LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1917, Page 5

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A pavilion, beautifully designed, is being erected at the Wanganui Collegiate sports grounds by Jlr. ,1. Allen, one of tlio masters, 111 memory of his brother and Mr. Butterworth, who have made the supreme sacrifice at the war. "A lot of people's patriotism is measured by £ s. d.. not by flesh and blood," said Mr. Oallister at the farmers' meeting in Masterton recently. ''These people don't, care for tho boys lying dead or fighting, all they think about is how they can sw'ell their banking accounts." Router's correspondent in France cables: The enemy's destruetiveness ..ui frequently been too thorough, and he has

had to abandon largo supplies of stores which might have been got away had it not been for the time spent in cutting down orchards and devastating flower gardens. "You'll be a pretty expensive recruit," remarked Captain Walker when the question of financial assistance required by \ man who had recently married a widow with six children was under discussion at the Palmerston North Appeal Board. Under the new regulations an allowance is made for every child. Two motor cars, one standing in a street and the other in a private yard in Palnu-rston, were coolly appropriated one 011 Saturday evening and the. other on Monday evening, by some daring joy riders and taken for a dash over the country roads. After some hours' absence one ear was discovered on Fitzherbcrt Hill, and the other in a side street in town. "Well, this year promise's peace, and t sincerely trust it will be as we expect. If you only knew what we know you would be as confident as we are. I dare not explain, or the censor would be down oil this letter."—Thus writes Mr. Ralph Brown, brother of Mr. Byron Brown, of Otaki, who is fighting with the Tommies in France. The letter was received the other day. Sir W. C. Buchanan remarked at tlia . meeting of farmers, held in Masterton on Monday evening, that in Germany the authorities were encouraging potato growing in order to cope with the shortage of wheat, etc. He wished to know whether it might not be. more profitable to grow potatoes than wheat. The Minister for Agriculture replied that he was obtaining a report from his Department on the subject of potato growing. In growing potatoes the fact of the blight must not be lost sight of. The more potatoes that were grown, the less quantity of Hour would he required.

Writing to a friend at Port Chalmers, Mr. Frank Agnew, a shipwright, who, failing to pass the medical test for active service, proceeded to England after the war started, states that at a certain shipbuilding port in England lie is working' at high pressure. Great preparations are being made for the big blow in the spring. The shipbuilders will overtake the losses in mercantile tonnage in twelve months. The standardised type of ship can lie built anywhere at suitable places for launching. It is all done by template work, every part going ahead at once. The record time for building a standardised ship 450 ft in length is fU months. The important work of letting the Tarawera Giver out to the sea by a more direct route, which is part of the scheme lor the drainage of the large swamp area at the back of Whnkatane, is now nearly completed, states the Auckland Star. The cut is noar Matata, and it is expected the river will be in its new course next week. A pontoon bridge, is now almost finished for the purpose of the ferry, it is expected that this cut at the Matata ei|d of the Kangituiki swamp will have the effect of effectively draining the large area between Te Toko and Whakatane. These swamp lands, where drained, have proved of great value for agricultural purposes, and as there are some eighty thousand acres altogether, this work is one of the greatest importance to the district. In the course of his judgment in the appeal of R. Seniple and others for sedition, Mr. Justice Dennistion said: "The Legislature of the Dominion, by its elected representatives, lias by an overwhelming majority decided 011 the necessity for compulsory service. To attack that Act, and to encourage discontent with it and disobedience to it, while at the same time discouraging voluntary recruiting, jre undoubtedly offences within the terms of the regulations issued under the War Regulations Act, 191-1. The utterances, the subject of the various complaints vary in violence. One really threatens violence and civil war, another calls 011 the meeting in terms to resurrect some of the old characteristics of the Red Federation. . . . We are engaged, in common with the greater part of the civilised world, in the most ,gigantic war the world has ever known, i.l a life and death struggle for our national existence. 111 older days, at moments 01 supreme necessity, the Romans—a peop'c who reverenced law—handed over control to a Dictator. As a last extremity recourse is had to martial law, which. ; s really the negation of law. Short of these, and to prevent recourse to these, there is the recourse to special war legislation, which may involve the inversion of the ordinary rights of citizenship. Under these, in Britain, powers hitherto undreamt of have been bestowed upon and exercised by the executive, and cheerfully accepted and obeyed. The administration there and here has become a deadly national peril, Those of us who cannot see their way to assisting its working can at- least refrain from applying sabotage to the machinery." DO YOU WANT RELIEF? Are you frequently hoarse? Do you have that annoying tickling in your throat? Does your cough annoy you at night, and do you raise mucus in the morning? Do you want relief? If so, take Chamberlain's Cough Remedy and you will lpe pleased. Soli) evKxwhetg.

