LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2665, 10 January 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The postal authorities advise that the s.s. Manuka, 'which is due from Sydney to-day, ig bringing Australian mails, and also an English maid via Suez. English and American mails via Vancouver are also due 011 Tuesday, per Main Trunk express, ex Makiira. at Auckland. From the present time onwards the extra express train to Auckland, a train atiued to the time-table to copo with holiday traffic, will cease to run. The appeal made by the Wellington Patriotic Society for binoculars for the uso of officers of the troops going to I the front has met with a good response. On Saturday morniug about forty pairs of glasses, some presented by liberal citizens, and some purchased by the society, were distributed among officers of the Ninth Reinforcements. Up to date about 200 binoculars have been presented by the Patriotic Society, the National Reserve, and residents of Wellington and district. On Saturday tho Patriotic Society also distributed 240 magnetic compasses and 2000 emergency needle compasses amongst the officers and men ofHhe Ninth Reinforcements. ' The Government has set apart provisionally half a million acres of land for settlement by soldiers returned from the war., It cannot bo said that all this area will be held until the soldiers come back, because a part of it may be required for other settlement in tho meantime, and may be allotted. But 100,000 acres of land lias been permanently reserved for soldiers. "I have not seen all this land," said the Prime Minister yesterday, "but I am given to understand that most of it is good land, in good localities, and easy of access. And if it' should become necessary to buy privately-owned land for soldiers' settlements I am willing to do it. We do not expect that wo shall need the bulk of this land until tho end of the war, although I am glad to say that we have already bcen_ able to find laud for soldiers who are in quest of it." A meeting of the Mayor's War Distress Committee lias been called for

| 10.30 a.m. to-morrow. A welcome addition to the regulation mess faro to the 9th Reinforcements was provided on Saturday by the Mayor (Jlr. J. P. Luke), who, on behalf of the Mayor's Patriotic Committee, sent two hundred eases of apples to be distributed among the different units. The price of standard brands of -butter lias been reduced from Is. Gd. to Is. 3d. per.pound. It was' explained by tlie Mayor on Saturday that the task of assisting the return of the discharged soldiers from military to civil life is being shared by tlie civic authorities wth other employers of labour, and a number cf raeii have already been absorbed in tlio different municipal services. Mr. Morton, the. City Engineer and manager of the tramways, lias placed several men in employment, and there are further vacancies which can be filled by returned soldiers. Of course, it is pointed out, tlio fitness of the men_ for the position must be a consideration. A Featherston soldier, writing from Gallipoli to a friend in Featherston, refers to tlie Tauhcrenikau races, and adds: "You won't see Major Humo leaning over the 'tote' rails this year telling tho crowd that it is the last boll. He died leading his men in a charge, being a soldier every inch of him, and one of the most popular men who ever stepped on a battlefield." A meeting of the Recruiting Board wliich lias to consider the Government's | recruiting scheme was held oil Satur- I day. but time sufficient for tlie task on hand was not available. The members of the board (the llight Hon. W. F. Massey, Sir Joseph Ward, and the Hon. ,T. Allen) will probably meet again today. ■ A petition, signed by .13 interested ratepayers, lias been lodged with the Wairarapa County Council asking that stops be taken to join in with tlio electric lighting and power scheme of the Feathorstou Town Board.

