LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The weather was perfect last night, and consequently there was a very good attendance at the Recreation Grounds, where an open-air picture entertainment whs given by the Pierrots in aid of their £3OOO stunt. Prior, to the screening, the Citizens' Band, under Bandmaster McLeod, played some selections at the Melbourne Corner, afterwards marching to the Recreation Grounds, where they rendered several items at intervals.

In connection with the influenza cases on the Waipori, now berthed at the breakwater, we have ascertained that everything possible was done bv the port medical officer (Dr. McCleland) to deal with the outbreak. lie obtained the assistance of the health officer ('Mr. Kendall), and had the ship thoroughly fumigated, the serious cases being sent to the hospital, and every precaution taken to prevent.the spread of the disease.

It is known that the news of tlie signin !? of the armistice was received in New Zealand on Monday evening, and was not given out 'by the Premier until 9 o'clock the next morning, though certain privileged people in Wellington knew all about it and communicated tho glad tidings to their friends that evenin.?. An explanation is certainly required as to why the news was not immediately made public.

Curing the past two days the Pierrots have collected over £SOO towards their £ 3000 stunt, the raising of which is now assured. The Pierrots will now start in real earnest on their effort. The prizes will be advertised in the papers in a day' or two, and will, as far as possible, "be shown in shop windows. Included in the list is a motor-car, also a section oS land, both having been donated to the Pierrots-

The Rev. Tait, of Moderator for Taranaki, has received a telegram ifrom the iHon. J. G. W. Aitken, Moderator for New Zealand, stating that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which was to have sat at Christehnvoh on Tuesday "next, has £>een ponedThe New- Zealand Times says it is expeeled the session will be finished within four weelcsj-and that Mr. Massey and -Sir Joseph Ward will not leave for London -till they 'have -concluded the sea-.

For the convenience of workers, the Hospital Board lias arranged to keep the inhalation chamber open every evening until 10 o'clock. A Gazette has been issued empowering District Health Officers to close hotel bars, club bars, or other places for the purpose of checking tliue spread of influenza.

In connection with the request to the public to observe Friday and Saturday as holidays, the Mayor will make arrangements with the grocers, butchers, and bakers to open for a few hours each innrning.

Another influenza patient (a somewhat serious case) was removed from tlhe s.s. Waipori. now at the breakwater, to the public hospital yesterday.

As a further means of assisting to check the spread of influenza, the police yesterday went round all the local public-houses in order to ensure that all glasses and vessels in use in bars were properly scalded after each time oi using.

We liave received from Mr. G. 11. Maunder a donation of £1 towards the funds of the Citizens' Band, in appreciation of its splendid services during the recent surrender functions-

About a third of the employees of the tramways are down with the influenza. The trams are running to connect with the mail train this morning, but there will bo no further trams to-day. Tomorrow there may be a modified service, arrangements in connection with whidhi will be duly notified. A little discussion arose during the New Plymouth procession on Wednesday as to why the Mayor and councillors walked in the procession instead of riding in cars. The cars set aside for this purpose were handed over to the veterans and returned soldiers, tso that they could be conveyed to the Recreation Grounds without fatigue to tlhemselves. In connection with the influenza epidemic, Messrs Sole Bros, are taking every possible precaution. Every morning and evening the staff and members of the firm are disinfected, a fumigation chamber having been fitted up on the premises. In order to minimise the risk of infection through crowding, customers will be served through the window.

The master butchers of New Plymouth have decided to assist the Mayor in every possible way to combat the present epidemic. In order te ensure a supply of soup meats, etc.. being available for invalids, they have decided to keep their shops open as usual on Friday and Saturday. So as to prevent undue crowding at rusili liours they ask that customers will shop as early as possible. One of the impressive sections of the procession on Wednesday was the band of women representing the "Mothers of the Empire." A large number of women walked behind a banner with the foregoing inscription thereon, and they evoked several outbursts of cheering from tihose in the Park, as did also the Women's Patriotic Committee, who marched with the Mayoress at their head. Unfortunately these two organisations joined up with the procession only as it turned into Liardet Street from Courtenay Street, and very few people saw them until within the Park. Doubtless the distance mardlied by the women, considering the heat of the day, was sufficient for most of them.

