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Southland Times, Issue 18855, 22 June 1920, Page 4

Palmerston North is to have its own, electric light and power system in 1.5 months, the Mayor informed the Chamber of Commerce recently.

The New Zealand manufacturers of paper and paper bags have again increased the price. At present they are unable to execute orders on hand.

There is some strange disease affecting rats in the Hastings district—said by some oeople to be pneumonic in"uenza —which is causing considerable mortality amongst the 'ocal felines.

The Whakatane Press states that there is dill considerable sickness in that district, many children being absent from school. The mild influenza and many cases of mumps are chiefly responsible.

General support, it is said, is being given to the efforts of local bodies to induce the Covernment to admit leather into this country free of duty, with a view' to reducing the high cost of footwear.

The acute position which prevails with regard to housing was demonstrated last week in Gisborne (says the Times) when a “house to let" announcement brought no fewer than 275 applications.

A resolution —“that the election of all members to represent Crown tenants on the land boards be by secret ballot”—was adopted recently at the conference of delegates of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association.

The Waikohu County Council at its last meeting passed a resolution declaring prickly pear to be a noxious weed in the County of Waikohu. It is stated by the department of Agriculture that this plant has made its appearance in the Wanganui district.

Recently (says the Lyttelton Times) we had the melancholy, but not unfamiliar, truth demonstrated in Christchurch that the scheme of soldiers’ settlement had broken down, when over 400 soldiers attended at the Land Office to take part in a ballot for —seven sections!

About 2 o'clock this morning a passerby noticed the reflection of a light flickering on the windows of the infant department of the Middle School, and under the impression that the building was on fire, gave the alarm. The Brigade turned out smartly, but on reaching the school, found that the reflection came from a fire which had been left burning in the grate. Before the Brigade returned to the station the precaution was taken of banking the fire with ashes.

A scheme under which returned soldiers who have secured Government assistance to purchase or erect houses are to have the benefit of a rebate on prompt payment of the interest due has been gazetted. Speaking on the matter, the Minister of said the rebate would be deducted from all prompt payments of money on and after July 1. He added that as soon as staff and other conditions allowed, an adjustment would be made on promnt payments made in the past, so that the scheme would be retrospective.

Advices received in private letters from Japan state that the cost of living has advanced there probably more than in any other part of the world, which is probably the reason for much of the internal strife which has been experienced there during the present year, of which the outer world has been permitted to leam next to nothing. VVh at is known through people who have recently visited the land of the Mikado is that living for an European staying at hotels common to the tourist class costs anything from £4 to £5 a day, and even at such rates the Japanese Government was not encouraging visitors from outside.

It will be of interest to those who are in the habit of sending small parcels of food to England and Scotland to know that butter will not be accented by the postal authorities (says the Otago Daily Times). A local resident who took in two 21b packages of butter to the Dunedin parcels’ office, was referred by the postal officials to the Controller of Customs, and from him he learnt that owing to the extent to which the export of butter hy parcel post had grown, it had been decided not to accept butter in future.

The relatives and friends of those mem bers of the N.Z.E.F. who died in the United Kingdom and were buried at Torquay will be pleased to know that the graves are being well cared for and that many of the local people have interested themselves in that direction. Information received by the secretary of the New Zealand War Graves Committee, Wellington, from an unofficial source, states that several members of the Torquay Borough Council and a member of the Y.W.C.A. in Torquay placed fresh wreaths on the graves on Easter Sunday, and intended to pay a similar tribute to the memory of soldiers on Anzac Day. Any relatives desiring to learn further particulars should communicate with Councillor nr Mrs Waymouth, of the Torquay Borough Council, England.

“We must have more teachers, more trained teachers,” said the Hon. C. J. Parr at Friday’s meeting of the North Canterbury Education Board, “and we must have them as soon as we can get them. I notice that they had to turn away applicants for training at the Training College because of want of accommodation. We don’t want anyone to be turned away who is likely to turn out a good teacher. We want hundreds of teachers of the right type, and we can only get them through a proper course of training, and to do that we must have colleges ample, well-equipped and wellofficered. If, as members of the Board state, the Departmental files have ‘got very dusty’ (a reference to the lengthy period that the Board’s application for a grant for the Christchurch Training College had been before the Department), I’ll wipe the dust off.”

It was announced in last weed’s Gazette that influenza is' np longer an infectious disease within the meaning of the Public Health Act.

At the Rotorua Magistrate’s Court yesterday, says a Press Association telegram, Oliver Egginton admitted supplying beer to soldiers under medical treatment and was fined £5, and costs, 7/-.

“The grocery business is not a bed of rosea,” said a witness in -the Wellington Magistrate’s Court on Friday, “and I have never heard of a grocer in New Zealand making a fortune.”

“The stock of a grocer is turned over five times a year, and butter as a separate item about 50 times each year,” said a witness in a case which come before the Wellington Magistrate’s Court last week.

“No Empire stands so high in the world to-day as the British Empire, and it holds its pre-eminent position because it was founded on the principles of righteousness and justice.”—General Booth at the Wellington Town Hall.

