LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hawera and Wanganui Male Choirs combined •in giving a concert at Hawera on Tuesday night. The concert was a marked success and greatly enjoyed.

time you burn coal or wood you are burning etored-up sunlight,” said Mr. Clement Wragge in the course of last night’s address at New Plymouth. adding facetiously that he only wished our trains would burn more stored-up sunlight in order that we could get along quicker. In opening his lecture on “The Grandeur of Nature” last evening, Mr. Clement Wragge said that he was always delighted to visit New Plymouth with its beautiful surroundings, mentioning especially Pukekura Park. Charming as New Plymouth was, however, it could be made even more beautiful, and he suggested the plantation of palms and Abyssinian bananas, which he had shown by experiment in his tropical garden at Birkenhead, Auckland, grew well in this genial climate. “Something is radically wrong with the educational system in New Zealand.” declared Mr. Clement Wragge in the course of his lecture at New Plymouth last night. Children were taught in the abstract instead of the concrete. Instead of being educated in the science they were taught to answer such questions as, How much profit can I make in any transaction? He did not wish to disparage the picture’ shows, but here again he thought more educational subjects should be shown to the young instead of what the lecturer described as “divorce and Dick Turpin rubbish.”

A boy named Watson recently ran away from the home of his parents at Inglewood. He passed through Eltham on Monday, and being hungry helped himself surreptitiously to a Belgian sausage from Mr. A. F. Cuff’s shop. Some school children saw him in the neighborhood of the Foresters’ Hall doing justice to flie sausage, and reported that' he had proceeded south. On Monday evening he slept at Te Roti school, from which he purloined some pencils and other school materials. Early on Tuesday morning he stole an overcoat from Mr. Fred Bluett’s. This was reported to the police, and the boy was apprehended at Hawera on Tuesday evening. He was sent back to Inglewood by the first train yesterday morning, and will in due course appear before the court there.

At the Eltham Courthouse yesterday morning, before Mr. H. G. Carman, J.P., Michael Joseph Holehan, recently employed as barman at the Central Hotel, was charged with the theft of an overcoat from the Athenaeum Hall on Monday evening last. The coat, which was the property of James McNab, was valued at £7 10s. Holehan pleaded guilty. Constable Townsend said McNab attended the cadet parade at the Athenaeum Hall on Monday evening, and hung his overcoat among others in the entrance to the hall. At the conclusion of the parade his coat was missing, and the police were immediately notified. Constable Townsend approached Holehan. After having at first denied all knowledge of the theft he subsequently admitted it, and the coat was found in the whare in which he was living. He arrested Holehan and had communicated with the police at Hawera, where Holehan last resided, to ascertain if anything concerning him was known there. As lie had not yet received a reply he asked for a remand until Thursday. Prisoner was accordingly remanded. “I found conditions of life in England very sad compared with what I had known of the country previously,” said Dr. Averill (Bishop of Auckland), referring to his recerit visit Home, in the course of an address at the conference of the Taranaki Archdeaconry Board last night. “We were threatened with a coal strike,” he said, “and one could not help but feel that affairs had changed considerably.” Continuing, Dr. Averill said it seemed that the relationship between men and classes had altered, and he prayed- that the condition of life in the Old Country would return, not only to what it was before the war —because it was not too good then — but also to a state where there was brighter goodwill, more service, and less bitterness between class and class. "I don’t think we people are half thankful enough for our little country in the Pacific,” he said. “We certainly have a lot of difficulties, and they are very great now, but. in' spite of these, conditions of life are better than in any other part of the world. We need to be more thankful than we have been in the past and to give more time and energy to make the country what it has been.’perhaps boastfully, called ‘God’s Own Country.’” He urged that every attention should be paid to the spiritual life of the country, and by strengthening the church they would contribute a great deal towards the betterment desired.

Church re-union was referred to by the Bishop of Auckland (the Right Rev. Averill) in addressing a Taranaki archdeaconry conference at New Plymouth last night. Touching on the Lambeth conference, he remarked: “Whatever jnay come of that appeal to Christians throughout the world for unity it can never be said in the future that the church of England blocked the way, and it can not be sajfll that the Church of England was not prepared to make sacrifices —and very great sacrifices, too —in order to bring about that realisation.” He said he was prouder than ever of their own mother church as the result of the conference. The church had been prepared to humble herself and sink her own feelings, appealing to others do the same, and the bishops gave to the church and to the world a tremendous lead in this subject.

Mr. G. T. Murray, inspecting engineer to the Public Works Department, and

formerly in charge of the Taranaki district, is at .present on a visit to , Taranaki. He leaves this morning for the Awakino district, where it is understood the Government intend to push through with the Awakino Valley Road, which will considerably improve the through route to Auckland, by obviating the necessity of negotiating Taumata Maire. Preliminary arrangements for the summer show are well in hand and it is the intention of the New Plymouth Horticultural Society to make the fixture the most attractive of its kind that has ever been held in New Plymouth. A favorable indication of the increasing interest which the public are taking in horticulture is evidenced by the unusual number of enquiries that have been received on matters connected with the show; a fact which materially enhances the prospects for a very successful exhibition.

The management of “Billeted” announce that, owing to the phenomenal booking the play will again be staged (Thursday).