In the Magistrate's Court at Xew Plymouth yesterday, before Mr. A. Crooke. S.M.. Christopher Seddon, who last week was remanded, on a charge of drunkenness, for medical treatment, was convicted and fined the sum of 10s, and ordered to pay 10s medical expenses. Fourteen days were allowed in whid'n to pay the amount. The charge of assault, causing actually bodily harm, brought by the police against C. W. Williams, was, on the application of defendant's solicitor (Mr. A. A. Bennett), adjourned till Friday, 22nd inst.. at 10.30 a.m. The dispute between Wm. Grant and F. Greenway (Mr. Bennett) over a fencing agreement was further adjourned for one month, Mr. Bennett said the terms had practically been settled, but awaited tihe signature of one of the parties.

The spectacle of a titled gentleman working a lift, and several rather distinguished guests doing duty as domestic servants, is to be seen at one of Auckland's largest private hotels, where the epidemic has incapacitated most of the staff (reports the Star). At this establishment, where ordinarily everything is made as easy as possible for the guests, boots no longer clean themselves overnight, and in such matters as making beds and waiting at table, the guests have to look after themselves to a great extent. The ballroom is beinjrused as a. hospital, where the influenza-ridden servants are being attended to by volunteers from the guests, who include in their ranks more than one trained nurse. As a result of the willingness of the people in. the hotel to look after themselves and assist in every manner possible, a great deal has been done to help the patients and to prevent the sickness from attaining its worst form.

The Railway Department notifies that on and after to-day (Friday, Nov. 15) the Wellington-Auckland express train will run at usual time and passengers will not require to tranship. Goods traffic will not be resumed until further notice.

It was intended to carry on the auction sale of jewellers' staple at Webster Bros.' mart to-morrow and Saturday, but in order to reduce risk of infection it lias been decided to abandon any auction sale until next week, the dates of which will be duly advertised.

Owing to the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company's staff being laid up with influenza the Matau sale will not be held to-day (Friday). A fresh date will bo arranged and advertised.

Owing to the influenza epidemic, the Egmont Motor-cycle Clrib have decided that the meeting which was to have been held in Hawera next Wednesday is to be postponed sine die. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agenny Co., Ltd., agents for Messrs W and R. Fletcher, N.Z., Ltd., notify clients that they will not receive pigs next week,* as the Railway Department will not accept stock for Auckland on account of tho slip on the Main Trunk line.

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A Wellington press message last night stated that the Maori had not sailed for Lyttelton, owing to shortage of crew.

It is officially announced that the examinations for public service entrance, senior free place, and junior and senior national scholarships, to have been held between November 20 and 29, have been postponed till further notice.—Press Association.

An oiTer to equip a children's playground at Victoria Park, Auckland, at a cost of £ISOO has been made by Mr John Court, the well-known draper, who ihacl for some years recently occupied the office of Deputy-Myaor of Auckland.

General Charles Rosenthal, C.B. C.M.G., of the Australian Army, addressing overseas journalists, declared that the New Zealanders are the finest type of troops on the British front. "In smartness and fighting efficiency," lie says, "they easily surpass all otihera." When a soldier with only one lhand was charged at the Thames Police Court with being an absentee, it was stated he had been twenty months in hospital, and that upwards of forty pieces of female tlesh had been grafted on one of his legs. He was an old Grenadier Guardsman, and had four sisters, each of whom had lost her husband in the war.

The Foxton folk jubilated oyer the downfall of Austria in original fashion. The "procession" consisted of a "benzine band" 250 strong, followed by excellent music from tihe town band. Among the most effective and the briefest of the addresses was that of an ancient Maori who had taken part in many a fight. His theme was a contrast between the German and the Maori as a fair fighter. ,He said the German devoured his enemy, while tilie Maori shared his food with the enemy when he ran short. The epidemic is having a marked effect on business generally in Auckland and many of the shops wear a deserted appearance. A prominent bank official reported that business was exceptionally quiet, and wholesale trade is almost at a standstill, and several wholesale (houses are without a single commercial traveller. One wholesale house last week had a staff of sis in attendance out of 60, while it is quite a general thing for staffs to be reduced to less than a third.

