LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 231, 9 March 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Sydney cablegram last night says:—. Heat and bush fires interfering" witii cable communication.

A Sydney oaiMe states that the bakers'" ballot resulted in favor of day work-.. 1 ie forecast of the wheat crop,- i 3; 32 million, acres, an. increase in area of 23 per oent.

A cyelofle at Bathurst and llvlVille Islands (Northern Territory) damaged the mission station and wrecked a cutter. Six natives were drowned.

A bubbling fountain for homs,. iji. which the water is turned on by the animal stopping upon a platform* surrounding it, has been invented, Cecil George i'arron, charged, a t the Wellington Court with the theft of moneys of the Lyttelton Borfugh Council, was remanded to appear at Lyttelton on Monday. tile Methodist Conference recommends each church in Xew Zealand to secure rolls of honor on which to inscribe the names of the men from those churches who -have gone to the front. The New South Wales Cabinet has sanctioned a scheme for improving stock routes and voted £40,000. The scheme will possibly involve two millions. The eradication of rabbits and the supply of water tanks are the principal features. * A Christehurch telegram reports that the Rev Maslin, who has been charged with a. serious offence and committed for trial, has tendered his resignation as a minister of the Methodist Church, and the resignation has been accepted. The Borough Council last night discussed the continued keeping of fowls nt_ the boiling-down works on the abattoir property, and it was decided, on th fi motion of Cr.s. Hcaly and Clarke, that Dr. Wade be asked to report to the Council on the works and manure depot at the abattoirs.

The usual weekV meeting of the Ggmont Lodge 1.0.a.T. was held last night. The programme for the evening was "four chairs in charge." The following •items were rendered:—Pianoforte solo, Miss-C. SmaTt; song, Sis. B. Watson; harp solo, Bro. Ricketts; song, Sis. D. Blancliard. A light supper concluded a very enjoyable evening.

A deputation from the Sports Ground Committee met the Pukekura Park Board last night to ask that the Board should not re-enter on the property for non-payment of rent. It was hoped to revive interest in sport and in the grounds, and to place matters on a better footing. The Board will reconsider the matter at its next meeting.

The Borough Council decided last night to complete the "ornamental" fence around the triangular plot on Victoria Esplanade. Some councillors urge that it will not look so bad when the work is done—they might have said, when people get used to it. Certainly there can be no complaint that the fence is not of a permanent nature, at anyrate. At the Police Court yesterday a lad named Fred Ilardgraves and three smaller boys were prosecuted—the three younger in the Magistrate's room —for theft of biscuits from a railway truck. The police reports on some of the accused were not too satisfactory. Hardgraves was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and the others were admonished and discharged. The parents pay for tliq biscuits.

At a special meeting of the New Plymouth Borousrh Council the following motion, proposed by the Mayor and. seconded by Cr. Johnstone, was negatived: "That on and from the 13th day of April, 1915, the number of councillors for the borough of New Plymouth he eight, and that in pursuance of the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1008, the whole council shall go out of office on the above date, and there shall he a fresh election of councillors."

Herr Heinrich Fricdjung, <:f Vienna, recently contributed to the Vossische Zeitung an amazing article bearing, the title "The Freedom of the Seas." it appears that the Herman lleet is waging an heroic battle and holding in check Loth the British fleet and the French. Glory attends it, while we are merely "pirates"! Our tyranny is oppressing neutrals as never before, and if Germany puts an end to it in this war, benefiting all neutral maritime ations, she will do a deed which will be comparable with the greatest in her history.

In these days of solid professionalism it is pleasing to find sport followed for sport's sake (says the Gisborne 'rimes). A striking instance of this was given at the Tolago Bay races on Saturday, when a lady owner, whoso horse had been running without success at the meeting, was so overjoyed at winning the last race of the day that she rapturously embraced the secretary and several prominent ollicials ol' the club in full view of the crowd on the lawn. The novelty came so unexpectedly to the gentlemen concerned that they all blushed becomingly, while their embarrassment was highly enjoyed by the crowd.

Possibly it would be difficult to find a more economical means of living than that of an old man named John Turner, who appeared in the Wellington Magistrate's Court on Friday, charged with being a rogue and a vagabond. During the day for weeks past lie has been dinin on eouutr lunches, while at night he has hied away to Thorndon station to lodge for the night in trucks or horseboxes. On Thursday night last, however, he was happened on by a constable in a horse-box at Thorndon station. lie was shivering with cold and endeavoring to compose himself for sleep. The Magistrate decided that the best thing for liim was a month's gaol. v

-'MO number of carcases of imitror. carried by steamers leaving New Zetland during ther first five months of tlie war was ,oaQ' million in excess the total carried in any previous year. For tlie first eight months of tins present exporting season, a total of 210,000 eareases have been exported from Auckland, whereas,dliring the whole of the three preceding*' years only 215,000 ureases were exported from Auckland.'

