LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Yesterday was the ?7th anniversary of the landing of the first TaranaKi settlers. ' , The rainfall iv Hawera during March and up to 8 a.m. to-day was 4.8U inches, of which 3.25 Inches fell fast Thursday. From February 26th to March 21st, not a point was registered, while from March 28th to yesterday, nearly four inches were registered. : The story of a dramatic encounter during the interchange, of prisoners of war at Rotterdam between Captain ! yon Muller, of the Emden, disembark- 1 ed from the Dutch hospital ship, and i a sailor of a British steamer captured i by the Emden in the Atlantic three '; years ago, is told in the London Ex- ! press. The two men looked at each j other for a moment in amazement. | Then the Englishman saluted in an ] easy, pleasant way, and yon Muller j clicked his heels together and returned j the salute. j Our Empire contains all the raw ma- ! terials for manufacture, and has fields j wide enough to grow plentiful food for ! the whole world. It is only because we do not realise this fact that we do not make use of it. To realise it and so to get rid of our problems we must form ourselves into a political whole. We ! must have, with full local autonomy for i all the parts, an Imperial Senate at ! the heart of the Empire legislating for • the welfare of the " whole - Common- > wealth. I cannot understand how men ' shut their eyes to the wisdom of this ■ idea.—Lord Grey. s The palm for a schoolgirl's essay on i a cow, written recently in one of the•! Hawke's Bay schools, must be awarded i to the following: "The cow has two '■ long legs and two short legs, and has cloven hoofs so she can climb banks. The cow has four 'stumicks/ and she swallows it without chewing it, and when she is lying down she swallows it j up again, and * she can eat it when she is lying down." Visitors from North Auckland speak of the devastation, caused by the tenacity of the recent gale which swept ' the North Island with such terrible re- ' suits. One gentleman informed a Star reporter that the storm was so fierce at Cape Brett that the spray was carried over the tower of the lighthouse vvhich is over 200 feet- high. Stones the size of cricket balls were lifted from the beach a great height. The tram rails near the lighthouse were twisted like wire. At Peria and Vie- ' toria Valley huge pine trees of great j girth and 40 years old were torn from ! their roots along the side of the road I and pitched like matches into an ad- i joining paddock. Very severe suffer- ! ers were the Maoris, whose crops of maize were in most cases levelled to I the ground. It was stated at the meeting of the' school Committees' Association in Auckland recently that the libraries in stalled at the initiative of the City' Council in a number of the city schools were a great success, the pupils having availed themselves of tie facilities witn-1 avidity and unflagging interest (says the Auckland Star). "These institutions are very popular." said Mr Murray, ! and the teachers tell me that they': nojic.e the good effect of the reading so obtained. The improvement is noticed in the school work of children generally, and particularly in reading and' ! composition. At th e end of the year ' . tn e books are overhauled and repaired ' by the public librarian,i and, with additions, returned. The benefit of good reading has been shown in the increased intelligence of the children; and I must say that the City Council is to be commended for the course it took." j ) The Ohristchureh City Council re i cently received, a letter from the Prime i Minister (Eight Hon. W. *'. Massey) conveying his. thinks for the resolution advocating the retention of that portion of the Samoan group taken from Germany, says the Press. "You may rest assured;" he said, "that I shall iose no opportunity of impressing upon the Imperial authorities the views of the people of New Zealand in regard to this important question." Sir Joseph Ward, m acknowledging the Council's resolution, said- "Everything in our I power must b e done to prevent the return of Samoa to so dangerous and unscrupulous an enemy as Germany. It has been a great menace in the Pacific tor years, and in the light of our experience of Germany's inhuman methods in this great war, our duty ,'is to fight strenuously to prevent its return to the enemy, which would be an Empire calamity.'' It was a tribute to the Maori race to know that over 500 left these shores ?2™ ,t]H» Main BoA Y» since then 1500 had gone to reinforce their comrades^ said Sir James Allen at a meeting of Natives at Carterton, says an exchange. The Defence Minister read' several letters from officers both in Gallipoli and France, all of them testifying to the good qualities of the. Maori warriors. He hoped the Maori race would always keep up the strength of its