LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mrs. C. H. fiurgess, M.8.E., has received a letter from Private C. I<\ Waters, from Tauherenikau Camp, in which he says: -"On behalf of the men that entrained at New Plymouth for the 7th CI draft on April 10, I wish to convey my sincere thanks to you and the New Plymouth Patriotic Society for the much appreciated parcel handed to each man Before departing. The contents'are most useful and necessary, and shows nothing is left undone for the welfare of soldiers in the making leaving your town. To you and your loyal band of workers I again express my deepest thanks on behalf of the New Plymouth men, ,ind wish your society every success in the future."

In connection with the burglary of Mr. C. 0- Hawke's premises in New Plymouth on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, the nightwatchman informs us that the place was all right up till 4.50 a.m. on Sunday, when he inspected it The burglary must have taken'place between that hour and 11 p.m., when the nightwatchman discovered the back door wide -open' and the gates unlocked. It must be said that the nightwatohiiian is very vigilant, [uid does hos work efficiently, as anyone whose business takes him aibout town in the early hours can testify.

The Inglewood Boy Scouts are making excellent progress under their scoutmasters, Lieutenants Humplirey, Messrs. C. S. List, Wagstaff, Jones, and Henderson. They will take a prominent part in the Anzac Day celebrations at Inglewood to-morrow, when they will march from the Scout Hall to the Town Hall, headed by their drum and life 'band of about 20 players, which is making its first public appearance. The various Allied flags will be" carried by the Scouts, who have invited the veterans to lead the procession.

A typographical error in the advertisement calling the parade of the members of the Returned Soldiers' Association for the Anzac Day service to-mor-row made it appear that the parade would bo at 3 p.m. The men are requested to meet at the club at 2 p.m., for the purpose of attending the service. At 10 o'clock the returned soldiers are giving a tea to the members of the Veterans' Association, and the tea will be followed by a social and musical eveuing.

The Melbourne Limited's gaberdine trench coats and "tweed fur-trimmed coats for ladies are having a brisk sale. These goods are extremely fashionable, and at the prices quoted are well within flic rech of everybody. Prices:— Trench coats, 4fls 6d and o9s Od; Furtrimmed tweeed coats, 70s Od.

To-night will be the final screening at the Empire of Pathe's "History of the War," No. 1, and the fine World film drama "Shall we Forgive Her?", starring June Elvidge. To-morrow the bright little Metro star, Viola Dana, will commence A three-night season in "Aladdin's Other Lamp," a delightful picture story adapted from Willard Mack's "The Dream Girl."

Chrysanthemum growers are looking forward to tho Fair on Saturday next, April 27, which will be held in the shop lately occupied by May and Arrowsmith. Beautiful blooms have already been donated by Mrs. Scanlon, Vogeltown, and sold for the Blind Soldiers' Fund. The £ s. d. Imttalions are growing, and donations may be left at Mr. C. E. Baker's, Messrs. Bellringer Bros., or at the Patriotic Rooms. Gifts of any kind will be acceptable for this deserving j fund.

Messrs. L. A. Nolan and, Co., advertise particulars of sale of furniture on account of Captain T. L. Buxton in this issue. Al]_is good, first-class stuff, and furniture buyers would do well to attend thk gals

The Hon, W. H. Herries, Ministei of Railways, wlio recently met a deputation in New Plymouth, from the Chamber of Commerce regarding certain charges on goods landed at (lie breakwater and carried bv rail In (own, lias written to Air. if. Okey, M.P., as follows: —■■' l have the honor to inform yon that I find oil inquiry that some of the charges have been made under a misapprehension, and instructions have been given for the necessary adjustmenlg to bo made. I regret that there should have been any misunderstanding in connection with the matter."

