LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A petition is being circulated in Stratford tirging that the present post office site be retained for the new building. The rainfall in Stratford during April totalled 3.38 in., this being spread over twelve days. The Mangqnui County Council has now o. road roller which weighs ten tons, purchased from the Stratford County Council, says the Kaitaia paper. The 'Mayor of New Plymouth has been advised that the Taranaki men who returned to New Zealand by the Remuera, which reached Auckland yesterday, will arrive home by the mail train to-night. A very heavy frost was experienced down the line yesterday morning. The water in Eltham was frozen in many parts of the town.

A farm at Kakararnea, belonging to Mr. H. G. (Playle, is reported to have been sold recently at price running into over, the three figures.

Corrugated iron to land is now quoted at £47 per ton.* Before the armistice it was up as high as £IOO. Before the war the iron could be purchased at from £25 to £2B per ton.

There is a big demand on the part of returned soldiers for houses and land, the New Plymouth Repatriation Committee having received during the past two weeks no fewer than twenty-tliree applications. Theso are referred to the Lands Office, which alone has jurisdiction in the matter.

"The present council is in an unfortunate position," declared Cr. Mackay at the special meeting of the Stratford County Council on Saturday. "We have to suffer for the sins of those who came before us." "Cr. Mackay has summed up the position very concisely," declared the chairman. "Our finances are in a very strained position."—Argus, As is well known, the Government has not allowed local bodies to go on the market for loans during the war.period. Now that the war is over this prohibition is being related, and in this week's Gazette are two lists of local bodies which are now being permitted to raise loans. The biggest item in the list is that of the Southland Hospital Board, £50,000.

I A meeting of the New Plymouth Repatriation Committee was held last evening, Colonel Weston presiding. Applications for the purchaso of businesses, furniture, and tools of trade were considered 'and dealt with. The secretary reported that there were now only three unemployed on the books, all the others having been found employment. Three pensions had been arranged for ex-soldiers. The other business was of a routine character.

There are a good many thefts of motor cars reported from various parts of the Dominion. A Hawera gentleman recently in Palmerston left his car in the backyard of a hotel. Next morning it had disappeared. A few days later a Wanganui car also mysteriously disappeared. It would be well for motorists leaving their cars about to take the precaution to lock them; also to put their tools, etc., under lock and key, as there is a lot of theft of tools, pumps, etc., goin" on. °

It is not generally known that an undischarged soldier cannot be assisted financially in the matter of house furniture, house property, land, etc., until he is discharged. last evening an application was received by the New Plymouth committee for help from such a soldier, who had won distinction in the field and who had recently married and was setting up house, but the Act definitely prevented the committee from extending help. Many returned men who are rc"ceiving attention at the hospitals may not get their discharge for months, and in these cases hardship may be done. It is competent, of course, for Patriotic Societies to meet such cases, but, in view of the numerous calls now being made upon them, the amount given cannot be adequate for the purpose desired. The Government might reasonably relax conditions which prevent returned men getting the assitance that the merits of their cases deserve.

The members of the New Plymouth Citizens' Band are asked to attend at the railway station to-night to welcome the draft from the troopship Remuera, which arrived in Auckland yesterday. Farmers whose capital is limited, and who desire to start dairying on a farm of their own, should read W. H. and A. McGarry's fresh advertisement on page one.

For rough roads have CLINCHER TYRES fitted to your cycle!" They give more miles than 'most tyres and ensure a freedom from tyre trouble, and are guaranteed six, nine, twelve and fifteen months. 50

The Lepperton-Scntry Hill branch of the North Taranaki Patriotic League wrote to the Taranaki County Council yesterday asking for a grant, by deed of gift, of a plot of ground not exceeding one chain square, on section 82, corner of Mataitawa and Roby streets, in the township of Lepperton, for the purpose of erecting a memorial monument to district soldiers who had fallen in the war. It was proposed to vest the land in the Minister of Lands. The council decided to accede to the request subject to any legal difficulties being overcome and to the public being properly protected.

In the course of his report to the Taranaki County Council yesterday the inspector (Mr R. Branch) stated that gorse was more or less taking charge of many of the by-roads. Notices had been sent to many of the settlers, and a good many verbally notified, and they, had promised to attend to the same. It greatly hampered the foremen in keeping their watertables, channels, drains, etc., in the order they should be kept. A councillor stated that he knew of one case where gorse was actually encroaching on the metal portion of a road.

