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Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 4

j Following is the official weather forecast for -4 hours from 9 a.m. this day:— } •' Freshening northerly strong to gale. j The weather appears likely to be cloudy ! and unsettled, with rain following. i Barometer falling: tides high; sea rough. | swell on the coast." A woman named Bridget Brain, alias Grace, alias Anderson |5S| was brought .before the Police Court this morning ' on a charge of having stolen £38, the . property of George Underbill. T\w r ; arrest bad been made on the complaint ; lof Underbill, a coloured man, who said j that after he came from the races on Wednesday, having had a good win, he met the accused woman, and they stayed the night at a place in ' Nelson Street. He stated that he gave the woman about £38 in notes, to look after for him, and that she appropriated I the money. The accused woman was rej mande<l till Wednesday to enable the ' police to make fuller inquiries concerning the case, bail being fixed at one surety of £30. At. a meeting of the Auckland KinderI garten Association, hold yesterday after- , ] noon. Mrs. Percy Butler and Mr. E. W. ; i Murray were elected to tho Council, the ■ 'latter in succession to tlie late Mr. L. -I. ■ Bagnall. Particulars of Mr. Bagnall's! : bequest of £500 to the Association were received from his solicitors, and a resoluI tion of thanks was drafted for transmission to Miss Bagnall. Miss J. Oliphant i was appointed director of the Campbell Kindergarten, and Miss O. Rutherford -assistant-director of the Myers Kindergarten Tlie reports from the various schools all showed that work was proceeding satisfactorily. ! A large crowd assembled on the Nelson 1 wharf on Friday evening (says the, "Colonist"! to witness the departure of the Nikau, evidently in anticipation of a demonstration being made against an ! individual who had attempted to evade l military service and was being taken to Wellington under escort. The gathering included a numher of returned soldiers, who arrived on the scene in a motor-car bedecked with the flags of the Allied nations. Nothing, however, of an un- | seemly character eventuated, the individual chiefly concerned, who took up a : prominent position near the gangway, I being quite unabashed by the remarks, I mostly good-natured, which were hurled at him. He appeared to be obsessed with .grievances, which he aired from time to I 'time. As a parting shot, the soldiers | counted him out, and the individual smil- j ingly took the count. Is 45 years too old for active service? Mr. Duncan Allen, of Lawson, New South I Wales, has been welcomed back from the front by his fellow-citizens. Mr. Allen | is 65 years of age, and is a former well- j known resident of Lithgow. He had 12 j years' service with the Imperial Forces,, ami says he has from early youth regarded himself as a soldier, and it was that spirit that impelled him to offer himself for active service some two years ago. After a couple of futile attempts to enlist he hit upon the idea of dyeing his hair and moustache, and otherwise fixing himself up. Then he put his age back to 45. and made his final and successful application. After a short period of training he was sent to Egypt, and thence to France, where he saw eonsideri able trencli lighting, during which he I was twice wounded. While in hospital ' the veteran's real age leaked out, and -while the colonel of the regiment congra- | tulated him upon his loyalty and cour- ! age, he thought Private Allen should go home, which he did. Tbe old soldier has !a grandson in the fighting line, and his greatest regret was that he had to leave him behind. The Wellington "Posf is officially informed that the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company is a separate entity, and is not controlled by the White Star Line, as j was stated in a special shipping fusion article in the "Post" on Friday last. I "Beekeeping is increasing rapidly in ! New Zealand." stated a speaker at the ! Beekeepers' Conference in Wellington, ."and there will soon be more work for the inspectors than they will be able to I accomplish. They have sufficient to do ! without attendintr to the Government . apiaries."

The claim that the Waikato Winter Show is the biggest dairy exhibition in the world has been put forward by the indefatigable secretary of the association, Mr. Paull. In arriving at this decision the association was actuated by the fact that the entries of dairy produce at the show exceeds by a very great majority the record entries at dairy exhibitions held in the leading dairying countries of the universe. A reorganisation has been going on in the branch of the Defence Department which deals with the drafting of men from civilian life into the Army, whether as volunteers or as conscripts. This process of reorganisation is now nearly complete, but it is improbable that the information will be available for two weeks yet. It is reported that the number of men not traced, exclusive of those who have been included in the ballot in error, will be about 1,000.

The fact that the punishment falls upon the dependents when a soldier's pay is stopped during a period of detention for some military offence was mentioned at the meeting of the Advisory Board of the War Relief Societies in Wellington. The chairman referred to the case of a soldier who had been sentenced to two years' imprisonment abroad, pay being stopped for that period. The Board decided to approach the Minister for Defence with the abject of protecting the wives and children in such eases.

