LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Sydney cable says that an official enquiry cleared well-known Sydney and Melbourne firms of alleged overcharging in connection with the outfits for nurses who went on active service.

The local Red Cross Society would be glad to receive donations of old linen and of old rags, the latter for gun-clean-ing purposes. Previous appeals have been well responded to, and no doubt this will also be.

During the twelve months ended March 31, 1915, the mortgages registered in New Zealand amounted to £19,269,621, as against £21,352,695 in the previous year, and the mortgages discharged totalled £11,276,289, as against £12,726,773. At Foxton yesterday, before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., W. Hamer was charged with being in possession of a printing press that was not registered, and was convicted and fined £5 and costs. Judgment was reserved in two further charges for printing leaflets without an imprint. The Salvation Army throughout the dominion are at present in the midst of their annual self-denial appeal, and their collectors are busy gathering in funds to help to maintain and extend their operations. The local corps under Adjutant and Mrs. Home' are anxious that New Plymouth shall not be below the amount raised locally last year for this appeal.

Dominion Day will be observed on Monday. The change of the designation of New Zealand from "colony" to "dominion" to'ok effect on September 2G, 1907, and for several years the anniversary of that day was observed as a holiday. During recent years the holiday has been fixed for the Monday nearest to the date, and has been observed usually by' the Government offices, banks, law and insurance offices, and the stock exchanges throughout the dominion. The following degrees were conferred at a meeting of the University Senate yesterday afternoon:—-Master of Arts: Victoria University College, Alfred Herbert Robinson; Otago University, William Burnside and Patricia Mary Palmer Clark. Batchelor of Engineering (civil): Canterbury University College, Francis Malcolm Corkill. Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery: Otago University, Philip Blaxland Benham, David Douglas Wallace Martin, Oswald James Reid, William Jamieson Reid.— Press Association.

The value of the imports into New Zealand for the eight months ended August 31 last totalled £13,679,177, as compared with £15,313,201 for the corresponding period of last year, Soft goods accounted for £2,344,110, as against £2,050,048, a decline of about 20 per 'cent. There is rii increase of 30 per cent, in foodstuffs, and 1 per cent, in beverages, but all other groups except specie show decreases, the net decrease for the eight months being 11 per cent., according to the figures furnished by the "New Zealand Trade Review."

There is at the present moment in the Trontharn camp, enlisted as a private soldier, a Taranaki man who has an income of £ISOO a year. He is happy as a sandboy, and does his work cheerfully, the only "growl" that lie indulges in is a complaint concerning the lack of bath accommodation. The gentleman we refer to is well known in Hawera. It is said that in one of the huts at Trenthra there are six men who each have an income of £2OOO a year.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., draw the attention of the public to their springing heifer sale and pig sale, which they are holding in their Stratford Yards on Tuesday, 28th inst., at 12 o'clock noon. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns on page 8,

No fewer than eight members of the "All Blacks" New Zealand representative team which, visited California abont two years ago are with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the Gallipoli 'Peninsula. Two have been killed in action —Sergeant A. J. Downing and Sergeant H. Dewar, and one lias oeen wounded, Sergeant J. E. Cuthill. At the annual meeting of the Wellington College Old Boys' Cricket Club, the chairman (Mr. M. C. Barnett) stated that 670 of the Old Boys of the college were known to have volunteered tor active service, and the actual number was probably in the vicinity of 100. These, the chairman remarked, were very fine figures, and showed that the Old Boys felt that they owed a duty to their country.

"The feeling over here," writes Mr, E. Pirie Bnsli (son of Mr. Thos. Bush, of Wellington) from New York, "is all proAllies, but, of course, everybody hopes that the U.S.A. will keep out of it. She is doing much more by keeping out than she would by entering into the awful squabble, as she is supplying shiploads of munitions to the Allies every week, and if she went to war she would have to reserve the stock for herself."

According to a request of the local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Rev. A. B. Chappell will preach to-morrow evening at Whiteley Church on "The Duty of Kindness to Animals." In the course of the service he will recite "The Blind, Obedient Dead," the poem written by a New Zealander, Mr. M. C. Keane, in memory of the horses that fell in the last South African war. An excellent method of road formation is being employed in re-forming the central portion of Devon Street. A start has been made outside the Theatre Royal, where the road has been taken up and a layer of fairly large boulders is being put down, while the surface to be formed with metal in the ordinary way. The work is of an expensive nature, but it is proposed to re-form the whole of Devon Street, from the Post Office to the junction with Liardet Street, in this way.

