GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 70, 28 February 1916, Page 7

GENERAL.

Four thousand bullets, made dining the Maori war, have been piosented to the Now Zealand Government by the Ngaita tribe of Toieie, in (he Bay of Plenty. The bullets had been buried lor some years, and on the outbreak of war it was suggested that they should he given to the Government to he used in the making of munitions. The Grey River Argus states that a Westport resident, now in England, mentions in a letter to a relative that an ex-resident of that town, a young soldier, invalided to England, while boating on the Thames, was casually taken in hand by some English people who were interested in New Zealanders, and the sequel to the affair is the marriage of the Westport soldier to a lady, heiress to something in the vieinitv of halt a million stei-

‘-Temporary unfits,” as recruits who arc “deferred” for various reasons h> the medical authorities are termed, arc piling up' fast in the Dunedin group. At present there are over 430 men on the temnorary unfit register. Only a few of these have been held back from the early reinforcements, the hulk being men who enlisted from the 6th Reinforcements upwards. The majority have been temporarily rejected on account of defective teeth, but there are also a considerable number who require operations for varicose veins, varicocele, and hernia. The Wellington road railway mossing at Marion, where two fatal accidents have already occurred, was the

scene of a most miraculous escape from a fatal collision on Tuesday evening. As the 5.30 p.m. train was on its way to Wanganui a motor car driven hy a Palmerston resident, and containing three ladio s and another gentleman, approached the crossing without noticing the train. The car was almost on the line when the tram passed the crossing, and with great presence of mind the driver turned the car almost parallel with the tialn. with tht result that the front wheel of the car nearest the train was completely wrenched off hy contact with the train, and the axle was also damaged. The occupants of the car escaped injury.

Now that the Government recruiting scheme, with its regular canvassers, is being put into operation, unauthorised or “amateur” canvassers for recruits would do well to act cautiously (says the “Lyttelton Times"). A young lady of so-called society rank had an experience in Cathedral square (Christchurch) the other day, from which she (and others) might learn much. A well-built young fellow in civilian clothes was talking to a. lady friend, when the feminine patriot accosted him and said, “Why aren't you in khaki like that man there?, It makes me sick to see you shirkers about the streets!” The young man’s reply was to promptly and decisively slap the interrogator's face— a result that naturally considerably surprised her. As a matter of fact, he is a returned soldier, and explained 'to e constable who appeared in response to the screams of the startled enthusiast that this wa s the third time he had been so accosted, and he proposed to continue his treatment of “interfering hussies” till the annoyance ceased.

On returning from a bathe one evening recently a well-known Cisborne bank accountant, on reaching his residential quarters at the rear of the hanking premises, was confronted by the disconcerting situation of finding his personal effects “sailing out to sea” (says the Poverty Bay Herald). In his absence his cosy den had been suddenly and unaccountably inundated. Assistance was hurriedly summoned, carpets were lifted, and the furniture and effects that showed » disposition to float out into the neighbouring yard were quickly rescued. Meanwhile the investigations of a plumber who had been called in, backed by the assistance of the banker and an associate friend, failed to locate the cause of the inundation. Despite the fact that the bank’s water service had been shut off and every drop of water bad been drained out of the overhead cistern, the inundation continued with baffling consistency, rising over ankle-deep. Connecting U'e residential quarters on the ground floor with the, banking chamber >s a short passage with a concrete floor, and it was only by dint of constant efforts, aided by boards and sacks, that the flood water was prevented from reaching the main portion of the institution. After exhausting every possible theory that could bo advanced, the location of the inundation (which it was evident was coming from the town mains) was abandoned for the time being, and the accountant aided by a couple of other assist-

ants, settled clown to an all-night job of keeping the water out of the hanging chamber, and the sight they presented under the annoying hut . using conditions can better he imagined than described. Daylight dawned to find the battle with the water si II in progress, and it "as not until aKer 10 o’clock next morning that a member of the plumbing firm that had been engaged some time ago on the erecuon 'of the building discovered where the stream of water was issuing bam. ThU turned out to be nothing more ior less than a forgotten and discarded water service used in the emu so of the erection of the building. The !service pipe, it appears, had been connected m> for use in connection with building operations adjoining, and tlic plugged-np end had evidently blown out with, the pressure under the accountant’s rooms. .... 1

