LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2041, 24 August 1906, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The German troops in South-West Africa are almost starving, and have had no boots or linen for months past, according to the 'Deutsche Tages Zeitung.' Five hundred Chinamen, who were homeless and destitute owing to the earthquake and fire in San Francisco, sailed for /Jhina a few days ago at the expense of the Chinese Government. The largest manoeuvres ever planned by the United States Navy Department will take place this summer. Evolutions without signals will be one of the leading features. Showers of pennies and half-pennies fail every morning in London street ana Norfolk Square, Paddington. Tfie inhabitants are unable to discover wltence they come, but it is believed 'an invisible . philanthropist shoots * them from a cross-bow. Mr Gaston, the New York manager of a New York firm of publishers, declared before a select committee of the House of Lords that American cigarettes are worse than Chicago tinned meat. To-day Canada bids fair to justify the proud boast of her sons that the twentieth century on the American continent will belong to her, as the nineteenth century has belonged to the Unit<*l States. A masked robber entered an express train in Germany and robbed a lady, her three children, and their governess, at the point of a revolver, afterwards making his escape while the train was running at full speed. Mr • Barton Hepburn,, formerly Controller of the United States Treasury, declares that American tourists and Ajmericans who keep up establishments in England and France are spending at least £80,000,000 a year in Europe and France, thereby off-setting the trade balance and causing the present unfavourable condition in the money market. So alarmed have Kansas farmers become of their inability to procure enough hands to gather the wheat crops that hundreds of them are visiting neighbouring gaols, paying the fines of tramps, and taking then to the wheat fields in motor ears. Christchurch people are at present very much exercised over the sudden subsidence of one of their streets, and it is now being recognised that the city is resting on a very unstable foundation. Experts say that Christchurch is built on ground deposited by the Waimakairiri centuries ago, and that for four or five hundred feet down there is only sand and clay and timber, and that the whole is kept shaky by the upward pressure of the water that supplies the artesian wells. The Executive Committee of the Seddon National Memorial has issued a circular to all local bodies in the colony asking their opinion on the question of what form the memorial should take. There are two suggestions made (1) That scholarships for the youth of the colony should Iw founded, somewhat on the lines of the Rhodes scholarships. (2) The establishment in New Zealand of a technical university with free scholarships. The city in which the university is to be established to be decided by representatives from all parts of the colony.

A public meeting' re the proposed Inangahua County Council Bill, providing for tho reimposition of the gold duty instead of the powers tinder the Rat'ng Act, resolved to support the Council. The meeting was a very lively one, and the discussion was keen and 'heated. The bill was strongly opposed by the companies, but keenly advocated by miners. A meeting of the directors of the Southland Caledonian Society protested strongly against the Scottish Society of Christchurch organising Exhibition sports on Ist and "2nd -January, days when almost all old-established societies hold their annual gatherings. It was resolved to urge kindred socities to co-operate in requesting a change of date so as to fit in with the New Zealand Athletic Union's gathering at the end of January. The committee o£ the Auckland Racing Club have decided to increase the stakes for the ensuing year by i/ISOO, the stake for the Cup being increased to £ISOO. Pony races will be abolished.

At the annual meeting of the Wellington Racing (Tub, t'he Chairman said that not,a racing olub in New Zealand paid a dividend to members, and every shilling earned by the totalisator was returned to the public in buildings and conveniences and went to the advancement of the sport. He did not know of any instance 0 f a person taking cash from his employer to bet on the machine. The evils of gambling were on the bookmakers and tote shops, which were a curse to the country.

The statement of the Tiiiiarii Farmers' Co-operative Association shows £'21,511 to be dealt with. It is propositi to pay 8 per cent, dividend, a bonus of fi per cent, on purchases, a rebate of 2<) per cent, on commission (wool excepted), bonus erf C per cent, to stafi, to add ,C2OW to t'he reserve, and carry the balance forwar ■

At the .silting of the Supreme Court in Dunedin this wee!;, I"dgar Turner Was sentenced to twelve months imfor lorfr'iy. Win. Thomson was found guilty of shooting with intent at Kaitangata, sentence being deferred. William Hoinhy and Thomas Jlc.Samara were found guilty of entering and stealing ralibitskins and horsehair, and each H'-ntenced to three years' imprisonment. Charles Cole, charged with receiving property knowing it t® have been stolen, was acquitted . At a meeting of (lie Dumdin Drainage Hoard on I uesday night members! expressed keen indignation and disgust at action of the Railway Department in connecting the new railway station with the main intercepting sewer without the authority of the Hoard. The matter, it was said, was in the hands of the solicitor. Some members said if the Board was to be interfered with in this way, they should resign in a body. The chairman said that in other centres drainage boards, etc., had been compensated for similar work. The Board went into committee to further discuss the matter. '