LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Golfers' Day at the Mart was another very successful effort on behalf of the Red Cross. The total takings amounted to fSG iJr, including £27 placed on the khaki soldier. Of the latter amount £J.I was from the Kaimiro dance recently held, and was by special request placed upon the soldier. £7 7a came from a golf match on Thursday afternoon, and £2 2s from entries for a mixed foursome played recently. The flower stall accounted for £l4 ]4s of the takings. The whole proceeds will go to the Copper Trail account.

A meeting of the general committee of the Taranaki A. and P. Society was held on Saturday afternoon, Mr. W. B. Grant presiding. The annual report and balance-sheet were approved, and will be circulated amongst members. Some alterations were agreed to in connection with the schedule for the autumn show, 071 the recommendation of the schedule committee. The annual meeting was fixed to be held on October 1(1, at the Soldiers' Club at 1.30 p.m. A special meeting of the committee will be held on October 12. March 5 and (t were selected as the dates for the autumn show.

Yesterday (September 20) was the 72ml anniversary of the opening of St. Mary's Church. The anniversary of the foundation of the church is observed in November. 3t is only very occasionally, however, that the actual anniversary of lite opening date fails on a Sunday, and special reference was made to the occasion at yesterday's services by the vicar, the Rev. F. G. Harvie. At the morning service there was a parade of the members of the local branch of the New Zealand Veterans' Association, who turned out in good numbers to mark the occasion.

A fairly large number of residents in Christchureh have handed to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce letters j which, it is believed, were written with the object of securing trade for Germany, states the Lyltelton Times. These letters come from neutral countries. In most cases the wording is guarded, and leaves room for only a suspicion, but in at least one case the writer frankly states that he is ready to overcome the difficulty in the way of communication between New Zealand and countries engaged in the war. Several tempting offers of business are made. The Chamber of Commerce will forward the letters to the Board of Trade, and it is probable that, they will be brought under the notice of the Imperial authorities.

The Women's Patriotic Committee liiive decided to open a shop nearer to tlie business centre of the town as an adjunct to the work carried on in their rooms in St. Aubyn Street. For some time past it has been felt that such a step would help greatly to bring their work still more prominently under the notice of both town and country people, and provide a more convenient centre for receiving donations of gifts, especially in connection with efforts for objects not immediately within the work of the committee, but which are at times assisted by the coinmiteee. Premises have been secured in Currie Street a few doors from the News office, and on Saturday a number of the members of the committee were busily occupied cleaning up the shop and getting it in readiness lor the opening, which is to eventuate on Wednesday nest. ' The proprietary .of the Waitara-Uronui-Xev Plymouth motor service notifv that' in future the bus will leave Xew Plymouth at 3.30 p.m. in lieu of 3 p.m.; also that the 'bus will run on Thursdays.

The annual meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals takes place this evening at the Soldiers' Club, at 8 o'clock. The attendance of sympathisers, as well as members, is cordially invited. Tlie frequent appeals for the intervention of the society prove its growing usefulness. The Melbourne, Ltd., liave still a few pieces of flannelette left at Is per yard. This flannelette, is of English manufacture, and would be retailed ordinarily at Is fid per yard but for slight imperfections in the weaving, which, however, will in no wise impair the wear. Glorious manhood! How proud we are of our lads! What grand careers we plan' for them! But Drink too often blasts our hopes as one and another goes under. So ''we must find a solution of the Liquor question." Shall we tear down the name of Smith from the public bar and put up the name of the King, the King who at Kitchener's call turned down his glass? Shall we stamp the name of New Zealand on the glasses and fill tliein with whisky imported for Government sale, and with beer brewed in nationalised vats? Shall we then, when praying for our Government, include "The Minister of Alcoholic Beverages," and trust the good Lord, to make the Alcohol a help and not a hindrance in rearing glorious manhood? This is the solution offered by the Moderate League. What do you think of it? Britain makes the best motor tyres —the famous NORTH BRITISH CLINCHER GROSS—made in the Empire's largest rubber "worke M

The men entraining at Eltham on October 9 for the 47th Reinforcements are as follows: L. H. Baigent, R. Ferguson, E. C. Frost, C. Hitchcock, A. W. Holder, —. l<Cnowles, A. Onions, 11. G. Rae, A. N. Scott, W. J. Swindlehurst, E. Thrush, C. 13. Zimmerman.

