GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1915, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Figures recently published by the Government Statistician show that Wellington is undoubtedly one of the dearest towns in the Dominion in which to; live. Civil servant.-! and others on j fixed salaries have found this to be the j ease when transferred from other towns : to the capital. Married men who have j been "promoted" to Wellington with an j increase of salary of £25 per annum j have found the promotion to "be merely j nominal, the higher cost of food and, of house rent more than swallowing up ' their increased pay. | A pathetic case in connexion with j

the war was related by Mr. C. H. Poole [ in the House of Representatives. A j widow woman in Auckland sent her | three sons to the front. One was in- j valided home from .Egypt and was scut. to the Seacliffe Asylum on account of I mental inefficiency having deyeloped through sunstroke. From that time his half-pay allowance ceased and the I widow shortly afterwards received a j formal inquiry from the Mental Hospi- i tal as to her financial resources in or- i der that it might bo ascertained wlie-1 ther she was able to contribute to her j son's maintenance. '

Needless to say, an English writer remarks, there could bo no question now great was the, animus of the daughters of King Edward in their chiklhool against the Hermans, that if they did their lessons ill, or were disobedient, their nurses or governesses had but to say. "You'll have to marry a Herman Prince." and the threat snilicied. .Sentiments very simuav animate the sous and daughter of King George, and the "Prince of Wales is said to have exclaimed laughingly to Princess Mary: '•-\nyi-(,'V, this war has one mlneming point. It. means that we won't have to marry any Germans."

A letter was received from the Wairarapa Automobile Association at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Automobile' Union urging that the motorists .of the 'Dominion should boycott German motor goods at the conclusion of the war. It was stated that the value of German motor material imported into this country during 1!)14 whs £07,31)2, and a delegate declared that nearly all the small parts for motors were manufactured in Germany. The suggested boycott wtis unanimously approved of, and the Government is to be communicated with on the subject. A preferential duty was mentioned as the only way in which to make the boycott effective.

li Can you tell me. -why the niosttj up-to-date hospital ship afloat, costing £-44,000, allows its orderlies to eat oil' tin 'plates and drink out of tin inugs? Are we progressing, or are we not?" These are the questions asked in a contemporary by a 'correspondent signing himself " Tin Plates." He points out that, while the men are " out for work" at the call of the doctors and nurses, they have 'been as decently brought up as those they have to serve. The writer also calls attention to the chemical action which is set up by the contact of acids from food avitU metal ware, and suggests that, if sufficient money is not available to pay for china plales and cups for the staff, then a collection might be taken up among the. mothers and friends of the men for this purpose.