reinforcements, and that when the war ended the Defence Minister would not be able to say that conscription had been ■ forced upon them. He hoped they! would voluntarily enlist. At the present I time the camp at Narrow Neck required more recruits, and he felt sure °they would be forthcoming. He was sorry to tell his hearers that one tribe, the Waikatos, were not doing their duty to help then- comrades, and he hoped those of them who were acquainted with the Natives of Waikato would use ■t^' 'nfluence for the cause. He had i officially gone to Waikato and placed the whole position before the people, aQd he hoped the law of compulsion would not be necessary. In Victoria at one time Csays the Australasian) counter lunches in public bars consisted originally of a few -biscuits in a barrel. The customer drinking a glass of beer or "half and half" gratified a want by nibbling at a biscuit while he sipoed his beer. Later cheese was added, and thereafter com- | petition made the evolution of the ! counter lunch ra 2 id. The "lunch" as given m many city hotels reached its present substantial proportions in Melbourne about the time of the land boom. Just as no sale of suburban property took place without the accompaniment of a case of champagne, so in the humbler transaction associated ' with the sale of a glass of beer there was an "atmosphere" to which cheese and cooked meats contributed. For many years the counter lunch has been a grievous burden to totelkeeners. Its ! charm was the greater because" it offered something for nothing Liquor retailers in the year following the boom made gross profits amounting to about 100 per cent., out of which rent, wages, and lighting had to be paid. Customers came to regard' counter lunches as a right, and; hotelkeepers have not been able hitherto to combine for their abolition. No doubt the system paid. But wages have been increased, trading hours reduced, and the cost of commodities has gone up. Hotelkeeners Save had to economise, and the counter lunch is to go. The Brewers' Association has taken control of the matter, and after March 1 any licensed victualler who sunnlies counter lunch will not be supplied with beer. The "free" luncher will have to pay for his food as well as his drink. " Once, the practice has been abandoned it is not likely to be revived. The beer-drinkers ' in Victoria are too fond of their beer to strike.

A sum of £1000, beingi part of the S m? gV£-Australia," of the mare f j 9°H< has alrea<3v been for- i warded by Mr and Mrs 11.I1. H. Lowry, S hL A Wke, S.? ay ' be devoted to the | benefit of the soldiers' ward at the Napier Hospital. It is notified in Featherston camp °l-?J S ,for general information that CDildrens allowances payable on aocount of soldiers employed in actual home service will be strictly limited to tnree children. In cases where children a allowances have been paid on account of more tkm three children the men affected will be given fine Option Oi continuing at the uniform rat© or of returning to their civil avocations on one month's notice. At the Nelson Boys' Central School recently, the boys and staff made a presentation to Mr ,T. T. Veysey, second assistant teacher, on the occasion of his retirement on superannuation. Mr Veysey has been 43| years in the education service, for 10 of which he was on the teaching staff* of the Boys' Central School. Save for the time when he went with the volunteers to Parihaka on the occasion of the\ arrest of Te Whiti, Mr Veysey has not had such leave before, his being practically an unbroken record of serviceAmong the hundred and one jobs that a girl can do to help win the war ploughing, says the Daily Mail correspondent, is one of the best and healthiest. I thought, when I decided to try my hand at ploughing, that it was difficult, excessively hard, and dirty i work. I find, however, that not one of these terms be apolied to it. I have done several kinds of manual work—house work and haymaking, sawing wood and gardening—and I confess with absolute impartiality that I find ploughing the most pleasant and least fatiguing of them all. An instance of the value of a returning soldier's badge as worn by New Zealanders, was furnished by one of the officers who have just returned (says the Auckland Star). A New Zealand officer, he stated, who had been invalided to New Zealand and was subsequently discharged on account of his injuries, recently made a trip Home. Among other places thai he was desirious of seeing was the House of Commons. He was unable to get a -pass, and was standing outside the building debating with himself his next course action. A well-dressed gentleman, noticing his badge, asked him if he would like to go inside. He stated that he wouLl, and that that was what he had come there for. ' His newly-found friend at once took him through the whole of the buildings, and