LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 10 December 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Counterfeit half-crowns axe reported to be in circulation in Hawera.

Mr S. Swanger, Secretary to the Wanganui Education Board, has returned to duty, having fully recovered from his operation. ,

It has been ascertained that Sir John Denniston intends to retire from the Supreme Court Bench at the end of the coming law vacation.

The Gisborne Farmers' Union decided to urge on the Government the substitution of payment on the hooks for Imperial meat instead of f.o.b. as at present.

Three Palmerston publicans wiill appear before the Magistrate on Monday, charged with selling liquor on December 1 between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. following. It is understood that these will be regarded as test cases.

The Right Hon. W. P. Massey, Prime Minister, was a passenger by the mail train on Saturday, en route to Auckland.

Persons travelling to the United States of America are required to fill in a form of declaration and -deliver the same, with photographs, at least fourteen days previous to departure from New Zealand.

In connection with the two £SO fines imposed at Gisborne on barmen for breaches, of the anti-shouting law, subscription lists were circulated among the public and in one day close on £9O was subscribed.

A hero all the time! John Edwards of the Royal Naval Reserve, whose home is at Bristol, and who for nearly three years has been prisoner of war in Germany, has been given a German certificate for saving a German boy from drowning in a canal.

Bulgarian journalists who returned from a visit to Berlin, published the text of a farewell speech of Von Hindenburg, in which he said: "Where we fig-ht, we conquer! Where we stand we remain!" How about Paris, Verdun, Bagdad, Palestine?

The official opening of the T alttaye Amateur Swimming Club takes place next Thursday afternoon, when a good afternoon's sport is promised. Inment in the application to strike off tending competitors should interview W. Gieseking (secretary), or O. Dunkley (captain) re entering for the various events. There is a 25, 50, 75 yards, and also a relay race on the programme. See posters for trophies,

etc, ; !| The action in guarding the wharves at our- principal seaports, though somewhat tardy in arriving, is being enforced with great strictness—in Auckland, at any rate. Thirteen persons were proceeded against in that city on Friday for breaches of the War Regulations, in the misuse of passes, and aiding and abetting in the same, and were fined various sums ranging from £1 8s and costs to £3 and costs.

Speaking at a meeting in London for the purpose of forming an association of discharged Australian soldiers, Colonel Springforth, of the Australian Army Medical Corps, said that of the Australians in the war no fewer than 6000 had married on this side. A large number of these meant to settle in Australia.

The inauguration of 6 o'clock hotel closing was ushered in By one tragic occurrence in Eltham, the Argus says. About five minutes before 6 a customer with a five-gallon jar entered a local pub, and had the jar filled with beer. On the stroke of 6 he left the hotel, carrying his jar in triumph, having insured himself against thirst until 9 o'clock on Monday, morning. But, alas! There, is many a slip between the jar and the lip. The triumphant beer carrier made one slip, or trip, just as he left the pub door. Down came the jar, which was immediately smashed into many pieces,, and the foaming amber liquid watered the thirsty soil, instead of some thirsty souls. It was too late to obtain a fresh jar. and a refill because the fatal hour of 6 had struck.

"It is a well-known fact," stated Mr C. Grayndler, secertary of the Australasian Pastoralists' Union of Workers, in giving evidence before the Third Wellington Military Service Board yesterday, "that there is a great shortage of shearers in New Zealand at the present moment." "Well," replied Captain Baldwin, military representative, "I was speaking on the subject this morning to one of the biggest sheep-owners in New Zealand, and he told me that he had no difficulty at all to get sufficient men." "Do you think there will be many Australian slaughtermen coming over here this "Not many this year, I think," was the reply. "The intrusion of the slaughtermen from the other side has past."

The Sunday School anniversary in connection Vith the local Methodist Church was celebrated yesterday. The service morning was"cbhducted by Mr C. E. Darvill, Sunday School superintendent, who preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion. In the afternoon a flower seYvice was held, the beautiful floral decorations adding considerably to the effectiveness of the service. Mr Hall preached the sermon, which was listened to with marked attention by both adults and children. The children, during the past few weeks have been assiduously trained by Mr Spicer, and their vocal contributions throughout the day were very well rendered. In the evening Rev R. E. Fordyce delivered an address, dealing particularly with the duty of parents in regard to the moral and religious training of their children, in conjunction with the efforts of the Sunday School teachers. The flowers used in the decorations were distributed amongst the hespitals to-day.

Some idea of the difficulties which exporters experience through being unable to secure shipping space for their goods, and of the heavy strain imposed on them in having to finance their businesses through the banks while their exports are hung up, may be gained from the fact that there are in the Port Chalmers stores at present time about 8000 cases of tinned rabbits,, each case representing 36 rabbits—or 255,000 rabbits in all. This heavy consignment has been in tlic! stores for some three or four months. and there is no definite information when a steamer will be available to carry them away. The Taihape Presbyterian Ladies' Guild have been working for nearly a year with the object of holding a bazaar, but, probably owing to the plethora of money-raising functions this community has experienced during the last year or two, it has been decided to just put the result of their work on view in the Presbyterian Hall next Thursday "afternoon, when any friend can view it and purchase what they like of it. Members and adherents of the Church are asked to bear in mind that the useful and beautiful resultant of a year's work of the Ladies' Guild will be displayed next Thursday afternoon in the Presbyterian Hall, and that they may purchase whatever of it they may consider will prove useful to them. Two youths named Joseph Keidy and Noel Hodges, about 18 years of age, were arrested at Tuakau on Friday by Constable Thornell on a series of charges of breaking and entering and theft. It is alleged that at Point Chevalier they broke into a house ana stole food, and then walked to Papatoetoe, where on Monday night they entered a church, stealing a silver spoon and abstracting money from the poor box. At Wiri a house was entered and a watch and chain stolen. Two churches were broken into at Papakura, and with the proceeds the youths went by train to Pukekohe, where they entered two churches, but failed to secure anything. Going on to Tuakau, it is alleged that they broke into the Methodist Church, where they rifled the poor box and regaled t-helselves with the Sacramental wine. They were arrested at the hotel. The accused were remanded until Thursday.