LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Waverley Patriotic League, since its -inception, lias been responsible for the collection of over £IO,OOO, says the correspondent of the Patea Press. Mr. T. Innes, headmaster of the Okaiawa school, bad the misfortune to injure one of his eyes while cutting a boxthorn hedge. It is understood that he jis likely to lose the sight of the eye.

The bad state of the Avenue road near Aotea was responsible for a motor accident yesterday, a car (driven by Mr. H. Smart having an axle broken and a wheel smashed. None of the occupants were injured. The hon. secretary of the Inglewood Ladies' Patriotic League wishes to acknowledge with thanks the sum of £1 17s Od from the Pukelio Patriotic Social Committee for the Red Cross fund.

The band recital which was to have been held at the East End pavilion yesterday afternoon, again had to be postponed, owing to the unfavorable weather. On account of the sequence of wet Sundays it has been decided to postpone the recital until the first fine Sunday.

The competitions at the mart on Saturday resulted as follows:—-Guessing the weight of ham, first prize (him) Mr. Martin, second (pair of bantams), A. Switalli. The cakes were won by Messrs J. H. Street and W. Jenkinson. The actual weight of the beef in Sole Bros.' shop was 145Jlbs. Quite a number guessed 1451bs and 1401bs, so the winners were decided by lot, resulting: Mrs P. Bell- | ringer 1, Mrs. J. McFeao 2. Mrs. Wallis >2 aad.jM''. Eiߣ

The annual street collections in Sydney and suburbs in aid of hospitals, produced £7959. The returns are still incomplete. Mr. W. C. Green, of liahotu, has been elected a, member of the Parihaka Eoad Board, defeating Air. 8. Willoughby, the retiring member. In the five other wards the retiring members were returned unopposed.

The attention of our readers is called to the fortnight's mission now 011 in St. Joseph's Church. Father Herring, S.M., and Father Coggan, S.M., will conduct the mission.

A man named Charles William Wadham, who was arrested by Constable Nolan on a charge of drunkenness on Friday morning, failed to appear when charged before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., on Saturday. A line of ss, the amount of the bail, was inflicted.

,Tn an interview in Auckland Madam; Melba stated: "I have raised £0(1,(1011 now for the soldiers, and until the war ends I shall not take a penny for singing in any British country. All my money shall be for the great cause."

"The Government," stated the Hon. G. W. Kussell (Minister for Internal Affairs) to a Times reporter yesterday, "have received a film 5000 feet in length, representing the battle of the Ancue, which, after it has been screened for official purposes, will be made available. for exhibition in the leading centres throughout the Dominion." Mr. ,T. P. Firth (principal of Wellington Boys' College) approves the proposal of the National Efficiency Board that the bigger boys and girls at the secondary and technical schools throughout the Dominion should do some useful work during their Christmas holidays to assist in •meeting the difficulty caused by the shortage of labor. A great volume of postal, business U transacted at the military training camps. At the Featherston Camp Post Office, for instance, during the 11 months of 'l9lO during which it was open, 1,012,380 letters were posted, and newspapers, parcels, etc., brought the -total -number of articles posted to 1,134,140. The men sent away during the period 55,330 more letters than they received. On the other hand the men sent away 12,700 parcels, and received 74,820, an average of over 200 a day. Featherston Camp Post Office now ranks fifth in the Dominion in point of business done.

An Eltham resident (The Hon, W. C. Carncross, M.L.C.), who was in parts of Northern France, a few months ago says that it was pitiful to visit a farm house there. There was scarcely a man of any age to be seen. Invariably a woman was in charge. And always came the same pathetic words, "My husband and my sons wore killed at the war." Or it might be . "My husband, and sons are at the war.", And the neglected farms showed only too plainly that the strong men's hands' were missing, and a griefbur,dened woman was struggling to manage the holding.—Argus.

The wholesale sl'ausjiter of pigeons in the Motu district (Poverty Bay) was referred to ati the Acclimatisation Society's annual meeting on Saturday. The slaughter, one mcmbpr stated, had been greater than ever, though it was a. closed season, and an instance was given of over forty having been killed in one day, and this, it was said, had been going on right through the season. Measures for cheeking this lawlessness were discussed and a resolution was passed, which'it is hoped will have some good effect.

Roferring editorially to the coal strike the Railway Review says:—"Tho miners have too rough-and-ready a method o; adjusting grievances. Tiiey were aiming at the profiteering classes when they downed tools,.but the first people to suffer were the 1 wage-earners, particularly those in inland towns, who would have been deprived of necessaries had not a decisive step been taken to conserve railway coal supplies for absolutely essential transport of foodstuffs. Though slower and less showy, the constitutional method of redressing grievances is more effective and permanent." The flash of a Morse lamp signalling to sea was noticed from the pilot station at Apia on the evening of Kastei Sunday, the Fiji Times states. A detachment was sent to investigate, with the result that four Germans were found in the- lighthouse, one of whom is a British subject. They were brought in and put under arrest. The throe Germans were interned in Songi camp. The naturalised Britisher is to be tried by couyt-martial as a spy,' he having been identified by one of tho soldiers as being in Egypt at the time of the landing of the first New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The Germans had a good equipment, including American examining charts and a telescope that was set on a tripod, with a range of 30 miles.

