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Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 108, 8 May 1916, Page 4

A special meeting of the Taihape District Patriotic Committee is to be •held this evening.

About 300 tons of sugar are now being taken by people in New Zealand ■every week in excess of their demands a year ago. )

It is regrettable that there should be so large a proportion of married men in the recruiting ranks of the expeditionary forces (says t-he Waihi Telegraph). Each, draft that leaves Waihi carries away married men who have families. There have been cases when th 0 head of a house has gone leaving a wife and five or six young children. The latest draft included a married man who is leaving behind a wife and four little girls, the eldest of whom is 12 years.

Steps are being taken to ascertain how many men fit for active service there are on the Camp Headquarters’ Staff. On the pay-day last week, each man, on coming up for his pay, was asked whether he w r as fit or unfit. Those who said they were unfit will, it is understood, be referred to the Camp Medical Boards, while those fit for service are to be posted to various Reinforcements. The staff of each camp numbers over 200 men, of whom a large proportion hold non-commission-ed rank.

In reply to frequent complaints against the bad writing of young people on leaving school, Mr. G. Hogben said he had recently seen some 600 examination papers, obviously written in haste, and in not one instance had lie found any difficulty in reading a single word. All the writing was legible and neat. The pupils had acquired a running hand,, better than the stiff handwriting of other times, and had learned to write this running hand well enough for their writing to stand the pressure of speed and remain legible. He thought that handwriting in schools was certainly not deteriorating.

The Pectoral Cross presented to Bishop Brodie by the Hibernians of the Christchurch diocese is beautifully wrought in loct gold and set with four large emeralds.

It was a year ago yesterday that the liner Lusitania was torpedoed and 1,19 S persons perished, America and Germany are still exchanging Notes about the tragedy.

Parliament will adjourn to-morrow out of respect to three legislators who have passed away since last session—the Hon. J. A. Millar, the Hon. J. Duthie, and Mr. E. G. B. Moss, a former member for Ohinemuri

Colonel Richardson, recently of Wellington, who was on the New Zealand war staff in England when war broke out, has been gazetted in London as New Zealand’s representative at the Britsih War Office. He is an artillery expert,, and rose from the ranks of the British Army.

Dr. Elizabeth Gunn, M.M., Ch.B., Edin., who has been granted the temporary rank of captain while employed as permanent medical officer, on a New Zealand transport, is the first woman to leave the Dominion on such duty. Dr. Gunn was previously attached to the Trentham hospital staff.

A Petrograd message states that refugees from Trebizond tell terrible stories of Turkish massacres of Armenians before the evacuation. Adults were taken to the city square sand shot. Children were thrown into the sea. and school girls were sent to the harems. The Turks warned the Greeks that if they sheltered Armenians they would be instantly shot. A thousand Armenians escaped to the mountains.

Mr. J. Pearce Luke, eldest son of the Mayor of Wellington, who w r as district manager for J. J. Niven and Co. in Wellington, and who left on a health trip to England in October last, has so far recovered that he has enlisted. Being a skilled and experienced engineer, he has been appointed assistant chief inspector of munitions for the Manchester area. Mr. Luke has only one hand, having lost the other in an accident some years ago.

The North Otago Times (Oaraaru) announces that owing to the increasing difficulties of securing shipping space and the world-wide shortage of newspaper, the management, in order to conserve the paper stocks, had been compelled to decrease the size of the paper. It was hoped, however, that an arrangement with the big advertisers and the use of smaller type would facilitate the publication of the full budget of cabled, telegraphic, and local news.

“We have in our chief, the Prime Minister, a man who is doing every, thing possible to apply himself assiduously to tlie many important matters that naturally come under his review,” said the Hon. A. M. Myers in Wellington a few days ago. “There is no harder worked man in this country than Mr. Massey. He is working morning, noon, and night, and it is probably only those of the commercial community who can appreciate the complex questions that arise almost daily, placing them before his colleagues in due time. 55

A German communique states: “Our naval' airships on Tuesday night bombed the factories, smelting furnaces, and rail-ways in the Middlesborough, Stockton, and Sunderland districts, the fortifications at Hartlepool, and British warships in the Firth, of Forth. All returned safely except L2O, which was driven ashore at Stavanager,, in Norway, by a strong wind. The entire crew were rescued.” The British Press Bureau comments: “The exaggerations and mis-statements are of the usual kind.”

Palmerston North is erecting an “Anzac Club” to cost £4,000. In addition, it is proposed to collect a further £3,000 a s an endowment in order to make the futur e of the institution financially secure. It is estimated, that the funds in hand now total nearly £4,000. As a means of raising more money,, an art union is to be commenced, the total value of the prizes being £2,000. The first prize will be valued at £I,OOO, the second £3OO, the third £l5O, the fourth £IOO, two at £SO, four at £25, ten at £lO, and thirty at £5.

A strike on a small' scale occurred in a Christchurch hotel on Monday, says the Sun. The hotel) has changed hands, and th e new licensee decided to bring down with him from the North Island the chef who had been working for him before, to replace the chef in the Christchurch hotel. In happens that the two chefs are friends, and the one in the North Island wrote to the one in Christchurch, telling him of the proposed change. The local man was so annoyed at his being replaced, considering it to bo without reason, that he wmlked out of the hotel, and he was followed by thirteen other members of the staff. All have been replaced now.

In another column Mrs. Palmersou I advises for a coat and skirt hand, also for an apprentice to the dressmaking.

An advertiser has a four-roomed house to let. Plenty of firewood free for the taking.

A meeting of the local Recruiting Committee is to he held in the Town Hall on Wednesday evening next at S o’clock. A full attendance is requested.

The infant child of Mr. R. Campbell, of Torere, drank some poison on Saturday at mid-day. There was only a girl of seven years of ago in the house at the time but she had the presence of mind to telephone to friends in Taihap and tell' them of the occurence. Dr. Sinclair was called in and was able to save the child's life.

On Saturday afternoon two men named David Crozier and Andy Myles appeared ■■ at the Taihape Court in answer to charges of vagrancy. The former was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment and the latter, who was a deserter from the ,13th Reinforcements, was handed over to the military authorities and was taken to “Wellington to-day by Sergt.-Major Tuckey.

An effort to raise Red Cross funds is to be made in a pleasurable way that should appeal to everyone who can make the time to avail themselves of it. The innovation is a “Red Cross Tea” which is to be given by Mrs. A. L, Arrowsmith, at her residence, on Thursday next, May 11th. At this gathering there are to be several extrapleasing turns: music is to be provided, and there will be fortune-telling, sweets, flowers, and other attractions. The charge for afternoon tea and music is only one shilling. It is expected that every lady, and gentleman, too, who can possibly do so, will avail themselves of this enjoyable opportunity of assisting such a noble cause as that which is to relieve pain and suffering among those who have volunteered their lives in the protection of our homes and countrv.

“Machines are now devised to perform all the different processes of making a boot,” said Mr. J. Hutcheson, secretary of the Boot Operatives’ Union at the Arbitration Court at Wellington last week. “These machines are mechanical marvels. In the excellence of their work they far. surpass the best results of human hands. The hand-made boot is becoming a tradition, because that made by machinery is so much better:- I would suggest that the Court'visit some of the factories, and view some of these wonderful machines in operation. It would considerably strengthen onr case as to the wonderful productivity of machinery in the boot trade, and would give first-litnd information as to the high tension under -which operatives work maniuplating these machines. Human inventiveness and executive skill would here be seen at their best, and to. view the construction of the shoe from the raw material' right down to the final beautifying that attracts the eye, would demonstrate to the Court the great part machinery plays In boot manufacture.”