Claiming an invention that makes it possible to photograph the waves of the human voice, Professor J. A. Fleming, in the last of his Christmas lectures, immensely interested his juvenile audience at the Royal Institution, London. He told them that by an apparatus connected with the motor of a gramophone he could cause the voice to make rays of light, which, by being reflected upon a circulating mirror, were shown on the screen as a circle of light vibrating in accordance with the "waves" of the voice. Proceeding to the experiment, he placed a record 011 his gramophone and played the National Anthem. The voice circled 011 the screen amid great excitement among the audiene, and as the circle pursued its grotesquely irregular course there were long anil delighted outbursts of laughter.

Mr. W. A. Collis, chairman of the North Egmoni Mountain 'House Committee. states that for the season just ended there is a credit balance from all sources of £378 7s Sd. The sources of revenue are hostel fees, tolls and (lovernment subsidy (£7B). He suggests the committee should set aside from the credit balance a sum of £l5O for road work and contingent repairs. It is impossible to state the exact number of visitors at the hostel. About 010 cars have paid toll, and averaging the number of passengers at five, the total must be in the vicinity of 3050. Other conveyances numbered 184, and averaging the passengers in those at two each gives a further 3fiS, making a grand total of 3418 for the season. Mr Collis acknowledges a gift of bulbs from the Morshead Nursery Co.

What appears to be an extraordinary case of pillaging lias Leon experienced by the Christchureh firm which has in hand the construction of trailers for the Tramway Board, relates the Press. The firm ordered 04 sheets of aluminium from New York, and the case containing them duly arrived and, as far as outward appearances went, it was intact and showed no signs of having been tampered with. It was opened, but not emptied, on arrival at the firm's factory, and two or three sheets were lifted up. When, later, the ease was emptied, it was found to contain only six sheds, all there was to represent a value of about .CIQO. the cost of the 84 sheets. Between the sheets—some were on top and some on the bottom of the case—there was found very carefully packed several fire bricks. These bore two different brands. The bricks were packed with straw, and so nearly approximated the weight of the missing sheets of aluminium that their presence could not be detected. Exactly where the pillaging occurred, if there was pillaging, is difficult to determine; the indications rather point to the sheets never having been packed.

At the annual meeting ot the TCltbam branch of the Farmers' Union, Mr. Buckeridge said he had recently held many meetings at neighboring places and put before the settlers some details of the work of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Often he had to pay two or even three visits to some of the districts before ho could get a meeting, but where he succeeded in getting far-, niers together and outlining to them the act ivities of the Union and the benefits conferred by it on the farming community he had always met with splendid response. He proceeded to point out that the Union had secured a reduction in the insurance rates on farm buildings which alone had resulted in n. saving of £50.000 per annum to the farmers of the Dominion. The withdrawal of the sheep tax, which represented a saving of £2O 000 per annum, the reduction of the freight charges for manures, a saving of £IO,OOO per annum, without taking into account the increased fertility and production resulting from the more general use of these manures, were also due to the activities of the Union. Also at one time farmers had to bear the whole of the loss sustained when stock were condemned, but as a further result of the Union's efforts they had now only to bear one-half of this amount. In these directions alone the Union saved to the farming community a sum exceeding £IOO,OOO per year. Tf farmers only realised this and supported the organisation as it deserved it would possess an ample income instead of languishing for want of funds as it was at present. —Argus.