A .Royal Commission was suggested by Mr. H. Holland, in the House on Wednesday, to inquire into whether "the Niagara was responsible for the spread oft the influenza epidemio in Auckland. He had received advice from Auckland that there was a surgeon there who was prepared to prove that the Niagara was responsible. Mr. Massey said no objection to the settingmp of a Royal Commission on matters of importance. He knew that six weeks before the arrival of the Niagara a family in Auckland had been laid up with pneumonic influenza.

The ravages of influenza are likely to shorten the session (says the Wellington correspondent of the Eltham Argus)* The general desire is that the Government should at once bring down all necessary measures and push them through and adjourn. The influenza is spreading, and members are anxious to be home in case of trouble in their own families- A very large number of people have been attacked. Doctors and nurses in sufficient numbers are unobtainable.

"There are honest drapers as well as honest lawyers," remarked Mr 0. E. Statham (Dunedin Central), amidst laughter, in the House of Bepresentatives. "but the way some of the drapers are fleecing the public is an absolute disgrace to the country. Some articles are being made out of crepe de chine at a cost of 15s, practically without trimmings, and yet they will be sold for three or four guineas in the shops. Thero never was such a time for the drapers to make money as the present time."

An officer, who was amongst the last -draft of soldiers who returned from Egypt, expressed himself as greatly impressed uy the fertility of the land over which tlhe New Zealand mounted troops are now fighting. As soon as they got off the desert, he said, they got into a. rich, chocolate-colored soil, the" fertility of which was manifested by the magnificent crops of maize wihich it produced. The British military authorities were so impressed with it that they decided to put down 60,000 acres of the conquered country near Gaza in wheat. A competent staff was appointed for the project, ploughs in large numbers were secured, and the work was well in 'hand when the officer referred to left for New Zealand.

"Many people have the erroneous idea that a recent attack of influenza will protect them from s, second attack," said a medical man to a representative of the Wellington Post. "As a matter of fact, one attack rather predißposes that patient to a second, the dangerous period being about a fortnight or three weeks later. Many others try to '"stick it out," and stay on in their offices or wherever they are employed, and poison the building at every breath, A man who does that neither does his duty to himself, his employer, or the community, and. apart from the fact that he is ef menace to everyone, he runs a grave risk of bringing on an attack of pneumonia. He is rather more than a fool—he is a criminal."

The Dunedin Star, in discussing the Kaiser, puts his position in this way:— "The one garment that protects an autocrat has been stripped from iliim. The pious belief in his invincibility has been shattered for ever. And with invincibility passes inviobility. His owa people will never forgive the betrayal of a weakness that makes all their long homage delusive—nay, derisive; and the last excitements, of which every hour is prolific in t(his day of crumbling prestige, may lead to a-cts of the. utmost fury against the personage, once so sacrocaaot. Many moments there have been, especially in the earlier days of the long agony of four years, in which, could they have caught him in 'the very noon and carnival of this bloody revels,' the Allied people would have torn this Kaiser into little pieces. It may well be that this act of retributive justice has been reserved for his own awakened vassals. But, escaping that, what place on earth affords prospect of shameful sanctuary for him ? Where, out of Ml, will he be received ?" The churchwardens of St. Mary's Parish notify that, in consequence of the epidemic, all churches and Sunday schools in the parish are closed from, today until further notice.

With the approval of the medical faculty, the master bakers of New Plymouth will make every effort to deliver ibread to customers at their residences, so as to save people coming to town. The Railway Department advises that the slip near Mataroa, on the Main Trunk, has been cleared, and that the expresses are running.—Press Assoc.

"NAZOL" for Influenza and Catarrh,