LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The prize-giving ceremony in connection with the Girls' High School, which was to have been held early this month, but was postponed owing to the epidemic, has been fixed for jFebruaty 7 of next year. The New Plymouth Borough Council's tar-sprayer was put into commission yesterday, when a commencement waß made on Courtenay Street, eastwards from Liardet Street. The machine worked very satisfactorily, and should effect a speeding-up in the process of tar-sealing the borough roads. The engineer stated at last night's meeting of the council that, provided he could get the labor necessary to work the sprayer up to its full capacity, it would do a mile and a quarter of roadway per day. The embargo which was placed on the inmates of tho Rangiatea Home by the isolation of that institution during the epidemic was lifted yesterday, and for the first time after five weeks confinement within the grounds passes were given the inmates to visit town, and were freely availed of. During their isolation the inmates wert quite contented, and the advantages of the step taken by the board is Bhown by the fact that all inmates of the home escaped the prevailing epidemic, which would probably have had very disastrous results had it once got a hold there. It is expected that the new Boys' High School will be ready for occupation when school resumes next year. During the two and a half years that have elapsed since the old building was burnt down the school has, thanks to the generosity of the Taranaki Jockey Club, been accommodated in the various buildings on the racecourse, which the.club has placed at the board's disposal free of rent. But for the acti-i of the Jockey Club the school would have been very seriously inconvenienced, and its progress greatly hampered. At last night's meeting of the board a resolution was passed conveying to the club the thanks of tho board for its action. It was resolved to invite the Acting-Prime Minister And tho Minister of Education to attend tho opening ceremony, the data of which will I bi fixed later.

"One question on which the medical authorities have expressed strong opinions is the means by which the influenza epidemic has been spread," said the Minister of Public Health (Hon. G. W. Russell) on Saturday. The opinion laid down in New Zealand has been that personal contact was the only means of transmitting infection. But a gentleman who has arrived from America, irad who studied the influenza epidemic there, tells me that the keeper of a lighthouse on Lake Winnipeg was affected. A relief launch was sent to make inquiries when the light was not shown, and the keeper and his wife were found both to be stricken by the disease. Inquiry showed that these people had not had any communication with the shore, director indirect, for a period of eight weeks before they were infected. Not even a letter had been received from the shore. I leave the medical profession to solve the problem." How is it that Australia so far has been immune'.' "Bill" Hart will appear at Everybody's to-morrow is several connected screen scenes brought together under the title, "The Patr.ot." It is a dramatic sort of a picture, with rather a fast action set tn scenes that will interest the audiences. Hart has a role that is vivid, in lull sympathy with his abilities, and he makes a success of it. The annual meeting of the Girls' Friendly Society will Ibe held this afternoon at the clul> room,3pl» *teeet.

In accordance with the suggestions of the Efficiency Board aU banks will close from December 25 to December 28 inclusive.—Press Assoc. A horse and trap and a trap rug mysteriously disappeared from the grounds of Whiteley Church, where the turnout had been left during service oa Sunday evening. Permission was given to the Ngamotu Seaside Cormnitto to hiJd a concert in Everybody's Theatre on Christmas night and to make a charge for admission. A stowaway, Ernesto Jose Olivari, native of Buenos Ayres, came to light on board the liner Devon when the vessel was well clear of Sydney. He was given work somewhere below. Members of the High Schools Board expressed the opinion last night that the schools had escaped very lightly during the recent epidemic, largely due to the efforts of the principals and staffs of the schools. A unanimous vote of thanks and appreciation was accorded the principals and staffs of both schools I At the meeting of the Moa Road Board on Saturday the chairman (Mr. A. Corkill) referred to the influenza epidemic and the good work done In the district by voluntary workers. He mentioned several people to whom thanks were especially due for their untiring energy and devotion. At the Christchurch Magistrate's Court a witness who had been engaged by the hour, for one week, to drive for a local undertaker during the epidemic, said his earnings during that period totalled £ls. "It was a windfall for me," he remarked fervently. In his report to the High School Board last night, Mr. W. H. Moyes, stated that during the year two more bequests had reached the school from old boys who had, fallen in Prance. Sergeant B. Kelly had bequeathed £lO to the school for a challenge cup for shooting, and Gunner E. Mason £lO for a eup for athletics. Suitable memorial cups were being obtained, and wo'-dd , be awarded at j-he nest prize-giving. We have to acknowledge the receipt from the town clerk of a copy or the annual reports and statements for the borough of New Plymouth for the year 1917-18. The reports are issued in neat •booklet form of a convenient size fcr pocket use,, and are so arranged as to form a> ready reference to tho past year's work in the borough.

The mails : lar'ed at Waitara on Sunday evening included Australian, Egyptian and South African, but no English. In all there were 430 paokages for different parts of New Zealand. The postal staff, who worked in the vans at Waitara after the mail was linded at 6 pjß. on Sunday, finished their work at midnight and yesterday morning tne New Plymouth portion was brought in and the rest was dispatched by the mail train. The Moa Road Board decided on Saturday that, when there were two applications for ft* vacant position, and one of the applicants was a returned soldier, the position should be given to the latter. Mr. Lyon, who moved the resolution, said he did not think local bodies had done their duty by tho men who had gone oat to fight. In a report on the borough "clean-ire" week, presented to the council last night, the inspector (Mr. S. Day) stated that the cost had been £23 10s, not including that moved by special arrangement with the department. When the report was being considered suvcral councillors expressed the opinion that a lot of the rabWsh removed was not such as affected the health of the community, and also that much of it could be disposed of by the ordinary weekly service of th<» nrWush carts. The New Zealand Free Lance Christmas Annual for 1918 is just out, and is bright and entertaining from cover to cover, and is thoroughly racy of the soil and redolent of the Christmas season. Its 56 pages are profusely illustrated with amusing cartoons by leading artists and various stories and verse from the pons of weli-(cnown New Zealand writers- Amongst tho pictures is a splendid double-page drawing in halftone, entitled "The Return of the Second Division: Daddy's Webiome Home," by D. H. Sonter, the well-known Sydney Bulletin artist

