LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the Police Court .yesterday morning a first offender of drunkenness was fined ss.

At: a meeting of the Life ,Saving Club last night it was decided to hold the competitions for the Tabor Shield and the schoolboys' shield on the Ngainotu beach on March 16. "Joe Powelka is here in the Dardanelles," writes a soldier to his father in the Patea district. As the writer of tile letter and Powelka knew eaeli other fairly 'ntimatcly in their boyhood days at Kimholton, there should be no question of mistaken identity.

''As fur as the : (own of Opunake is concerned, we could only lay our hands on four men that should even be registered," remarked O. Dudley, honorary recruiting officer for Opunake, when the recruiting circular was being considered by the Egmont County Council yesterday.

As showing the improvement in the financial position of the Egmont County Council,_ Cr. W. I!. Wright stated that the debit balance on February 10 during the past four years was as follows: 1013, £2400; 1014, £2008; 1015, £3091; 1910, £BB6.

The annual Eastern District School Picnic was held at the East End beach yesterday. The picnickers arrived by special train containing 20 vehicles and drMvn bv two engines. The day was beautifully fine, and the visitors spent a highly enjoyable time on the sund/;. The next steamer to load Rt Waitara will be the Federal-Shire liner Essex. which was to have left Sydney yes. terday for New Zealand ports to load'for West of England. The vessel will call first at Auckland, and then proceeds to Whangarei, Waitara, Wanganui. and .Wellington. She will sail from Wellington on March 3rd for Avonmouth and Liverpool.

The annual conference of the United Commercial Travellers' Association of New Zealand opened at Christchurch on Thursday. Mr. S. A, Orchard (who presided) said the year had been very successful. Membership increased by 38, and the net assets by £175, an increase pf £37. Many thousand sterling had been raised by members for war fluids.

The total number of men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force known to be prisoners of war is twenty-three. Of these sixteen belong to the Wellington Battalion, two to the Auckland Mounted Rifles, two to the Auckland Battalion, two to the Qtago Battalion, and one to the Canterbury Mounted Rifles.

The Red Cross Mart at New Plymouth will be open to-day as usual at the Coffee Palace corner, when contributions of cakes, jam, fruit, vegetables and other produce will be very acceptable. Among other things to be sold to-day are several cheeses containing money—a contribution from Puniho. The continued rumors of dissentiona in the Cabinet and the general feeling that a crisis was pending were mentioned to the Hon. ,T. Allen at Hamilton, He laughed and said he did not understand what gave rise to the rumors. He knew of no trouble amongst Ministers and assured the people of the Dominion that there was no crisis.

At Pukearuhe on Monday afternoon, a ! t half-past two, there will be unveiled a memorial stone erected on the spot where the Rev. John Whiteley was killed on February 13th, 1880. A large party of visitors will go from New Plymouth, shortly after eleven o'clock, and Waitara and local residents are arranging to niuster in force. Tea will be provided by them for the visitors, who should reach New Plymouth again by nightfall. An evening meeting will be held in the Pukearuhe schoolhouse, and for this some of the visitors will stay to assist. Commemorative addresses will be given at each function. "When the football season opens in Sydney it will be found that the war lias had a most marked effect upon the game," said ?.'r. H. H. Messenger, the Australian tl Jfe-quarter back, who arrived in Au/clund last week. "Large numbers of Australia's foremost players have discarded the jersey for the khaki uniform, and I doubt whether there will be any first-grade football in Sydney this year." Questioned as to whether recruiting was satisfactory in Sydney, Mr. Messenger said that men were coming forward splendidly, and there was no reason for complaint. The keenness for business that is characteristic of the United States is illustrated in the fact that a Bunedin firm has received from a New York bank a copy of its latest "statement of condition,'' accompanied by a letter in which it is suggested that, as "one of the results of the present crisis in European affairs is the unparalleled disturbance of the world's exchanges," it is "desirable for business men in other parts of the world to establish banking relations in Ihe United States," and in which, also, "t.lie many services the bank can render its depositors and clients" are sketched.

An increase in the charge for passports was announced by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. (I. \V, Russell) on Thursday. "In consequence of the large, number of passports being applied for in New Zealand," said the Minister, "and the largo amount of work that is (hereby thrown upon the Department of Internal Affairs and the police, Cabinet has resolved that for the future the charge for a passport shall be raised from lis to 10s, the latter being the sum charged by the yistralian Government. The increased charge will take effect immediately. To all applications for passports now in the hands of the Internal Affairs Department the lower rate will apply, but future applications will require to be accompanied by a fee of Ids." Amongst its cable news yesterday the Tnglcwood Record had the following: The King and Queen gave an audience to C'lutha. Mackenzie, who was accompanied by his father. The King sympathised with C'luthaV> bad luck, and expressed his warmest appreciation of the Xcw Zealanders' achievements. Mr. Mackenzie mentioned that he had received a letter from Rev. Feat'herston. of Tnglewood, relating that a widow had four sons killed and three wounded, and yet she went to Wellington to wish f!od>ipecd to her eighth son who was going to the front. The King instructed Mr. Mackenzie to convey his admiration of the widow's patriotism and self-sacrifice and the courageous resignation with which she had borne her heavy loss and her willingness to give her eighth and last child to the country's call. "Is Death the End?" will be the question dealt with by the Rev. A. B. Oliappell at the evening service in Whiteley Memorial Lluirch to-morrow. The anthem will be Caunod's "The Peace of God," and Mr. Norman Day will 9ing "Beyond," a sacred solo by Edward St. Quentin. At Fitzroy Methodist Church, special harvest thanksgiving services will lje lifrlA.

