LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of £2 for the Wounded Soldiers' Fund from the lSoru Dance, per Mr. H. J. Englefield.

Owing to the Raliotu sale having been altered to Fridays, the Egmont County Council has decided to hold future meetings on the second Tuesday in each month.

A recently-married Taranaki man, now at Trer.tham, in a letter to his wife says: "This is the life. Spur the boys on to come to camp. . . . Don't believe any of the lies you may hear about bad food at Trentham. There certainly is a sameness about it, but it is good and wholesome, well-cooked, and there is plenty of it. Every fit man should answer the call at once." It is not generally known that persons desirous of collecting money for patriotic purposes must obtain necessary authority from the Minister, the mayor of a borough, or the chairmen of county councils. At the last meeting of the Egmont County Council an Opunake lady wrote asking permission to hold bridge parties foi patriotic purposes. The permission was given. A member of the 7th Reinforcements writing from Egypt in anticipation of their early removal, after expatiating on the activity and ferocity of the insect world, concludes: "Altogether I am not surprised Jacob or Abraham, or whoever it was, sold his section in this locality for a pot of porridge, or that at a later date the Israelites did a. hunk out the hilly plMb*

Gentlemen notified to attend the Supreme Court at New Plymouth to-mor-row, as grand jurors and common jurors, will not be required to attend. Natives in the Wuirarapa allege that that (lie oraillation of the planet Venus with the. 1)10011, which took place a few days ago, is the precursor of' a big offensive in battle. In olden days such a phenomenon was regarded with appre' hensiou by the Maoris. They appear to know how to ensure a reasonably pure milk supply in Kgypt. The Cairo Official Journal, of February 28, contained the names of 122 Egyptians convicted during 1915 for adulterating milk. Of these 104 were fined various sums, 13 were sent to prison for terms varying between thirty and sixty days, while five received the lash. At the General Synod at Christchurch last week the Bishop of Auckland presented the report of the commission appointed to examine the boundaries of the proposed new diocese of Taranaki, which should be extended in order to relieve Auckland of most of the King Country beyond what was ordered in the schedule to the Act of 1910. The report is to be discussed later. • The Balclutlm Free Press states: One day last nmnth Sergt.-Major McMillan, of the local Defence Office, enrolled eight men from Kaitangata who all passed the medical examination. Singularly enough, all came from the same little village in Lancashire. They had been working in the Kaitangata mine, and being "townies" decided to enlist in a body "We were all glad to get away from that infernal place, Anzac, and to get back to our horses, which look splendid; and I tliink we can give a good account of ourselves if we get a chance," says Brigadier-General Ryrie, in a letter to a Sydney friend. "I never want to see Anzac again," General Ryrie continues. "It hurts me to think of all the fine lads we left there to sleep for ever on a foreign and desolate land. You have, of course, long era this read all about the great evacuation. It was a most extraordinary piece of work, and we were extremely lucky to get away with whole skins. A week before, when I knew we had to do it, and that my brigade had to be part of the rearguard, I did not fancy my chances much. I would have sold out pretty cheap, 1 can toll you. I thought it meant either,a little cross on 'Shell Green' or a trip to Constantinople on foot. However, it all turned out all right, as you know."

A Dunedin tradesman had the experience' on Monday, says the Otago Daily Times, of receiving a sum of money a youth who had been employed by liim some time ago, and who had taken various sums of money, totalling several pounds. The father of the lad, a respected member of the Salvation Army, who accompanied him, stated that he was happy to know that his son had been converted, but he (the son) felt that before he could make his peace with God he mu»t make his peace with the man he had wronged. The tradesman kindly offered to hand the money back, but it was refused by the father, who, said: "The money is yours, and that is all we care about." In reply to an offer to hand the money to him for the Salvation Army, ho said: "I am not collecting for the Salvation Army, and I am delighted that my son has done the proper tiling by you." The tradesman, while suspecting that pilfering was going on in his siiop, did not know to what extent he had been a loser.

On several occasions, when Wellington College has not been conspicuous in the list of. winners of university scholarships, the teaching has been criticised. It may be some comfort to the principal and his staff to read the following passage from the letter of an "old boy" to his relatives in New Zealand: —"Now, unfortunately, wo have lost Gallipoli, but nevertheless we are able to look forward with confidence to what lies before us, with the same grim determination to go on or to stop, facing the foe. The mother of one of Tennyson's characters sends him to the war with the injunction, 'Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King; else, wherefore born?' I remember it was an expression J. P. Firth was fond of using to us at college. My word, he fyas left his mark on bundled* of (fellows at the front, and to dozens more in our training camps. Every draft takes out men lie has trained, and when he has trained them they are usually capable of taking liold and carrying on."

