GENERAL NEWS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16310, 6 September 1918, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

Garden Notes wiU be found on page 4. To-morrow is the first day of the Jewish New Year (5679). New Year Eve services will be held in the Synagogue to-night. George James Finch, charged with theft, wilj come up for sentence at the Supremo Court on Monday, at 10 30 a.m., before his Honour Mr Justice Herdman. The Canterbury Land Board -was engaged all day yesterday in hearing about twenty applications from returned discharged soldiers for houses and land under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Amendment Act, 1917. The results of the Board's deliberations are not yet available. The new chamber of the House of Representatives is almost ready for occupation, and a beginning is to be made with the removal of furniture from the old Chamber within the next feiv dnys. Tho galleries are receiving tho final touches. A good deal of w nv k has still to bo done in the large lobby and the neighbouring rooms and passages, but there is no "doubt (says the ,c S*>w Zealand Times") that, the quarters will be ready for tho session in October. A resident in America for many yenrs writes to her sister in Dunedin as follows : —"The American women are doing everytl'ing to conserve food. In order to save 'white flour we use cornmeal, oatmeal, barley, or any of the other substitutes. You say that where you live one would not think that a war vas on, but over here, prices oflever.vihing have so advanced that it will j make you remember that there is a j war on. Food, clothing, and fuel have i increased in price gr atly. I hnvc had j my order for coal in all summer, but ! there is prospect of my getting ! it. Soft coal isn't so hard to" get; but ' even of this people could get only a | bushel at ji time last winter, it was so i s.'a' - cc. Ail the cars are tied up carry- j ing food to the soldiers, and tne hard j ; coal is needed for the ships carrying j the troop,. If thero are not sufficient ' single men to fll the next draft the ' vo'ing married men with no family will nave to go." * j !

Recently the ' Canterbury Drivers' Union made representations to the City Council with reference to the collcction of household refuse, asking that assistance be given to the carters in all instances on account of the dirty nature of the work and the untvieidy reccptacles used by many people, which ore sometimes too heavy for one man to lift. At the union's meeting on "Wednesday a communication was received from the Town Clerk stating that the committee concerned regretted that it could not see its way to employ any more men on the work -eferred to, as assistance was already provided for carters. The letter was received, and the secretary instructed to send a further letter informing 'lie Town Clerk that the contents of lis letter showed that he was not familiar ■with the conditions under which tne men were working, as in one instance a carter had assistance only for the loading of 2J loads out of 19 loads carted during the weekly period.

We have received from M. 10s for our Rod Cross Fund, and 10s for our Serbian Fund

The civil action. Thomas Irvine and John Withell v. William Charles Chamberlain, has been set down For hearing in the Supreme Court on October 2nd.

A meeting of tho Canterbury shareholders of the Dominion Cement Company, Ltd. (in liquidation), will be held in the Chamber of Commerce to-mor-row, at noon.

Tho chamber concerts organised recently by Miss Millicent Jennings were a financial as well as an artistic success, and Miss Jennings has forwarded a cheque for £35 to the Red Cross "Our Day" Fund, the proceeds of the concerts.

At tho Canterbury Aviation School yesterday Mr C. M. Hill, the instructor, mado a passenger flight in one of the 100 h.p. machines, taking up Mrs W. H. Montgomery, of Little River, daughter of Sir Jas. Allen, ActingPrime Minister. The machine was in the air for some little time at un altitude of about sCoft. and the flight concluded with a spiral volplane.

In regard to the provision of hydroelectric power for the North lslanl, Mr titant, Electrical Engineer to *lio CiiristcUurcli City Council, in an address at Auckland, said he favoured the location of a plant at the Aratiatia Rapids, on the Waikato river. In respect to the distribution of population in the North Island, Lake Taupo was approximately the centre cf gravity, and tho distance of transmission to any part of tho North Island was not out of financial reach. Replying to a question which suggested that it was not a payable proposition to bring electricity long distances, Mr Stark referred to the case of Toronto, Canada. Here the transmission was conducted over a much longer distance than 100 miles, and the average cost was £3 per kilowatt a year. In Dunediji the consumers would consider themselves fortunate if they secured power for £6 per kilow-itt per year. Mr Stark dealt in detail with the scheme suggested by him. and he urged the people of Auckland to combine with those in other parts of the. North Island to impress on the Government the necessity of providing hydro-electric power.