Enquiries into the recent lin's in Now Plymouth will be held at the Courthouse on Monday. The lire at the Breakwater Hotel will be enquired into at 11 a.m., and the Clmtsworth House enquiry will commence at t p:m.

Kilts instead of skirts for lady tram conductors, It seems, is to !*• the new style. It is reported from Oldham that skirts, being found inconvenient and, in wet weather, a source of discomfort—especially when the car steps had to .be climbed —have been discarded in the lady conductor's unifo'm and replaced by kilts and leggings, buttoning up the sides. If soldiers may wear kilts, why not tram conductors? The new fashion may, for n time, cause amusement, and even ridicule, as was the case with umbrellas when first introduced, but additional comfort may overcome prejudice and lead to the innovation being adopted generally. The plan for the instruction of returned soldiers by the technical department of the Education Board bas created much interest among the men for whose benefit it baa been devised (says the Auckland Herald). Discussing the matter the other day, Lic.ut.-Colonel T. Hope Lewis explained that the principal purpose of the scheme was to provide useful instruction to soldiers who intend to engage in farming. One of the classes that should appeal to prospective settlers was that dealing with house construction, while there were other classes that would afford practical knowledge of value to them. For men who tliad lost limbs, the commercial training would probably be most attractive. Colonel Lewis added that men who obtained employment would be able to attend the evening classee, and the scheme was, of course, open to soldiers after discharge. Special classes will not be necessn.y, as the soldiers will join those already formed in the technical schools. Advice will be given by Mr. J. 'P. Kalaugher, director of manual and technical training, to any soldier who desires assistance in selecting a course of training. The climbing season at Sit. Egmont i.5 now in full swing. Quite a number of visitors are making the ascent from the North House. On Sunday last Mr. Foorde and Mr. McKay, of Wellington, made the accent, under perfect conditions. On Monday Mr. Foorde did a journey, seldom or never mad'-, from the North House round the base of the mountain, down Manganui'Gorge, visiting the Curtis and Bridal Veil falls, which are in that gorge, then across the forest to the Stratford House, taking the Dawson Falls track liome from there. Those who can manage such a. strenuous trip are amr y repaid l.y the. magnificence of the gorge, falls and forest. On Tuesday a party, consisting of Miss Flower, of Okato, Miss Reed, of Toko, and Miss Williams, of the hostel, journeyed to the summit in a trifle under four hours, returning in one hour and three-quarters. This was accomplished under perfect weather conditions. In the three trips mentioned Mr. Williams acted as guide, putting in rather a strenuous time. The services of a first-class roadman have been engaged, and the track is now far better than it has ever been. Mr. Nixon, in his single-cylinder Rover, came up with ease on two occasions of late. lie was accompanied by a passenger each time. The story told by the New York Times of the shell used by British warships against submarines is not merely an effort of the American imagination, but has at least a basis of fact. The shell itself is of comparatively little consequence; it is the fuse that is important, The Conan fuse was invented, before the war, by an Irishman named Walter Conan. It can be fixed to any suitable shell or bomb, and can thus be used either in a shell fired from a. gun or in a bomb dropped from an aeroplane. Used at sea, it can be fixed to explode at any given depth, and consequently it permits a warship to attack a submarine that is under water. Provided the shell is sufficiently powerful, its explosion may disturb the equilibrium of the submarine, and in some cases the equivalent of a direct hit will occur. Attached to land torpedoes and to shells for land warfare, the fuse operates as a time fuse. The shell buries itself in the earth, and the explosion is delayed, the effect being itiorc in tluv nature of a small mine explosion than of the character of an ordinary shell burst. The earlier account credited the British War Office with having devised a new gun to meet the conditions of trench warfare. This weapon is stated to throw an exceptionally heavy shell of the high-explosive type, fitted with the Conan fuse.

Owing to the scarcity and high price of all indigo serges and coatings, the Melbourne, Ltd., notify that prices for suits of this material will be advanced in a fortnight's time. Buyers of suits should note this and make their purchases accordingly, in order to avoid paying considerably advanced prices.