LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2554, 31 August 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

—— t A sergeant-major of the R.A.M.C. is n coming out to Now Zealand shortly to ], servo in the instruction of the Ambul- t ance Corps of tlie N.Z.M.O. When General Henderson was engaged in Eng- f land, the Defence Minister'asked that ho should bring a sergeant-major with 1 P him. The sergeant-major is not coming , tl by the same /steamer ivith General Hen- 11 dersori, but lie is coming. _ The Hon. A. Myers, when presenting the prizes at Messrs. Alcock and Co.'s showrooms for tlie Crystalate Cup „ championship last night, said that ho ; never believed that New Zenlanders indulged too much in sports, and lie , felt certain that these taught them to fight to a finish, and, above all, to play the. game—qualities which wero making tho names of cur boys honoured and " Tearod to-day on tlie grim- fields of " ■battle." v' Owing to the inclemency : of the 0 J weather, tho meeting ro'nvonecl I>v tho n, Mayor of Lower Hiitt (Mr. H. Baldwin) » for last evening, for the purpose of li forming a women's branch of the Nab . tioual fleserye, postponed* . I,A

g 1 A letter, from Sergeant Broughton," of g the Maori Contingent,' and written e from Malta before tho contingent went IS to Gallipoli, has been received by. Cap--0 tain Home, Sergeaiit-at-Arms 111 tlio House of Representatives. "Oil tho whole," wrote Sergeant Broughton, "the contingent is in great trim, hard y as nails, and itching Si be taken out \ of this ; to Gallipoli. We want to go n straight from -liore to the trenches to a liavo a 'go' -like every other crowd that n is away from home. Wa hear all sorts a of tales as to the date of our departure h and our supposed destination. Probably, n at least I should say possibly, the Dars danelles may be the nearest to the mark. 0 Anyhow, I only pray that it may bo so. Let 11s be sent down to have a smack, and pretty quick at that, too, and see S what it is like." Sergeant-Major Bell reports excellent recruiting here (states a Press Assoeiation telegram from Hastings). Fifty l " have onrolle<l suicq Tuesday. J 1 At a meeting of the Wellington As- '' sistant Masters' Association the foly lowing motion was carried r (1) "That this association is of tile opinion that 0 the junior national scholarships should |_ bo abolished- in as much as the pre- -- sent proficiency' certificate entitles Ilole ders to free secondary education; (2) y and considers -that this money, spent b upon scholarships should he utilised to ,t assist approved scholars who require to :g livo away from home in order to 6eour» a secondary education. 0 Tho prico of milk is to bo reduced [. to 4d.. per quart as from September 1 until further notice. Notwithstanding 'f the general- increase in the- cost of living, tho milk vendor has decided to keep faith with the public as the outn come of the conference held with the Mayor ill Mardh- last.. At that' con- , .ferenc6.it was decided that if at all possible, the public would not" bo exa' ploit-ed as the result of -tlio.increase in l " the cost of supplies to the vendor. . A statement of affairs filed in the . bankrupt estate, of Jolm Mills Ross, commission agent, of Hastings, shows a ' deficiency of £37.. "Here we are, looking out on the beautiful, Aegean Sea with six steam trawlers and eight destroyers for our v daily companions," wrote the late Col--11 onel Arthur Bauchop from Gallipoli res' cently. "The latter liavo to be con--0 stantly on the move, (for fear of subs marines) night and day. They help us s wonderfully, and'come in to within 600 yards of us to ask where we want the shells placed. We can't decide sr whether they own us, or vice versa; 1 Rood spirit on both sides. I had a _ trip in the Pineher, destroyer, the jj other day to Holies, and saw their show 1 there. I was not impressed a hit. They have yet to seize Aclii Baba, and there is another problem after, before they 'dominate the I saw tho Plains of Troy across on the Asiatic shore,, from where they were pelting 1 us with a 4.7 in. gun. I prefer our, t wicket up here—in spite of''the wary sniper, who 'ceaseth not day or nigcht.' 