Fairly large accumulations of butter in. store must result from the exclusion of exports of butter to the United Kingdom in favor of other foodstuffs more urgently required (says the Wellington Post). Fortunately Wellington and New Plymouth liad already made excellent clearances of stocks before the order relating to butter came out; but Auckland has been holding stocks since so far back as February. There will, then, be no shortage of butter fo> local consumption during this winter. Stocks will also, it is understood, be conserved by the prohibition of export to places other than the United Kingdom, except under license. Further, the price for the Ifew Zealand market is now fixed,,and regulations relating thereto are available at the moment for publication, but it is understood that the discussion between representatives of New Zealand factories and the Federal Butter Advisory Committee with reference to terms for future sales of butter and cheese to the Imperial Government was most satisfactory. Lnsf. season, it will be remembered, Australian butter-makers accepted prices some shillings under those New Zealand makers were prepared to sell at, and actually obtained. The idea of the Australian-New Zealand conference was to secure something lime uniformity of price and terms in arrangements to be made for the disposal of next season's outputs. There have been delivered since Ist March out of freezing stores in Wellington from stocks intended for. export 7100 of butter for the local trade. Of this number 4082 boxes were delivered during the month of March. Good expedition has been made with the shipment of cheese on Imperial Government account. To the end of March 222,500 crates new season's cheese had been got away. Chemists like to recommend something good because that's the way they make friends. That's why they always tell you the North British Hot Water Bottle with the "Unique" stopper is dependable. Ask for it.

Messrs. W. H. and A. McGarry, of Elt'liam, advertise a golden opportunity for securing a 100-aere dairy farm as a going conceriu Particulars will be found on 1 01 this issue.

llui Minister of Defence, has received information that a New Zealand hospiU1 ship has arrived sai'elj at her destination.—Press Association.

Officers for the ensuing year have been elected by the Ettliam Farmers' Union:—(President, Mr. B. Dawes; vicepresident, Mr. T. \V. Owen; secretary and treasurer, Mr. (J. H. Buekeridgeauditor, Mr. M. p. Voullairej delegates to fhe annual conference, Messrs Duwes and Owen - ; executive, Messrs J. Swindlehurst, W. K. Carter, C. Wood, J. Sanderson, C. 10. Gane, F. Silver, I>. Henry, J. Robinson and C. Startup. The New Zealand Division did all and more than was asked of it last year arid lias deservedly achieved a very high reputation (remarks a Wanganui soldier writing home). After having been in the line nearly all winter, in a very arduous and difficult part ,of it, thev are now just going out for a wellearned rest, but will be all ready to go m again if the Boclie makes his bi» attack, for which we are all now hoping. It would probably be the best thing that could happen, as he will be heavily defeated if he does, and it may go further than anything towards ending the war.

The accounts were being read, previous to being passed for payment at a recent meeting of,a local body, when a member objected to the amount of ear hire for the chairman, to which the latter replied: "If any ratepayer thinks that I am going to keep a car and burn my own benzine for them, then they had better go and see a doctor!" The cleik went on reading the accounts in deep silence.

At St. Joseph's Church on Sunday the Rev. Dean M'Jvenna made a strong appeal to his congregation to pray without ceasing for peace and vctory, and for t'hose who have fallen in this war for a noble cause. Each Sunday the Catholics are reminded of these obligations, hut on Sunday there was read from the Coadjutor Archbishop of Wei lir.gton an order for a Triduum (three days' prayer) for the intentions mentioned. To-day and to-morrow there will bo early Mass, and each evening devotions, «t which the Pope's prayer for peace will be recited. On Thursday morning there wll be celebrated SolemrJ Requism Mass for the souls of the heroic dead. The Archbishop emphasises tie special necessity of fervent prayer at this crisis. We have received an amount of 5s from the Puknho school children towards the Y.M.C.A. Appeal Fund, which we have handed over to tfie treasurer of the fund. This amount is from the sale of peaches grown in the school grounds and sold by the children. Picture patrons should make a decided effort to see the talented little screen star, Zoe Ray, in "The Circus of Life" at Everybody's to-night. This little lady is one of. the most popular screen stars in America at the present day, and her career is one just, commencing. Owing to other bookings "The Circus of Life"'can be screened tonight only. The Melbourne Ltd., has an excellent line of boys' navy, all-wool, worsted jerseys with buttoned shoulder, at the following prices: 18 inch 4/11; 20 inch 5/3; ,22 inch 5/6; 24 inch 5/!); 2fi inch 5/11; 28 inch 6/6; 30 inch G/ll; 32 inch 7/6. These jerseys are very strong and warm, and will keep their color.