At yesterday's meeting of the Taranaki County Council, the question 'of the spread of noxious weeds was again, revived by Cr. Simpson, who spoke on' behalf of a large number of settlers who were alarmed at the rate at which the weeds were getting ahead. He therefore moved: That the attention of the Minister of Agriculture be drawn to the immediate need of the noxious weeds law being more drastically enforced with regard to the spread of blackberry, ragwort, and other noxious weeds. Several instances were quoted, during the discussion, in which the weeds grew even after the most extensive precautions had been taken to prevent their appearance. A suggestion was made by Cr Laurence that the remedy lay in the appointment of inspectors under the local bodies, as the Government inspectors had areas far too large to enable them to satisfactorily cover the ground. The resolution was carried.

A returned soldier wishing to acquire a house or farm has first of all to pay a valuation fee. Oftimes, indeed almost invariably, so far as this district is concerned, the valuations are always a great deal below the prices asked, and no business results. An ex-soldier member of the New Plymouth Expatriation Board mentioned at last night's meeting the case of one man who had paid a fee of two guineas and his application had been refused. He then inspected another property, paid another two guiueas for a valuation, and the proposal was again turned down by the Land Board. The speaker suggested that something ought to be done to save the money for the men who could not afford to pay the fees. In the ensuing discussion it was pointed out that in another district returned soldiers had access to the Government valuations of properties, and the information thus available afforded a guide as to whether 1 the propositions were worth proceeding with. It was ultimately decided to set up a subcommittee to make inquiries as to what could be done to help the ex-soldiers in this respect. a Messrs R. H. Rockell and C. 6. Bottrill, of the Boys' High School staff, a deputation appointed by the assistantmasters, waited on Messrs Jennings and j Smith, M's P., on Thursday, with reference to matters connected with improved conditions of service and status of assistants in secondary schools. The deputation pointed out that, although professional men, they were paid at the rate of non-professional men. Their training was as long and involved as much time and expense as that of professional men, and they thought they should be ranked and paid as professional men. They also pointed out that, considering they dealt with children at the most critical age, between 14 and 18, it was imperative that the best professional skill should be employed, whereas there was no doubt that men of the highest abilities were being attracted to other professions where the rewards were greater. Two other points were that, considering the very small number of head-masterships available, most of the assistants came to a dead-end sooner or later, and that the supply of secondary teachers, especially of men, was very precarious. Both the members gave a very sympathetic hearing to the deputation, promising to support their views with both voice and vote.

. Speaking at Wellington at a farewell gathering of railway officers on Saturday, Mr. E. H. Hiley, ex-general manager of the New Zealand Railways, said there was no doubt that he had had an extraordinarily unfortunate time. First came the outbreak of smallpox, then came the big strike, and just when they brought out the report regarding rc-organisation and improvements to provide for the growth of the service the war came upon them. He had begun to think that, at (least, he 'teiist be some relation to Jonah. In the war years all preconceived ideas about railway necessities had to go by the board, and he fully appreciated the generous assistance and unfailing loyalty of Mr. McVilly and other officers of the service in those trying times. Although the war was over, the effects of it would be felt in the Department for a long time to come. They would soon be getting over their difficulties about the lack'of staff, but there would be other great difficulties lacing the general manager for years to come. He had no doubt that there was a period of prosperity in store for New Zealand, but this very prosperity would increase the difficulties of the management. With the increase of traffic that would be expected to provide for the needs of the country, they would all feel the misfortune of the eclipse of the 1014 programme. This year the revenue of the Department had practically touched the five-million mark-j which made the New Zealand system no mean railway. He believed that New Zealand had a great future, and he had no doubt that the Railway Department was the greatest in the Dominion. I

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A Press Association message from Wellington states that 400 Germans who are being repatriated leave Wellington by the Willoehra next week. A Gazette Extraordinary revokes all notices by the Attorney-General, under the War Regulations, declaring certain companies, firms, and persons to be enemies.—Press Association.

In regard to complaints that returned soldiers were overlooked when poll clerks were being appointed for the municipal elections last week, the Mayor wishes to state that, before engaging anyone, the town clerk communicated with the secretary of the Returned Soldiers' Association.

"Thinking, hard thinking, is what the association needs," remarked the general secretary of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association (Mr. W. D. Seymour) at Wednesday night's meeting of the Wellington Association. "Thinking, hard thinking, is what the country needs, and in no place is it more needed than iu the Government itself." (Applause.) A meeting of the New Plymouth Patriotic Committee was held last evening, when the matter of the object to which the money raised by the Pierrots' effort, which is to be concluded on one of the peace celebration days, shall be devoted, was the chief subject of discussion. It was finally agreed that a small sub-committee should meet representatives of the Pierrots to discuss and decide the matter.