The Middle School Committee has taken up the question of providing better swimming facilities for school children and in a letter to the School Committees’ Association on Friday stated that a committee had been set up to interview other town committees in regard to the matter. The Association decided to give the school committee its ready support.

A change in procedure in connection with applications for amendments to industrial awards is to be introduced (states the Otago Daily Times) as the Labour Department has decided to abolish the practice of sending notices by registered letter to every pe~son cited. This step has been taken owing to the shortage of paper, and the amount of work involved, and the department intends instead to advertise notices of the filing and dates of hearing of the application.

Mr Charles L. Stark, who left the Wairarapa some months ago for the United States, writing to the Age says that the New York Globe has published a series of articles which have set the people talking of New Zealand. Mr Stjrk adds; “The people of the States, with the exception of houses doing business there, know nothing of New Zealand. When I tell fanners that I come from New Zealand, the only thing they say is. ‘Gee! You have soon picked up our language.’ ”

His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner in New Zealand has received telegraphic information from the Department of Overseas Trade in London to the effect that a British Industrial Art Exhibition will open at Knightsbridge, London, on September 16. This exhibition will comprise examples of industrial art connected wiih textiles, wallpapers, furniture, pottery, glass, metalwork, building, and other crafts. It is desired to attract overseas buyers to the exhibition, and every assistance will be given to them to approach exhibitors, if they so desire.

Among things noted by the crew of the “Times” aeroplane on its attempted flight down the length of Africa was a difficulty arising from the brilliant sunshine which makes it impossible to accurately judge one’s distance from the ground. “The climate of Central Africa,” adds a member of the expedition, “might be responsible for almost anything—it will cause petrol to evaporate so quickly that a supply calculated to last four hours is consumed in an eighth of that time.”

According to the London Times, such an apparently trifling thing as an anthill 2ft high wrought final disaster to the attempted aeroplane flight from Cairo to the Cape organised by that journal. When taking off from Tabora, a railway junction in “German” East Africa, one of the engines stopped running, the machine ran downhill at 60 miles an hour, struck an anthill "hard as concrete,” and that was the end of the Vic-kers-Vimy-Rolls machine so far as its African flight was concerned.

That large quantities of woollen rugs were being exported from New Zealand was an allegation made to the Wellington Price Investigation Tribunal last week (says the Post). The Board of Trade, which is watching the matter of export very closely, did not believe the assertion about rugs. However, woollen manufacturers are requested to reply to the statement, and the result is an emphatic confirmation of the board’s opinion. For example, the manager of the Kaiapoi Company remarks that from July 1, 1919, to May 20, 1920, the company’s export of woollen goods amounted to a total of only £35, which included only one rug. The Wellington Company gave the following figures for its export of .rugs:—■ Year 1913, 24 rugs; 1914, 54 rugs; 1915, 4 rugs; 1916 to 1919, nil.

A new Australian method for the preservation of meat, fish and other food in hot weather was recommended by Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., in the Auckland Magistrate's Court on Friday during the hearing of an action arising out of the condemnation of a consignment of fish on its arrival at Auckland. Mr Poynton referred to the new Australian Cullot system of preservation. He explained that it consisted in burning certain chemical substances in a confined space where mutton, for instance, was stored. The fumes penetrated the carcase, which thereafter retained its colour and condition and was preserved for about seven days, until it could be placed in a refrigerator. The cost was small, aggregating about 7d per sheep. The use of this system had proved a great success, and he advised the Auckland City Council, which runs its own fish market, to consider the adoption of this method of preservation.

At farewell gatherings such as that held in honour of Mr W. Robson yesterday, mention of Southland’s climate on different lines from treatment often accorded such a subject in other places where, perhaps, “envy is ignorance,” is usually made. At the function mentioned the speakers, mostly referred to this maligning, Mr J. Gilkison remarking that the climate required, probably, a little more work and a little more exercise than did other places. If people did not want to work more energetically let them go north (laughter). Mr Gilkison went on to refer to Southland’s solidity, predicting that, if the Dominion should meet with hard times, this province would be in a much better position to withstand them than the northern districts. Subsequently, Mr A. W. Rodger, speaking on the same matter, said that he had heard the other day of a property in the North Island on which the fifteenth mortgage had just been raised. Fortunately, such cases never came under their notice in this part of the country.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand Mr J. C. Hannah said that the balancesheet and statement of accounts placed before the shareholders had caused him to throw his mind back to the early nineties. He compared the Bank’s position then with the position it occupied to-day. The whole of the company’s liabilities had completely disappeared, and total assets amounting to £53,000,000 had been created. On this amount, after deducting the whole of the administration expenses and £456,000 for rates and taxes, the net profits equalled a shade under 1 per cent of the earning power of the Bank. Cash and liquid securities represented the high ratio of 63 per cent of the assets. Obviously, on the total assets and liquid resources of that or any other bank the return in normal times —and present times were anything but normal—was necessarily a moderate one. The rate of taxation since 1891 had increased 600 per cent. In other words, had the liquid resources and rates of taxation been maintained at the level of the rates current in 1891 the Bank of New Zealand to-day would have shown an increased earning power of 1-i per cent. Had any of their friends told them in the early nineties that the Bank of New Zealand would continue to pay its shareholders increasing dividends, set aside large sums to strengthen its funds, write down its large properties and premises and at the same time accumulate a reserve of £2,500,000 all in 30 years, he would have been laughed at.