A Maori resident on the Fraser road, Hawera, Hori Pumuka, is the son of one of the Maori chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840 (says the Star). At that date he was a .child of two years of age. His parents lived at Kororareka, near Russell, Bay of Islands, Ms father belonging to the Ngapuhi tribe. Kororareka is famous in old New Zealand history, and is the place where Hone Heke cut down the flagstaff erected by the British troops. Hori Pumuka came to Taranaki when about thirty years old. His mother was a Taranaki native. Ho did not take part in any of the outrages perpetrated by the Maoris on this coast, but remembers distinctly the occurrences of those eventful years. Though nearly eighty, Puniuka is hale and hearty and full of Interest in all the happenings of these days.

Special collections will he taken up at St. Mary's and other Anglican Churches in Taranaki province in aid of a fund for increasing the church soldiers' camp Institutes. Recent events have necessitated two Institutes instead of one. There are 4,000 men at Trentham and another 3,000 at or near Featherston. These Institutes must be erected, furnished and carried on till the war is over. Plans have been prepared .by a qualified architect and passed for a new hall at Trentham, and this work is now in hand, The church proposes also erecting immediately an Institute from the same plan at Featherston. The estimated cost of the work will be £3,050. The hall at Trentham will be built at a cost of £1,500, the one at Featherston £l,050; £2OO will be required for an additional Chaplain. £IOO for current expenses. The church is makjng an appeal to 111 its adherents for help.

To dig a hole in Queen street underneath a two-storey building and catch an eel sounds very like a fishy tale, but that is precisely what occurred last week (says the Auckland Star). Workmen were engaged at the work of digging foundations for the front portion of the New Zealand Insurance Buildings, and a hole some eight feet deep had been excavated at the lower corner for the purpose of underpinning the National Insurance Building. Sea mud and shells were lifted and some old timbers revealed, which would seem to indicate that in the early days of Auckland there must have been a rough landing formed on the bank of the gully where Queen Street now lies. This hole got filled with water, and men were engagd with a windlass and bucket, emptying it. when they brought up a .live eel several inches in length. Where it came from, and howit got there, is an intcrcsing question.

At Mr. Nowton King's cattle sales during the week exceptionally heavy prices have been obtained for all prime fat cattle, and it looks very much as though prices might rise still higher owing to the scarcity of stock. A. prime line of fat bullocks at the Urcnui Sale on Monday, fattened at Pukearuhc by W. Gordon Glassford, made £l6 17s. and at fthe Waiwakaiho Sale on Friday last some heavy cows from Mr. Fred Andrews' 801 l Block Farm made £ll lCs per head.

There will be on view to-day in Devon Street the fine now Overland motor car which the Civil Servants are raffling on 30th inst., in aid of the Wounded Soldiers' Fund. This car needs no boosting, but the public are reminded that the time for obtaining tickets is rapidly drawing to a close. The committee is making a big rally in town to-day, and looking forward to a big response from the townspeople. The country districts have responded splendidly, and the town is expected to do its share. In the evening the Citizens' Band will render a short programme of music, and Mr. F. J. Arnold, of the Labor Department, will address a few words to the gathering anent the object for which the Civil Servants are making an effort to raise funds.

C'ollinson and Cunninghamc, the wellknown Palmerston Nortli firm, advertise on page six post free parcels of goods at ridiculously low rates. The firm makes a speciality of parcel post orders, and claims to give wonderful value for money sent. The money is refunded in full if the goods are not entirely satisfactory.

In this issue Me9srs. Morey and Son arc advertising their latest shipment of new spring blouses. Here is just your opportunity to satisfy your need. Quality and prices are all that could be desired. Turn to their advertisement before it is too late. GENUINE IN STATEMENT.

THOROUGH IN PERFORMANCE. When we tell you that our service is not to be excelled, it is no wild flight of imagination. We mean what we say, we do what we promise. We pass entries expeditiously, deliver goods safely, promptly, remove furniture in careful, painstaking fashion. No delay, no bother, but good work in every department. —The N.Z. Express Co., Ltd.