LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 147, 18 December 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal Authorities advise that the s.s. Manuka, which is due from Sydney on Monday, is bringing Australian mails and also an English mail via Suez. A small Australian mail is also due per Mam Trunk express, on Tuesday, ex Bivenna, at Auckland.

The" public hospitals of the Dominion according to the Hon. G. W Russell, are capable of providing beds for betweea (00 and 1000 sick and wounded soldiers whenever need arises. The Minister states there will not be any difficulty in dealing promptly and effectively with all the men returning by the Maheno. lhe supply of nurses also is adequate.

Lately the Department of Labour has received several enquiries from soldiers in Kitchener's Army, who are anxious to settle in New Zealand after the war. Two who wrote recently asked for the names of reputable farmers with whom they might obtain employment. Another enquiry was from two naval officers, with capital, who thought of settling on the land. They wished to lead a healthy, outdoor life, to be their own masters, and to live in a picturesque locality, where they might have trout-fishing and sport. In each case the Department has replied, giving a,U information possible, and promising assistance if the enquirers come to the Dominion.

Another route march has been arranged for to-morrow. ( The men will assemble at the lower end of Boulcott-street at 9.25 a.m. and inarch to Newtowii Park, whence they will go to Houghton Bay, Lyall Bay, and Kilbirnie, returning to town in time for dinner. Ail interested in the movement are invited to attend.

Attention of the public is called to the fact that the Coast Defence iTroops are still watching the gates of the harbour, night and day, and would be glad of any periodicals and illustrated papers' which the kindly-disposed might care to forward. Any parcels addressed to Colonel Campbell, Coast Defence Commander, at the Garrison Hall, Buckle-street, would be thankfully received.

An interesting experiment by himself was used by Professor Kirk last evening to illustrate his lecture in the Town Hall on the house fly. A fly had been allowed to walk over a prepared gelatine surface, and cultures -.had beea made, and it was found that in the foot tracks were colonies of bacteria; probably numbering millions. A photographic.reproduction of the culture was shown on the canvas.

There may be considerable unemployment, the Public Works Minister (the Hon. W. Fraser) thinks, during next winter—although there is at present no lack of work for men able and willing to take it up in the country districts. Work on roads is still being continued, but certain railway works have had to be stopped. In the camps still working, the numbers of men were-reduced, but no men had been discharged at his-or-ders ; vacancies were not filled when men left.

In our report of the interview between the Waterside Workers' Federation and the Minister of Marine, Mr. Lewis Glover, president of the federation, was made to say that increasing the size of the winch barrel would increase the lifting power of the winch. Mr. Glover writes to state that what he did say was that by increasing or wooding up the barrel of the winch, the speed of the winch was increased and the liftingpower reduced. The federation contends that such an alteration has a tendency to interfere with the efficient working of the winch. '

It is the intention of the Salvation Army to launch a scheme for the provision of additional homes for children— principally for the children of soldiers who hare fallen in the- war. Premises have been secured at Auckland for a Home for Girls, and other properties at Christchureh are under consideration. It is hoped that four additional homes will be established, and the Boys' Home at Hand Bay increased in size, affording accommodation for at least two hundred. These would be received into the institutions for whatever allowance may be granted by the Pension Fund for the support of the children, the Army itself undertaking to find any extra support that may be necessary, and thus see the children through the "years of their education.

"We expected to find hardly any but white-haired men in the Dominion," was a remark made by a soldier who returned to New Zealand by the Willochra. That remark is endorsed by Driver Harold Eadclifle (son of Mrs. Kadcliffe, of Ngaio), of the New Zealand Field. Artillery in Gallipoli. "I don't know how any young man with vigour in him can stand these continuous jars," be writes. "It would drive me mad. There are some I know without a tie, and fellows that I thought had plenty of pluck in them, and still they hang" back. Eyery man is wanted. If some of the men who are hanging back could have seen our main body of infantry, as I did, after they had been in the trenches, since 25th April, looked at their faces and frames, and then hung back, they would deserve shooting. The poor-chaps were just frames, their blood out of order, their looks tired and hopeless, but as indomitable as ever. It made me feel sad but flush with pride to think I was one of them. They are now all away, having a wellearned rest^-I-take of!" my hat to them. But the other sort—they beat me."

Postal correspondence with the Actina. Appliance Company, Kansas City. Missouri, U.S.A., has been prohibited.

As a Christmas gift for a lady, one of these artistic cretonne covered moth-proof boudoir boxes will be very acceptable. As useful as they are artistic. Ions? lasting and economically priced from"2s 6d to 9s 6d. Kirkeaidie and Stains, Ltd.— Atlvt

A\e quote the best in "Canadian" (two garment) bathing suits at 2s lid to 10s 6d. One garment Is 6d to 6s 6d, trunks 9d and Is. Geo. Fowlds.—Advt.

A meeting of Midhirst dairy factory shareholders discussed the question of cheese or butter making, and eventually decided to continue the manufacture of butter. It was further decided to contribute 1 per cent, of the output (estimated at £700) to the Patriotic Fund.

Members of the Auckland Grammar School cricket team, who are on their way south to play their annual match with Christ's College, will be entertained in Wellington prior to the departure of the ferry steamer this evening, by the Wellington Branch of the Grammar School Old Boys' Association.