1 Yesterday General Birdwood came into - our camp with his chief of staff (Andrew a Skean), who was at Camberley. Ani' drew told me he ha 4 called the ridge j (up which we will trip off 011 a- fine e mission some morning) Bauchop Ridge s tll0 „ ma P- & will figure (I think) in j New Zealand as a historical locality. . Up through the Cyclades, into these Grecian Islands, with all the glamour r of Homer's Odyssey, tho reality is far more bejiutiful. The countryside is covercd "witli - poppies and flowers of all sorts and colours. The thyme crushes 3 under our feet." s Mr. J. Findlay, cliairman of tho OverJ seas Shipowners', Committee/informed a r Dominion reporter yesterday afternoon t that arrangements had been made for , load frozen , meat at New Zealanil ports during tho months of September and October for . Home. Tlio steamers Port Albany and Clan M'Tavish will load in these waters ; during.,the month of September, and they will be followed by the El Cordobes during October. The total .capacity of : 1 tho three steamers mentioned will ■ be 1 187,000 freight carcasses. The Primo Minister (the Right Hon. ; Mrr Massey) will open the annual sale ' of-work at the Salvation Army Citadel in Vivian Street this evening' at 7.45. The sale this. year, is under'the title of the "Bonnie Briar Fair," ■ and the proceeds of the fair are to be devoted to the self-deuial appeal. Tho Custom House Miniature Rifle Club fired a return match Vitti the Lyall Bay section of the National Reseh'e at : the Custom House range last, ■ evening, Custom House winning by eleven points. The teams were of ten aside, Custom House making 626 and Lyall Bay 615. The highest single score of the evening was made by Clark (Lyall Bay), who made 68! Weir' (Custom House) made tho next best score of 65. The Defence Department .acknowledges the patriotic action of the farmers of Gore district in presenting to the Department a quantity of chaff, pro--1 ceeds of the sale of which are to go to the Wounded Soldiers' Fund. - This chaff was sold by public auction at Gore : recently, and realised tile suiii of £10 9s. The Defence Department acknow. ledges the patriotic action of tho following in placing at the disposal of the Department grazing for horses for such tinio as same will bo required. Their generous action has enabled the Department to overcome a somewhat serious difficulty :—Mr. C. A. Herbert, Papatawa; Mr. JllO. Carswell, .Broomnelds, Woodrille; Mr.. GcO. Peebles (manager for the Hon. J, D. Ormond), Woodville; Mr, 0. H. Dmce, Kumeroa, Woodville; Mr. S. Bolton, Oreti, Woodville-; Mr. J. Bolton, Nikau, Woodville-; Mr. ,W. H. Gaisford, Oringi, . Woodville; Mr. J. 'ft'. Ramsden; Kumeroa, Woodville; Mr. J. F. N. Mackie, Kumeroa, Woodville. During the year ended June 30, 1915, tho imports of butter into the United Kingdom decreased by 440,877cwt. as compared with the previous year, tho decrease being equal to 10.4 per cent., while for tho. same period the imports of cheese increased by 245,254cwt., equal to 10:4 per cent-. Tlio decrease -in butter was comparatively large, and was due to the shortage of shipments from Russia 290,387cwi., Sweden 180,052cwt., and Denmark 133,fi23cwt. The Danish and -Swedish butter was probably taken , by Germany. The annual conference of the New Zealand Shearers' Association will commonco to-day at -2 p.m. : Proceeding! will- be opened by Mr. A. J, Cooper, the retiring president, antj Mr. A. j! , King, the newly-electcd president, will take the chair. - " ' ' ' Mr. J. P. Key, speaking at Alcock's crystalito billiard tourney last evening, amused the audience with some of his \ recollections of tho earlier billiard com- I petitions held in Wellington. H© re- 1 marked that- iii those days somo" of the 1 tables wero remarkable,' and good play 1 utterly impossible.-- One table he re- 1 niembered on the one side Was waist j high, and on the other almost reached > the chin. j Some time ago an agitation was afoot J for the .appointment of women police t patrols for duty in tho environs of mili- .} tary camps. Moro recently we have [ heard that women police havo been ap- , pointed in Australia. The Defence 5 Minister telegraphed to tho Australian 1 Defence Minister to ask whether any of 0 these women police were employed in a any duties connected with the military 1 camps. Mr. Allen has received the jj telegraphed reply of the Commonwealth - Minister, which is that' women police t are not so employed in Australia. 0 Aeroplano Engines—The most perfect ,f, made—have shown the world that to ob- J tain the greatest possible power from an 1 engine it is necessary to use overhoad e valves, similar, to those used on the fani- x oils Chevrolet cars. You will readilv un- t derstand the reason for this if vou'com- r municale with the Dominion Motor Ve- f hides, "Jjitdi, 65 Courtenay Placs, who will ti I».pleased to explain fully this feature.— li .Advt, - - - - j

