LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On a charge of inebriation, a first offender was yesterday convicted and discharged by Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., at the New Plymouth Magistrate's Court. The New Plymouth police have suffered severely by the epidemic, only two constables being about. The Citizens' Health Committee has arranged for help in patrolling the town at night.

One of the Public Health Committee men, motoring along a country road yesterday, came across a girl staggering along with a portmanteau. He hailed her and assisted her into the car. The girl was suffering from influenza, and Baid she was on her way to help her mother, who was very ill. The motorist took her to Iter destination.

Mr. H. Hopkins, of Rahotu, met with a painful accident yesterday. He was engaged in leading two horses when they pulled in different directions. His thumb becoming entangled in the reins, the top of it was -wrenched off. He motored into New Plymouth to receive medical attention.

At tlie Magistrate's Court, New Plymouth, yesterday, Jack Johnson, who had been arrested the previous evening on a charge of theft of a watch belonging to an employee at the cheese factory at Puniho, was remanded for eight days, as further charges are pending. Accused was, at the last session of the Supreme Court at New Plymouth, admitted to probation, on the charge of theft of a car.

Inspector Hutton, in charge of the New Plymouth police, has received official intimation that the district health officer has ordered the closing, until further notice, of all hotel bars, chartered club bars, breweries and wholesale wine and spirit premises in all cities, boroughs and town districts, and within a radius of three miles thereof.

There was a short sitting of the Wellignton Military Service Board in Hawera on Monday to hear applications for the return of soldiers from active service. In the case of T. E. Pickering, Hawera, the board recommended that the soldier be returned to New Zealand and discharged. In the application for the return of C. A. Thomas, Te Kiri, the board recommended his return. Mr. O'Dea appeared in support of the application. A number of cases could not be proceeded with, owing to the parties> concerned being laid up with influenza.

"We have had several callers who are confident that they have a sure preventive of influenza," says The Waimate Witness. "One lady says 'Nazol' absolutely bars the presence of the microbe, while another preferred 'Painkiller.' A man who called pinned hig faith to beer." One trembles to contemplate the dimensions the plague would assume if the last-named were adopted as the universal preventive and supplied free.

So engrossed was a mother in the peace celebrations (relates The Oamaru Mail) that she was unaware that her baby had worked its way out of the goeart she was wheeling. The fact was not discovered by her, but by a gentleman who was surprised upon picking 'up a bundle of baby clothes to find it very much alive. It is safe to say that baby got over his shock long before the mother got over her's, as traffic was rapid and drivers were hilarious at the time.

Owing to the influenza epidemic- the* confirmation service which was to have been held at Uniti to-day (Wednesday, November 20) lias been postponed indefinitely.—Advt j The New Zealand Iron Ore Smelting' and Manufacturing Co., Ltd., notify by advertisement that the annual meeting; of shareholders called for Thursday evening next will be formally adjourned" until further notice, on account of the* influenza epidemic. As notified by advertisement, the Brit-* ish Empire Rhyming Trades Alphabet writing competitions have been post- , poned to December 9, 1918, owing to the influenza epidemic. Ask; distinctly for SANDER'S i®GALTPTI EXTRACT, or else..you. ' tmay receive one- of the many sufofctj- : tntes. The GENUINE SANDER EXTRACT cures colds, fevers, iiuiigestiott; presents, infectious diseases and" . heals ulcers, poisoned' wounds, skin dis- ' leases, bums, sprains, etc. It is much,. ' tmoie powerfully antiseptic than thai ; icommon eucalyptus and doesvnot-depress* t (oc-'irritate ■.like-theailatter, ; ■ « When.you fit a*CT2QiCHER TYBE4o ' you afe>protected. by a to 15 : months, gussantee. Askfc-any* ; icjclat dealer.; " " ' .

Tlie members of the Wellington Militray Service Board are in New Plymouth to hear appeals from relatives desirous of getting sons back from the front, The Union Company's steamer Takapuua, moored at Clyde Quay, Wellington, is being used a temporary hospital for influenza patients taken from vessels in the port there. Sixteen cases occurred on one steamer thc-re. Quito a remarkable scene was witnessed in one Wellington street the other day, when a doctor was mobbed by half a dozen people who wished to drag him to premises in different directions. The episode serves to show how very serious the shortage of medical men in Wellington is.

The telephone exchange girls have been indefatigable in their attention to the calls to and from the Public Health Committee rooms and the Ladies' Committee, and never has either committee been kept waiting. The telephone staff is, like others, affected a good deal by the epidemic, which makes the efficient attention they are giving to the committees all the more meritorious.

Commenting on the influenza epidemic, the Dominion says: "The improvement recorded in the camps carries a lesson for the civil community which should not be overlooked. If the epidemic is in fact subsiding in the camps, it is evidently for the reason that in these establishments curative and preventive measures are organised in the highest possible efficiency. It is 1 by emulating the discipline and orderly methods of the camps that the civil community may expect to rid itself as speedily as possible of tJiie scourge which is now taking toll of its numbers. It would be tlie height of folly to regard the first indications of a decline in the epidemic as an excuse for discontinuing or neglecting precautions. People who allow themselves to be lulled into carelessness and false security will invite a recrudescence of the epidemic, perhaps on a more formidable scale tJhan it has yet attained. Stringent precautions are and will remain necessary until the disease las been completely stamped out. All may contribute to this result by co-operating loyally in the measures that are being taken and recommended toy tie Health authorities."

Godfrey Joues, a Welsh mine fortman who enlisted early in tlio war as a private, and who in August was nominated to ibe a fbrigadiier-getleral, was once considered 'by the mine officials, with whom he was connected for years, as lacking ability to lead men, says a dispatch from London. According to the Daily News, Jones, who is 36 years old, attended night school as a boy, and finally obtained his diploma. He was appointed foreman in a mine, but did not make good, and wa3 reduced to the ranks of a digger. Given another chance, he succeeded. Soon after the war broke out he joined the Cardiff "pals" battalion of the South Wales Borderers. He speedily was made corporal, and rapidly rose to the rank of sergeant-major. He later received a commission. He went to Jbince in the autumn of ISTS, and afterwards was transferred to Salonika, where he won tho Distinguished Servico Order and promotion to a lieutenant-colonelcy. Three weeks ago he obtained leave to return home and marry a war hospital worker. The directors of tho mining company with which he was formerly employed have decided to create a special position for him on his return to civil life.

An appeal which was recently made on .behalf of the Editor of tlia 3?'iel<l for guineapigs and field mice for purposes of national importance was so patriotically responded to "by people all over the country that supplies came to hand in ample numbers. In order properly to look after them a farm has teen taken in Surrey, where they will he specially bred. It is an open secret that the whito mice are required for a special reason in warfare as a life-sav-ing device, and the guinea-pigs will presumably he used for inoculation with some of the obscure diseases which threaten the lives of our men at the front. In this connection it is interesting to notice that some brave men have freely offered themselves with the same object, and a number of old men have been inoculated with their own consent for the purpose of ascertaining the nature and characteristics of trench fever. Among thirty men who have thus willingly become the subject of investigation, it is interesting to note that there is a fete ran of seventy, ex-Con-stable E. Robins ob, who once made himself famous all over England by effecting the capture of the notorious burglar Charles Peace- To men of that age any new disease, even in a mild form, may very well be fatal, 20 ivo must not deny a considerable meed of admiration to those who are willing to risk their lives in this unpretending But effective- way in the public service.