"It is now the first week in April, writes an English correspondent, '"and it might be the first week in January judging by the weather condtions which have obtained throughout Great Britain. The heaviest snowstorm of the whole winter has just occurred in Bradford, there being drifts two feet deep. All British farmers are now in the thick of lambing time, and the poor lambs are having a very cold reception. The weather is indeed a calamity, and instead of having mild, open, sunshiny weather, with farmers busy in the field ploughing and sowing, the country is covered with thick snow and the outlook is far from being good." A Palmereton North youth, who is a pupil of the High School there, set a tine example of how to make the best use of his holidays. During the last summer vacation he spent nearly the whole of the time in the harvest fields of farms near Palmerston, and by the time the school resumed his earnings had reached quite a substantial sum. The present term holidays he is spending in the potato fields, where, with a school chum, he is potato-picking at 1/3 per bag. and the wages to be made at this work in fairly good crops may be judged when the "lad earned 13/- last Thursday, and 16/- the day before.

A seven-roomed house in the native settlement at Okahu Bay, Orakei, waa totally destroyed by fire last evening. The owner, Mrs. Rere Arama, who was the only occupant, had gone to tea with a friend, and in her absence the building was found to be on fire. An alarm was raised, but the fire had too strong a hold, and it was not even possible to save the furniture. The house was a comparatively new one, having been built about three years ago, and was one of the best in the bay.

A mighty strong case of falsifying income-tax returns was sheeted home to one John Williams, managing director of the Clayton Tinplate Co., and director of other trading concerns in Wales, whß" was found guilty of faking the returns of profit of the tinplate business, as well as of his private income, whereby the revenue had been defrauded of nearly £3,000. Williams was a J.P. and a shining light in local religious and political parties. The judges at the Glamorgan Assizes, referring to the prisoner as a communicant member of the dissenting Church, called him the meanest of hounds and fined him £4,000, with an additional contribution of £100 towards the cost of prosecution. The fine was promptly paid.

An amusing situation occurred at the sitting of the Appeal Board in Napier, when an appeal was adjourned pending the getting of particulars relating to a man's business. Thene were obtained from one of the Government departments, but as soon as the chairman (Mr. J. VV. Poynton, S-M.) commenced to question the man it was apparent there was a mistake. Then appellant said there were two other men in the district of the same name and the same initials as him. "One of them," said the appellant, "actually goes about with a picture of my shop with mc outside, saying it is his shop and lam his assistant." Mr. Poynton: "Hadn't you better get advice from your lawyer about getting an injunction to stop him!" Mr. Lusk (who appeared for appellant) : "'He is getting better advice now, sir." Mr. Poynton, in adjourning the appeal, said that a comedy of errors had apparently resulted from the confusion of names.

"What strikes one most of all is the way England is awake." writes Sergt. Frank D. Oxley from Sling Camp to his parents at Picton. "Everybody is working. People in New Zealand work very hard, but it is nothing to what the English people are doing. ... At two ports en route the residents did not appear to be a bit enthusiastic; in fact, there were thousands of young men to be seen who should be giving a helping hand

but the same spirit does not exist in England. You don't see young men anywhere out of khaki. Every one is ~ soldier. Women and boys do all the work. The English people, too, are so grateful to the New Zealanders for coming to help them. Everyone showed their enthusiasm as our troop train passed through, the different places en route to camp. Women stood with their young babies in one arm and silently held up the other as a greeting to the boys from overseas. Old men stood at attention, bareheaded, snd saluted. It was a grand sight to see them, and impressed one more than all the waving of flags and beating of drums, which are mostly not really meant."

At the annual meeting of the Birkenhead Riding Ratepayers' Association, Mr. James Cracie. of tilenfield. was elected president. It was resolved to hold a special meeting of the Association to consider the selection of a candidate to contest the forthcoming election for the Riding representative on the Waitemata County Council. The newly-formed Chamber of Commerce at Pahiatua is combining with a syndicate of farmers to erect new shops in the town. The committee includes the Mayor, several councillors, and part of the Trustee Board appointed to look after soldiers' interests. A successful concert was held in the Birkenhead Presbyterian Church last night, in aid of the building fund, the programme being provided by the Central Mission choir. The tact and energy displayed by \Vhang_xei grocers in trying to cope with the enormous demand from housewives for the famous "No Rubbing" Laundry Help is most praiseworthy.— (Ad.)