The mpst successful local exhibitor in the dog section at the Dunedin Fanciers’ Club's show last week, was Mr Alex. Kidd, who won the cup for the best cocker ip the show. He also won the gold medal for the best bitch, the sporting brace, £2 2s special for the best gun dog and also the ladies’ bracelet.

The arrangements in connection with the Southland ladies’ hockey carnival, which will be opened in the Victoria Hall on Wednesday afternoon, are now well in hand. A feature of the carnival will be the many interesting competitions and side-shows, while the musical programme will be mors than ordinarily attractive. In this matter the ladies have met with a ready response from the Hibernian Band, the Orphans’ Club orchestra, and Mr Sutherland.

In the workshop of the home the hardest worker is “Black Bess.” Always on the job from breakfast through the heat and burden of the day, until nightcap time and often longer. This perpetual boiling job requires a good constitution. Steven’s Judge brand Kettles stand up to their work. Strong, staunch and rapid boilers from England’s leading makers and sold by Uyndman’s, Dee street, at 8/6, 9/6, 11/6, 12/6.—(Advt.)

Good news, I say—l say good newg for all. RAVA Tea is now reduced to 3/3. Ye lovers of good tea, choose Rava Tea at 3/3 —it is choice and good and cheers does Rava Tea at 3/3, and it is down, I Bay again, is down to 3/3. —(Advt.)

HATS for men, youths, and boys—a fine shewing of all the popular styles and value prices. UN DRILL’S, opp. P.O.—(Advt.)

Cheaper Living.—Stop paying for booking, clerical expenses, ledgers, and bad debts, but save your money by buying your Groceries for ready cash from BAXTER'S. (Advt.)

By consistently supplying a good class of Apparel and General Drapery, PRICE & BuLLEID, Ltd., find the demand yearly greatly increasing for their “Red Ticketed” lines at Sale time. The present “Colossal” now in its first week of progress promises to enormously eclipse any previous effort. They have been generously favoured by buyers from all points of the compass, many journeying many miles by rail or road to participate in the benefits offering.—(Advt.)

“Ladies who want to preserve their stylish figure” must abandon the toil of rubbing the weekly washing and instead, let “NO RUBBING LAUNDRY HELP” do the hard work.—(Advt.)

A lovely range of Ripple and Nap Cloths for dressing gowns have just been opened at THOMSON & BEATTIE'S. These are in excellent qualities and the range of colour* include cream, saxe, pale blue, pale pink, vieuse rose, brown, scarlet and marone; 44 inches wide; price, 6/6 and 8/6 yard. Also splendid ranges of fine cream English Flannel for children’s wear. Lace Curtains, Towels, Quilts, Old Bleach Table Cloths, and Serviettes, and a full range of their well-known qualities in white and unbleached Sheetings.— (Advt.)

“What muddle superfluous preparation makes.” —Stanus. Certainly be prepared, for wise preparation means also the battle half won; but superfluous preparation is ill-advised. Always be prepared during winter time, which to the unprepared is chronic cough and cold time. Baxter’s Lung Preserver is ample preparation, for this sterling remedy is a sure, safe, and prompt remedy. It nips the trouble in the bud and fortifies against the return visit. The home that knows “Baxter’s" i* cough and cold proof. Get large bottle of this 54-year-old specific to-day, 2/6 at chemist and store. — (Advt.) Reductions the order of the day and specials for I Every person who is participating in this Sale. Ladies are specially invited to visit the Showroom and get an Idea of the cut prices for Costumes, Coats, Blouses, etc. Ability is shown in the magnificent display and Brings us into the limelight of being one of the most Important Drapers, Manufacturers <>f wearing apparel of Lasting consistency, and high-class finish that gives the Impression of modern, up-to-date and Progressive Stores. To many of our customers the Sale is always a money-saver and You are cordially invited to make a visit to this Sale and see for yourself that H. & J. SMITH, LTD., are Always out to secure the best goods from the World’s Markets and Likes you to get the squarest deal and call for your Enthusiasm to buy at the Great Reliability Sale. —(Advt.) RAPID FIRST AID. By promptly rubbing Q-TOL into a. cut, burn or bruise, ail dangers of inflammation or festering wounds are avoided.— (Advt.) MASTERS, LTD., were the originators o! me xu per cent, discount to returned soldiers. Other storekeepers have copied us and we now go one better. We now invits all discharged soldiers and those waiting discharge to have their military hats reblocked, free of all cost, by the only battel in Southland. We still give a 10 per cent, reduction to all returned soldier*.—* MASTERS, LTD.. Dee street.— (Advt.) A Special Display of Exclusive Evening Frocks, Silk Dress Skirts and Blouses, now being made at THE “ECONOMIC,” LadiesT Outfitters. Prices exceedingly reasonably (Advt.)