LOCAL AND GENERAL

All mails usually despatched from Thames on Friday will close, this evening at 7 o'clock.

Oatmeal advanced in the Dunedin market yesterday by £2 a ton, and now stands at £24 per ton.

The Board of Trade authorises broad prices at Thames aa follows; Delivered ojd, over the counter sd, as from April lßt ' j

The business peoplte of Thames v'oro open all day to-day, and,, after obaeiving a close holiday to-morrow, will open ' on Saturday. . " ■ I

We request our, advertisers to note , that, advertisements for Saturday's issue of the Star must reach- this office before ' 11.30 a.m. to insuire insertion. ' .

There are at present 467 patients in the Auckland Hospital, winch is badly overcrowded, some of the patients having to sleep on loonies. -, ■ I A patriotic dance is to be held in the Kopu Hall to-morrow evening. The money so raised is to be distributed amongst the various patriotic associations. All the primary schools at Thames closed to-day .for the Easter .holiday, which will extend until Monday, April 8. The High School also closed fora; few days, Th© ratepayers of Feilding have sane- j tioned a loan of £7000 for the purpose of making additions to the electrical plant of the town. The voting was 111 for and ID against.

Alfred BucETand and Sons, Ltd., instructed "by the trustees in the estiite of William Beok (deceasedj, will conduct a property sale at Turua on Friday, Aprr? 12, at noon. Paatioulais of the sal© are given in an advt. in this issue..

The Napier Borough Council now has before it an application for permission to convert a building into a picture theutre., If this is granted, and in Addition the municipal theatre is let for pictures, there will be no fewer than four "movie" shows in Napier. . :

•The Band of the 6th Hawaki Regiment will play a programme of music in the p^ark on Sunday evening next, •tomniiencing; at 8 o'clock A collection will be takeh up for the Raetihi iire fund. *

Our Auckland correapohdent foWarda the latest share quotations as follows: Sales: South British Insurance £6 3s, Rising Sun 2s lOd, Talisman 9s. Buyers: Waiotahi" 6d, Komata Reeifs Id, rising Sun 2s 9d, Talisman 8s lOd, Waihi 38s, Junction 13s 6d, Waihi-Paeroa 7s,

Wford has come to hancl that a rait of timber from the Kauri Timber' Co., Kauaeranga, had drifted in the Kaua«ranga river, and, is at present doing damage to the big bridge, which' for some time has not been in a very sub* stantial condition. . ' '

A Whlakatane, message states that* two diiftvreat; persons claim to havd seen'an aeroplane on * Tuesday flying over ; fchfe sparsely popidated- back country- ofnWainagarara. Un r ,on^ instance, the.noise pithe engines drew the observer's atteritioa to the. machine, which, it is stated,'"came -from ; the direction of >'\^hif*; .Islsujdy and was \ flying in a southerly direction . towards Vr&Xr&ra,. AnoiJlier dbseiryfer n mile a-«ray from "this first aJso njiporfced hayingaoenjan ; ae<roplan©. at 1 poii.>; on. Wednes- ■■ • . -With the? foiling oil wfiioh;: ,is sent into the Hun lines,. ,a Taranaki soldier, said .■he' ja-My one dose. £fent overj, but ' he T^as una-bl^ to "say, how it. as dbiie. He^pifesomes th/it it wai doh© by electiioity. Ho knows- that -thfe gun ■ from •which it was fired, ■ .niak<;s a, fenrfill. report, and the"flash' ah'ow3 up tihe coun■%iy\ for a long ciistanoa round. The,oil i? fired in tubes.' The passage of/fJiese tubes through..the- air seemd to/ ;hea.t them up, and the oil appears to be in a. blaze -when it axriyes at its dcjstinatipii. Apart from tihe burning the oil omits deadly gas, and either th& gas or the oil eats through the Huns helmets in a few minutes. For this reason the helmets worn 'by tfi« British: are specially treated to resist the effects of this oil or ga* in case ice wind should- happen to carry it back in their direction..