The Auckland City Coivncil discussed the telegram from the Hon. G. W. Russell to the, Mayor (Mr. Gunson), calling upon him to take measures for the protection of the health of the city under the Act of 1908. The council resolved that inasmuch as the Minister had failed to withdraw his telegram of November .29, which was strongly resented by the council and by the citizens of Auckland, the council requests that all further ;'ommunications between the Department of Public Health and the council bo made through the officials «f the Department and the town clerk. A medical correspondent who worked at his profession in London during the laßt great influenza pandemic in the 'nineties; stto.es that in the gastrointestinal type of influenza the appendix is often acutely involved, and some medical authorities explained the increased frequency of appendicitis in these years by the theory that it is a complication or sequela of influenza. The correspondent adds: "I note in your columns that appendicitis is following influenza in the present pandemic. The respiratory type <rf influenza frequently lights up' tuberculosis of the lungs which has remained quiescent for years, hence the reason for special care u» convalescing after iuiuenza." . A young woman named Doris Ellen MoCullough, who was arrested by Constable Wroblcnski on Saturday on ,a charge of tup'theft of, a costume from Wellington, appeared before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., at ihe New Plymouth Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. Sub-Inspector Wutton appeared for the police, and on hi 3 application the s«cu?ed was remanded to appear at "Wellington to-morrow. Lovers of light reading will have a kindly remembrance of "Gum-Nut Babies," three very charming illustrated booklets from the pen of that clever Australian writer May Gibbs. Now, just at the Tight season of- the year, comes another exceptionally clever, publication from the" same ' autHr-viz., "Tales of Smugglopot and Cuddlepie. Its pages are just fall of quaint pictures of funny Australian bush things, bcauth fully drawn and brimming over with joyful humor for *» heartsi tfaat will never grow old, W* we indebted to the B.K. Book Depot for ft spceiruon copv, and the bonk should be te great request as a suitable Chriitman present for both young and old. The t-oan and Mereanti'l* draw attention to the sale they are holding in their Tarata Yards on December SO, at 1 p.m. Pull particulars on page 8. Motor Cyclists enquire at any garago or cycle shop as to sizes.and pricesjm tho ''CTJNCHER DRKADNOUGHT" I MOTOR OYCLB. r£Bß>. 1« I

I Tt is estimate.! that it will take £4o,' 000,000 to restore the English roads to i their previous condition. During the past four years the roads in the Old Country have ibeen practically; let go to pieces. "New Zealanders always think of Samoa with a tear in their eye"—playful remark of Dr. Sort, the German Governor of Samoa, to a party of New Zealand 'Parliamentarians during their visit to Apia in 1903. The tear has bees wiped off Another sad case arising out of the epidemic is reported f roft Waihi Mr and Mrs Rouse, of East End, died from influenza within a few hours of each other on Sunday night in the Wajhi hospital. TAe whole family, including several young children, were is the hospital together. A Gisbome gentleman who was travelling on the East Coast when the news of the armistice came through describes how he got the first intimation of the end of tho war, It was from an excited Maori who galloped, up to him end exclaimed: "Ihe blasky German, he sign." English files, ('"ted October 16th, to hand by the last mail state that a large proportions, of the victims of influenza in Glasgow were children under the age of five years. In Aberdeen 70 school teachers were down with .the siknesa, and 500 children were afflicted. Among the commodities which increased in price during the war probably none reached the over-normal level of printing paper of all classes. Latest advices indicate that the limit of increase has not yet been reached. This is shown by a cablegram just received by a Christchurch firm, to the effect that there has been a further increase in American paper of all grades iii four cents., or twopence, per pound. The same cablegram states that the shipping difficulties will be acute for some time to come. It look's at the moment as if "Finis" may bo written to the political career of William Morris Hughes (whites the Wellington Post's Sydney correspondent.) The discordant note he introduced to the armistice conditions ias profoundly irritated and om cannot hear anywhere a good word for him. Australia knows Hughes so well, and is convinced that his outburst is the result of pique..,. When he pata his second visit to London, he did not enjoy the adulation he received on his first visit, and was much annoyed. He was treated as the representative of Australia, and nothing more.- Lloyd George has a wonderful capacity for "sizimg-up" a man. So, as is tfell known, Mr Hughes has been simmering ivrathfully, and Ids attack on the Prime Minister is the result, Meanwhile Australia is getting along Very : nicely under the direction of the saturnine but very strong and able Mr Watt, and iio one will be in the least surprised to see Mr Watt drop the qualifying word from his titlo of Acting-Prime- Minister. ' The story of in eccentric old millionairess who adopted an orphan and then left her all her vast fortune just to spila her scheming relatives is admirably told in the Mutual ?Annie For Spite;' in which Mairy' Miles Minter stars at the Empire to-night and tomorrow. The Mayoress wishes to acknowledge 1 with thanks a donation of, £ln from the Taranakl Master Brftcaer» , Association; £93 from sale of Tag'Vbv Ansack Band (per Major She'phard); and a thank offering of £lO from a soldier's mother. Christmas offering for Sir Arthur Pearson's Blind Soldiers' avM SaiVrs' fund, also Y.MXU., way be leftat the patriotic shop,'Cuma, street,