Saturday proved a very busy day at the mart,' which was in charge of the ladies of the Bell Block and Hillsborough districts. Opening time saw the mart profusely stocked with many of the good things that tliqf prolific farms of the two districts can supply, or that the hands of the farmers' wives can manufacture, bul business proved very brjsk, and it was not long before a clearance was made, resulting in the sum of £lO3 being added to the patriotic funds, with a few small amounts yet to come in. This result must be extremely gratifying to the residents of the districts, as well as to the ladies in charge—Mesdames Smellie, J. Marsh, L. Marsh, Misses Earp and Thonmson (Hillsborough), and Mesdames J. S. Connett and J. H. Street, and Misses Connett and Pote (801 l Block).

The raw leaf used by Great Britain and Australia for the manufacture of smoking tobaccos is almost entirely of American origin, and huge sums of money go annually to the U.S.A. Why not keep that money within our own country and the Empire. Now that New Zealand has its own tobacco industry w& need no longer import foreign brands. Gold Pouch, the New Zealand grown tobacco, excels all others in mildness and flavor; it contains also far less nicotine, and is thus less harmful than the heavy foreign tobacco. Support local industries that benefit all classes of the population alike. Gold Pouch is better and purer than the foreign articlemore economical too—2f ozs as against If ozs for Is. Cigarette smokers should use the New Zealand grown Three Diamonds Tobacco which leaves no sharp and bitter, atfertasto like foreigh tobaccos. '

A choice lot of ladies' raincoats has just bee-n opened out at the Melbourne, Ltd. These goods are all new, and represent the very latest fashions, including many three-quarter length and popular "swing hack" styles. Prices range from 3Gs to 52s fld. Inspection invited. A social will be held in the Omata Hall to-morrow evening. The motor bus leaves the post office at 7.40.

One-fourth of the people on the earth die. boforo the age of six, one half before the age of sixteen, and only one person in each lumdred iota lives to the age of 65.

A man of whom it was 6aid ha had "gone through" .t«UO in a year by drink, was remanded for fourteen days to permit of medical treatment, upon a charge of being found unlawfully upon premises (says the Christchurcli Press). The German correspondents, on the Western front report that the British are using a new type of gun and shell The gun appears to be pneumatic, as itmakes 110 noise when, fired, and can therefor? be used from points very close to the front. Tho shell which it carries bursts with an explosion resembling that of a mine, and the destructive area of the burst is large.. It is chiefly used against deep dugouts and trench positions.

Two Germans paid an involuntary visit to Petone the other day. Their present place of residence is Somes Island. In company with their guar-l of two soldiers they made a fishing excursion in a Bmall yacht, but apparently those of the company wore not evpert yachtsmen, and when the southerly blew up the boat drifted, and finally came ashore on the Petone beach, from which all efforts to launch her failed. Tho Germans found temporary accommodation at the police station. Their arrival occasioned some excitement, and a rumor was soon cur-, rent that the men had escaped by seizing the yacht, and that the guards, who were, of course-, wet through by their efforts at seamanship, hud swum over after them.

■Practically all the power used by the Normmiby Co-operative cheese factory is drawn from a small water race supplied by a dam on the property. A, lf2fb. water wihecl works two refrigerator pumps, two separators (they make about 1601b of whey butter daily), and nine agitators; 06 cheeses ara turned out daily. This wooden wheel has been in work for seven years, and it is still going strong, bub it is expected to have an up-to-date iron structure installed for next season. The company is thus saving the cost of about I'so tons of coal yearly, as well as the wages of an extra man.— Argus. A word of warning that girls were not being trained in their natural sphere of life was given by Mr. L. Bassett at a meeting of householders in Wanganui. He deplored the number of girls who were talcing up commercial instead of domestic work, and ho said cvidenco of t.hls could lie seen each morning as carloads of girls and young women proceeded to town. "Commercially-trained girls are not receiving what should fit them for being the mothers of the future," he continued. "We shall never have the proper domestic affairs till young mothers can get help in their homes, aiui this state of affairs will go on as long as young girls are allowed to go into commercial life. These conditions obtained long before the war, so that cannot bo blamed." Mr. Bassett thought that girls were drifting out of their natural sphere, in life, and he, expressed the opinion that the 'State should see to it that girls going in for commercial life should also recdive instruction in domestic duties. In fact, he hoped that in the interests' of future generations, girls would bo compelled to produce certificates that they were qualified for home-keeping and domestic duties.