LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 254, 6 April 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A fAirly large number of visitors from all parts of New Zealand were interested spectators «at yesterday's carnivals.

The south train yesterday was packed with holiday makers. Despite the somewhat inclement weather 'they spent a most enjoyable day at the seasidb. At last night's smoke concert to the veterans, Mr. Okey, M.P., said his, nearest approach to actual warfare was in connection with the "siege of Parihaka"— (laughter)—and the arrest of Te Whiti and Tohu. He, added that it was a pity they wc-re not able to deaj witti tilt Ivaiser as effectively. Some of the rabbit trappers in Southland are making £7 a week at the calling. The market is brisk, though it is early in the season, and approximately "between 2000 and 2500 rabbits are l.eing sent away daily- from Wyndhmu railway station to the wool and meat preserving works to lill extensive orders for "the front,."'

The influx of Easter visitors to Roto rue, (says Saturday's Kotorua Chronicle) commenced on Wednesday evening, with nine packed carriages, anil was continued the next night with 12 more, which meana an aggregate of nearly a thousand people. With another well-patronised oxeursion train on Good Friday morning, the proprietors of hotels and boardinghouses are looking happy.

At the veterans' smoke concert last evening the Member for Taianaki {Mr. H. J. Okey), in referring to tho vitality of the veterans present, mentioned thai several of them had actually ■volunteered for service in Samoa in order to relieve the younger men for work in Europe. Some of t'ie veterans referred to, it may be added, have seen service in the Crimea, Indian Mutiny, Afghanistan, and tho Taranaki wars. They have evidently lost nothing of t'icir old fighting spirit.

Something of a bread war is going en at St Albans at the present time (says the Christchurcli Press.) One baker started out to sell at 8d in place of t!.e current price of lOd, and another, threatened with such violent competition, reduced his price accordingly. It is claimed that at this price the bread cannot be sold at a profit, and the only.parties to benefit are the customers. The 8d bread must be called for and paid over the counter; nothing is delivered for less than lOd.

The motor trade in New Zealand is feeling the effects of the commandeering of British factories by tho War Office. Large motor-cars and lorries of British make are practically unprocurable, and all business is subject to delay. A vary great number of the factories are engaged on war material, though, in :ertain cases, the motor-car department is not affected, at least so far as small liorse-power cars are concerned. Many of the works have sent a large number of men to the war, and labor is scarce.

'"Made in New Zealand/' when stamped upon butter packages for sale in the State of Oregon, was intended as a khd of stigma, but it had the opposite result. Mr 15. Clifton, New Zealand Trade Commissioner on the .Pacific Coast, writes to the Agricultural Journal that the activities of the authorities of the Oregon Pure Foods Commission were lot of intention operating in the interests of New Zealand. It was far more to assauge the irritation of the Oregon farmer, who objected to the presence of butter from abroad. This has, however brought about, the appreciation of the high quality of New Zealand butter, a:ut has effected an entirely different end (o that anticipated by those who wished to arouse the interest of the Commissioners.

A Belgian soldier writes:—"Evevv day gives us a new hope and strength"; but every inch is taken by the. saei'iiice of precious lives. We never know we loved our country so much, but our count'.V means our fathers, mothers, our freedom, our everything. We never know how much we. loved our King; but with what he has done, and is still doiii", for us, we could not help loving him ° One Sunday, while inspecting with some staff officers, lie saw some men disrsrin™ trenches and looking very tired. He enquirwl how they had Ijetm working,, iviul on being told sent them away for a rest ■While he proposed to his officers tint they mid himself should take the men's places. The King of the Belgians could then be seen digging trenches to relieve the soldiers! Can one help loving and feeling proud to serve under such a King.