A party o) " English Red Cross nun- - medical students in time of peaee—found themselves in Ypres with nothing to do. They were wandering round'the luins of the cathedral, when one of them came upon tlie organ, and found that d was undamaged. Tlie blowing apparatus was got tdiworfc, and one of tlie-party began to plily. The first tune that'came into his mind was "O Come, All Ye Faithful,"" anil so with the noise of battle booming intermittently in the distance ainf destruction all round, the glad notes' of a ChYistinas hymn swelled out in ■ spite of all among tf'A.r ruins of Ypres..-.

A correspondent serving with tlie South African Mounted Rifles writes: The funnv side of war is very much before us- out here. The telegraph section, for instance, with great : speed and efficiency^fixed up the field telegraph, 48 miles of it, on bamboo poles.- Next day, walking-along the line, i never saw such a mess. Wherever a giralfe had come across it in the night he seenwd to have wound it round his neck and" then started off at ton speed. Then a rhino joined tlie bathing squad, and' every man then: had no clothes and every tree had thorns. He marched majestically and slowly into the middle of" the pool and wallowed happily; the bank of the stream dotted with the piles of clothes of" the bathers, and tin:- sun blistering fcileir skins.

li When Sergeant C. Bennett, of the Regiment, visited the. depot at • Norwich to claim his pay from Septem'ber 1, he was told: "Bennett, you are ; officially a dead man? nothing can at present be done for you." Bennett was officially reported kill;«l on September i-. As a matter of fact Ite was only wounded, and was brought l to the CambridtnHospital, AMcrshot. When sufficiently recovered lie returned to his home sit Reading. Since that time lie has made frequent applications for his pay without, any satisfactory rsult. A niaior who knew him well conducted Bonne*t to his quarters, fund' exhibited the'. re«i-' mental roll of honor to him. "There sure enough, was my death recorded," mkl Bennett. In the hope of convineiti" the. War Ofhce that he is alive, Bennett lias prepared papers to be signed by his employer, a clergyman and a reprcsenta,e ° f tte P° lip e- and he intends to subin it thorn to the Department.

The London correspondent of the Sydney Run says the French soldiers were surprised at the British troops fraternising with the Germans at Christmas time, lo Frenchmen brought in close contact with the enemy, every German has horns on his head and is'to be exterminated. There is to be no quarter Other than that which the rules of war provide Harrowed by the horrifying ■atrocities which the enemy has commit ted on their soil, they can feel nothing but burning hatred for him and the atro Cities report which has been circulated on the sworn testimony of those who suffered justifies the attitude of the I" rencli, Murder and rape and torture m wind neither age nor sex has been "pared, have blighted tlTe progress of the invaders, and if nothing more atrocious has been done it is only because the limit or human sin has been reached. It is an insult to the brute creation to call such atrocities bestial, since no brute beast is consciously cruel. These things ar 0 rather the works of devils in human lorm, for they display a calculated ferocity, unexcelled even by the servants and soldiers of him who wrfs called 'TinScourge of God."

An address billed to be given in Auckland by R. W. Hill, 1X.8., 01l the subject .Modern Mental Treatment," did not take place, as the lecturer was arrested at his office on Tuesday last on a charge that lie was mentally defective, and, after the customary examination by two medical men before a magistrate, he was committed to a mental hospital. Mr. Hill (states the Star) is an Auckland solicitor who had previously been committed to a mental hospital, but had escaped from custody and got across £ where lie awaited the expiry of the three months which made him legally free from re-arrest. H e then -returned to Auckland and commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court to recover control of his property, which had 'been placed in the hands of the Public Trustee. The proceedings were not successful, and were marked by unusual incidents. In the bills by which Mr. Ilill announced his lecture "he indicated that it was his intention to emphasise what he termed the "extraordinary powers" given to the medical profession by New Zealand law in the matter of having people committed to a mental hospital with a view to showing that it was feasible for a sane man to be sent to a lunatic asylum. He is wellknown in Taranaki.

London newspapers just to hand contain the report which Captain Olossoi), of H.M.A.S. Sydney, furnished to tlie Admiralty regarding the sinking of tli-j TRmden. The report mentions the sinking of a second ship, an incident not previously reported in colonial papers. After firing the last two broadsides into the TCmden, as she lay on the beach ut Keeling Island, the Sydney went in pursuit of a merchant ship, Which had come up during the action. "Although I had guns 011 this merchant ship at odd times during the action, I had not fired," Captain Glossop wrote, "and as she was making off fast I pursued and overtook her at 32.10, firing a gun across her bows, and hoising international code signals to stop, which she did. I sent an armed boat and found her to be the steamer Buresk, a captured British collier, with IS Chinese crew, one English steward, one Norwegian cook, and a German prize crew of three officers, one warrant officer and 12 men. The ship, unfortunately, was sinking, the Kingston (valve) knocked out. and damaged to prevent repairing, .so I took all oil board, fired four shells into her, and returned to the Einden, passing men swimming in the water, for whom I left two boats I was towing from the Buresk."