LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Sydney cable states that Thomas Moore, one of the I.W.W. who was arrested, hails from New Zealand.

At the Central Fire Brigade station on Tuesday night, representatives of the Brigade, in an enjoyable card tournament, defeated the Soccer Club's team by one game, the scores being 33 to 32. At a'meeting of the Timaru Borough Council recently, the Mayor stated that unfortunately the population of Timaru had been decreasing during the past two vears.

Mr. H. J. Olccy, M.P., has received a cablegram from the Hon. K. McNab stating that he is now repared to deliver a lecture in Xew Plymouth on the early history of Taranaki. as promised to the l Brotherhood some years ago. The matter is in the hands of the Rev. A. B. C'happell for detailed arrangement. A deputation from the Waterside Workers' Federation asked the Minister of Marine to hold a public inquiry concerning the bursting of sulphuric acid drums on the Monowai in Auckland, by which a number of men were injured. The Minister said there was no provision in the Act for «, public marine inquiry, but he would inquire if a Royal Commission could be appointed. A few cases of measles of a mild type are still being reported at the military camps, but there is very little illness of a severe kind at the present time. The work of the new inhaling rooms, which arc being used in the treatment of sore throats and kindred alfections, is still under observation, but the results so far are stated to he very satisfactory.'

An "element of doubt" was the reason given by the jury in the Supreme Qourt at Auckland on Tuesday, for returning a verdict of not guilty in the case of Tukc Tuke Kanara, a follower of Rua, who appeared on a eharge of acting with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Constable Skinner, and attempting to discharge a gun at him at Maungapohatu on April 2nd. the date of the "prophet's" arrest. The ease had occupied seven days. So far only seven or eight underrate permits have been issued throughout New Zealand to returned soldiers. The Hon. A. Ij. Ilerdmau says that up to the present no material trouble has uris,™ out of the practice of issuing tk'se permit;, but the privilege of. ob. taining them does not appear to find f.iv:r with returned sildiers, who "nave not evinced any strong desire to work for wages which are balow.the market rate. ';»■■ > '"•<•■

The old-established business of Messrs W. Dimock and Co., Ltd., Wellington, has been purchased by the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Bacon and Meat Packing Company, Ltd. This organisation also takes over the businesses •nrried on by the South Tarnnaki Bacon Company, Ltd., the Waikato Farmers'

"o-onerative Bacon Company, Ltd., and by the Auckland Bacon Company. The iinalgamation has been formed for the purpose of more economically working the ham, bacon, and meat-packing industry. It already lias some of the largest dairy factories'in the North Island as its Oiareholders, in addition to a very large number of producers. It is considered that the new company should do a great deal towards placing the industry on a much sounder footing. The training of girl telegraphists irt New Zealand is now proceeding at each of tlve four centres- and the heads; of the telegraphic branch of the Postal Department state that as far as they can see the petticoated operators are going to be a success (writes our Wellington correspondent.) The innovation was forced upon the Department by the shortage of male operators, due. to the war. The drain upon the stall' of the telegraph branch during the last two years has been very severe. The Wireless Company has been formed and maintained, many men acquainted with the Morse code and telegraph methods have been supplied for service with the Expeditionary Forces, and other men have left the service of the Department in order to join the various reinforcements. The shortage of opevators is felt severely in all the chief centres at the present time, and it explains the complaints that some users of the telegraphs have made lately. Whether the girl operators will be as quick and accurate as the expert male operators are remains to be seen. Apparently there is no reason why they should not be.

In the Foxton fire-raising cases against a lad named Martin, it appeared from the statement of the police that between August 10 and September 7 five places in I'oxton were fired, the damage done amounting to about £ISOO. On August 10, a scutching nnd tow shed of tlie Koxton Cordage Company was totally destroyed at 10.20 p.m., the damage done being .£3OO, including the value nf machinery and fibre in the shed. At 1.45 o'clock next morning the rope factory of tlie same firm was found on fire. Before the flames were extinguished damage to tlie extent of £OOO was done. On the evening of August 18, at 8.20 o'clock. Messrs. Spiers Bros.' sash and door factory was discovered burning, but the fire was easily put out, being in an incipient stage. A pile of shavings was heaped against a stack of timber and a drum of oil, with holes drilled in its sides, was suspended above to allow the oil to feed the fire. ' The damage in this case was about £ls. On the same night at 10.20 o'clorU, Mr. .Abraham King's flaxmill tow shed, containing machinery and tow, was found on fire, the damage amounting to £IOO. On the evening of September 7, Mr. Hans Andresen observed a fire in his stables and a young man running away from the scene of the outbreak. He put the fire out and chased the escapee. With assistance he caught him, and on recognising him as young Martin allowed him to go. Accused disappeared from Foxton and remained in hiding for a week. On September 10, Mr. Martin, senr., who had been in communication with Detective-Sergeant Qnirke and Constable Woods, brought accused to the police station, and lie admitted having been the cause of all the fires. Accused was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. ;

Tho' Melbourne's the store par excellence for best value in men's socks. These prices are convincing: All wool N.Z.-made socks from Bruce mill, Is 3d pair; Kaiapoi make, Is 3d, Is fid; I'eLone make, Is 3d, Is (id and'ls !)d; Mosgiel fine,make, Is Od; black ditto, la (Id pair; cotton and wool cashmere soeks, Is; all pure wool cashmere socks, Is Cd and Is 9d. Unmatchable bargains. MAKE IT A HABIT.