"No finer tribute to British honor and justice lias boon penned than that of Ktatsraad Jolian Castberg, in an article in the t ""temporary Review dealing with (lie Scandinavian countries and tlu* war By making the rights of the small nations her battle-cry, he states, England has won the. sympathy and gratitude of all 1 lie neutral world. Strong intellectual and economic, interests bound the Scandinavians to all the great belligerent Powers, but all was clranged at one >,{r,, K'' '■>' ,l( 'i'iH!iny's invasion of lieulial j,elgium and the horrible devastations of war in that country—a country whose heroism has established an imperishable ideal for humanity. No dofn.cn of Ibis nil deed has had any effect. lh* fafe of Belgium has taken possession of the imagination of the peoples and decided their view of the war. Great Britain's action has saved the faith of millions of men, that right is still after all the strongest might in the world.

_ 'Members of the Equitable Building Society of .Yew Plymouth (First and "Second Croups) are notified that subscriptions will be due and payable to day (Tuesday, April fith) at the secretary's ollii'e, Cnri'ie Street, from !) a.m. to 12.30, fmm 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.—Advt.

A Wellington syndicate is interested< : n a discovery of coal at Whanganmta, on the Kast Coast, about 30 miles from Thames. The. Thames Star reports that in one part, where the quality of tin coal appeared! to be the best, a siru.ll prospecting shaft was sunk. . The con I taken out was forwarded to Wellington, and an exhaustive examination and trial of the deposit made. The result has been that the coal has been found 'to be of a promising quality, but there aie grave doubts as to whether unless it shows considerable improvement it will ever be of a payable nature. The coal, it- is said, burns, but the heating qualities are low and could not .be made! into a marketabl6 commodity until a considerable improvement takes place.

A demure, sweet-faced little lassie stepped shyly and quietly into the <avpcted sum-turn of the Mayor of Wellington, holding in her hands a small, wellfilled leather bag, says the Dominion. "Well, what is it, girlieT" asked his Worship genially. "Please, I've brought some money from the concert," she said, and with tliat the leathern bag was dropped 011 tlie desk, the resultant clink indicating it's contents. It was then explained by the mother that her daughter (Miss Eva Douglas, of Newton) 1 hud organised 1 a little concert in her-own home in aid of the Belgian Fund, and the result was a bag-full of silver and copper, making in all the sum of £l' 2s, an amount which should keep some of the poor little children from want for a time. The Mayor heartily thanked the little worker in the great cause.

Tint: necessity for imposing, a. speed limit for motors was shown in New Ply mouth yesterday, when several motorists, especially cyclists, tore through the streets and around corners at anything between Ai and 35 miles an hour. As far as we know there was only one accident, a Waitara- ey|clist coming, to grief whilst endeavoring to thread his way between a couple of motor cais and a cart. But this immunity from accident was not due to any cace or consideration on the part of motorists; it was due, on the other hand, more tfi the agility of pedestrians and. others. No motorist should be allowed to drive through the main part, of the town at more than 12 miles ail: hour, and the Council, when it lias a little'time at its disposal, could do very much worse than give consideration ta a matter which really is of vital coiiecni, to. the general public.

A number of Auckland bakers were proceeded against ia the Police Court on Wednesday, regatta the Herald, foi selling light-weight bread. There were 2<i charges in all, and each was dismissed on the legal point that there had been no actual sale to the inspector who weighed the losuvcs. The undisputed fact that the great majority of loaves sold were below the standard weight led Mr. P, V. Fraser, 8.M., to remark that -bakers who deliberately sold light-weight bread, with the price as high as at present, and with go much poverty in the city, deserved greater punishment than that which t'ie Court had power to inflict. lie added that if he toad occasion in the future to convict for selling lightweight bread he would have no hesitation in imposing a heavy penalty an,d in ordering the defendant to pay for advertising the fact of his conviction m the newspapers.