later in the day found him a seat in the visitors' gallery of the House of Lords While there he was asked to enter his name in a book, that of .his spensor being placed opposite. Before going out again it occurred to him that he would like to know the name of the gentleman who, had befriended him, and he went back and glanced at the book. He was not a little astonished to find! that his unknown friend was no other than the Earl of Chesterfield. The mills are not telling a very cheerful tale in regard to the yields (writes "Agricola," South Island cor- ! respondent of the Farmers' Union Ad- ; vacate"), and a good deal of disappointment is being experienced at the results. It is almost certain that the prediction of the Agricultural Depart- ': ment will not be realised, and far- : mers who thought at the beginning of the harvest that the average would 1 be about 30 bushels per acre are woe- ; fully out of it. It is a pity that such should be the case, fcecftusi as things are going now it is not likely that .' there .will be sufficient wheat in the ivcountry to see us through to the next I harvest. The department thinks *that the average yield will be slightly over 11 bushels per acre, but that is" above i the actual results so far as I have seen Certainly, some of the paddocks are threshing out 35 and 40 bushels- ( but on the pther hand, there are many I of them that are not going 20 bushels. In some cases th© crops'have not been reaped, they are 8b noor, so that the good, paddocks will have to do very 1 well in order to make up for the duf. ! fers," ■ •-...-. f ■ Tliere is an anecdote about Sergt.M&J°r Robertson, as he was in 1887, 'S r 1S not known everywhere yet. { .Robertson was being examined for his j commission. He was in a cavalry regiment, and alter leading a troop and then commanding a squadron satisfactorily, he was called upon to take command of the whole of the officers and men on parade. In those days cavalry movements were usually done on a fixed base, which was taken up and indicated by the adjutant and regii mental sergeant-major. An order being ' given, off went these two to take up a base accordingly. But they tjpok it j up on the wrong flank of the regiment. i The colonel saw the mistake, and made ' up his mind to catch out his adjutant i and sergeant-major and also the as- ! Sirant for a commission. Robertson, , owever, had also seen what was I wrong, and did not give the word for the regiment to move. The colonel I roared at him. "Now then, sergeant- : major," said he, "get on, get on; give the word of command." "I will^ sir," said Robertson, "as, soon as the base is placed in the right position." "Oh " said the colonel, "so that's it! Damme, if you can put my adjutant and regimental sergeant-major in their places that'is quite enough for me. I don't want to see any more from you, my lad. You'll 'do." Then to his men: "Fours right! walk, march!" And that was how Robertson got his , commission. A new form of wireless telegraphy, which, instead of passing messages through space, transmits them through thousands of feet of solid earth, is now in use at the front, and is proving of the utmost value in establishing effective communication between units in the firing line and divisional headquarters, from which operations were directed. Reference to this new means ot communication was made by Major W. J. M. Locke, M.C.,, recently, in ? ne, J^rse of a war lecture delivered m Melbourne. He mentioned how during the attack on the Hindenburg line east of Bullecourt, a party of Australians, who were astride a piece of the captured line, were suddenly over- i | whelmed by an enemy onslaught. | lneir flank was turned, and for a time it seemed that certain disaster awaited them. But, seated in an enemy dug!out, which earlier had been captured 1 trom tne Germans, was a solitary Australian soldier at the transmitting end • ?^ ? underground wireless installations When the unit to which he was attached was flung back by the enemy counter-attack he was left alone at his post completely encircled by the German forces. .With the utmost unconcern, however, he proceeded to send along to headquarters a detailed account by earth wireless of all that was going on. The eventual result was that the Australian artillery managed to get the range of the Germans, whose coSn-ter-attack was dispersed the lonely Mgnaller at his post was relieved, and some little time afterwards he was decorated for Jiis bravery with the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Suits to measure made by us are cut in our own factory, therefore you can rest assured that you am .getting the best attention obtainable We will build you a suit from 79/6 to &©/- and you will be convinced that the *H B suit is the best. Call on our Hawera manager and leave your measure — N.Z. Clothing Factory, Hawera.

