LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 90, 17 August 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The quarterly meetim’g of the St.'at ford District'Licensing Committee will l>e held at the Stratford Magistrate s Court on Friday, September 3, at noon.

At Greyiiiouth yesterday several cadets were fined the maximum lor failing to render personal service. One was fined £lO on two charges. The* principal defence was that the lads are over eighteen years of age, and desire to he tninsferyed to the territorials.—Press Association.

At the Stratford Magistrate’s Courtyesterday. before Air S. 01. Hunter. J.P.. a first offender for drunkenness, who did not appear, was convicted and fined 20s, the amount of the hail. This morning, at a sitting of the Court, before Mr I*. ,J. McDonald, ,).P., a first offender for drunkenness was convicted and fined 10s.

Hon. das. Allen, Minister of Defence, arrived in Dunedin yesterday, and when questioned connection with the movement to send additional machine-guns to the New Zealand forces, Mr Allen said ho had twice calded to England to ask if they had any machine-guns available for the New Zealand forces, hut had, so far, received no answer. He presumed the British War Office was getting these guns manufactured as fast as it could for its^ own forces.

A British explorer and elephant hunter, writing from Bangui, French Equatorial Africa, to a Yorkshire newspaper, makes the following remark regarding the value ol radiotelegraphy “It will interest all your readers to know that, thanks to i wdeloss’ linked up by laud services,, we —in the heart of Africa (over six thousand miles from Europe)—receive daily reports of the progress of h: ttles now raging in Europe a few hours alter The events.”

Mr James Hobson, a son of Mr B. W. Robson, of Invercargill, left by the Somerset lor England, in connection with his Invention of an aeroplane wing, which he regards as superior to that now in use. He has been experimenting with his idea for the past two veai-s, and has obtained provisional protection for it in. Great Britain and other parts of tlie world. Mr Robson, who had been connected with the firm of Messrs Caton and Company, Invercargill, for, over two years, after introducing his invention to tlie authorities, tin London,, yill offer his services as pilot or mechanic to the Aero Club.

According to the Toronto correspondent of “The Times,” an attempt was made on .May 15 to destroy the Pacific cable between Canada and Australia. Some raiders in a launch probably from the State of Washington, made the attempt to destroy the station, at Bamfield Creek, ohythe west coast of Vancouver. A sentry, however, was on the alert, and roused the military guard, so that the raiders were forced to retire. This fact does not, however, 'appear to have been thought interesting enough to be told to the public at the time, although, no doubt, the news was known official Iv.

The Americans say of themselves that they are so neutral in^ tlie European war that they really don’t care which of the Allies beats the Kaiser. Tlie following sentences are the full text of the principal leading article in the Courier Journal, of Louisville, on Sunday* May 16, and they reproduce what has been described in America as the spirit of “fierce neutrality” :—“The Herr Doctor Dernburg’s room is better than his company, if an honest man, he was a most mistaken man; if merely an organiser of the German colony in America and an agent of the German spy system, lie was the enemy, and not the friend of his countrymen in America. He could help no cause. He has greatly hurt the causae of Germany. Let him go, and he d——d to him, and now, as ever, to li with the Hoheiizolleru and the Hapsburg.”

A regimental officer at the front writes to the Spectator:—“The following facts witnessed by me during the last German attacks upon our portion of the line might help people at home to realise tlie strength of the poison-

ous gases used by the enemy. As far hack as two miles from the firing lines the poplar trees in full leaf were entirely stripped of all foliage, clipped as linked as in winter. The grass for over a hundred yards in front of the kpnemy’s trenches was turned bright yellow from where tlie, gas attacks were made. This, by the way, is now most useful to the gunners and aeroplane observers. A cat, the pet of a Highland regimnt, was killed by tlie fumes in less than an hour (one mile, behind the first line). Her sad death might, however, have been averted had she'been sensible .and kept on the respirator presented to her.”

A peculiar aiul interesting action at law arising out of the burial at sea of a passenger by the liner Minneapolis was recently heard in the Supreme Court of New York (says Lloyd’s Shipping Gazette). The plaintiff, Mr H. H. Finley, sued the owners of the steamer for damages for having Inured* the body of his father at sea while the vessel was on a voyage from England. In recording a verdict for £6OO in favour of t|ie plaintiff, Mr Justice Shearn pointed out that the steamship officials took charge of £l5O// which the dead passenger had witV him, and which the court < held ws#/ s more than sufficient to defray the «/ xpenses of embalming the body Cmd transporting it to New York for t'joriai o a aho id.