Private advice has been received of tlie promotion of Major C. F. D. Cook io tlu* rank of lieutenant-colonel. Lieu-tenant-Colonel Cook is a son of the late Professor Cook, of Christchurch, and partner in tlie legal firm of KullertonSinith, Miles, and Cook, of Murton and Feilding. He left with the Alain Body and acted as Stall' captain on the Infantry Brigade Stall' during the Uallipoli campaign, being mentioned in dispatches in connection with the lighting in August, lillii. He was invalided tlie following month, and 011 rejoining his regiment, the First Wellington Infantry, in February, lino, was promoted to tlie rank of major. Shortly afterwards he became senior major, and has been second in command of his battalion over since its arrival in Franca.

T remember tlie winters of 'l4, 'ls, and 'lO in this war zone of France and Plunders (writes Philip Oibbs to the vondon Daily Telegraph), and, though there was hard weather in all of tliein—months of cold discomfort for our soldiers—there has been no weather on the western front so grim and biting as the frost which now has its grip upon us. Eh, but it's cold! It is so cold that all the mud and quagmires in which our men have been floundering for months are now hard frozen, with great chiinVs of ice in the cuts and the shell-craters, and with polished sides along the "duck-walks" so that men go slipping and stumbling along communication trenches and fall against snowdrifts all crusted with fine crystal 3. It is so cold that motoring from one part of the front to the other is no fun at all, because tlie wind cuts through the thickest of "British warms," bits savagely at cars and noses, and paralyses even the horse-power of the cars by freezing the. radiators and getting a cluta'j on the .carburettors.

An incident is recorded in which plainspoken and brainy Mrs. Botha figured. Lots of people in South Africa, by the way, lifed to say 1 hat Mrs. Botha was the real general On the occasion in mind, two young ladies of a Ministrial party from overseas were nervous fbor.t meeting the Duchess of Connaught and Princess Patricia during the inaugural festivities of the Union. They were busy practising the curtsey, and afraid they would bungle it. a D> you think you will ho all right, Mrs. Botha?" asked one. "What, me, my dear," said Mrs. Botha; "me eurtsev? I rn'ver did such a tiling, and I'm not going to begin at my time of life. I slnill simply shake [the royal ladies by i lie band." And right calmly she did it.

Commenting on the conditions In England, Mr. -1. Hocking, of Palmerston North. who has just returned from a visit to England,'faid tiliat there was a serious food shortage throughout the conntry. Meat was unobtainable by the poorer classes. The farmers, despite a substantial tax, were making enormous profits. The speaker cited a ease in which a nephew of his sold n three-year-old mi'lock for £s>o. He had only seen New Zealand mutton for sale once or twice in his stay in England, and this, he thought, was due to most of the important, mutton being shipped straight to the camps. Cultivated nreas were being extended as he left in February, and virgin country was being ploughed with multi-furrowed ploughs attached to trae'tion engines. Light forest was being cut down to provide timber for trenches in France and the ground was being slumped and put under cultivation. Mr. Hocking said that the Ne.v Zealand*;* were general favourites at Home, and their height and build were greatly admired. The traveller says that lie is glad to be back in New Zealand again, aud considers it the best country in the worid.