The owners of a number of motorcars have had the unpJeasant experience recently of failing to find them where they were left in Gisborne. The cars have, in at, least instances, been taken from outsido places of entertainment. On Friday night, states the Gisborne "Tirc.es," two machines were loft in Peel street whilst the respective owners were in the Opera House enjoying a performance. The proprietor of ono of th 3 cars went outside at the interval end found that his car was missing. He immediately went over to the police station and reported the loss. There was an exciting struggle between a detective ad a soldier a3 tho sequel to the taking away of a taxi car. It appears that about 10 o'clock the owner of the car, on leaving tho Opera House, found that his car had disappeared. He, too, went across the road to the police station and reported the matter. Accompanied by the detective the owner went in search of tho car. They enlisted the services of a taxi proprietor, and, acting on "information received," proceeded down Childers road. After a long chase, the detective overtook and arrested a soldier in the missing car. It is anticipated that the affair will have a sequel in Court.

Daring the nine mouths to the end of March the expenditure of the Church Army had amounted to £8/3,318, and the receipts vo £834,280. 'iho activities of this organisation included kitchen cars on the West front, hostels for men on leave in London, training l for discharged men, parcels for prisoners of war, oesides work in New Zealand, and provision for the comfort of the men cn transports. General Sir William Robortson recently paid a high tribute to the work of the Church Army. At the annual meeting in London he stated that the death-dealing elfcct of modern armaments was so great, ilie strain on the powers of human >ndurance was so prolonged and intense, and the numbers engaged were i:o colossal, that nothing less than the highest standard of moral and physical powers would sufficc to ensure victory. Every endeavour should therefore be made to provide facilities for our troops to recover and retain those powers. The work of the Chu.cn Army was so designed as to conduce effectively to that end, and he commended the efforts of the organisation to his hearers.

Tho wireless station at Rarotonga is now in full working order. The provision of wireless tcleg.apJi facu.ties for Rarotonga has been under discussion for some years, tho residents urging that the absence of any means of communication with the outside wqrld has been the cause of much loss, particularly to those engaged in tho fritit export trade. In July, 1916, the fruit exporters agreed to pay a duty of Id a case on fruit, amounting to about £700 a year, to provido for the maintenance of a wireless plant, and this duty lias .apparently been collected ever since, though tho plant has only now been brought into operation. Rarotonga. iri common with the other islands of the Cook Group, has always suffered through the lack of telegraphic communication. the nearest point from which messages could bo despatched being Tahiti, where thrre is a wireless station. This is nearly two days' steam from Avnrua, the p r incipr>l town and port of Rnrotonga. A site for a wireless station wis acquired some miles from Avarua about three years ago, but. as wireless plant could not be secured owing to war needs, tho erection of the station could not then be proceeded ®"ith. The South Pacific is now provided with a chain of wireless stations, capable of communicating with New Zealand under favourable conditions. These are at Fiji (Suva). Tahiti (Point Venusl, and Rnrotonrr n (Avarun), and both Rarotonga and Tahiti can t-a'nsm'fc mcswgr's to Fiji, which is conned led w?th New Zealand and Canada by cable.

