GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 54, 6 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL.

That there is not much of the reciprocal feeling between the Hawera a nd Manaia Counties was (says the Poverty Bay Herald) discovered by Mr H. Hoaro during his recent tour, when, to use his own expresison, he found a relic of the dark ages. He was proceeding along in his motor car when he was hailed by a man who came out of a house, and the Gisborne resident learned that he had infringed the la.w by passing the turnpike gate without paying the toll. He said the Hawera people thought the Manaia people wore getting an advantage from their roads/ so they placed a toll-gate on the boundary, and vehicles going from Hawera to Manaia had to pay 2s,

“Justice will not he denied you because you are a po«/f man,” said Mr C. c! Kettle, S.M., at the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning, when a man said ho had a good defence to a claim, but no money to pay the fees. Mr Kettle remitted the fees, when the man swore that all the cash he had was sixpence, that he had no property of any description, and had *a wife and family dependent upon him.

A collection of Australian opals, described as the finest that has ever left the continent, is on the steamer Makura, on its way to the Panama Pacific International Exposition, in the possession of Mr Percy Marks, who has been appointed to represent the New South Wales Government in furnishing for exhibition a special collection of New South Wales and other Australian gems, in both cut and rough 'form. The collection, he said (reports the Auckland Herald), will eclipse the exhibit made by him for the State Government at the Franco. British Exhibition in 1908, and for which Mr Marks was awarded the Grand Prix and gold medal, the highest honours attainable,

Tlie Milton Methodist Church new building fund received a decided fillip by the gift of £IOO from an anonymous donor. The manner in which the gift was made was unique. The minister (the Rev. Mr Patchett) left by the morning train for Christchurch, and during the afternoon an unknown visitor called at the parsonage, and handed in a letter without comment, or revealng his identity. The letter, on being opened, was found to contain £IOO in notes, with the brief request that the money be placed to the credit of the building fund. The office-bearers do not know whom to thank for this generosity*

When Sergeant C. Bennett, of the Norfolk Regiment, visited the depot at Norwich to claim his pay from September Ist, he was told: you are officially a dead man, nothing lean at present be done for you.” Ben. nett was officially reported killed on September Ist. As a matter of fact he was only wounded, and was brought to the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot. When sufficiently recovered he returned to his home at Reading. Since that time he ha§, made frequent applications for his pay, without any satisfactory result. A major who knew him well conducted Bennett to his quarters, and exhibited the regimental roll of honor to him. “There, sure enough was my death recorded,” said Bennett. Tn the hope of convincing the War Office that he is alive, Bennett has prepared papers to bo signed by his employers, a clergyman, and a representative of the police, and he intends to submit them to the Department.

Canon Garland, who arrived in Sydney recently from Now Zealand, told a reporter that several features of New Zealand Ific hud impressed him. Uno was the magnificent ..system of sanitation that obtained in every city, town, and hamlet. In this respect the Dominion was far ahead of Australia. What h-jd, impressed him more than anything elese was the .splendid work that had been done, mainly by Dr. Truby King, in reducing the infant mortality rate. The result attained had been most striking, and it had been achieved solely by an educational campaign that was well worthy of imitation tn Australia. The prospects of New Zealand joining in with Australia in a,n Australasian Navy, were discussed by Canon Garland. He said that the New Zealand Minister of Defence (Mr Allen) was one of the best statesmen in Australasia, and lie was strongly in favour of some arrangement with the Commonwealth in regard to naval defence, but necessarily not one that would subordinate New Zealand ships to the Australian Government. There

■ns, however ; a large section which did not like the idea of a joint navy, and would prefer to continue the system of subsidising the Imperial Navy. He believed the objection was more political than practical.