"If any voice in the world speaks up for the defence of the home it is the Calftolic Church," remarked Archbishop Redwood, when speaking to returned soldiers at the service at Wellington the other day. "In this New Zealand which you love so well, and for which your comrades heroically shed their blood and gave .their lives at the cannon's mouth, are we not confronted with a gigantic evil, an evil which has disrupted many a home already, and threatens to disrupt many more—l mean divorce, divorce in our divorce courts? The mandate of God is: "What God has joined let no man put asunder.' The Catholic Church stands unalterably for the sacred institution of the home, for the support of the authority of the home."

About eight o'clock on Saturday night a fire was discovered in a shed on the property of Mr ,T. Bilski, at Vogeltown. The fire had a big hold, the building having already collapsed, and one or two cords of firewood, which had been stacked inside, were burning fiercely. Owing to the close proximity of a tall pine hedge, and the danger to other property had the trees- caught fire, the brigade was communicated with, and within a few minutes were on the scene, and quickly had the flames under control. The shed was completely gutted, and a few articles of furniture and other personal effects belonging to Mr. Bilski were destroyed. The residence on the property is occupied by Mrs. Watkins and family, all of whom were in town at the time of the outbreak, the cause of which is unknown, To have been one of three survivors from a drifter which struck a mine in the North Sea, and to be wrecked in a gale off the Shetland Islands, were the unenviable experiences of, Chief Motor Mechanic William Ritchie, of the Motor Patrol, who has returned to his home in Christchurch, after an absence of three years. Ritchie was acting as engineer on a drifter in December, 1917, and the vessel struck a mine. At the time the .Christchurch sailor was engaged in the engine room, and the next thing he remembered was waking up in a cosy hospital bed. Although suffering from shock, ho had no other injuries. Just prior to this Ritchie was on another vessel engaged in patrol work in the North Sea, when a terrific gale arose, which gradually forced the ship on to the rocks, where she broke up. It is when money is plentiful that a progressive policy should be adopted. For instance, it is quite obvious that much of the land is being badly neglected. Noxious weeds are increasing with alarming rapidity, while, in some parts, the land is being allowed to deteriorate, the farmer apparently not interesting himself in these matters while the milk cheques are forthcoming. This cannot go on for ever. The limit must be reached sooner or later. It would be better to face the position at once by taking united action for the extermina'tion of noxious weeds as well as keepin" up the quality of the soil. It is questionable if the settlers will ever be in a better position than they are at present to pay for improvements.—Eltham Argus. The Kawhia Settler has been informed that exploration work undertaken in the Okoko Valley to test the extent of coal deposits in that vicinity has given very successful results. The existence of a very large seam has. been established, while the quality is stated to be highly satisfactory. The Settler understands that Hamilton capital is behind these operations, and that it is the intention to move in the direction of connecting this spot by rail with Kawa—a level gradient. The Okoko Valley is on the route of the proposed Kawhia-to-Kawa railway, as recommended by Mr Campbell'(Public Works Engineer), and is the eastern terminal of the tunnel through the Hauturu range. As coal is known to exist throughout the whole of the Kauri Valley—the western terminus—there appears to be a strong probabilitv that; in winning the coal, the watershed barrier between the Waipa and Kawhia will be pierced, and the route laid open for (he long-looked-for railway connection between the Main Trunk aiid the harbor. The returned soldiers are holding their annual conference shortly at Christchurch, and the New Plymouth Repatriation Committee was asked last evening if it had any suggestions to make. Members felt that the burning question was that of land settlement. The prcaent_ lackadaisical policy was far from satisfactory, as there were hundreds'of men clamoring for land with no hope at present of obtaining any. One speaker said it was a reflection on the Government that it should persist in endeavoring to put returned men on haekblocks sections when such stretches of rich land held in large areas, as between Patca and Wanganui, in the Rangitikei, and Hawke's Bay, eminently suitable for close settlement, being right alongside the railways, etc., were available." Tt needed a little firmness and enterprise on the part of the Government to resume these lands, but tha necessities of the times and the merits of the returned men demanded it. Otherwise the soldiers, who had won their right to be given the opportunity_of securing a piece of land for themselves, might be-forced to extreme action, a thing which would be generally deplored. The onus was on the Government, but the speaker was afrnid that until a change was effected and some of the members relegated to oblivion no headway would be made in this direction.

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