'"lf Christ came to earth, what would He say to those who are responsible for the present cost of living, and who arc exploiting the workers, despite the sacrifices the latter are making in regard to the war?"— This was the question the Rev. G. Moncton was asked to answer at a meeting in Auckland last week. Mr. M'oncton replied that Christ had come into the world to overcome the doctrine that might was right, and to substiute the teaching that Golfs will was right, and that right was greater than might. The great failing of the world to-day was that it had gone back to principles that obtained before thu time of Christ. lie would remind his audience that a little more than a year ago men strove to achieve byi micht what was not right. Because of trouble between the workers and their employers, both at Huntly and at Wellington, some trade unionists had sought to harm the general public. Had thev won, thev would have achieved nothing. The snirit of sacrifice was needed among ail cfassfi. of the community. Christ's teaching, ii He came to earth again, would be the acknowledgment of God's will, and a life, not of gain, but of sacrifice.

The prospect of a direct steamer serI vice between Japan and New Zealand being established by the Nippon Yuseu Kaislia lias been discussed in Wellington by Mr Motosaku Tsuchiya, the Japanese journalist who has been traveling in Australia and New Zealand duriii'j the past few weeks. Although it is considered that the import trade from Japan will support a direct service, there is not the same prospect in regard to return cargoes, Dealing with ..this aapi't of the question, Mr Tsiiehiya expressed the opinion that in future Japan will purchase a greatly increased quantity of New Zealand wool, while a largo trad') in butter could be readily established. At one season of the year a market could be found in Japan for fairly large quantities of apples and pears, if the fruit was supplied at a moderate price. He considered that if the fishing industry was developed in the Dominion, Japan would be a customer for salted, dried, and tinned fish. Certain timbers would also be purchased by Japanese manufacturers. The statement that Noumea would be a port of call for the Japanese line was explained by Mr Tsuchiya, who stated lhat nickel ore would be load«>d there. Mr Tsuchiya added that the Japanese Trade Commission which will vi-jit Ne\v Zeal'ind after Raster will devote special attention to the question of direct facilities.

Says a Wanganui resident just returned from a trip to Britain:—ln the course of a visit to Scotland I was privileged to be shown over the biggest shipbuilding yards 011 the Clyde. Over 10,000 men are employed at this particular yard, from which have come more than one of battleships which won fame oil Heligoland. At the end of the inspection of the great works, a head of the business spoke seriously to me about the labor question. I casually mentioned the scenes of drunkenness which I had witnessed in the lower portion of Glasgow on a previous Saturday night, and "the gentleman I am referring to said with all earnestness, "Do you know the greatest enemy the workmen at our yards have to contend with, and which the owners have to contend with, and, more 'than all, which this country has to eontend with? It is the thirst for strong drink that seems to have taken possession of men. T am not talking like n fanatic. I am speaking about what I know to be facts. As you can find out for yourself from the time-books, an average of over 30 per cent of our men do not come to work when the yards open on Monday morning. Some of them come after breakfast, but about CO per cent, are absolutely unfit to do a proper day's work on Monday. Just think what tins means when \re arc hard pushed with a contract! God knows how it is to be remedied, but if something is not done, a calamity will come."

The origjp..of.num,y fire* in- get. tiawA. telcfn- l>ut * n the tihrietehuwh telegraju office (pepprte the Press) acts vera revealed that give n nnmihln £ explanation f or . some at least oMb^ rrofTj o^ lß ° f fir& t x i • ■ Iftlbot, superintendent Of the telegraph department a waterbo tle of white glaj filled with "hre of tl',» 8 e 0 "i? tal,:e the full Mr Tali !• "uiishme, and heforeW ; • . ot noticed a strong smell of burning and saw smoke rising from the scorched surface of the table. It wS quite clear, that the water-hdttle Avag acting as a powerful bumingX? varnki!' 8 ! !m M ° f 010 sun on to thb varnished table-top. Mr lVfhnt made a few experiments "with, piece* ot blotting-paper, and* >ie found that on™ hiul been focussed 011 to the paper it began to scorch and smolto auita + >ur.o U ßly in less than a m.nu™ "lfmy oil ice .mppened to liave been closed' for a lew days," said Mr. Talbot, "the n'robabilityria; tihat another mysterious fim might have been chronicled toy the newt. papers.'* .