LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

citv'' 6 Ct "f e , theatres in Wellington city ana suburbs will be re-opened on ihursday.—Press Assoc. In the Magistrate's Court at New 1 iymoutn, -before Mr. A. Crooke, K.M. Jiuigment was given for plaintiff by delaul.t in the ease of Elizabeth M. Bayly (xi. J. 11. v. Frederick' W. Webster, £ -SO 12s (costs £4 10s). In a ease in which Emma R. Tucker (Mr. AC. Lawry) proceeded against Horace Warn (Mr. P. 13. (Fltzherbert) for possession of a dwelling-house situated on Smart Road, defendant consented to an order being made. The Anglican Bishop of Auckland (Dr. Avenii;, v.ho arrived in New Plymouth yesterday, goes to Stratford to-day ; ay the foundation-stone of the new St Mary s School this afternoon an«l hold a confirmation service iri the evening t)u Thursday lie will'proceed to luglewood for a confirmation in the evening, and on Friday he will at Waitara institute the Rev. Gordon Gavin i»u vicar On Sunday morning an ordination service, comin'encing at 10.30, will be held at St. Mary's (New Plymouth), when the Rev A. H. Barnett will be admittted to tho priesthood. In the satne church at 3 p.m. a confirmation service will he held, and at 7 p.m. there will be another in Holy Trinity Church (T'e itenui). The Bishop returns to Auckland on Tuesday, December 17. Owing to the interference of the influenza epidemic, the original itinerary for Dr. Averill's visit was modified and the visits to Wluuijamomona and 'Uruti hav» had to be abandoned.

Mr Watson said at. the half-yearly meeting of the Bank of New Zealand:— II; is important to the Bank, as it is to j'ou- in 'your private capacities', tliat restitution should be made by the country's enemies not only of the money of which we have .been depleted by their unprovoked war, but to provide the pensions -and .other demands consequent upon the deaths and other war casualties. It is beside the question to argue .tvhether Germany can, or can not, pay these just claims. No such argument was entertained by Germany when she 'hied France white, besides taking Alsace !.nd Lorraine from her in 1871. Neither ivns the Boxer indemnity remitted betause China was unable to pay; on the contrary her revenues were taken as security. It is nonsense to say that milder measures should be adopted towards Oermany with her large resources, and her people who. socialists all, supported the war and all its frightfu - noes with bravado as lone as they honed to gain Iw it, and only changed to whining after defeat. It would be extremely unjust that we and our descendants should be saddled with tlie debts and taxation caused by the war, as well as having to endure the loss of ♦ho«e who eon never ho replaced, iwt us trust that New Zealand's delegates to the neace conference will use their best endeavors to see that justice is The management of the Melbourne Ltd requests its patrons to do their \ltmnst tn purchase their Christmas renivrnmeuts during the next ten days, mi order to relieve the Christmas rush. The firm's .-Treat Capitulation Sale now offers further inducement to earlier shopping- * ChrUHnns is coming, and will soon be here, and busy housewives wII I)" maltinr twnvWnn for that festnc sf.!i=on. Tn this issue C. Carter is »a----vn -*: s W i Christmas hemner which will make Christmas enjoyable to all