Iho borough swimming baths at Pal. . mors ton North are free to soldiers in . uniform. Soldiers must take their own _ towels and trunks and conform to tlxo by-laws and regulations (states a military order). , The Mayor (3lr. J. P. Luke) acting ; on behalf of the Mayor's Patriotic Committee, on Saturday directed a piano J to be sent to the Quarters of the men i of tho 9th Reinforcements. Hero in a fine example to the young > man who is still hesitating. A London - paper says: "One of the wounded soli diers in the Norfolk and Norwich Hos- : pital, -Sapper Elijah Vaughan, is sixty- . eight years of age. He is a South Staf- • fordshire miner, and has been at the j front four months. This is surely a rej cord." . Tho Fire Brigade received a call to . Old Customhouse Street at 9.58 p.m. |Ast evening, to deal with an outbreak in some old premises occupied by Mr. ' Smart, the pawnbroker, Willis Street. : Tho outbreak was easily suppressed. 1 Mr. H. Dixon, postmaster at Featli--1 erstou, is on holiday leave with tho object of recuperating his health, and Mr. G. Levy relieving <*\oer, is filling ■ the vacancy. At the annual meeting of the Paint- ■ ers Union the following resolution was , adopted:—"That in the opinion of this union organised labour has the right to know tho intentions of the Government before it agrees to support conscription, and, further, that the conscription of the wealth of the country should be executed at once, so as to , provide suitable payment' being mado to those who have already enlisted and their dependents, and to make provision lor the many who arc willing to enlist if their dependents are reasonably provided for." The secretary of the union, Mr. F. Cornwell, was appointed its delegate to attend the conference to consider conscription. The following is from an Auckland paper: It is stated on reliable authority that the big railway engines imported from the United States bv the New Zealand Government last 'year have .done more than come up to expectations. At the time of the order being placed with the Baldwin Locomotive Company some protests were made in Parliament against the giving of orders for railway engines to countries not part of the British Empire, hut the fact was shown that the engines were urgently required, and that Great Britain could not suppW them as quickly 1 as the United States could. The locomotives arc now at work on the lilies of this Dominion, and their hauling capacity is exciting the admiration of experts. A remarkably fine effort over hilly country was recorded a few weeks ago, when one of these engines hauled 275 tons from Wellington to Palmerston North (eighty-nine milos) without having to replenish either water or coal supplies. Amongst the many useful tasks performed by the Boy Scouts here is that o) posting letters and telegrams for soldiers. This duty is only entrusted to selected lads, with a can! of authority, when the occasion presents itself. On Saturday, when a largo body of troops was in town, a boy, who allegedly does not belong to the' Boy Scout organisation, donned a uniform, and aooompanicd by another iu uniform offered jus services as telegram sender, receiving money and messages from soldiers. Tlioy were subsequently arrested by tlie police, and it is alleged that about- £3 of telegram money found its way into tho poskets of the pseudo-sccut. Tho boys, who are aged 12 and 13 years respectively, will appear before the Magistrate fn the juvenile Court tKa morning, on a charge of being under inadequate control. The liveliest part of the proceedings at a recent open-air recruiting meeting in Dunedin was tho informal finish which came after the speakers wero supposed to have concluded, the baud had played,' and part of the crowd had dispersed (says an exchange). The Bcv. It. S. Gray went forward to supplement his previous appeal by a direct. invitation to young men present to "step inside and interview the recruiting sergeant." . Tho rev. gentleman found himself unexpectedly up against an out-and-out Socialist, who had till then ''sung dumb." The speaker was repeating his argumeut that wo should not have conscription of men without ditto of money, and telling how he lsnew for a -fact that in country districts 1 there never was a bigger traffic in pianos and motor-cars, when the Social-ist-shouted out that the money came from the working-classes. "No, no, not at all," said Mr. Gray. "Oh, but it dees," said the Socialist.. "Tut, tut; 'why, we're all workers; I'm a working man, and I don't speak like that." "You don't work." "What,: I don't work! I work for all I get, and-I hope you do." (Laughter.) "The money conies from tho working classes," •peated the man ill tlie crowd. "What, all of it?" "Yes." "Oh, I see,. I see. •Well, you look a worker and I feel al worker, so we're all right." This finished the argument on that point, but when Mr. Gray proceeded to express his disappointment because the Government had not imposed "a stiff tax on war profits," there were shouts of "allprofits." In this conncction he told of a "scandalous" remark which he had overheard. It was made by a woman who, when the hope was expressed that tho war would soon bo over, :c-plied: "Well, I hope it won't finish till John has paid for his farm at ." There was considerable laughter at this, but repeating the words in a tone of scathing contempt, Mr. Gray said: "To be brutally frank with you, I am almost ashamed of you for laughing at that. I didn't laugh when I heard it. Why, that woman is unworthy of- the name of a Britisher."