LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Very Rev. Dean McKennn Ims received a cheque for £IOO from t!ie loeiu lied Cross Committee for the Catholic field service fund.

Public-houses are to open tins mornin.y. notification 'to that effect Ileitis »iven by the. Health Department last evening. When the inspector went to fumigate a, house, yesterday, in accordance with his usual practice lie opened all drawers, etc-, and, to his surprise, discovered a flourishing nest of kittens in one of the drawtrs. These kittens, with the rest of the contents of the drawers, were roated to a liberal sprinkling of formalin. The previous day, in another house, a lot of kittens were discovered in a lied.

The formality of adjourning the sittiups was gone through at the Supreme Court at 11 o'clock yesterday morning, when, after the doors had been opened, the clerk, in the presence of the sheriff, the sub-inspector of police, and a pressman, made, the following statement: "15v direction of his Honor the Chief Justice, I have to announce that the sittings of the Supreme Court, to be holden on December 3. have been adjourned to Monday, the third day of February, 1010, at 11 a.m."

The National Executive of the Second Division League passed a resolution that the league views with alarm the continued dilatorineas of the Government in regard to the question of repatriation, particularly in view of the fact that thousands of soldiers are now being discharged and that official statements point to the early return of the men from overseas, and urges upon the- Government and Parliament that no further delay bo tolerated.—Press Assoc. The New Plymouth branch of the Engineers', Firemen, and Cleaners' Association has passed the following resolution:—"That we disagree with the war bonus system, and demand a straightout increase in wages and .better conditions and a penal rate, for nightwork." It was also decided to support the Palmerston North branch in urging the executive council to take a ballot of all members of the association to decide whether they preferred to adopt strong measures to" get their grievances remedied.

The House of Representatives (says a Wellington contemporary) has done two phenomenal things this session- There is or.lv one other precedent for getting all the Estimates through Committee in one sitting, and that was so long ago as to be within the memory of only the oldest member of the House. It was in about ISM, when Mr. Seddon had the weakest opposition. Also, this year not only was the Financial Debate cut out because no one offered to speak to the motion that Mt. Speaker do leave the chair, but Mr. Speaker left the chair and the first item of the Estimates was passed without debate. There is no precedent for this in the history of the New Zealand Parliament. In 191(5 the Financial Debate lapsed, but nn'y because there seemed to have been no .proper arrangement among the members of the unofficial Opposition as to who was to begin the debate. Afterwards, on every day that there was a motion that the House should go into Supply on the Estimates, there was debate. On three or four occasions Supply was intercepted. There is a rule of the House that Supply cannot be intercepted on Fridays, but for some reasons Mr. Speaker put the motion to «ro into Committee to the House on morning. Not a rrfember took advantage of the unexpected opportunity, and Ministers' must have heaved a sigh of Telief when the motion went without debate.

Mt. A. B. Gibson, lanfl agent', Has resumed business, and advertises elsewhere in this paper a property of one-eighth acre and five-roomed house, with immediate possession. Those who are packing for their annual trip to the coast should certainly let one of Morey's famous Bathing Costumes he one of the contents. Thev are so light "rid pnmfortuhle. Bead more about them in ti.i« n-ii-f.

A worker in connection with the epidemic in Palmerstou found a tourl'oomed cottage in which fourteen persons were located—a family and some "boarders!"

Of 3G habitual criminals released on probation during the past year,, eight left New Zealand with the* Keinfoivements, four were returned to prison for fresh offences or breaches of their licenses, one died, one absconded, and two left the Dominion for their former domiciles.

A correspondent writes as follows to the Greymouth Star: Years ago, in the great plague of London, fires were lighted in the streets, and were most beneficial in putting down the scourge. Why not try the same now? Kerosene tins or oil drums could be used, and surely it would be as cheap as disinfectants and not so much trouble. An information has been laid against a Christchureh man for travelling on a tramcar while suffering from influenza. The man, it is said, had just recovered from an attack of the disease, but had not undergone the necessary period of isolation in his own home. The tramway officials say that in any further cases that come under the notice of the Tramway Board similar course of action will be taken.

On the subject of a minimum wage for married men in the Public Service, the Commissioner's report states; "The present minimum of £l4O, even taking into consideration the war bonus given by the Government, is altogether insufficient, and it is hoped that some provision will be made, during the coming session of Parliament, under which the Commissioners may be able to pay a reasonable wage to married men whose classified position carry a lower payment than £3 a week." Never before has the local death rate been so high (says the Christchureh .Press). A well-known undertaker stated that in all his years of experience there has never been an epidemic of any sort anything like so serious as the present one. The undertakers are rapidly becoming unable to cope with tho demands made on their services, and he himself had had to decline no fewer than seven funerals, while other undertakers were having a similar experience.

One effect of the war, we are told, is the great increase of women smokers in England. . This, perhaps, is largely due to the policy of imitation. The girl workers .in every conceivable branch of labor now smoke; nrst of all they start it because they find the farm workers they meet do so, as well as motor drivers, while the clerks in city and Government offices are also victims of tha habit. Jt may thus originate in mere bravado, but very quickly develops into a habit, and then into a necessity.

