LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Mayoress is in receipt of a donation of £3 from Mrs. F. G. Evans for the Soldiers' Club. As o result of a court-martiai, Lieutenant T. Fitzpatrick, Otago Regiment, has been dismissed from the service.— London cable. Flowers will he.sold from the Patriotic (Jart on Saturday, and the committee c.sk for blossoms to be left at the 'Pia-tri-otic depot to-day. We are indebted to M.r. R. B. D. Eyre. Collector of Customs, for forwarding't'he following statement: Custonu duties for August, £3aflS lis 4d (August, IMS, 3001 9s 2d); beer duty, £134" lis ( £95 19s). i A sensation has been caused by the Melbourne's prices on odd garments as ■inder. Men's odd tweed vests, all sizes •ip to eights, now 3s lid; men's odd dark tweed coats, sizes 3 to 7, now 12s (Id; men's grey tweed sporting coats, .'.4s Gd; boys' odd tweed Norfolk coats, all sizes, 7s lid;, buys' and youths' ioats mid vests, up to' size 17, 9s lid. At Mr. Sergei's farmers' class at Bell Block on Wednesday night the matter nt having a local and district competition for turnip growing was well received. The valuable results achieved by the Toko Settlers' Association with their competition aroused much interest, 'ilr. J. Connett most generously offered 1o put up a cup for competition r.mongst farmers in the Bell Block district. Mr. Connett, in a few remarks, agreed that local competitions by which irops were grown under similar condiI ions were of more educative value than having entrants in competitions from "arions centres. lie also approved of districts competing one against the other. In a letter from France, dated July •'!, Sergeant Alf Jennings states ilie had yot down to the base from the trendies, where some hot work 'had taken place and the Anaics got knocked about a ;<ood deal, but they succeeded in what they were sent out for. He left France for London ijn July 11, and Captain Claude Weston was at the base and wished him good luck, and gave him a parcel for Mrs. Weston, who resides .in England. A further letter from Hornchuro'h, London, dated July 18 stated that be was to receive a position as second-lieutenant in one of the Imperial forces, and he had got furlough and was going to Athlone, Ireland, to see his brother's grave. Sergeant Jennings has sent to New Plymouth his daily diary of events since he leti New Zealand with the Main Expeditionary Force, and some of the incidents of trench warfare at Gallipoli are graphically penned. On the motion of Mr. Billing (Messrs Weston & Weston), probate of the wills of the lute Arthur John Hoskin and the late Henry Richard Florey was on August 26 granted by his Honor Mr. Justice Chapman to the executors named ,'n the wills. The Lincoln Slieep-brecders' Association notify that Mr. E. Marfell, of Toko, has applied to have his flock entered in the Flock Book, and that objections must be lodged not later than September 15. It is understood that the Hon. Sir George McLean, M.L.C., is retiring from the presidentship of the Dunedin Jockey Club, a position that he has occupied for 31 years. a nods' Great Peppermint Cute.. For Chronic Chest Complaints,

Mails, which left Xcjv Zealand 011 21st .luiy arrived in London 011 -28 th, Inst. The directors of the Waikato Cooperativu Dairy Company. Ltd., have decided not inily to reinstate every jnarj'ieil man going 011 active service, but to insure each niun for j;5(K'. Tine company will keep all the premiums paid up until the men's return. The Tuparoa correspondent of th« Ciisborne Times states Uiat, as so many of the younger shearers have enlisted, a shortage of labor is e.vpcctcd this season on the Kast Coast On one station at the back of Waipiro Bay the bushfelling difficulty has been solved by the importation of a large gang of Xgapuhi Maoris from the north of Auckland. . "You can expect the end of the war." writes a New Zealamler from the U'estcrn front, "when we have filled the whole of Belgium, France, and Germany inti sandbags." The tilling of sandbags is one of our soldiers' occupations when they are "resting" a\vay from the front trenches. Tho task' appears to be a never-ending one, and millions of these useful articles for trench construction are made: Ai\ extraordinary accident happened to a well-known ecclesiastic one da> last week in Wellington. He was riding a "push" bike down Cuba street, (vhcn .lie ran into a tramcar, The machine was smashed to splinters, and he was thrown into the air, and landed on the back seat of a motor-car, without a scratch "Your cushions are nice and soft," -lie said, and, leaving the ruins if his ma chine on the road, he cleared out from, the scene while several people were vainly searching for his mangled remains under the tramcar. The Etnden made the Launceston (Tas.) Marine Board a present of over C.'iO.OOd when it sank the dredge Poonrabbel somewhere in nhe Indian Ocean (says the Bulletin). The board put the insurance money into a new dredge, for which the contract price on the Clyde was ..£32.717. equal to £40.007 delivered at Launceston. Now the Russian Government has offered £70.000 for the turnout. The board has decided to help a gallant ally by taking £70,00 C net, with, delivery on tin Clyde. As for itself, it thinks now it can worry along without a new dredge for a while. , Th- annual balance-sheet of the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association (Canterbury) shows a profit of •CI)B.3Sn lis Id The director? recommend the following allocations; —To pay 0 per eent. interest 011 preference share capital and RJ per cent, on ordinary share capita!; a bonus 011 the basis of 5 per cent. 011 shareholders' purchases'of .merchandise; a rebate of 3ft per cent, on commissions; to carry £11,021 to the reserve fund, which will then stand at £145,000; to make n contribution of £IOOO towards the employees' superannuation fund, and a further contribution of £IOOO to the special fund to provide for contingencies in regard to the war.