We have received from Mr. W. K. Morris, Oakura, the sum of £l7. raised in Oakura towards the Copper Trail fund as the result of the entertainment given by the Okato Choral Society; also from Mrs. A. L. Pearson the sum of £1 7s, contributed by the Oakura fechool children for the same purpose. These sums have been handed to the secretary. The postal authorities notify that in future any permitted wireless messages for transmission to destinations either within or beyond New Zealand will be censored at Wellington. Messages should lie lodged not later than 4 p.m. on the day it is desired they should be dispatched.

11l the case of some drugs, British stocks are becoming dangerously low—in fact, they are approaching exhaustion, and some of {.hem cannot be replaced without Government assistance, in asafoetida, as with other drugs from the Persian Gulf, there is almost a famine. Any calumba root is worth twelve times pre-war prices. Galbanum 13 unobtainable, as well as the following, which come only from enemy countries: torax, Shellebore, stramonium, Uva urst, scamruony, Turkish opium, and attar of roses. Extravagant prices are being paid for cascara sagrada, jalap, buchu leaves, sarsaprilla, tumeric, benzoin, balsam of tolu, liquorice root, and ergot.

America's new army grows apace. Last month 313,000 American soldiers were carried across the sea—a marvellous achievement when everything is considered. Xo one believed such a thing possible a. year ago, but when one reads of one convoy carrying 48,000 men, all of whom disembarked in six hours, of one ship carrying 12,000 troops, and of the whole convoy sailing again for America, coaled and provisioned, in 48 hoiu-s, one begins to understand how it is done. If these figures are allowed to reach the Germans one can imagine a German student of Shakespeare recalling the scene in Macbeth—"What! will the line stretcli out to the crack of doom?"

On Saturday morning, while the Red Cross workers were engaged, in getting finishing touches put 011 the flower stall, they were somewhat startled- by a loud crash as of falling timber,, at the rear of the building in which some of their supplies aro sometimes kept. What had happened was that a section of the floor of the building had collapsed under the weight of some bags of chaff that had been stored there. The chaff, and part of the rear wall, went with the floor of the building into the Mangotuku stream, which flows beneath, and four men—Messrs Bvown, Crawford, Walsh, and McKoy—who were working in the building at the time, had a narrow escape. Two of them fell with the material into the water, but suffered nothing more than' a shaking and some scratches. The chaff was part of the consignment landed earlier in the week from the s.s. Kittawa, and was being stored by some of Mr. Newton King's men. Clearing operations were commenced immediately after the mishap.

Whereas under British law for a man to die Without leaving a will may amount to a domestic calamity, under French law the really serious regulation of succession is effected by the law of intestacy. A deceased estate is divided up among his heirs, and if the property be small and the heirs numerous, a piece of land may bo divided up into such small strips that a single-furrow plough will take away one man's piece of land and double another's. This information was contained in an interesting lecture, delivered by Professor Harrison Moore recently on French law. In the Napoleonic code, he said, men of 30 and women of 35 must seek parental consent to marry. Failing that consent the marriage could be annulled, and this I was done over and over again. In 1596, however, the parental consent was limited to men of 25 and women of 31. Family objections were a /much bigger matter m France than in England.' French law recognised divorce by mutual consent on the ground of incompatibility of temper, and when a marriage was annulled the combined estates of the parties concerned were partitioned in equal shares.

A film of considerable interest will be screened to-morrow and Wednesday at the Empire. It is the Admiralty picture, "The Story of the Drifters," dealing with the work of the mine-sweepers and other activities of naval warfare. On the- same programme Ethel Clayton will star in the World Aim feature, "Stolen Hours." There will be no pictures shown to-niglit, as the theatre is- engaged for a political address.

Members 01 the Ecpiitable Building Society 'of New Plymouth (Second Group) sire notified■ that subscriptions will be due and payable to-day, Monday, September 30, at the Secretary's Office, Currie street, from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., from 1 p.m. -to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.—Advt.