GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 384, 2 June 1915, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

Some, £40,000 worth of chemicals art* every year poured down the drains in New Zealand. :So said Mr. A. R. Sen- | nett, in his address to the Central Cham- 1 her of Commerce at Wellington. This waste, he said, was largely in the gas* ' works. If it were saved, the Dominion j mild manufacture cynn'ide of potassium. and of sodium in sufficient quantity for the country's gold-mining re-, quirements, and export 250 tons in addition There was an interesting story attached to a motor-car sold by -Mr. James Dykes in Wellington on Thursday (says the Post). It was included in the sale of an extraordinary accumulation of unclaimed goods. The vehicle was described as an American fi-cylinder racing car, of DO-h.p., and was said to have been left behind by an American millionaire, who was too tired to bother about shipping it back to the States. He just left it on the wharf. The car realised £3OO. It had probably cost £I7OO. The buyers of horses for the reinforcements are not meeting with any difficulty ,in procuring suitable animals at very fair prices; indeed, the only complaint made by sellers is that the Government will not buy .enough horses. Probably the anxiety on the part of owners to get rid of spare horses is i.r great measure due to the present high rate of fodder. With the next draft 1100 horses will be shipped. The number with each draft varies according to the accommodation of the ships, but the monthly percentage is kept up. During a disputation on a local train (says the iFoxton Herald) between a Maori woman and a pakelia of the same sex on the subject of Mormonism, the native woman insisted that every man should have seven wives. ''You look up the fourth chapter or Isaiah, and the first verse, and you see what I say is true," said the -Maori in triumphant tones. The verse referred to reads:— "And in that day seven women will take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel ; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." After farming for 3-5 years, Captain Colbeck has come to the conclusion that the labors are enormous and the profits are few—not the reverse, as so many 'people suppose. This was the tenor of the captain's remarks when thanking the Fanners' Union Conference for reelecting him as vice-president. He went on to say tlilit he had now reduced his holding to twelve aOres, and- he never hoped to hold any more. Captain Colbeck also mentioned that he had made three applications to go to the front, and he thought that the time might come when the authorities would decile that he was not too old to be of service. Women in England at present are assisting the Empire in the time of strife; by filling positions and undertaking duties usually occupied by men, who are thus able to enlist. A Taranaki resident, out fronv England a couple of years, had evidence of this when he wrote Home recently, and forwarded to Iris sister—a milliner —particulars of a lucrative billet that ho had I procured for her in Taranaki, and also J offered to cable her passage money out. In reply, his sister wrote that she would gladly accept the position, but that at present she was acting as valet to an elderly gentleman, whose valet had gone to the Avar. She stated that other women were doing likewise. Tn addition 'to the offers to provide accommodation for invalid and convalescent soldiers already announced, the Minister for Public Health has received the following:—'From Mrs. Walter G. Johnston, the use of her house "Highden" at Palmerston North; from Mr. A. C. Caughey, (Auckland, his residence of 21 rooms in Auckland as a convah'scent hospital; from Mr. and Mrs. F. Logan, Napier, tlieir dwelling in Fit/.rov road. Napier, for twelve months, with a donation o'f £2OO during that period towards the expense of maintaining nurse and staff; from Mrs. Morrison, matron of "Wooflside" private hospital, Burleigh street., Auckland, three beds in her private hospital. A young man applying for enlistment at Christehureh was rejected at a- medical examination recently bci-srw his chest, expansion was not great em>n:;h. He informed the officials of this, and they explained to him how to breathe properly, and within I 1.) days he wi-r.i up I'm- another medical examination, and was passed witli an increased chest exi pansion of 3'/vin. Another story is told of a Christehureh man who was i-rjoclod because of a complaint requiring a minor operation. He proceeded to the hospital, but found that he would have, to wait some time before he could lie operated on, and if he did not immediately take a bed he might have to wait iiidcliiiitelv. Remarking that he would i "go through anything to gvt to the , front," he took a bed. and lay bed ween t.lie sheets for a week afterwards awaiting the surgeon.