LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

No fewer than 20,000 people went over the New Zealand in Wellington on Sunday. There were over a hundred applications for the position of secretary to the Mangatoki Dairy Company. The Defence Office, Hawera, notified last night that the men who returned by the Geisen will leave Wanganui by train this morning, arriving here about 3.40 p.m. An application by Mr. A. L. Hunter (New Plymouth) for a land agent's license was granted by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., yesterday morning. Mr. A. H. Johnstone appeared in support of the application. ' The pupils of the Convent School visited the Old People's Home last week and entertained the old people to an afternoon of music, songs, recitations, etc. The matron, on behalf of the old people, wishes to thank the Sisters and pupils for their kind and thoughtful action. Speaking at the Egmont Box Company's meeting yesterday, Mr. .1. R Corrigan deprecated the high prices ruling for land. "God help the country," he remarked, "if the farmer can't afford taxation." The gambling in land was the cause, and was responsible for all sorts of cheeseparing and attempts to defraud this Government in order to make up for the high cost of the land. The Kxport Journal of Canada states that before the war Germany sold to South America annually 150.000,000 dollars' worth of goods. This means that during the war Germany lost in trade with those republics 750.000,000 dollars' worth of trade, and has not yet regained any of it. .Meanwhile Canada and the United States are cutting into the South American markets. An airplane capable of carrying as many as 1000 passengers across the Atlantic in 4S hours 'is the newest possibility in aeronautics. ft is the invention of Mr Robert J. McLaughlin, and, according to the. model of the giant airship, the Trans-Atlantic plane will be over SCO feet long and 200 feet wide. The weight will be great, but .not in comparison to its surface, for it will be distributed in the proportion of 41b to every square foot of plane surface. The plane area will be 100,000 square feet. In Great Britain the scarcity of raw materials for furniture-making" is being met by-the use of cheap, plain timbers, painted or grained. This gives an inexpensive article and allows of a greater volume of manufacture. Trained labor is scarce, cabinetmakers and upholsterers being advertised for at 2s per hour for a week of 51 working hours, with no reductions. Wages before the war averaged about 14s per week. The average is now 455., and they are demanding, through their union, 2td more per hour. ''l'm proud to be here, proud to be bßck in New Zealand," Sir Joseph Ward said at a function in Christchurch the other night (reports the Lyttelton Times) ".This is one of the most beautiful countries I havo seen. It's a country worth living in; it's a country worth working for; it's a country worth coming back to. I have been away on several occasions, and people sometimes paid that I had gone for good; but it's astonishing how a bad penny always tump up again, and so I'm here in these happy surroundings. It' seems only yesterday since I was in Paris, a day or two ago in London, then New York, Ihen Canada, and finally I find myself back in young old New Zealand." (Applause.) Somewhere in the stricken region of Stcenwerck is an Auckland soldier's grave, as devotedly tended as any grave within the access of those who mourn, thanks to the kindly thought of a young French girl, states the Star. Many and close were the friendships formed between the New Zealand troops and the civilians in the war zone, born of acts of mutual kindness and sympathy which the terrible circumstances of war prompted, and even now that the soldiers have departed for 'the distant.parts of the earth, hands are still stretched across' the' sea in token of enduring esteem and respect. Private Stanley Hubert Hoare, of Auckland, fell in action two years ago; and, timed to roach New Zealand at a moment when remembrance is most poignant, the French girl has written several touching letters to his relatives. "I went to tbe cemetery yesterday to look after your dear brother's grave," she wrote to "the dead soldier's sister. "The weather is getting better, and I hope tlutt it will help on the pretty'flowers tliat I have put in. A few weeks ago I planted rose trees on both sides' so as to have a pretty hedge, of roses when the summer comes. 'Yesterday I put" in some very pretty plants, with very pale colored leaves, nearly white, intermixed with" cornflowers in the form of a cross. At the foot of the- cross I put in a big red peony to symbolise the flag and cover up the grave of the poor herd who fell lor his country." Men are well catered for at the Melbourne's great sale. Read these bargains: Men's strong cotton tweed trousers, 10s fid; men's strong Working shirts, 4s lid and 5s lid; men's tweed trousers, 12s ;id and 13s fid; men's natural singlets and pants, 3s lid; men's white singlets, Is lid; men's collars, Is; men's all silk sports collars, Is Cd. The museum is to be officially opened hv his Worship the Mayor to-morrow afternoon. Nothing succeeds like success, vet lading success cannot be achieved unless backed by solid merit. That is where "l-'AIRY WONDER," the great new dry soap, scores over nil other competitors. The results of washing clothes with this soaii cannot be over-estimated! It does all that is claimed for it and more. It Is sweeter, cleaner, and cheaper in the long run than any other washing compound. Sn b Jsi ».£ eS »oo«*. A*lt f<w J*.

Tho the Melbourne's great Sale: Yardley's tooth paste, small tube 3 Vi, large Is 3d; Vinolia tooth paste, Sd; tonth brushes, (Id; gilt collar studs, 3d; hair brushes, 3s lid; tape, Od bundle; Field's Westminster perfumed toilet soap, 6d —all wonderful bargains. One of the parcels of confectionery and cigarettes dropped from a seaplane en to the troopship Matatua at Auckland struck the muster of the vessel, Captain P. ■.Jiecne, on the side of the head The blow was a glancing one, and, though painful at the time, no serious injury resulted.—New Zealand Herald. Messrs A. Vardley (agent for Newton King). W. Roes, Bergin, and T. Nicholl, while motoring last evening from Strat- j ford to Inglewood, had the misfortune to | meet with s" accident. When taking the crossing ai. Rugby Road the car overturned. Mr. Rees was rendered unconscious, besides being badly injured, and Mr. Bergin was badly bruised, the others escaping injury. The sufferers were taken to Inglewood, where they were attended to by Dr. Nutting, and later Mr. Rees regained consciousness. A Mataura soldier, Sergeant H. M'Quinlan, who recently returned from the war, took up a soldier's farm in the | Boghead district (says the Ensign). One morning the neighbors sprung a pleasant surprise upon the returned man, who | found 13 teams ready to commence ploughing, and before the day was finished 40 acres were turned over. Meat for dinner wa9 gratuitously provided by one of the local butchers. The farmers of the district evidently appreciate what the soldiers have done for them, and their action was much appreciated by the soldier-farmer. In an address at Wellington on Monday evening to members of the Returned Soldiers' Association, Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell, D.5.0., expressed the opinion that the comradeship in the field was foreign to what they met with in New Zealand. Here it appeared to be nothing else but land speculation and profiteering of all descriptions. This they must "hit up," and hit up hard. Colonel Mitchell gave instances where returned soldiers had been treated with scant consideration. It had been admitted that the winning of the war had put 20 per cent, on the value of land in New Zealand. Who had made that value—the so.uiu,- or tho man who stayed at home? The soldier, of course—therefore ho "'">nla ii(]ii'iit to some extent in tho increased value he himself had produced. (Hear, hear.) The price of land at present was too high and there was a danger of tin' soldiers being hard hit if a slump came in land values He instanced the ;.'ie'.d of some men by citing the caso of a returned soldier who had disposed of some land for £23 per ppre. When he returned the owner was asking £4O nor nere for the land, but he intimated that he would be pleased to sell it to the soldier tit .1:37 per acre! All they asked for was justice, and this they were going