On the grounds that thero was more than one public bar an objection was lodged by tiie ijolice at the last mceiing of the Christ church Licensing Committee to the renewal of the license of the United Service Hotel. When the application for the license was renewed at yesterday's meeting of the committee, I the chairman,. AL- S E. M-Carthy, S.M., | said that lie had inspected the hotel,' j and was satisfied that thero were four ! bars. The committee did not intend to i do anything at present, but the whole j matter would te disbursed at the next annual meeting, -when the attention of | publicans would be directed to Section ! 200 of the statute, which in cffect said | that the only public bir permissible -was j that mentioned on the license. However, in the meantime the license -would, be granted. A similar course was adopted in the case of the Dominion Hotel, -which his Worship considered had three public bars. A "public bar," or "bar," as defined bv the A?t, is "any room passasze, or lobby in nnv licensed premises open immediately to any street, highway, public place, or public thoroughfare where the public ni-iy enter and purchase and tho majority of the so-called "private" bars are res>'ly "public" barß under the Act. A publican may havo_ as many rcally "private" bars as he likes, but according to the statute, after the granting of a publica'n'3 license, "no bar beyond th-> one bar stated on the license shall bo opened or used in or upon licensed premises. If any person or u=es more than the one stated bar for the sale of Tquors, or knoTvincrlv permits the same to be opened or for such sale, he shall be deemed to have guilty of selling without a license." It has not been the nract, : ce on the part of the committeo to define the particular "bar" in a .license, and this is tho question that will be brought up at the"next I annual meeting in June.

| For disobeying tho lawful command of a superior officer, the following sol- , diers have beon sentenced bv district. •: court-martial to liard labourß4lßo Privato X. 11. Alderson, Details, Trenthnm (two years); 57062 Privato A. J. • Osborne, CI I>etails, Feathers-ton (one year and eleven months).

_ Two pupils of the Canterburv Aviation Company's School—C. H." Taylor (Dunedin), and J. Simmers (TSmarn) — both essayed flights for th'eir tickets yesterday, and both experienced minor mishaps their machines while in the air. In Taylor's case an engine valve broke, and lie had to transfer to another machine to pass his tests, while a_ splinter camc off the propeller of Simmers'? machinc when no made his flight, nnd ho had to postpono his test. Good lnndings were made by both men under rather trying circumstances.

Tho Taranaki members of Parliament have a splendid record in connexion with tho war. Messrs Okey and Jennings have each given two sons who hnvo laid down their lives in the Empire's cause: Captain Hine, M.P. for Stratford, is ngain at tho front, after being severely wounded; Mr G. V. Pearce, M.P., has an only son at tho front, who lias also been wounded, whilst tho remaining member, Mr C. A. Wilkinson, has just had the pleasuro of welcoming _ his son home with the coveted Military Cross to his credit, as well as tho Belgian Croix do Gucrro.

All coughs, recent or chronic, in young or old, yield to Loasby's Stop It. Grocers and chemists. 1

We would again remind our readers that the special drapery and clothing sale at Armstrong's stores will •-•ouclude to-morrow. i

Quick Optical your eyeglasses get broken, it is most important that you should got the correct lenses fitted again. We have the machinery and large stock essential for correct optical repairs. Walter J. Watson, 1>.8.0.A. (London), Expert Optician. 3

A Is 3d packet of the famous "No Rubbing" Laundry Help is suiik-ient for seven weekly family washings. Truly a wondorful "boon to every housewiia. Royds Bros, and Kirk, Ltd., wholesale agents for "No Rubbing." 5

The spring millinery windows at Armstrong's are showing "things of beauty" indeed. It is dotibtful if equal displays have ever been mado in Chiistchurch. Their show rooms also are veritablo bowers of beauty, and every item upholds Armstrong's famous low price. 12

You will find the very ring, to please her at Cyril K. Whalo's, nest Ballantyne's. Jiivcry stono bright and sparKling and securely set. Tho prices are in your favour, too—£6 10s to £50 10b.

Spring cleaning time round once more. Labour savers in abundance at Ashby Bergli's. Brooms and brushes, mops, dusters, Vacuum cleaners, step-ladders, in l'act, everything you need at Ashby, Bergh and Co., Ltd., High street. , 3

In recognition of a successful sale, Armstrong's. Stores will abound in all sorts of bargains to-day. 3