NEWS OF THE DAY.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1208, 19 November 1919, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Two •'hundred'" aiul sixty new members were elected at the 'last meeting of; tho executive .of the Ohiistehurcli Returned '/{Soldiers' Association. ;

A PaJinerston lady, who, says the 'Mauawatu Times,' is familiar with the conditions on Christmas Island, is highly amused at tho story'cabled to Newv ; .Zealand about the finding of starving castaways by H.M.S. New Zealand, and all tho picturesque details connected therewith. Her idea is that some Do Eougenient has given rein/to his fantastic imagination and perpetrated something really, worth 'telling to the marines. ' She says the mission l at Christmas Islands is well' ■organised, and. that a number of wellfed natives livo thero in idyllic content

The Agricultural Committee J wis icportecl (states- a Wellington message) on the petition of Mr C. C. M. Ollivor, of Ohristchurch; praying that the allegations made that Messrs Bims, Cooper, and Co. have been, or- arc now, associated with an American Meat Trust should bo investigated by the committee of the House. .The committee reports that in its opinion Dr Reakcs, in his evidence before the Meat Export Trade 'Committee, acted in good faith and in the public interest. The committee had no evidence to connect Messrs Sims, Cooper, and Co. with the American Meat Trust, but on the contrary the evidence adduced showed that the company was in no way connected with the trust. This view is borno out by the finding of tho Meat Export Trado Committee in 1917.

Tho expenses incidental to the visit of H.M.S. New Zealand, including entertainment of officers and mon, necessitated an expenditure of £2OOO (vide Supplementary Estimates), In tho Masterton. Magistrate's Court the other day, the local manager for Levin and' Co. was fined £SO for storing a large quantity of explosives in the boroiigli. The defence was that* owing to the railway 'cut,' several huge orders had arrived at one time.

Before proroguing, Parliament pass- j cd a resolution, proposed by Mr Mas- j sey r , recommending to nest Parliament j the necessity for raising the salaries j of members,, and also of providing nj superannuation scheme for thoso who j ■had given many years of service to the 1 State.

Sixty-two disillusioned young .French i brides (says the Paris 'lntransigcuui'; I have returned from New Tork to 1 France in tho mail steamer St. O.la. : They had married American soldiers, but found life in the United States unlisted to their temperament. The •Strenuous existence of their new suri roundings deprived marriage of its I charm. Their husbands once out of j uniform and back in the whirl of btisi- | ness becamo -too much absorbed to give j them tho amount of attention they needed. So they felt (says the Paris | journal) that their only resource was j divorce, and a return to the country in j which their sex is fully appreciated by j the other, and is not placed second to ! prosaic money-making.

A peculiar accident which ended fatally oeeiWrcd on a station at Taihape recently. A youth named Edmund Robinson Jack, 19 years of age, son of Mr D. W. Jack, of Tauranga, was riding a horse over country covering an underground cave. The. earth gavo way, and horso and rider fell 25 feet. Alarm at tho youth's absence led to a search party discovering him lying dead undor his horse, which also had its neck broken.

The embargo against the importation of New Zealand apples into Hawaii Island has been lifted by the American authorities at the instance of Mr A. Moritzson, a retired Duncdin merchant, who recently spent somo months in Honolulu. Mr Moritzson estimates that Now Zealand growers will be able to ship 3000 eases by every steamer during six months when the CaUi'ornian apples are uofc available.