GENERAL NEWS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16885, 13 July 1920, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

Upwards of £100 is offered in prizes for the ploughing match to bo held under the auspices of the Courteuay Agricultural and Pastoral Association. A gold medal will be given in each class, and 20 per cent, will be added to all prizes won by returned soldiers. "One of the great lessons I learnt at the war," declared Colonel Young at the Y.M.C.A. last night, "was that you never knew your man. Some of tho hardest cases I had to deal with in depot or camp turned out to be the bravest of the brave in the'line. A man has always something good about him if you can only find it out." Colonel Young, speaking at the Y.M.C.A. last night, said that one of the finest sermons he had ever heard was delivered by a padre at Sandhurst on tho subjest of "Leadership," and one of the main points mentioned by the preacher was that of civility. "I am afraid," added Colonel Young, "that the young men of New Zealand are somewhat lacking in the quality of respect for their elders. This should not be, and respect and civility should always be shown even in those cases where perhaps it is not deserved." There was a large gathering of men, including a good proportion of returned soldiers, at the Y.M.C.A. last night, when Colonel Young, O.C. Canterbury District, gave a chat dealing with some of his war reminiscences. Colonel Young dealt mainly with the subject of military schools, both in England and France, and he explained in detail some of the phases" of that extensive system of training of officers and n.c.o.'s, which, he said, did so much to hring about the defeat of the Hun. At the close of the talk Colonel Young was given three ringing cheers. ""House rents are about the same as in New Zealand,'' a former resident of Christchurch, now living in Peckham, London; writes to a friend in this city. "We have a six-roomed brick house, with bathroom, gas stove, and ordinary range as well, fireplace in every room, and glass conservatory, all in tip-top condition, for 17s per week. The landlord pays taxes. There is a big building scheme on hand at present by the Government, and in the London district alone it is expected that in less than a year from "now (Mny) over 100,000 houses will bo erected, which will let at from 15s to 25s per week. The building trades are very brisk indeed. There are fewer men out of work in England to-day than in the country's whole history, and if everyone liked to work there would be no one idle."

A misunderstanding as to the amount of bonus which should be paid them culminated yesterday morning in about thirty yardmen and others engaged in the State Coa] T>epartment declining to commence work at the usual hour. Pre- ; yiouslv a bonus of 4s per week was being paid them, and, when the men were paid on Friday each envelope contained an extra £1, which represented an ad- .. ditional bonus of 2s for ten weeks. The men protested that tho amount of the bohus, as granted bv tho Arbitration Court should be 6s, in addition to the previous amount. The manager of the depot (Mr F. A. Nalder) met the men, •ind.it was discovered that the men were justified in their'protest, for a recent amendment in the award under which , they worked provided that the total bonus should be 10s. Mr Xalder had been misled into believing that tbe bonus had been increased to Cs, instead i

of bv 6s. The matter in dispute was accordingly adjusted. The Vaimairi County Council recently forwarded to the Minister of Public Health a resolution urging the Government to promote legislation to allow a Hospital iioard to borrow money for permanent buildings. At yesterday's meeting of the Council a letter was received Horn the Minister, the Hon. C. J. Parr, stating that powor already exi isted under the Hospital and Charitablo institutions Act, IUC'J, for a Hospital board to do so. The difficulty, however, had been to obtain loans of large amounts, and that matter was now being considered by the Government, with a view to seeing what could bo done to I facilitate the raising of money for I capital expenditure. As regarded sub- ; skly, if money were borrowed lor capital ' expenditure, the amounts levied on the | contributory local authorities for re- ; payment or the loan earned suosk.y. i .Members of the Council expressed sur- ! prise at the information, or which., it was stated the large majority of people' ! were ignorant. More than one men:rtber expressed the opinion that the Hos- ' ! pital Board had been "'throwing water f in the eyes of the local bodies in re--1 g.wl to the erection of such buildings, i and that the infoiiuation contained in the Minister's letter cleared up a most important point !'

