursday next.

Those who depend for warmth upon electric radiators, supplied with current from the city power, may look forward to a cold experience this winter (says the Auckland Star). The civic authorities decided some time ago that it would be necessary to place a ban upon the use of radiators for beating purposes during the winter. The Mayor, Mr J. Gunson, stated that, following upon the increased demands upon the available current, it had been decided that the Council could not undertake to supply power for radiators. He did not know when effect would be given to this decision, however. The position was due to material ordered three years ago not yet being to hand. On two occasions material which had been ordered by the Council was requisitioned by the British Government. The supply <■* current for illuminating electric advertising signs,- continued Mr Gunson, would be curtailed, as would happen in the case of all save absolutely essential avenues of consumption. Advertising signs, however, did not involve so heavy a drain upon the supply .of power as did radiators, which consumed a great deal of current. Consequently the drastic step contemplated in connection with radiators would not be enforced in its entirety in the case of the sky-signa. The curtailment to which the latter would be subjected would be part and parcel of the scheme to conserve the available current so that it might be concentrated upon essential uses.

The opinion is expressed in many quarters that owing to the increased cost of books during recent years book-buying has decreased amongst the reading public. This may or may not be true but whatever excuse there may have been for restricted book-buying in the past there need be no excuse during the present month for the Bible Depot, Athenaeum Buildings is offering during May, 10 per cent, discount off their magnificent stock of books and stationery and indeed in some instances 57fiction is offered at 2/6 and Theological books reduced more than 50 per cent. Call and inspect their stock; you need not buy. —Advt.

TO THE SUBSCRIBERS ANT) FRIENDS OF THE INVERCARGGILL SIXPENNY CLOTHING CLUB. On behalf of your executive, we would draw your attention to the kind offer made by MESSRS H. & J. SMITH, LTD., to give us a 10 per cent, discount week, commencing May 10 and ending Saturday, May 15, inclusive. We ask for your co-operation in this by making your purchases in the shop of the generous donors. By so doing, you will increase their taking, and thus enable them to hand to us a larger sum of money, which is urgently required at the present time, so that we can help the poor and needy to a greater extent during the coming winter months, than we can otherwise do with our limited amount subscribed monthly. You can further help us by passing the word along to your friends and all will receive a benefit, as we are told there are to be some excptional offerings.— We arc, yours in the work, Mary Stewart, President; Alice Anderson, vice-president; B. C. Stewart, vice-president; H. L. Birss, secretary ; M. Hunter, treasurer. —Advt.

Your writing need not be copperplate if your stationery bears the hallmark of quality. You can’t buy character in handwriting ; it is peculiarly your own, but smart stationery is only a matter of purchasing at Uyndman’s, Dee street. Cabinets in grey, blue, dainty pink, white, bordered, blossom sprays, and chic figures; also children’s party stationery can be had at prices ranging from 1/- to 3/6.

The money spent in advertising unsatisfactory goods is more than wasted, that is why Thomson and Beattie advertise only what they consider the top-notch value in the drapery world. Here is a line that is unbeatable value. —Woollen knickers in S.W, W, O.S. sizes, elastic at waist and knee. Heavy rib at 8/6, 9/6, 10/6. Bands at 9/6, 10/6, 11/6. Fine wool at 11/6, 12/6, 13/6. Bauds 12/6, 13/G, 14/6. These are the famous Mosgiel qualities. Post paid on country orders, —Advt. WHEAT—Superior line of excellent fowl wheat, 36/- per bag. Supply limited. At BAXTER’S, Dee street. — (Advt.) Woollen Scarves for ladies, maids and misses, are offering at PRICE & BDLLEID’S, LTD., in great array. For maids, grey wool striped ends 4/6 each; for ladies, white all wool scarves (very popular) 8/11 and 10/6 each, these are sellers. Another line that is commanding attention is a coloured selection including saxe, grey, Lovat, fawn. These have nicely finished striped ends and are quoted at 8/11 each. The novelty range of Velour Cloth Scarves is something really new at 16/6 each in amethyst, fawn, saxe and vieux rose. While for sometiling specially good they have a range of silk scarves in purple, saxe, sky and khaki, They quote for these the low price of 22/6 and they are excellent value.—Advt. “Chance will not do the work.” (Scott). —No one can afford to take chances with health. Yet how many during the Winter when coughs and colds are so dangerous, experiment with preparation after preparation. Take BAXTER’S Lung Preserver immediately and be sure. Mr Baxter did ah the experimenting 54 years ago and now you can promptly remedy cough, cold, son throat, chest and bronchial troubles. Thi* sterling specific is quick in its action, permanent in its relief. Get large 2/6 bottle to-day from chemist or store.—{Advt) A friend for you! “NAZQL” instantly relieves coughs and colds. Get a Nazal Inhaler. —(Advt) Keep the kiddies well. “NA3OL” is sura protection against coughs and colds. Sprinkle baby’s pillow. Older children can taka it on sugar. 60 doses 1/6. —(Advt.) MASTERS, LTDI, were the originators ol the 10 per cent discount to returned soldiers. Other storekeepers have copied us and we now go one better. We now invite ail discharged soldiers and tboee waiting discharge to have their military hats reblocked, free of all cost, by the only hatter in Southland. We still give a 10 per cent, reduction to all returned soldiers.—* MASTERS, LTD., Dea street—(Advt) MOTORING IN HOT WEATHER. An American lady touring NX. conpidete Q-TOL as a skin emollient Prevents skin becoming ingrained with dirt, —(Advt) A Special Display of Exclusive Evening Frocks, Silk Dress Skirts and Blouses, now being made at THE "ECONOMIC,” Ladbea* Girt fitters. Prices exceedingly reasonable. (Advt) Don’t wear out your fine Lingerie and Cotton things by rubbing in the weekly, wash! Use “NO RUBBING LAUNDRY HELP,” it revolutionises the washing, abolishing rubbing! 1/- packets. All storekeepers.—(Advt)