LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 44, 19 September 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Press Association telegram today states that the Wellington City quota for the 21st Reinforcements mobilised to-day 72 short.

At the Auckland police court, Domerick McDonagh and Albert West, two of the crew of the steamer Niagara, were sentenced each to six months' hard labour for thefts from the cargo. The Press Association reports that one of the accused had in his bunk a pillow stuffed with 120 pairs of ladies' silk stockings valued at £l2 10s. The other man's kit contained a number of pairs of ladies' shoes valued at £'S 16s. Both lots were stolen fiom the sliip's cargo.

The Commissioners appointed {o inquire regarding the aliens on the gumfields in North Auckland conclude their finding as follows: "We are decidedly of opinion that the existence of large bodies of Austrian subjects :n the North Auckland districts h- not attended with any danger to tlie community." The reports adds that the Commissioners were convinced that these men -possessd no arms except some and odd pea-riHcs, and some revolvers, which they would willingly hand to the police; also, the Commissioners were satisfied that the men do not drill. The public feeling was overwhelmingly against the internment or segregation of the men.

• As showing the thoroughness of the, postal service to New Zealand sol-j diers, the case of a Wellington resident may be cited as an example, says the Post. - On 20th October of last year the parents posted to their son in Gallipoli a tin of lollies. The gilt was sent to Egypt, and thence on to Gallipoli, whither the soldier, a member of the main body of the New Zealand force, had beeu despatched. Before the gift arrived tlie young man had been wounded and was in hospital in Egypt. His mates readdressed it and forwarded it on to the hospital. The parcel followed the invalid to England, thence to Box burgh, New Zealand, to which place he had returned. It reached its rightful owner belatedly but safe, though much battered, on 9th July last. The Auckland Acclimatisation; Society recently sought -"permission 'from the, Department for Internal Affairs to import the little dove front Australia. Subsequently (says the New] Zealand Herald) the Under-Secretary for the Department wrote stating that he had been advised that if the bird were acclimatised it would have to change its habits and live on seeds different from those it had been used to in Australia. Mr C. A. Whitney said Major Whitney had imported the little dove seven years ago, and they had thriven well at Waiwera. It was decided to write to the Department, informing it that the society was assured that success would follow the general introduction of the little, dove to New Zealand, and renewing its application for the required permit.