LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taihape Daily Times, 1 March 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A new gold-bearing reef has been struck at the Thames, which promises to prove as rich as any struck in that locality in the sensational days.

The liner Rananga, 10,000 tons, is to leave England in early part of next month with troops for New Zealand. She should arrive here about the middle of April.

Many residents who collected rubbish and placed it alongside their ordinary tin, to have the yards cleareo during "cleaning up" week, were annoyed to find the loose rubbish taken and the tins left full. Yesterday, other carts went round collecting the tins and other rubbish, the driver shouting in one/ street' "Bring . out your tins," in a voice that would have fitted the days of the Black Plague, when the word "dead" was used in place of "tin."

The purchasing power of a sovereign in "Wanganui (says the Herald) so far as it concerned the purchase of food, had at the end of December, delined 10s 3d, 30 3d "now being required to purchase food which could have been purchased before the war for 20s. The sovereign >has greater food purchasing power in Wanganui than in any other 25 centres in the Dominion. At Greymouth, where the sovereign has the least food purchasing power, the value of a sovereign has declined 12s 11-]d.

The Maori, Mararoa, Tropic and Ayrshire will probably .-be within wireless range to-night.

An important announcement from the Chief Electoral Officer to all returned soldiers appears on the front page of this issue. All soldiers who wish to avoid being disfranchised at the forthcoming special licensing poll on 10th April should read it.

In order to encourage the destruction of rats, which are reporte dto be becoming very numerous in Wellington, the City Council has decided to pay to all bona fide city residents a bonus of twopence per rat delivered at the destsuctor.

The harvest festival services of the Methodist Church will be held to-mor-row. Mr C. E. Darvill will conduct the morning serivce and the Rev "W. H. Hocking the evening. Appropriate harvest hymns will' be sung, and a hearty invitation is extended to all. The Hon G. W. Russell, speaking at Wellington on Tuesday night, said he was very proud of the part played by the women of this country during the war. He instanced a girl who had come to him regarding a passage to England to marry her sweetheart, who had lost both legs. He was glad to be able to tell her that the Government would help her out of patriotic funds raised by the people of this country. He thought such devotion very fine.

Nearly 1000 American educators •went to France to teach the soldiers who had enrolled in the army schools. Aiding these educators were hundreds of professors and teachers in the ranks, in addition to certain instructors lent by the French Government. The idea of utilising the spare time of a great army in this way served a double purpose. It providep occupation —a thing esential to the morale of an army —and it helped to fit the men for peaceful vocations when they returned home, for they are being taught trades as well as" academic studies. Incidentally nuany thousands are said to be learning the French language. Besides honours, medals, and

ideals, these men will bring home a new language.

The late season's wool clip in the Auckland province, which this year is coming to hand later than usual as a result, of the late spring and the recent epidemic, but ahead of other provinces, gives promise of being a much cleaner clip on the whole "than was the ease last year. Information obtained from a representative of a leading firm of auctioneers in the eity (states the Star) was to the effect that wool received to date wasn't anything like as bad as far as the seedy trouble was concerned as was the case last year. With the exception of an odd bale or two, the condition of the clip was very encouraging. The, "biddy-bid" this year, however, was, very bad, and wool shorn within the last week or two, which had yet to come to hand, and that to be shorn would probably be affected by the seed very badly.