"There is a good deal being said liere, and considerable dissatisfaction being caused owing to tile manner in which commissions arc now -being granted in Mew Zealand," writes a member of tlie Kvpeditionary Force from the front to a friend in Auckland. "Out here there are men in the ranks who answered the nation's call at a time ivhen they were supposed to be urgently required. They came. Now the laggards who waited back as long as they dared are having commissions made easy, and will come out hero to 'boss' thesis men. 'I o say the very least, it hurts. Some fellows say it will be an honor to be a private soon. This is not an envious attack on anyone. It is the system we complain of. These young fellows are being granted commissions, of which they cannot be deprived without a court-martial, so generously that it has blocked the way to those men, who though as well educated and better equipped as a result of service, ardently came away at the earliest opportunity in a.ny capacity. Now they are robbed of their chance of advancement by men who cannot have been very-fervent. I can only hope 1 shall have a chance of gaining other honors than these so easily obtained and so lightly bestowed."

Now is the time for purchasing footballs and sundries. Club secretaries will find it to their advantage to studj; the Sport King's advertisement on page 7, as he has a very fine stock to select from. Boys' tweed hats Is, Is lid and 2s lid at tlhe Melbourne, Ltd. Also children's brown velvet porduroy hats, Is lid; brown velvet hats, with silk cord, 2s lid; boys' warm tweed double-breasted coats, Ss lid to 12s Gd; boys' braces, 4d; boys' all-wool varsity suits, 12s 9d; tweed sports suit, 16s 9d; boys' jerseys, 3s (3d to as lid. A first-class orchestra will be installed to-night at the Theatre Royal. The big films are "The Juggernaut" (the blue ri'foon Vitagraph), and "Caught in a Cabaret," a two-reel Chaplin comedy. GREAT BOOT VALUES AT THE MELBOURNE, LTD. The Melbourne, Ltd., notify the arrival of fresh shipments of their famous men's welted boots, now 21s per pair. These boots are fully up to their usual high standard, and at the price of one guinea compare favorably with boots sold elsewhere up to 355. Materials used are finest box calf, willow calf and glace kid, and the boots are warranted all leather throughout. Special displays of these famous guinea boots are now being made at the firm's New Plymouth, Inglewood and Stratford brancheß. Orders taken at other wanoheg,

The Mayoress (Mrs. C. H. Burgess) lias cabled £520 to the headquarters of tlie St. John Ambulance Association at London to provide a motor ambulance for tlie use of New Zealandcrs at the front. The car will be marked "(iit't from New Plymouth, 'J'arauaki, New Zealand." The amount Mrs. Burgess had in hand was ££>l2, but a donation of ,ClO from the Jnglewood Patriotic Society brought the total past the required sum.

Tuesday last was the birthday of Colonel Stuart Newall, commandant of tho George V. Convalescent Home for Soldiers, Rotorua, and that officer was highly pleased at rcceivirig a letter from Miss .L Cassie, of Braeside, Newall Road, Okato, Taranaki, enclosing £9, contributed by settlers on that road and suppliers to the adjoining dairy factory, to be expended in "providing small delicacies for the returning soldiers" under his charge. The road in question was former' in 1882 by Colonel (then Captain) Newall with the men of his company, No. 4 of Armed Constabulary, and tlie name of Newall Road was bestowed upon it at the suggestion of the late Hon. John Bryce, then Minister for Defence. The Hon, 0: W. Russell, Minister for Internal Affairs, stated in Christchurch last week that be had in hand the matter of a cheap fish supply by the Government to the people. He intended to establish a station at Lake Ellesmere to smoke trout and supply Christchurch. He would extend facilities to other parts of the Dominion. The sending of fish from Rotorua to Auckland ha,d proved a great success. The trout in the lake there had greatly improved by thinning. The same thing occurred at Taupo. He would work the scheme out in the close season. Ho was determined to make the supply of trout a success all over the Dominion.—Press Association.

Mr. W. T. Jennings, member for Taumarunui, is asking the Prime Minister, whether he is aware that unnecessary trouble and expense is being placed on a number of residents in the Taumarunui Electorate owing to the cancelling of loans granted by the Advances to Settlers Department. (This trouble is caused by a difference in valuators' reports. Residents were advised that loans had been granted. In some cases they proceeded with the building of homes, and were dismayed on receiving notices that their loans had been cancelled, though they employed reputable architects and builders to supervise the work.)