LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There liuve been nn fin 1 * in Wail ant during lite brigade's year just ended. The N'ew Plymouth Victoria League's newly-acquired club room will be formally opened at three o'clock this afternoon. The (rial of Samuel John Thorn, charged with the murder of Sydney (Seymour Eyre, will probably be opened in the .Supreme Court' at Auckland on .November 15. "Marriage should be conditional upon the production by men and women of statutory declarations of liealth and freedom from infection." Dr. A. ('. Sandston gave notice ti-i the Anglican Synod in Christchureh that it should express an opinion to this effect. The loss to the Auckland City Council in fares during the 15 days' stoppage of the trains amounted 1,0 between £15.000 and £IO,OOO. The amount saved in wages and a. proportion of exr penses during the period is about £7OOO, leaving a net loss of between £BOOO and £9OOO. The position in regard 4o obtaining the freehold or a good leasehold tenure of the railway leases in Broadway Central, Stratford, will be discussed at a public meeting to be held in the Borough Council chambers to-night at S o'clock. The Mayor (Mr. J. W. McMillan) will preside. To-morrow the conference of the Xew Zealand Veterans Association will assemble in New Plymouth for the annual meeting. Delegates are to be entertained at luncheon by the Xew Plymouth branch, and it is desired that there should be a good attendance of Taranaki members. those able to be present are requested to notify the secretary (Mr, Black) by 10 a.m. to-morrow.

In referring to trie late Mr. James Chalmers, one of Sydney's foremost business men, whose death occurred about a fortnight ago, the Sydney Sun says: ''The life of the late Air. James Chalmers is an object-lesson in opportunities. At the age of 3<i Mr. Chalmers arrived in Australia from Scotland and took a junior position in the Sydney Civil Service Stores. Within two years ho was manager. He lifted the stores from a small concern to a very large one, and .tlien was engaged by Farmer's, He died at CO, a managing director of that big firm. In his Australian career of 24 years he had nobody to thank for his rise but himself. He came from Scotland with the proverbial half-crown in his pocket and a Scottish judgment and energy, and these two qualities took him where he was when lie died. We are often told by agitators that the worker is a slave, that democracy .sends to enslave him, that he has no chance in any country in which wage-slavery is condoned. Mr. Chalmers is one of the many examples which give the lie to that 'doctrine of despair, and show that Australia is a country in which an/ man who is willing to work, and keen enough to love his work and seize his chances, may rise to the top. Mr.» Hughes began us u travelling tinker, Mr. Storey as a boilermaker, Mr. Holinan as a painter. It is surprising, when one looks around a>t i the lives of our political and commercial i leading citizens, how many of them have j started from scratch in the race of life. Worldly success is a little thing, yet men envy it and strive for it, and" it is only the weak man or the inefficient | who rails at those who have succeeded." A fine selection of furniture will be offered for sale at the home, Cloyton Road (near the Stratford dairy factory) to-day by the P.A.C., Stratford.