An interesting statement made bv Colonel Young at the Y.M.C.A. las*t night was that after the armistice he had the opportunity of witnessing a demonstration of a new Danish machine gun, which was wonderfully light and wonderfully good, and one which he felt sure would be generally adopted. j The demonstrator threw the gun into a I mud hole, picked it out again, and then j went on firing as strongly as ever. The ! force of this latter quality was sinj cerelv appreciated by the machine gunners "present at the meeting, who had had occasion to use a machine gun in the mud. Many complaints have been made by the Melbourne public in regard to the nuisance created by the noisy testing of motor-cars and cycles in the city streets, particulaily when no silencer is attached to the exhaust of the machine. This matter has been taken ur> by the General Purposes and Legislative Committee of the Melbourne City Council. The committee has decided to instruct the | council's officers to co-operate with the police in rigorously enforcing tbo?o provisions of the Motor-car Act which arc directed against this class of cficnce. The police will be asked to exercise strict" vigilance in the suppression of this nuisance. A request was recently made to the Waimairi County Council to authorise a pill to raise £-1000, in addition to the £0000 already authorised for the erection of a Memorial Hall and Library at Pananui to the soldiers of, the district. " The residents of the Marshland and Harcwood ridings objected to being included in the second proposal, averring that they would not benefit by the memorial,'whereas at some future time they might desire to erect a memorial of their own. They were quite prepared, however, to pay for the original £GCOO. The matter was discussed at yesterday's meeting of .the Council, and" it was decided that the area for tho second poll should be the same as that for. the previous one, it being pointed out that those who were opnosed to being included in the area liad their remedy before a Magistrate before the poll. An obscure question as to the relation between economic pressure and dental decay was propounded by a member of the audience at a lecture on dental matters given at the Workers' Educational Association meeting on Saturday evening. Tho questioner brought in by way of illustration an old boar who had been living the life of an outcast, presumably driven off by the herd, and who, when shot, was found to have bad teeth. The lecturer replied that he could only tell by an examination of the teeth whether decay had set in. It might have happened that the boar in question was deprived of his natural food, and had to take to an unnatural diet. That would have caused decay, as it would in the case of the teeth of any animal if ' situated' likewise, and that was the cause of the trouble in respect of civilised peoples. An unnatural diet would cause dental decay in any living thing with teeth. , Regarding tho proposed deputation from Marlborough and Canterbury relative to tho completion of the South, 'island Main Trunk railway, Mr P. 11. Climie informed a reporter yesterday that he received a telegram late yesterdav afternoon from the secretary of the South Island Main Trunk Railway League to the effect that owing to delavs the Railway League found that the 16th would nob suit as the date of the deputation, and that the 19th would be more convenient. Mr Climio was noE able to say whether this last mentioned date would suit the Canterbury members, many of whom spend their weekends at home. He has communicated -with Mr D. G. Sullivan. M.P.. secretary of the Canterbury Members' Committee, and tho question will be discussed at a meeting of Canterbury members to he held in 'Wellington this morning. Other subjects which the Progress Leaguo has forwarded for discussion at the same meeting are:—Buller Gorge railway, the hydro-electricity position in Canterbury (as dealt with in a recent report to the League), and the question of work on the Arthur's Pass tunnel. A good deal of inconvenience has been occasioned lately on account of differences in the recording of timo by the public clocks in tho city, and at the end of last week tlicro was a difference of about five minutes as shown by the Post Office tower clock and some of the other public clocks. At 8 last night the clock on the Post Office tower, the tramway shelter clock, and the railway time all synchronised, but there was a difference of four minutes between tho time recorded on the big clock and that on the north side of the Post Office building, when a "Press" reporter made another inspection three hours lat<*r. The position is that tho large clock at the Post Office, as well as the clock on the tower in Higlij street, are controlled by the city elec-i tricity department, the master clock! being in the Town Clerk's office, and these clocks are synchronised daily at, 9 a.m. in accordance with advice from | Wellington. Simultaneously advice is i also given to the railway otficials as to { the exact time through the medium of the central telephone office. The tramway shelter clock, which is generally recognised as being the most reliable, is operated under the supervision of a local firm of watchmakers, which also acts under advice from the Wellington Post Office. A discussion took place at last night's meeting of the Woolston iJorougii Council in connexion with the difficulty of obtaining houses for tenancy.- Cr. D. JVicKae complained of the action of certain landlords in refusing to let their empty houses when tenfcnts were requiring them. At present, ho said, there were several people in Woolston with families who were quite unable to get a house. Cr. L. Hart said the position was not confined to Woolston. In the city, for instance, he knew of about forty houses that had been empty for quite a considerable time, the reason being that it enhanced the value of a ; house that was sold if a buyer cou'-d ■ enter into occupation straight away, and not have to wait until a tenant found another house to shift into. Cr. J. C. Hobson objected to any action being taken to interfere with the right of people speculating in houses. Cr. Owen said the whole matter was a question of £.s.d. —it paid landlords better to keep their hoiises empty in case of a sale." Cr. J. L. Gant said ho thought it unfair to force people to let houses when they had just got them ready, for sale. Eventually, on the motion of Cr. Mcßae, it was decided to j protest to the Government against the action of landlords in refusing to let j such houses.

