LOCAL AND GENERAL.
Daffodil Day, organised for the berieiit of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers' Fund (Canterbury Patriotic Fund),- was conducted yesterday in the city . and suburbs under very unfortunato weather conditions. The total proceeds amounted to £384 0s 3d.
Mr T. Dowling,. of " Springfield," Mothven, is shipping to the North Island, per Pyne and , Qq ., about 70 Southdown hogget rams') by the s.s. Moriowai. Mr Boyle, of Messrs Pyne and Co., made selection, and was very pleased with the sheep.
The number of public schools open in Now Zealand at the end ;of 1914,' according to the annual"-report of the /Education Department, was 2301,- an ,'increase of 46 on- the preceding year. Single-teacher schools having an averago attendance of not more than 35 children, numbered 1375. During the year 99 schools were closed and 145 were opened. The average weekly roll number was 173,470. The total numI bor of children receiving primary edu- ' cation in New Zealand was 196,024. This number, included scholars attending Native schools, primary schools, etc. The average daily attendance was higher than in Britain,, the United i States, or Australia. " ■■
"If the Government attempts 1; to prevent raffles being conducted for patriotic purposes, the people of the Waimaririo electorate are going .to defy it." That, was .the statement niado by the member for Waimarino '(Mr'R.'W. Smith) in the House of ■Representatives on Thursday (says the " New Zealand Times"). Mr Smith had a good deal to say about the "narrow-minded persons" who objected to gambling in.the case of "our boys," and .he told the tale of a turkey, an elderly and hard-working bird, which had* brought £30 at a. patriotic auction, about £29 15s more than would have been paid for it under ordinary circumstances. The gambling instinct,always had existed, and always would 'exist, he said, and he for one did not want to live in a world from which the "sports" had been eliminated. ' :
Despite the fact of the war, and the many calls in consequence thereof made upon the ■ public,' their spending power, for other than' the necessaries of life, appears to have increased rather than diminished. Commercial travellers in soft goods lines report record 'business in South Canterbury .iud North Otnsro, while inquiries at Oamaru have elicited (says the "North Otago Times") that the turnover, during tho past six months, comrmrpd with the corresponding" period .prior to the war. shows a. notable increase. All this seems *o indicate that either little or no sacrifices are, being made; by the general run of peoole, or else that accrued; orofits, prising out of abnor-; "ial nrofits, nre being spent . with a. free lymd. The increase seems to ho ooTifmecV inoro or .Ipsr to one class-of "nods. busmr>Rf! beincr reported normal in most other directions.
According to an Auckland Press Association message, Mr Justice Hosking dismissed the appeal 1 by the New Zealand Shipping Company in the action in which Messrs Wilson and Horton, proprietors of the " New Zealand Herald," were awarded £101 damage* in respect of loss on rolls of paper brought from Montreal to Auckland by tho steamer Knight of the Garter. His "Honour said that the Court was concerned .only with ■ the question "whether a prima facie case had been mad(i out that the structure erected to eovr>r tho doorway of the compartment in which tho paper was stowed was unfit at tho commencement of the voyage, and whether there was sufficient ovidonco of th.it fact to go to a jury. Ho thought there was ample evidence, and dismissed the appeal, with costs to bo paid by appellant to respondents.