if The Telegraph Office adviso that cabld, u messages may now ■ bo accepted at ,t E.F.M. rates for soldiers in Malta, with >- instructions to reply at cost of sender, o The conditions arc the same as in tlio o case of messages to Egypt. Soldiers inii Malta are also allowed to send collect d messages to New Zealand; up to 12 5 words without receipt of a request. " IS. Power, of Napier, arrived homo , on Holiday night after motor cycling to . Wellington and back in 23 hours 20 minutes, which lowers tie previous re-' , cord by 38 minutes. .. . ~A t Napier yesterday morning tho Nov Plymouth High School defeated ). Palmerstoii Nortli High 'School''in a. Rugby football match by 22 points to-3. e A letter deceived in Auckland from an officer of the headquarters staff of the t New Zealand Expeditiously Force, writi. ten from Gallipoli on July 7, contains y a paragraph which will*be of interest to many anxious relatives i;f mai re ported wounded and missing. "If your f brother is a. wounded prisoner, you may , rest assured that ho is being properly , looked after by the Turks, as we nave ' overwhelming evidence that they are , looking after their wounded prisoners j" well, iu spite of tho fact, that they have 60,000 of their own wounded." This is 'I borno out by an extract from tho letter' of another officer recently invalided 0 home, after being wounded in a heavy 0 engagement at Qiiinu's Post:—"lf 9 taken prisoner, and sick or wounded, ho will be well cared for, and if unharmed d will bo treated with. consideration. Tho 1 officers of the enemy, in tho great macs jority of cases, are treating their pris- ■- oners with tho same- consideration thai) 0 we extend to ours " •" .'The doublo coincidence of twin broV : e thors having been wounded in a simi- [- la r manner ia shown by tho latest mull alty list l .' They are Lance-Corporal P< D. MaTriner and Private 0. C. Mar* n rmer, sons of the late Mr. W. : A. Marriner, of Mount-Wesley, Northern Wai> e roa. They left with the Fifth Reinforce- , jnents, and botjr have received an injJ jury in one foot-. Tlio ago of the bro-! tilers is 23 years, and they were engaged,in farming at Poroti; Whangaroi. B until they enlisted. J ; The. subject of the books the people, or some of the people, read was touched on by Mr. Justice . Cooper in a librarv lecture delivered in Auckland. His Honour described as golden the period of " Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer Lytton, ® Charles Reade, and the Brontes. Since then the world had been flooded with c novels, sonfo of very high merit-, and 8 manv very bad, indeed. The sexual : novel had, unfortunately, conio > into ' 1 being, and the "penny, dreadful" was e also a product of later times. -He could ' speak from the experience lie'had gained 5 'J liis professional capacity, ■ and say J,. le e y il literature of modern times e had produced immorality, and crime'. Ho r had seen lives of youug men and young c women destroyed by .that pernicious litc- - rafcuro. 'His .desire,in Jus lecture was r, to go back to -the'morejiealthy periody of tho-year beforo 1875. Tlio lecturer gave an appreciative account of tho 0 works of Dickens, dwelling on that 1 intense, humanity, .wonderful - fdehty in drawing character, and also. . e his likeable/quality of being able to find e good even in the lowest of his characters. - e '.My experience—and I have had'eonu siderable of the seamy side of life—has '. been that even in the worst of men and g women itliere. is some redeeming , fcai tiira, oven if it bo difficult to disco.vor," r said, tlio lecturer. No writer had a . greater, influence for good'"on tho Eng--1 lish nation than Dickens had. Thaqks eray was not the cynical, sarcastic novelist some imagined him. He was a most _ kindly writer. The fictional- literature - v of to-day, lie said, liad, with some few ■ t exceptions,'fallen .far. below the great , writers of the period he had reviewed. Ho wished he could "reawaken an- interest in the good and healthy fiction- 'of , those who wroto between 1837 and 1875. [ ."They've goiio in the.'samo' old- clian- ■: ; nrls to raise the money,;' said tho head of a- large firm 1 'wliose'-busiuess largely concerns the. man cii 'the . land, - when discussing the 1915 Budget. "Tho , tax has been put on to'the land again, . and it woirld not surprise me to find that tlio Government is overdoing it. ( Naturally the tax should bo borno to , the greatest extent' by those who can afford to'pay it, but in tlirowiug the weight of a further graduated tax on the land the' Government must to sorao ' extent defeat its own ends b.v discounting. the efforts of those in. whoso power it is to develop the unimproved' lands I of \ the country. . To impose a furthor 1 graduated tax on'those people who are, ' struggling to bring undeveloped land 1 into product 19 to slam tho door in the face of those people. Men who are at present battling with bush blocks of country; are/ to bo; burdened with- a weight that,is too much > for them to bear. The Budget does not spread the; incidence of taxation sufficiently. The proposed imposition of an extra jii. stamp-could very easily'and equitably , lia7o been made a penny, thereby doubling the amount of revenuo to- bo collected under that head, and it would ,! not liavo been unreasonable to sco a small'impost put upou tea and sugar —or*> that could very easily have been bamo by the community. The record of the Lyall Bay Surf and Life-Saving- Club as far as recruiting is concerned is meritorious one. Tho. p.uvanco New Zealand Expeditionary Force for Samoa claimed 18 . members, tho, Main Expeditionary Force (which went to the Dardanelles); 12 membersj the sth Reinforcements seven members, the 6tli Reinforcements one member, and "two are waiting to be called up. , Four, of the executive officers have gono or are going to the front. The annual report of the club makes special, mention or Major B. C. Freyberg, • one of the first members of the club, who .has been awarded the D.S.O. for brilliant service at the; Dardanelles—"tlio: most trying swimming feat of his.career." An idea of tli&.spirit with which' tho German advance is regarded in Russia is given by a letter received in Auckland from an English lady who has resided in Russia for about 10 years.' She is governess iu the family of lono of the .very high officials in Petrograd,- aiid .writing to her sister she says, that the Russians are preparing Petrograd to withstand a siege, and are perfectly con- ' fidont of beiug able to heat off the Ger- , mans. They tiro daily, receiving from Japan enormous quantities of ammunition and huge guns, larger than any tlio Germans can possibly take for the siege.

Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar witli 27 vessels against 33.; - ' . THE B S.A.-FAVOURITE WITH MILV DISPATCH RIDEKS—AND WHY.' . . ' Tt has sometimes been said, with much' truth that the business test is the best test of any motor.. War is the grimmest business of mankind, and the military motor-cyolist stakes his life, very often, ;: upon the reliability of his mount. Hera is what Sergeant K E. Schofield, E.E., senior instructor of the Motor-cycla Section at Aldershot, has to : . every dispatch nder that has gone to the front 'has passed through my hands,, and I am therefore in a position to judge how the different makes of machine are in favour. The iB.S.A. is by far away the favourite, and it has yet to happen that a B.S.A. has failed to act up to its well-earned repute.. . . I may state that 50 per cent, of the machines here or# BS.A.'s." A .motor-cyclist with the Second Cavalry Division, British Expedition, ary Force, writes in a privnte letter: "The roads are hellish. '. . - My B.S.A. is th© KC ods. I never have to touch it. They are the bikes, my boy. They knock the — end any other mako you like to mention into a cocked hat." Thero are plenty ./ of other letters from the front, all to tho '• / same'effect. We aro landing 20 of the / •latest model B.S.A.'s ex s.s. Marlborough / this week," and can give immediate - de- ' • livery.' They are ( ideal machines for / either solo or side-car service, and their / reliability i 9 famous. The h.p. is i\, and / the three-speed countershaft gear is fool- j proof and wonderfully efficient. Adams, 7 Ltd., Christehurci), Wanganui, Palmer*- I ton North; Sntherland and Eankine, Wei- / : lington; Tourist Motor Co., Hasting* / Ajwits tn 8.8.A. Motors.—Adrt. ■