LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2501, 30 June 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The first Hospital Ship ever equipped iu New Zealand waters by New Zeahindcrs. the Liiion Steam Ship Company's Malieno, will arrive hero from Port Chalmers on Sunday next. During her stay in Wellington she will, on a dav tn be named, lie thrown open to ilif public. Of I.itc there have been several cases of tliel't trom Wellington residences, ami yesterday Detective Abbott, arrestee! n man on u chargo of his Laving been concerned in on® of t'hosa affairs mid hn\in!> stolon a gold watch. Tho matter of making a donation to the Fund for Wounded Soldiers and Sailors was brought up at the annual meeting of the Wellington Bowling Club last evening bv Mr. A. Erskiue, After a free discussion it was decided that the. matter should be left in the hands of the incoming directors to do what they considered best towards raising a club donation to the fund. In the course of the discussion one member proposed that tho money should be forwarded to Egypt for the purchase of comforts for tho wounded there, but another member stated tliat it would lie better spent in buying comforts for the sick men at Trentham. Yesterday, afternoon Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., held an inquest concerning the death of Daniel Breeiij who died at Petone on Friday last. Dr. M. W> Ross gave evidence that death was duo to heart failure, and a verdict iii ac* cordance with that opinion was returned. The work of constructing the West Shore East Coast railway embankmeiit, which is being constructed by tho Napier Harbour Board, is progressing very satisfactorily. The island raised by the dredge has a surface area 186 ft. long by 33ft. wide, and is high. Officers and non-commissioned officers for the Second Maori Contingent left Wellington yesterday for Auckland, They are to go into camp at Takapuna t.o-dayi and the men will go in on Thursday. Grass-seed, it is said. is.going to bo scarce for some little while ahead, owing to the supplies of seed from belligerent countries.being cut off. Tho prospective shortage may have the effect of minimising the usiial wasto of grassseed in New Zealand, for, acting on suggestions from various quarters, the Wellington Education Board decided yesterday to propose to its school committees that the school children should bo encouraged to collect the soed which grows in largo quantities by the roadsides in many country districts. One idea was that the seed should bo sold for money which would he used to swell the Wounded Soldiers' Fund.

A rare reptile was recently presented to the Invercargill Museum. This was a iino example of the spotted' lizard (nanltinus clegans). It is olive-brown in colour, with a double row of irregular. leaf-liko paler spots on the back, find a single series along the tail. Though very seldom' met with, it may bo much xnoro common than is genorally supposed, and its colouration is evidently protective, and among the mosses and lichens of tho bush where it lives it may often bo'passed over unnoticed.

It was reported at yesterday's meeting of the Wellington Education Board that a State grant of £375 had been authorised for additions to the Muritai School, and £3"5 for' additions to the To Iloro School.

The following regarding the'eampaign on tho Gallipoli Peninsula, was cabled to the New York "Sun" by its special correspondent:—"Our men never hesitated. Tho New Zealanders hurled themselves forward in n solid plialanx, passing through the SiStii Brigade. Many gallant men of these regiments, rol'usuig to yield any right of war, joined the- ranks of the New Zealanders, nnd rushed forward at a mad charge. The line entered one Turkish trench with a, rush and bayoneted all Jjet'ore them. Then they pushed' on, shooting, stabbing and falling amid a terrible fusillado. liu,t not a soul turned back. No sooner had one line charged than alwther pressed oil, then a third. The Australians advanced over open ground with little cover, only to be met bv a tornado of bullets. They were enfiladed by 'machine-guns,' whose fire our artillery tried vainly to keep down."

Mr. Woolsey Allen has just returned to Dargaville from Australia. Some of his observations are very, interesting. With regard to supplies of butter, he states that not moro than 21b. of butter is allowed by dealers at a time. In Sydney Is. Sd. por lb. and in Melboumo 2s. 2(1. is charged. Only 61b. of sugar is sold at a timo, Commissioners are engaged in regulating the prices of foodstuffs. Largo stocks of white pino (butter-box timber) are being ' held. Last year at this time tho output of liuttor at tho factories was 15,000 boxes. Last October. November, and Dpccniber it reached 40,000 boxes. Last week the output dropped to 1300. This Droves that the butter is not being made, and that tho inflated prices aro duo to shortage of supplies.

School works were authorised as follows by tho Board of .Education yesterday afternoonWhakataki, repairs to floors: Petone Infants', wire screens; Niroaha, gate, sheds; Pirinoa, cupboard; South Wellington, overhauling sashes and adjusters; Mount Cook Boys', half-cost incinerator (woodwork); Carterton, incinerator; RoseneatH, renewal firebacks in grates; Maranui, erection of partition; Matahiwi residence, drainage; Maranui, gravel, Infant School; Maranui, electric light: Parkvalc, spouting, tank stands and basin: Parkvale residence, linen press; and To Aro Infants', renewal of cistern.

The parishioners of the Roman Catholic parish of Thorndon assembled in large numbers at the Basilica on Sunday for the purpose of electing their representatives on tho local committee of the New Zealand Catholic Federation. Stirring addresses were delivered by—among others —His Grace Archbishop Rpdwood, who expressed his sincere gratification at the work that had been done by the committee and tho federation during his nbsenri from the Dominion; by the Very Rev. Dean Regnault, S.M., Adm.. chairman of tho committee, and sevoral'lny members. of tbo organisation, including Mr. G. Girl-ing-Bntcher, organising secretary of the federation, all of whom stressed tho need for the organisation of the members of the Church in defenm of their interests. More than usual interest was taken in the election of the committee. which resulted in Messrs. M. Walsh. R. Sievers. .T. E. Fitzeern-ld, -J. M'Gowan. and M'Kcowen being returned.

According to a letter received from Mr. W. 13. Fisher, well-known in M'ellinpton in connection with tho St. .Tohu Ambulance Association, and hot in Knclnnri, the numbers supplied by tho St. .Tobn Ambulancc Brigade to the naval and military authorities, privato hospitals, hospital ships, etc., were as follow :—Military Home Hospital TCesotvo, 70-SG; TCovnl Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve. lfilß: Roval Army Medical Corns (Expeditionary Forced. ?S7; Tloyal Naval Division ''(Expeditionary Forced, 1045; nrivatfl hospitals (at Home'l. 130: private hospitals abroad. lo?: ,'lrd "Welsh Field Ambulance, 930: total, 11,124. Supplied to the .Toint Committee. Order of St. .Tobn and British Hed Cross Societv, for service in France and Sorvia, 323. Grand total: 11.147.