Owing to the heavy passenger traffic the mail train was over half an hour SK 8 ,r^ hin S Hawera this morning. lixe .Salvation. Army Silver Band of Feildmg, was on the train, and it rendered a number of selections, which were greatly appreciated by the public. Services appropriate to East«r-dav Z e? %? d + m/ U the lurches yesterday, Notwithstanding the showery weather there were large congregations. In ascordance with the diocesan rule the offering m the Anglican Churches, ss customary, were given to the vicars. The rabbit industry is giving profitable employment to a large number of people throughout Central Otago The canning factories at Cromwell and daily, about 10,000 each, while the freezer at Alexandra is said to be gettmg close on 15,000 daily. Some of the trappers are making as much as i 2 per day and the great majority are averaging 30s. J

In a buttons match on the Hawera v£ £^gre6^o5 Saturday afternoon the holders (McPhillips, Rnma Tonks Parnngton) defeated T. tS', Parkhouse, McLauchlin and McNiven by 25 to is points R. Tait played as substitute for Parrington. ' A ferns contest also took place, the holders (Goodwin Cunnabell, Curtis, Foy) defeatSg

Two different persons claim to have seen an aeroplane last week flying over the sparsely-populated back country of Waingarara ( says the- Whakajtane correspondent of the Auckland I totar;. ■ In one instance the noise of the engme drew the observer's attention to from the direction of White Island, tZL Wr£ yms m a «>utterly direction towards Urewera. Another observer a mile away from the first also reported having ,seen an aeroplane at 1 p.m. on luesday.

Mr G. Roberts (Minister of Labor), w£ °OnT-f^ a speech delivered in London said that reports indicated the Kaiser to be^ as aggressive as' ever. The Kaiser believed he would yet triumphantly enter London, after thrusting back the Allies in the west ■ and making a German peace. Certain German associated trade unions had promised the authorities that they would not foment serious, strikes in the next few months, and the Majority Socialists had agreed) not to embarass the Government, That indicated that Germany would be more united than ever, and her militarism more rampant than ever. Therefore our preservation of unity was all the more imperative. . Tr^? e +^ On- J- A; Hanan,- Minister'of Education, remarked, to a Lyttelton Times reporter- that he found a growing appreciation among parents of the benehts of continued education. This was to be seeiv also in the increasing number of- children seeking admission to the secondary schools, notwithstanding% stlf cnmfk *P of the requirements for free places, and this\ave nso to numbers of applications ? for financial assistance for additions to high schools. -With the .funds at his disposal the difficulty was to provide even for the needs of primary Peducation, which came first with him. The abduction of a child on March iL ?t Wew S? 'Waltham Orphanage and the Waltham School was reported fW? orth Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at its meeting last week. The.report stated that i? December, 1914, a child, then about eight years af.age, was admitted to the orphanage, the mother at that time being in the hands of the police awaitffVr^' ■ <*-M"«k 13 the chad, with ft was proceeding to the Waltham fcchool, when he was met by a man and a woman. The boy went to school, but they evidently waited for him until play-time, when they took him away giving no explanation to anybody The matter has been placed in the hands of the police. Enquiries made by a reporter showed that the missing child is a boy named Archibald Parker «&.hJ?%- intere#s booklet entitled Public Finance nVTime of War," being a lecture by Mr W. H; Hemingway, has beenfonvarded to us, Mr Heiupil £** &M M a practical' and scientin? manner with a very : difficult and important subject, pohitiirg out the Sr vantages and^^^tages of the forma adopted different Governments^ raising the enormous sums ofmonev ne cessary to carry 6n the war. -The suW ject^as dealt with broadly and clearly, l?6^*/* **** *^orTties>' works. -The British nation has singularly neglected th e question of public nnance and^ its bearing upon wan but students of economics, politics, and ' nnance are now giving serious attention ! to the matter, and no doubt there will be important contributions to this branch of literature in the near future. Probably the majority of people regard the subject as one even drier than the study fif Latin and Greek, but it is safe to say that if presented in the interest ing manner chosen by Mr Hemingway we should not find such a deplorable lack of ideas among our people generally on a subject which is of vital and increasing importance. The lecture has been reprinted by the Auckland branch of the ]S.Z. Society of Accountants, and is a valuable addition to our literature.