I In the course of a chat at tho Y.AI.C.A. last nigUt on some of his war reminiscences, Colonel ioung, O.C. District, made reieience to tiio art of eamoullage, especially as practised by tne i'reneii, who lie said Had stiown a genius for that device. One good instance he quoted related to the creation of an observation post. A Erench artist came up and made a sketch of an old blasted willow tree. Tho sketch was taken back and a steel replica of the tree was made, correct in eveiy detail, with the proper colouring and everything. L'y night the real tree came down and the artificial one took its place, and equipped with a ladder and periscope, bota, of course, concealed, proved a marvellous success for observation purposes. Another device he saw adopted was the placing of a periscope iu what gnpcartd to be an ordinary wiring post, but which was an i artificial steel erection. This enabled a I good view to be obtained of the j enemy's front Hue without detection. | "if there is another war," added Colonel Y'oung, "eamoullage will be one of the most important ttiiags needed, for tue next war will be fougnt largely in the air, and if you cannot hide yourself you will be numbed and raked by machine guns from 'planes, and that is one of the mest terrifying experi- , ences possible.' : '

\ poll to fill the vacancy for the Sydenham Ward !n the Chnstehurcn Citv council, caused by the resignation of Mr E. Peek, will be taken to-morrow, i"The polline: hours will be from 9 a.rn to 7 p.m. There are two candidates for the seat, Messrs C E- Boon and F. R. Cooke. It is anticipated that a scale of . higher tram fares, including the aboliI tion of the penny section, will come | into forre in Auckland on Saturday .' next. All the local bodies concerned i have now agreed to the form the conI cession tickets shall take. The necessary Order-in-Couucil will probably be issued on Thursday. ' An incoming tramcar from Sumner became derailed at the Sumner embankment fijjout 5 p.m. yesterday, but no serious uelay or any alarm*was incurred, as only the pony wheels of the i car left the rails, and few of the passengers knew that there wa.s anything amiss until they were instructed to get out and walk. However, they had not to walk far, as there happened to be another electric car a short distance along the line, and the transhipped ' passengers were brought into town by it. The line wr-s cleared for trrJHc to i the terminus before 7 p.m. The famous "A.C* Tabs—the ideal ! cure for constipation—arc again avail- ; able from Loasby and Co. direct, or from stores and wholesale houses. Pco- ; p!e who suffer from constitpation fuul i "A.C." Tabs an ideal remedy—you'll J known if you've tried them —try them j if you haven't. 6 I Yesterday the people of Christchurch | got countless boot and slice bargains at Hannah's sale. Here are some more snips:—Black Velvet Slippers, soft leather solos and Quilted Satin Slippers, red, blue, and black, twine soles, cleiring r.fc 5* lid. Velvet kczy felippers, soft leather solos, in almost every known colour, Gs lid: Quilted Satin ! Slippers, felt and leather soles, red, i blue. black, and brown, 7s lid. Girls' j Black Boots and Shoes, in broken ' sizes, at os to 8s below present-day prices. And hundreds more. 3128 "Everything and anything," from, dainty blouses to greasy overalls, can be washed to perfection with "No Rubbing Laundry Help." It's a real blessing to housewives. H49?4 Our men understand the necessity for care, and "safety first" is our rule in regard to your property. For moving, storage, or distribution, come- to us first. J. M. Heywood and Co. Ltd. H4943 SMART, UP-TO-DATE STUDEBAKER ROADSTER—£46S. Now on view—Very smart and newlooking Studobaker 2-3-seater roadster. Just rcfinished in cream; 4-ryl., e.1., and s.s. Shod with Silvertown Cord Tyres, which cost £123, and are nearly new. Car in tip-top order, .and full equipment, including spare rim, tyro, etc. Price £465. HANDSOME. UP-TO-DATE BUICK SIX—£SCO. Inspection Invited —Buick Six, 5seater, just repainted French grey. Full road equipment/ e.1., and s.s., spare wheel, tyre, etc., and rear windscreen. Locks like new, and in splendid order. Good tyres. Price £500. MITCHELL SlX—£32s. A Special Bargain—s-seater Mitchell Six, lato model, e.l. and s.s. Smartlooking car with up-to-date body. Good tyres and full road equipment, including spare rim, tyre, etc. Price, tor a quick sale, £325. Adams, Ltd., Garage, 219 Tuam street. C