' Suva lias very strict laws regarding the destruction of possiiile mosquito Sods. They go nuclei 1 the name ot mosquito by laws and are left to the Municipal Council to carry out. They are not carried out in their entirety. The reason for this, according to the Mayor (Mr H. M. Scott. K.C.) is that tlie staff of the council is not big enough. Tile particular mosquito which is tlie conveyor of the disease, ho said, is present, and if they did get yellow fever if would moan that in a month half of the European population would he wipec| out. He hopes to see the Government take over the work of enforcing the by-laws. ! Last year Fiji exported 1,01.3 135 bunches of bananas. Of these, 657,36.3 vent to Australia, and 335,267 went to New Zealand. The figures are less than those for 1914 by 702.691 handies, when the total was 1.71b,766. The total for 1.913 was 1,551,133. It is the general opinion (says the Daily Telegraph! that, if Fiji escapes floods or hurricanes this year will he a record me, r Jdie trouble will ho transport

facilities, as the present ships that are offering will not lie able to take all the fruit, and whilst the war lasts it is practically impossible for the companies to put on extra ships for the Fiji made.

A tense situation in the last act of “Under Cover” was altogether too much for someone in the audience at tlis Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, on Monday night. The Customs officer, ivho is on the hero’s track, lays a trap for him by getting the heroine to rend for him and question him, tlu •fficer hiding behind a screen at the loot of the stairs. When Mr Millward came down the stairs someone in the gallery, desperately anxious for his ;afety, called out loudly the warning, ‘He’s'there!” The audience roared vith laughter, and it was some time lofore the action could proceed. -Miss Starr and Air Millward were evidently as amased as anybody,’ hut managed to command themselves sufficiently to go on with the serious dialogue.

Some four years agQ the Lyttelton Harbour Board disposed of the old bucket dredge Manchester to the Sydney Harbour Trust, but her voyage to Sydney was cut short, for w ben the craft was off the New Zealand coast -he encountered a gale and foundered, md with the exception of the finding if a lifebuoy off the coast off the North Island nothing further was known about her. Recently, Mi Paani McKenzie, of Rapaki, was out >n the hills rabbit shooting when ho had occasion to go down to the water s nlge to pick up his game. On the beach he found a bottle which contained a piece of paper.- He opened the bottle and found that the note, which was written in indelible ink on a piece of newspaper, was as follows; —“Lyttelton Harbour Board, Captain (undecipherable') Manchester dredge sprang a leak.” It is thought that the “message” is a hoax.

In order to : provide for the rapid transport of troops in Egypt forty troop trains are always ready made ap. some at Cairo and some at Alexandria. Each consists of exactly the same kind of carriages and trucks, and the 'whole lot can he concentrated at any spot in 2-1 hours. Th e railways ire admirably built and equipped .vide guage, double track, comfortably roomy carriages and smooth running. The speed reached would never be dreamt of in New Zealand. ‘‘At cue station,” a New Zealander writes, “we were side-tracked to allow an express to pass. The way it tore past was hair-raising. It is said the sleeping cars on the express cost over £2OOO each. Underground and overhead roads, crossing gates and keepers, signals, all remind one very greatly 'of the English railways, so very different from our New Zealand toy trains.”

Auckland was recently described by a visitor, the I own Clerk of Syduev as “a city of parks” (says the Auckland Star) f and while we fully appreciate the value of parks, it is possible to run wild on the subject. The Citv Council has expended within the last lour years the following amounts from loan upon the purchase of parks inside the city boundaries ;—Point Erin, £20,000; Gillies’, Parnell, £16,500; Kilbryde £5000; city expenditure on formation of Myers’s Park, £4soo—total, £46,000.

Evidence in a case at the Supreme Court in Christchurch last week, in which a man was charged with presenting a spurious totalisator ticket at the Canterbury Jockey Club Cup meeting showed that there must have been an organised and cleverly-arrang-ed scheme to defraud the club. Mr Wanklyn, secretary of the Jockey Club, said six other “faked” tickets, purporting to bo issued at windows 17 20, and 22, were received at the same meeting, which indicated that somebody inside the totalisator was mani-

pulating the stamps. The collection of “faked” tickets received at the meeting showed that somebody was holding a stock of tickets Nos. 3,5, and 13, which were stamped improperly, and were presented for payment should those numbers happen to be winners. Chief-detective Herbert said he was convinced, after the way he had to worm information out of the accused, that he was shielding somebody inside the totalisator. The case for the prosecution broke down, and accused was acquitted by direction ol the judge.