j It was an excellent idea, that induced ithe late Mr E. G Wright, .for many ! years chairman of the Ashburton County Council, and Mr ,C. J. Harper, the . present chairman, to go in for a policy • of extensive tree-planting in the council's numerous reserves in the Ashbur- ' ton County, and to-day very fine and • well-grown plantations of "English forest trees and pines are to be seen in every part, of the district. Those who ,had sufficient forethought about 30 t years ago to plant trees on, their hold--1 ings, now recognise that the timber '.for fencing and building is a most valuj able asset. The .qominon pinus insig■nis, which is probably the most rapid !growing tree of-the.species.planted, was j at one time considered useful for shelj ter purposes only, but of late it has ■ been sawn tip into building timber by | portable saw-milling plants, and if well • painted when erected it can be brought I into effective use for stables, granaries, j barns, and other outbuildings on the jfarm. At the present time, within a , few miles of what was once fine native ) bush, a large dwelling-house is being 'erected almost entirely of pinus in- . signis timber grown on. the farm. Neediless to say, the whole of the native bush was exhausted several years ago. A bullet-proof reputation has been won by Private Firth, of tho Auckland 15sittalion, t who returned by the Tahiti • (telegraphs, the Auckland, corresponrent ; of tJio Wellington "Post'"). JEe was hit j five time.s, wears an overcoat shabby j through the shrapnel and bullet tracks made in it, and although his right arm is.gone three inches from the shoulder, i he has the sublime optimism to hope | that he can "get back to it." A bullet i on the kneecap and four slight wounds from shrapnel at Cape Helles, failed to stop the Aucklander, who survived as !an active unit till he served at the I famous Quinn's- Post. Then a bullet caught him on the right forearm, ' smashing the bone so badly that it had to be amputated. "They chopped off the arm while I was on the hospital ship. I was only five days in bed, and now I feel tij) top," said the bulletproof man. "My captain told me a bullet evidently wouldn't settle' me, and I'd like to go back." Firth pointed 'out nine bullet-holes mv his overcoat, explaining that, tho Turkish machine guns wore particularly efficient. I
A public meeting was held in the Wellington Town Hall on Thursday (says a Press Association message) to protest against the life sentence passed on Alice Parkinson for shooting her lover, a youth named West, in Napier.
A Wellington Press Association message states that a meeting of the shareholders of the Paparoa Coal Mining Company was held yesterday, Mr T. Shailer Weston, presiding. The shareholders resolved: "That it has been proved to the satisfaction of this meeting that the company cannot, by reason of its liabHtics, continue its business, and that^.it is advisable to wind up the same, and accordingly that tho company be wound up voluntarily." •
. It is imtioipsyted: that there will;be no shortage iii insulated steamer space until the end of .thif; year,'ct any'rate (says the Auckland " Herald"). -Equal to 19,000 carcases' ■ are going from Auckland by the Otaki/ p.Jjd 25,000 carcases are to. go by the Port Albany, which is due at Auckland on Saturday. Space for another 25,000 carcases has been secured in the Mimiro. .mis makes a total of nearly 70,000 carcases which will be shipped in the next month or six weeks: The Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company will continue killing as long as there is anything to kill. There is likely' to be less "demand . for. killing space in October, so far as can, be-seen at present. Lambs will be coming 'forward in January, Februnry,yand March.- but it is too ' early at "present to estimate what shipping space will be available.
High profits in war time were dealt with by Mr J. G. Harkness, at Hawera last week, when the Government's offer of 6|d per lb for 1000 tons of cheese per month for six months for the Imperial troops were made! Following the law of supply and demand, Mr Harkness explained, prices should have been less during the last year, because the production was so much greater, but .it increased simply because the Government bought so largely. Let the Government withdraw, and what would they get? That was the position they had to keep in mind. He would ask' them to remember that _ it was not right for producers or business men who might have a contract with the Imperial Government to .exploit them for anything beyond an absolutely fair price. He believed there were men in the Old Country who would yet have to refund their undue profits, and he said advisndly that such men should be imprisoned. It was like sending out a man to the front to fight your battle, and then shooting him in the back. ,
In a letter to the " Army and Navy/ Journal." "a. retired army officer says that no intelligent soldier will fire a' dum-dum or an explosive bullet at the enemy, for they both kill. The object of the rifleman is not to kill an enemy, but to wound him. "A dead man is simply one soldier lost from his, army. He is not a burden to anyone. A wounded soldier must be jtaken care of. Four Wounded soldiers must have; an ambulance with.•'•'two horses and an able-bodied soldier driver. Thirty wounded soldiers must have a. surgeon. a hospital steward, and 10 or a dozen able-bodied soldiers to aid the doctor and wait, upon and nurse the wounded men. The ambulances block the roads and delay the troops, especially the artillery, and the Jr supply waggons.. When ja man is 'hurt everyone is nhxiousi'to get him at once :to a doctor. If, the troops on the ■ firing-line are not well disciplined, and a soldier is wounded, there will be three (or four soldiers who are willing and anxious to carry him to the rear. For every soldier wounded the firing-line loses four soldiers, and 100 wounded means that 400 men are lost _to the firingline, for they never rejoin their regiiments until the battle is over."
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Bibliographic details
Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8247, 18 September 1915, Page 4
Word Count
1,645LOCAL AND GENERAL. Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8247, 18 September 1915, Page 4
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