The influenza epidemic was very severe in Wellington, more so than s-ome people imagine (says the Kltham Argus). There have been about (100 deaths, and amongst those who succumbed were men and women whose lives wore valuable to the 'Dominion. At our time lately no less than 50 men ere engaged in Wellington as gr«. ..-diggers. Many lives were lost because people were too apathetic to take ordinary precautions against the disease—not even visiting an inhalation chamber. Others tried to "fight" the disease and would not take to bed until the disease was well advanced, and others got up too soon.

A Palmerslon officer from Trentham has made "interesting observations upon the incidence of the outbreak of influenza. There were 1600 cases at one time, i;i 24 hours dropped to 100, and in 48 hours to one. The outbreaiv has disappeared even more rapidly than it came, leaving only its weakened convalescents. Certain persons appear to be immune, irrespective of health, sobriety, drinking habits, or precautions; but it is admitted that those who had been used to alcohol, even in what they regarded as moderate quantities, were stricken more seriously, than others. The experience in camp is that those first attacked were the most severe, whether because they were more susceptible or that the virus in its transmission through others is weakened, is not known. Elderly people appear to be comparatively immune, almost to the same extent aa they were from conscription. Profit-sharing is about to be given effect to by a large wholesale drapery house in Flinders-lane, Melbourne. The scheme is as follows: That after providing for current expenses, interest on the capital employed in the business, and making the usual provision for contingencies, the net profits be divided into two equal parts, one of which would be credited to the proprietors and the other divided among the staff. There would, however, be no hard and fast basis for calculating the share coming to each niember of the staff, such as a percentage on salary, the management reserving the right to estimate,' as far as possible, the value of all the factors, in each individual case. Special consideration would be given in the case of any department which might fail to show the usual results owing to changes in fashion, which would benefit other departments at its expense. Trooper Ken Thompson, writing from Palestine to his father, who l'esides at Wollongong, New South Wales, says: —"This is a terrible place for snakes, scorpions, and big spiders. The spiders are supposed to live on the scorpions, and the latest fad is to have scorpion and spider fights.* The transport fellows had a champion scorpion, and put out a challenge to fight any scorpion or spider in the brigade. The Field Ambulance produced a big spider, and took up the challenge for &t. The Bpider won after a great battle. The snakes are very poisonous, and there have been over twenty cases of snakebite since we came here, all being fatal; but, of course, they were not all amongst the Australians. The doctors of the A.M.C. offered a reward for a couple of live specimens of the snakes, and also wanted any dead ones we could get. In a few days the A.M.C. camp was fairly flooded with snakes of all sizes, some dead, others half dead, and others very much alive. If anyone mentions snakes near the Field Ambulance now he is likely to get shot."

The mails which left New Zealand for the United Kingdom on October 12 arrived in London on the 26th ult. A Gazette notice yesterday extended" tho restriction of the sale oifintoxicants on arrival of returned troop? to a radius of 25 miles from the port of arrivalPress Assoc.

Mr- F. Brown reports the rainfall at Inglewood in November as follows: Total rainfall, 7.32 in; rain fell on 22 days. In November, the tptal rainfall was 2.2fiin; rain fell on eight days. The rainfall at "Riveradale," near Ingle wood, indicated that 954iin fell on 2-2 days, the heaviest falls (2.32) being on the 7th and (2.00) on the 30th. The German language is having a bad time in the United States. The .National. Education Association's Commission on the Present Emergency in Education (one trembles at the thought of this mouthful in German) has ibeen making investigations. Thirty-six out of the forty-eight United States have taken hostile action against Germany. Delaware, Florida, Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming have gone in for total prohibition, whilst lowa and North Dakato only recommend the dropping of the language from all schools. Oklahoma bans it from elementary schools, and allows the highest grade schools to use their own discretion. In New York, Spanish is having a vogue. It is comparatively easy to learn, a)nd is, of course, of great commercial value to the States, as it is the language of most of the South American RepufalicsThe Sydney Daily Telegraph of November 12 supplies the information that the armistice cablegram—and urgent message from Vancouver—arrived "just at 7 o'clock" on Monday evening, and that by 7.30 "extras" containing the news were being sold in the streets. Allowing for the difference in time, tho news was being scattered broadcast in Australia a good twelve hours before it was allowed to reach the New Zealand public. In ordinary course a Press Association cablegram conveying the news would have arrived in the Dominion before 0 p.m., and at ths time the conditions of cable transmission were normal. Thus far the Government has offered no explanation of the delay, but manifestly an *explanais called for. On the evening of November 10 the Prime Minister repeated an assurance that when news {at an armistice) came it would be made public as quickly as possible. Actually, as has been said, the news was held up until about twelve hours after it might have been expected to arrive in ordinary course. With strange perversity the authorities put no obstacle in the way of the publication of an erroneous message transmitted a few days earlier, but they went out of their way to keep back the real news from an anxiously waiting community.—Wellington Dominion. Mr. Newton King's Inglewood sale, set down for to-day, and the Raliotu sale on Friday next, have been postponed. Brightw.cll's, clearing sale, which was to have been held at Tarata on Thursday, has been postponed until Saturday, that being the first day on which the Health •Department will permit sales, in the open air to be held. The oft-postponed oapitpiatiin sale at the Melbourne, Ltd., is faMv launched at last. , The bargains offered ?>•* extremely attractive, and "are creating a stir among shoppers and especially with those who are wisely anticipating their Christinas requirements.