On Friday a medical board, of which Captain MacDiarmid will be president, will sit in Hawera to examine returned soldiers. Fifty-five men have been warned to attend the board. "Our ancestors lived in dirt and died in dirt, and Uiey were as good as we are" —Cr. O'Brien, at the meeting of the Kgmoiit County Council yesterday. To which might be added that they died more rapidly (as history teaches) when an epidemic occurred. Dirt and disease go hand in hand—a fundamental fact which jo obvious, and proved once agaiu during the recent epidemic. Nearly forty returned soldiers have been warned to report at the Defence Office, New Plymouth, at 10 o'clock tomorrow, for examination. Owing to the Inflgetiza epidemic medical boards could not be arranged as they fell due, with tlie result that over 100 files have accumulated at the group office, ft )H expected that every returned soldier m the group on out-patient treatment or oiclc leave will be boarded this week J 1 ' 1 !, H'" 1 ' W - (Minister for f üblic Health), replying j,,. t | l(i v lU f °V t0 iMr s - Smith, |VI .1. for larai/fthi, at at w J that the ques- " a *ttpfirsuim<ation scheme for mimw would be very carefully considered durin;/ the rww; ai al-o'uould the (juestion of providing protection uwiml disability or illnw.s eontniewl durinc the pursuit of their ** As to the co-it, ot lin- war, an Australian writer says; 'two casualty list, bav</ been isaued—by the t:r.ri«, Empile and Gerroany-~<junm< the past few days, and allowing tf/at prisotie/s are repatriated, if those bat.* are fairly reliable, and a fair avsrago experience, it would point to the war having cost, somewhere about 7,000,000 lives,' while the wounded must have rtoe-ied 17,000,000. That would exclude the civil populations. On the basis that the war* has cost £40,000,000,000 that would point to each casualty having cost between :CKi(JO and £I7OO. It cost £IOOO to wound a man, and about thrice that sum to kill him. A Masterton man, who never did have much faith in the Military .Medical Boards, writes to point out.that he has taken observations during the recent epidemic, and finds that a very large proportion of. the men classed Fit A are patients, while the medical rejects are engaged in calling on them, taking their temperatures, and are still frisking, about their daily duties. The Mastorton man now asks the Medical Board?, "Whaffor!" The Wellington Post- is caustic; "It is not likely that many women of the kind best, qualified to adorn and strengthen public life will tie willing to face the turmoil of a popular election under existing conditions, but it would be an insult to the sex to suggest that women could not be found who are far worthier of .appointment to the Council than some' of the men whom the National Government in one of its most deplorable lapses-of duty professed to be worthy of ifie honor." Dr Lloyd Clay, a medical man who has travelled over file whole world and has had a large experience of the precautions taken at the chief ports of the world against the .introduction of contagious and infectious diseases, gives' it as his deliberate opinion that "the quarantine c6nditions imposed .in New Zealand are amongst the most casual and unsatisfactory I have ever encountered," and he "has no hesitation in affirming that even the Turks are' infinitely more up to date in connection with quarantine methods and disinfecting devices than we in New Zealand." He goes further and says: "The epidemic was introduced from abroad; effective disinfection and effective quarantining could have prevented. its introduction." A young man boarding with a private family at a "neighboring town (says the Pahiatua Herald) was affected by the prevailing epidemic, and in order to protect themselves from possible infection the persons of the house locked the unfortunate man in his room, where, presumably, he was to take his chance. His position became known, the doctor and nurse obtained access to him by a window, which the owners had omitted to mil up and protect with barbed wire. This means of access was continued until the young man was well enough to be moved, when he was moved, via the window, to less nervous neighbors. Tile following resolution was carried , unanimously by the Taranaki County ; Council at its meeting yesterday:— i That this council' as representing the ; ratepayers of the Taranaki County ex- - presses its sineerest appreci- ■ ation to his Worship the Mayor of New Plymouth, and all who assisted him in ] the excellent organisation that was set | up and which dealt so effectively with , the influenza epidemic which lias been ( raging throughout the country during the last' four 1 weeks. Atlhough the ,

toll has'been heavy, it is impossible to estithate what the result would have been without-this helpThe area ' excluded from the operations of the New Plymouth, Harbor Board Empowerim; Bill when it was before tiie House of 'Representative's last week comprises, it is linderstoqd, the whole of : South Taranaki from the boundary of the Opunake Harbor rating district to the Waingongoro R'iver, and thence following the line of the Hunter area embraces all the dairy factories road to the Mountain Reserve. . This area embraces ■ all the dairy factories

that send their produce through Patea. 1 That portion' of the third area to the ( north-east of the Hunter road, including . the town" of Elffiaiu and a large block of i country running beyond Whangarnontona ( is apparently retained in the Bill; also that aTea' lying l to the north of the Opun&'ke harbor district and extending as far north as the Puniho road. t For some days past (states the Ha- g wera Star) a contingent of twenty-four i schoolbovs has neen engaged in. giving ) assistance to fanners. The are ( reported to be doing' splendul work m , cleaning crops, and the new departure is f a matter of more than a little import- ] ance The headmaster of the District High School has the team unuer his supervision throughout each daj 7 , and the j boys are not only enabled to earn good j pocket monev for themselves, but pre j gaining a little experience in practical c agriculture, at the same time being kept f out of town and in the fresh air. The r scheme has been entered into motit en- 1 thusiastically by the youthful workers t and the farmers, who convey the boys c out to their farms and home again in the evening, are very glad to have their ( assistance. We understand that tha <. bovs will be so employed lor a consider- J able time, and iby the time school re- * opens in the New Year they should have , learned some very valuable lessons iu J practical farming. e