LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 27 November 1915, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

The annual meeting of the Taihape Swimming Clfab was called for Inst evening, but lapsed for want of a quorum. ■ At a meeting of the Tailmpe Athletic Club, held last night, it was decided to donate the sum of £5 to the Gflllipdli Bay Fund. A potato grown at North wo >d, Kent, has "done its bit" to increase the supply of home produce. Having a remarkable number of spores . it was cut into 23 pieces, and planted on April 21. Each piece grew, and when the crop was dug up it was found, that the single tuber had produced as many as 267 potatoes, or about 301 b in weight.

•We understand that a lecture will shortly he given in the Town Hall by Sergt.-Major Tuckey on machine guns and explosive shells used in the present war. The lecture will be illustrated by a machine gun and shells of various descriptions and the proceeds will be devoted to one of the patriotic funds. We can hardly think of any subjejct more interesting to the public at the present time, and a large audience is sure to greet the The Patriotic Committee has the matter in hand and particulars will be advertised in this paper early next week. All persons who wish to have a practical exhibition of what "our boys" have to face should make a point of being present. The lecture, it is expected,. will be given on this day week. Quito an excitement -was caused at the Anglican Church service on Sunday at Waihi. A farmer's wife, on her way to devotions, saw one of her hens that had gone astray and had been missing for some time. She ran down and eventually succeeded in capturing it. But the lady was on her way to church, and did not know what to do with the hen. Presently she struck a good idea, and, carefully wrapping the bird in her rainproof coat, took it to church with her, and placed it under the seat. At the close of the service she pulled the coat from under the seat, forgetting for the moment that it was inhabited, when the after-peace and solemnity of the proceedings was rudely disturbed by a most irrelevant flapping and I cackling, as the hen made its escape, ! and quite an exciting chase ensued.

I The printing of Christmas cards is now a feature of the work turned out by the Taihape Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd.. and samples may be seen and prices will be given on application at this office.*

The coronation of Mrs. E. W. Smith, the Queen-elect of the Taihape Carnival, is to take place with ful'l coronation ceremonials on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 7th and Bth.

The Carnival Committee's two raf-fles—motor-car and side-board—are to be drawn on Monday evening. Tick-et-holders may be admitted on presentation of their tickets at the door.

The price of the two-pound loaf of bread in Wanganui is fourpence, Wellington fourpence, and Palmerston North fourpence-halfpenny.

Residents should 71'ot forget that tonight one of the J. C. Williamson's Company's very best comedies is to be performed in the Taihape Town Hall, by a company of artists that have evoked the highest praise in all the city journals of Australasia. It irthe company that . played "The Girl in the Taxi." With fair weatlioi conditions a full) house is certain.

The Sydney newspapers generallv approve of the raising of additional troops, which they accept as an earnest that Australia Is determined to do her part in shouldering the Empire V burden. An opinion that is freely expressed is that by far too large a proportion of youths have gone to the front, and that those of mature age now have to face their responsibilities.

The Prime Minister informed a reporter that he had received a communication from the Colonial Sugar Company regarding- the price of sugar in New Zealand. The company, which provided practically all the sugar con sumed in the Dominion, pointed or.'.' that the price in New Zealand at the present time was lower than in any other part of the world. Although the primage duty imposed by Parliament during the recent session cosi the company 3/6" a ton it was not in tended to interfere witli the present arrangement, and the price would not be increased.

In reply to a complaint that the Government is bringing out immigrants from England who are talcing the places of the men who have gone to the front, it is stated that the complaint is entirely groundless. The Immigration Department does not now assist any man between the ages of 18 and 45 to leave England, unJess he can show that he has volunteered for active service and been rejected. The Department is still interested in numbers of immigrants arriving from time to time, but they are mostly "nominated", relatives, a great number of whom are women. Nominated relatives who are men of military age are not granted assisted passages.

Two hundred and forty-five sick and wounded soldiers were being treated in the various hospitals and convalescent homes throughout 2Te\v Zealand under the supervision of the Public Health Department. Forty men were at Rotorua, IT r,t Hanmer, 46 at Dunedin, 13 at Christchurch, 22 at Wel/ington, and 28 at Auckland, the other men being distributed over the Dominion, in accordance with the Department's policy of. sending every man, where possible, to the hospital nearest his home. Eeferring to these figures, the Minister in charge -.the Hon. G. W. Eussell) stated that some of the returned men were showing a tendency to tubercular disease. Six cases of this kind were being treated at the Waikato Sanatorium, and 10 cases at other sanatoria.

In the course of an article on j "Railway Managers," the New Zea- ' land Railway Review says:—"Never was the cost of general management so high, nor its channels so numerous and devious. We have a General Manager at £3,000, an Assistant-Gen-eral Manager at £9OO, five managers who look after different branches of the work at a cost, of £4,250, assistant traffic managers in each district to help the traffic "manager," two traffic superintendents at £7OO each to see, that all the other managers "manage" efficiently, and the commercial agent, with £545 travelling expenses and a roving commission. . . The Plain fact is that the railways are so smothered with high-paid officialism, and to pay for this more or less ornamental top-dressing the rank and file have to go without many urgently needed reforms."