LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Vogeltown school will re-open on Monday. A Wellington wire states .that the Epidemic Commission's report is unavailable for publication for some days.

The Citizens' Band hope to give a recital at the Breakwater on Sunday afternoon (to-morrow), in view of the apparent settled nature of the weather. The programme will commence at the usual hour, 3 p.m., and a collection will be taken up in aid of the band funds.

As showing 1 the increasing popularity of the North Egmont Mountain House, Mrs. Cameron, the manageress, in her revert to the committee states that for December, January, and February last she was obliged to refuse bookings to t-lie * T alue of £l2O for 'feach of those months.

In the list of returning soldiers due by the Pakeha, published yesterday morning, we stated that Second-Lieut. S. L. Hyde, Tataraimaka, was arriving. This should have read Second-Lieut. 6. L Clyde, son of Mr. J. Gyde, of Huie Street.

The next conference of the Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers will take place at New Plymouth, where engineering works of some magnitude, such as the harbpr works and the extensions to the hydroelectric scheme, will be in course of construction.

Recently Mr. Hartnell, of Hawera, found a boy under a "bed in one of his rooms with a loaded revolver in his possession. He was caught and handed over to the police. Yesterday he was brought before the magistrate and charged with the theft of the revolver, two boxes of cartridges, the sum of £% 10s, a dress basket, and a bunch of keys. He was committed to the Weraroa Training Farm.

The executive of the Taranaki Friendly Societies' Hospital Association met on Thursday, when a large amount of business was transacted. The secretary! reported that the extra cost to the association dur|ng the epidemic £225, and that the amount paid to the Ijospitals'by the association on behalf of members during the year was no less than £IBOO. It was decided that the annual meeting be held in Stratford in July.

Tlie bi-monthly meeting of the Baptist Literary and. Debating Society was held on Thursday night, A good gathering of members and friends was present. The evening was spent with the poets. The programme was as follows: Solo and chorus, "My Old Kentucky Home"; "Tom Hood," Miss Drew; "Conversations of Poets," Miss Elliott; "Tennyson," Mr. Johnson; "Burns," Mr. Richardson; competition, hidden poets' names. The patron, the Rev. A. O, Seivewright, occupied the chair.

The garden party given by Lieut.Colonel and Mrs. P. G- Evans at their residence, on Thursday afternoon, for returned soldiers, proved a great success. There was a good gathering of soldiers, their wives, other ladies of the town, and the boys from the hospital were present in force. The weather was ideal, and various games such as golf-croquet and croquet-T>illiards were played, the former especially creating much interest and enjoyment. Prizes were giyen for the highest scores in these games, and were won mostly by the soldiers. Music was given during the afternoon by Mrs. Wood (piano) and Miss V. Millar (violin), and was greatly enjoyed. Afternoon tea was served in the drawing-room, where also several songs were rendered with pleasing effect. The gathering was a very hanpv one, and all seemed to enjoy themselves in the very pretty grounds surrounding the house.

The present week has been a particularly busy one in court matters. In addition to the Supreme Court a Native Land Court sitting is also being held, presided over by Judge Brown. The Native Appellate Court, under Judges Jackson, Palmer and Rawsori, is also holding a short sitting here. In addition meetings of the Aotea Land Board nnd the Native Purchase Board are being held.

Writes our local contemporary anent the harbori—fTlite proprietor of the Herald, Mr. Henry Weston, was a member of tlie first Harbor Board in 1875, apd in conjunction with Mr. Thomas Kelly carried out the negotiations with the Bank of New Zealand for the first loan. It was no small matter forty 'years ago to induce a financial institution to lend £200,000 to a little community such as this was at that time, especially in the face of much hostile criticism of the whole scheme to build a harbour at Moturoa. Determined efforts were made in Parliament, as well as out of it, to kill the scheme, by ridicule or any other meanß, and it was part of the Herald's mission to combat the opposition."

The Higfy School Old Girls' Association has undertaken to organise a collection throughout the Taranaki Hospital District in aid of the recreation hall, which it is proposed to erect for the hospital nurses as a memorial to the soldiers who fell during the ( war and the nurses lives during the epidemic. This form of war memorial is one that is sure to appeal to the general public, and particularly to the returned soldiers, for there is no section of the community more keenly appreciative of the noble work of the hospital nurses than are the "boys." It has been decided to make a house-to-house canvass in New Plymouth on Saturday, May 24, and we feel sure that the collectors will meet with a generous response. Subscription lists, collecting boxes, etc., have already been despatched to various country districts, and judging from reports received the country contributions are going to total up to a sum that the townsfolk will have a hard struggle to beat. GERSTENA for BREAKFAST.

A wooden circular platform—evidently one of those set adrift by the authorities to indicate the drift of the ocean currents, has just come ashore on the Stony River beach on Mr. W. J. Graig's property. The platform is fully 8 feet in diameter, painted red, and has two thick loops of rope, as if an arm had been run through them. It is numbered 23, the numbers being between two and three feet long and painted white. Mr Wilkinson, M.P., wired the other day to the Hon. A. M. Myers: "People hero hold fiovernment responsible, especially in view of fact that ample supply of coal can be mined in both islands if facilities were given to ownere by Government." Mr. Hornsby, in a letter to the New Zealand Times, says:—"Sir, with a sense of the responsibility which rests upon me in the making of such a statement, I say here and now that if such a state of things should ever come to pass nine-tenths of the blame must fall upon those Ministers who have failed in their duty to the people of this country. I know that over twelve months ago a group of mines now being worked in the vicinity of Reefton, offer" ed the Government that if it would lay down two and a half miles of railway —over a piece of quit? level country—in order to link up with the existing railway line, they (the mine companies) would guarantee to se?d to Wellington not less than 2000 tons of coal per month 1 Not the slightest notice has been taken of that offer. It is a shame and a disgrace that, with winter upon us, and a coal famine imminent, the Government should fail so miserably." Fur coats, tweed coats, woollen coats, blanket coats, all await purchasers at Morey's. They are cold, wind, rain, and element defying coats. Coats that will keep you warm and dry no matter what the weather is. See the smart illustration in Morey's advertisement in this paper. They have some coats the replica of this.

As notified in our advertising columns Fathers Whelan and Mangan, of the Redemptionist Order, open a mission in St Joseph's Church, Sunday, May 18. The mission will be continued for a fortnight. A social and dance is being organised by ,the New Plymouth branch of the British Red Cross Society in the Good Templar Hall on Friday next. All soldiers, in-patients and also out-patients are cordially invited.