Make it one of your regular habits to keep Chamberlain's Colic and- Diarrhoea Remedy in your home as a safeguard against a sudden attack of bowel complaint. It is certain to be needed sooner or later and when that time comes it will be needed badly, it will be yee'lfl oi'jckly. Sold everywhere.

A spirit of ardent, even if misguided, patriotism is 'abroad among the bigger hoys of Stratford.' On Monday morning two of these, dispensing With parents' consent or approval, left for the military camp at Pal'merston North, and a telegram, received last evening by a local confidant, announced that both had been accepted for service. Both boys are under 17 years of age. An angry father left by train this morning for the camp, and the boys' military enthusiasm will probably get a chill. Tho spirit of tho boys may be approved, however greatly their action may be deprecated, and a little more of it in certain quarters in Stratford would be hailed with much satisfaction, says the local Post.

A gentleman closely identified with agricultural and pastoral interests told a Dominion reporter that he had heard lately of some cases of real hardship caused by some shortage of qualified farm labor. There seemed still to be a fairly large supply of unskilled labor of sorts, but that was not very much use to the farmer. Efficient farm laborers of ajl kinds were very hard to find, and the trouble was aggravated by the fact that so many of the farmers' sons had joined the Expeditionary Forces, and left places that could not be filled. A case might be quoted of a well-to-do farmer who, after confining | himself to supervision for many years, is compelled now to milk a couple of cows for the homestead supply, in addition to taking a very active part in the general work of his property.

A striking effect of the war on the Western front is the disproportionate number of British officers killed or disabled (writes Sir Henry Lucy in the Sydney Morning Herald). Every morning brings a fresh list numbered by the hundred. One day this week the toll exceeded (1000. The explanation is obvious. The officers, bravest among the brave, are ever in the front whenever fighting is to the fore, cheering their men on by the lure of glorious example. Every name in this long list represents a home suddenly smitten with grief at irreparable loss. The aggregate is appalling. Only personal knowledge of individual eases makes possible approach to realisation of what the holocaust means.

Mr. Charles Pehupbaek. Ilia new Consul fov Switzerland in West Australia, arrived by the last mailboat. Interviewcd lie said that authoritative opinion gives the duration of the war at IS months—twelve fighting and six adjustment. , He had recently been at the western front at Verdun, and elsewhere. Verdun was now beyond the hope of Gernmny. The prestige of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince had gone. The former was hissed during his last appearance in Berlin. He never goes there now, but travels ceaselessly between the western and the eastern fronts. Berlin was seething with rebellion, Von Hindenburg and von Tirpitz were the nation's idols. The Crown Prince, though alive, was reported dead, because he was practically relocated to obscurity, his supnosed army command being merely nominal. Authoritative opinion is that there will be no retreat across the Rhine, as the conclusion of the war will be reached before such unnecessary loss of life is entailed. All the big centres of Belgium and Northern France are completely mined for destruction by'thc Germans in the case of an emergency evacuation. "The Australian troops in France arc," concludes the new Consul, "tremendously popular." New Zealand is estimated to have some 80,000 unenlistcd men in the First Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve, and probably not fewer than 15,000 of these men are fit for service or could be made fit easily and quickly (says the Dominion). A very large proportion of unfit men is to be expected, since the division includes those, who have already been rejected for service ind other ineffectives or all kinds. The Dominion, then, is holding approximately a six months' supply of recruits "in the First Division, at the present rate of reinforcement, and since six months 'elapses between the date of mobilisation for training and arrival at the front, we shall not finish putting our fit singlfc men into the field before this time next vear. This means, in all human probability, that many thousands of ablebodied New Zealanders, who could be spared for service, will not bo availablo during the critical period of the war; it certainly means that this country will have in hand large" hodies of fit. men, partially trained and untrained, long after Britain has completed her maximum effort and probably decided the issue of the war. We believe it would he sound policy and sound strategy for New Zealand either to increase her rate of reinforcement substantially, or else to set about the formation of an additional body of, say, two brigades of infantry, to be put into the field for the spring campaign of next year.

Mr. Xewton King advises us that his dispersal sale of Holstein-Friesians tomorrow will be held in a large marquee, so that buyers will not be inconvenienced in case of rain.