In Victoria mice are now being slain in millions as the result of the campaign for the protection of the wheat stacks. The biggest cateli for one night, at a single stack so far has been 30,000 mice at the Lascelles statioii. At the Marnoo station tlie figures for the first three nights were 8000, 10,000, 12,000. It. looked as if the numbers caught were going to rise Indefinitely, but after the third day tlie haul settled down to hbout 10,000 a night. Banyena and other stations on the LubeckMarnoo line show results similar to those at Marnoo. So far the system adopted of fencing in the stacks, with traps at intervals, lias worked well judging by the number of mice caught, but it seems to make little difference in their numbers. At Wahring bisulphide of carboit proved effective in driving the mice out of the stacks, but most, of them were only dazed, and recovered afterwards, though some died. In the Goulburn Valley and the NorthEast the wheat is being rapidly moved away. In the Western district, to the south of the Adelaide line, tlie mice trouble is not serious, and the same ii true of the> district north of Bemago as far ns Iserang and Column, in the districts most affected, such as the Wimmira and parts of the Malice, the whole country is overrun with mice. The more adventurous mice arc coming down to the seaboard. Sometimes when railway trucks full of wheat arrive at Geelong the mice jump out in dozens. Up in the Mallee- the mice are now invading the houses, and doing much damage. At Donald a travelling representative of the Wheat Commission found ,n the morning that a mouse had made a nest under bis pillow, and it is said that, the mice- also eat holes in the unclothes.

A fine lot of men's dark tweed trousers Ims opened out at (lie Melbourne Clothing Company to lie sold at lis (id per pair. Other new lines of clothing comprise boys' dark tweed sport suits 10s (id to 25s (Id in imported tweeds ana from 22s Cd to 29s (id ill all-wool Colonial tweeds. "Holy Mary and Saint Ann, Send me a man as quick as you can.'' This is the charm spoken by Molly-0 as she throws a potato peeling over the horns of the cow she is milking, "and" she says, "if it's the same to you, I'd like it to be the. jarvey." The jarvey, as a mutter of fact, was Sir Laurence O'Dea whom Molly believes to be the drivel ot a public jaunting car. "The Mr viage of 1 Molly-O' 1 at the Empire to-night. ] Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (Seeonil Group) are notified that subscriptings will be due and payable on Monday, April 10, at the Secretary's Olliee, Currie Street, from !) «.m." to 12.:«), from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to It was proved at the Supreme Court of Victoria, at Melbourne, that (1) SANDER'S EXTRACT is much more powerfully healing and antiseptic than ordinary eucalyptus preparations; (2) SAXDER'S EXTRACT does not depress the heart like the so-called "extracts" and crude oils; (3) SAXDER'S EXTRACT is highly commended by many authorities as a safe, reliable anil effective household remedy. Get the genuine—insist it you have to—and be eafii. 1

Saturday was tlio Mayoress' day at the Mart, the sum of £3O being realised. Next Saturday residents of Oniata and Moturoa will have charge of the Mart, The make of the cheese nt one South Taranaki factory is more than 20 per cent, less than that of last season, duß wholly to the dry weather. The list of names of the First Divi< iion Reservists, drawn at the sixMi ballot to make up the shortages in the .'iOtli Reinforcements, will be released for publication to-morrow. ; A deputation is to wait on Mr. F..i P.. Bcllringer, chairman cf the Taranaki Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, this morning, requesting that lie again allow himself to be nominated for the Hospital Board. Owing to the inclement weather yesterday afternoon, the Citizens' Band recital, which was to have been held in \id of the installation of the. electric light in Pukckura Park, was postponed until next Sunday. Quite a number of people visited the park, and were disappointed on reading the notice at the gate.. A meeting of importance to farmers of the North Taranaki district and of Taranaki generally, is to be held at Urenni at 11.30 a.m. to-day, to discuss the butter-fat tax, and also to form a branch of the Dairy Farmers' Protection League, and to discuss any other bmi* ness. The Medical Board will be sitting in N'ew Plymouth next Wednesday at the Coronation Hall. The Defence Offleo wishes it to be known that any man who has volunteered or volunteers between now and that date will be examined by the board if lie preesnts himself. On some previous occasions volunteers who have asked to be examined by the Board have been turned away, but this rule does not apply for next Wednesday's sitting. The monthly meeting of the British Red ross Society will be held in the rooms, Queen street, this afternoon. The Co-operative Organisation Society are holding their first "out- ' back"' sale nt Makahu, on April lfy in \ yards kindly lent by Mr W. Ward. Splendid entries of sheep 'have been re- ' ceiveil. For the convenience of buyers, motor cars will run from Stratford, ' clients are asked to "book."