Some years ago, says the Auckland Star, an interesting ease was before the Supreme Court at Auckland, in which damages were claimed by the plaintiff against a medical man for having removed a lav;re arcf. of skin for the purpose of grafting on, another girl suffering from wounds caused by burns, and v.hich would not heal. Medical science l-a$ progressed since then, a> there is a gentleman in Auckland Who was piafted with' skin taken from i sucking pig, and tli'c operation pmcd completely f-ucccssful. As the py was chloroformed before the cuticle was removal. and was killed at the .-nd of tin: operation, it was spared tin; al'Uvsuffering occasioned to the, young lady 'n the case where damages were sought. Brigadier-General Ramaciotti, . V.D., District Commandant, held an inspection of troops on the 18th inst., at the Victoria Barracks, Sydney. The troops included, among other details, \cw Zealand Mounted Infantry. In its report, the Sydney Morning Herald says:— "The inspection over, the General returned to the saluting base, and the bands of the. Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and Militia played the men as 'iliey took part in the march-past. The New Zealand Mounted Rifles were a particularly fine body of men, and they marched like one man, and were hcaitily cheered as they passed the base. The New South Wales details were also good in thoir marching, but the pride of place'must be given to our boys of the Dominion, whose swing, carriage, and step was an education, in iti way."

The allegations made some time ago by the Rev. Mr. Cow of Hamilton, regarding the morality of New Zealand troops in Egypt liave been keenly discussed .11 t.he trenches of France, according to a letter just received from an Auckland sapper. The writer says: "As I have said in previous letters, temptations in Cairo ire many. I was four months near there, mid on several occasions came in contact with them, as have, all of us more or lean, and now that we are in France <vt> hear of this senseless talk in Hamilton. We look round and find that very, very few of us were left behind. We're all here, fit and well and so it was with the Main Body. They left Egypt for Gallipoli strong in health and with cleaner minds. True there are some that fell—can one wonder at that? Rather it is better to thank God that the vast majority of Australasians came through untainted. You can tell tlu> anxious mothers- that their boys are made of good stuff, and that those who come back.will pvoie their worth as better men." A singular caso of misfortune catre under the notice of Mr. K. Rawson, S.M., at Hamilton, Waikato, on Monday, when a stock drover was sued by a firm of Elthavr. dentists for a sum for attention to the teeth of his family. Defendant said he was unable to make any offer to reduce the debt, as he had a wife and eight children to maintain, out of earnings varying from £1 to £4 per week. Debtor said tie came north two years ago with £2500, and purchased a farm at Pokeno. One of the condition? of purchase was that lie should erect a house to the value of £BOO. This he did, and, after putting £IOOO into tin property, lie paid off certain debts to the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company, which enabled him to acquire 900 sheep. Unfortunately the season was one of the driest experienced for years, and the land was scorched bare, leaving nothing for the sliec-p to cat, and 250 ewes and as many lambs died. The remaining stock fell off in condition. Eventually the property was sold' by order of the Court, and lie lost every penny and every stick and stool. He was then compelled to go out and work as a stock drover, an occupation thai, was not by any means certain or regudar. His family were- nllVVoimg, and had he received the account when he was in a state of affluence he would certainly have paid it. Now he was not only penniless, but yet owed £250 interest on the mortgage and other debts. The Magistrate said the ease was certainly a singularly unfortunate one, and read more like a story of an Australian drought. No order was made-