GENERAL NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 62, 16 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

A resident of Robinson's Bay (Banks Peninsula) has had an unfortunate loss (says the Christchurch Press). Several of his Holstein herd were poisoned, and have since died, owing to their eating dried ngaio leaves .

The Auckland University College Council decided yesterday that the time had arrived when it was advisable to extend the scope of the study and teaching of history, and that a joint committee should consider the question of establishing a Chair of History and Economics.

The Feilding Star records an unusual cause of the blocking of a drain in that town. The din. pipe was blocked by a sucker or root from a neighbouring plane tree. The root had grown 16ft. along the pipe.

After hearing an address by Mr M6iediv'n Atkinson, the Auckland University College Council passed a resolution assuring him not only of iU cordial sympathy with the aims ol the Workers' Educational Association but also of its hearty co-operation ii furthering <is far as it could the ob jeets of the association.

On a recent evening the town o Rotorua was visited with a plague oi g;iats. So great a pest did they be come that some of the shopkeeper; found it advisable to close their.sho] doors, and paper treated with chemi cals was burnt in the streets. In pre mises where ttibre was a bright ligh' the insects congregated in such larg< numbers. that floors were covered tc a depth of several inches.

Cats frequently suffer from influen za, one of the most easily contractei and trying of. complaints. . A sneezing cat is a menace to the household, am should be banished at the first symp torn of cold. Some authorities go s( far as to assert that the deadly gerr of diphtheria is conveyed by the in nocent-looking cat, which, though : cleanly animal in many respects, is i notorious prowler and gathers up mic robes from all sorts of questionabh sources.

On SaturtT«y(states tne Tongoporuti correspondent of the News), some evilly-disposed person, by interferenc with Messrs George and Johnston'; motor mail coach at Awakino, comple tely disorganised the mail service 01 that day. At 5 o'clock in the mornin. the machine was fit for the road, hut after the driver had had his break fast he discovered that the tyres ha< been seriously hacked about and tin throttle tube damaged. The injurie: were such that the mail service wa' temporarily upset, but a spare motowas requisitioned to take up the run ning. The police have the matter ii hand, and it is to be hoped the mis creant will be caught and severeh dealt with.

i A brief paragraph announced a few weeks ago that the Postmaster-Gene-ral was about to reduce the rate charged for ordinary cable messages tr the United Kingdom to 2s 8d per word and the deferred rate and weekend rate proportionately. Tt is now announced that from April 1 the via Pacific rate on ordinary messages tr the United Kingdom will be reduced from 3s to 2s f>d per word on deferred messages, and from Is 6d to Is 4d on week-end messages, from 15s as a minimum for twenty words, with 9d for each additional word, to 13s 4d and Sri respectively. The Postmaster-Gen-eral received information a day or two ago that traffic via Eastern would) carry the same reductions of rates.

For the tlrst time in history the whole of the railways of Great Britain have been taken over by the Government and worked by the State in the primary interests of the war. The Government agreed to pay over to the companies as compensation for services rendered a sum which, together with the actual net receipts of the railways, will make the revenue up to the basis of 1913. The whole of ■the net revenue, including compensation from the Government, will be pooled and distributed among the railways in accord with their net earnings in 1913. Tins serves the dual purpose of paying for the work done and of safeguarding some of the weaker railways which may have suffered from the effects of the war without narticinating in the military work. The Times remarks: —"Tt is particularly interesting to note that by a stroke of the pen a financial operation which opponents of State purchase have armied would be formidable to contemplate seriously has actually been carried through at a day's notice."