At last the filter for purifying the water in connection with the public tepid swimming bath in Tasman-street has arrived, and delivery has been arranged for Monday next The Management Committee has been very unfortunate with regard to the filter, which has been delayed solely on account of the war At this late date it is out of tho question to have the filter installed so that the baths might be opened before the holidays, with the result that the committee has beeru reluctantly compelled to postpone the opening"of the bath until about the first week in February next, when a four nights' swimming carnival will be carried out.

Judgment was given by his Honour Mr. Justice Chapman in the Supreme •Court yesterday in the case Brice v. Hannah, in which plaintiff, a restaurant keeper, claimed possession of a cookin<* range installed in premises lately occu° pied by him in Lambton-quay, or, in the alternative, its value, £35. His Honour held that the range was included in the building specification, the same as the other additions and alterations made in the premises before plaintiff took possession; and it was not a tenant's fixture, but part and parcel of the premises: He accordingly upheld the Magistrate's decision to that effect, and dismissed the appeal, with eight guineas costs.

At the bazaar held by the" South Wellington School on Wednesday the substantial sum of £49 8s lid was raised for the Sailors' Comforts Fund. -The whole amount, comprising 1523 pennies, and nearly 1000 silver coins and notes, weighing nearly 501b, was, this morning, handed over by Mr. Geo. Flux to the local branch secretary of the Navy ■League for transmission to London. The amount will be mainly expended on comforts for the gallant bluejackets and fishermen on the trawlers 'and destroyers who are, under the most trying weather conditions, patrolling the seas night and day, bottling up the enemy and guarding our commerce. On behalf of these brave fellows the Navy League wishes to convey the warmest thanks to all those who helped to make the bazaar such a. success.

Wherever man is there also is the little common house fly, said Professor H. B Kirk last evening in. the course of his lecture in the Town Hall. But _ man and the fly viewed the companionship differently. Man was educated in the belief that all things were created for his benefit; but the house fly was most firmly convinced that mankind existed solely for its benefit—the food mankind ate was most palatable to the ;flv, and the deleterious matter that collected about mar and his habitations was also mo3t welcome to it. Flies enjoyed, also, the comfort of man's home. Professor Kirk strikingly showed that the human race need not have conscience qualms about slaughtering wholesale the little fly, because in its turn the fly was perpetually endangering the life of man by spreading disease over his foods, by frequenting his habitations straight from pestilential sources, garbage tins, and • other germ-breeding places, unwashed and uncleaned, and depositing millions of bacteria in the places mostly likely to prove harmful to life.

His Honour Mr. Justice Hosking, in the Supreme Court yesterday, delivered his judgment in the case Inspector of Awards versus Henry Bodley and Sons, dairymen. On 7th May last Bodley was fined £1, with costs 7s, by Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., for failing to keep proper overtime-books, in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration Act. Against this decision defendants appealed, on the ground that the regulation under which they were convicted was ultra vires of the Act, and his Honour allowed the appeal. When the case was heard, Mr. T. Neave appeared for the appellants and Mr. V. R. Meredith, of the Ciown Law Office, appeared for the Inspector of Awards.

"It is as a tribute to the dead and a record to the living that we dedicate •it to all the Old Boys who, by their gallant behaviour in their country's cause, have shed a reflected glory upon their Alma Mater " That is what the editor of Blue and White, the magazine of St. Patrick's College, Wellington, says in his introduction to the 1915 number. A perusal of the pages of this volume of exceptional merit gives one the idea that the war spirit which is animating the nation has found full expression in the college which occupies such an important position in the scholastic World of New Zealand. As the editor has suggested, Blue and White on this occasion does, and should, concern itself chiefly with pointing out what part the college lias played- and is playing in the life and death struggle that is now being waged between the forces of "frightfulness" and civilisation, and the record is an honourable one. Page after page is filled with brief :hut significant paragraphs, telling of those who have gone to the front and die^d, those who are still at the front ai^d fighting, and those who are preparing to "do their little bit" in the cause of Empire. Names that only a little while; ago were writ large in the annals ofV cricket and football and scholarship ! ' now figure under the heading "killed \ in action," "wounded," "missing," and \ so on, and the numerous reproductions , of photographs bring back the memories \ of the past \yith splendid, realism. In v fact, the illustrations are a remarkably fine feature of the magazine, and serve to lift it quite out of the class of most of its predecessors. Apart from its martial aspect, Blue and White for 1915 gives in racy style an excellent idea ■of the work done by the college during the past year in the various activities that belong to such an institution.

Two charges of having indecently exposed himself before school children atWadestown on two occasions this week, were preferred against, a man named Gordon Holmes Barrett, before Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, 5.M..-in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon. He was sent to gaol for four months.

Have you bought your travelling requisites yet? Fine range at moderate prices on show at Geo. Fowlds, Manners 1 street.—Advt.

Help with baggage! We give itJust check through us. We collect, check, receive, deliver immediately. The N.Z. Express Co., Ltd., 87-91, Custom-house-quay.—Advt.

Paris Fashions.—Despite the war with its anxieties and "handicaps, the leading Paris couturieres show not only a spirit of confidence in their preparations for the coining season, but au evident determination to maintain their position as the leaders of the world's fashions, with the result tiiat their opening shows were as full of interest as over. No drastic changes in fashion are indicated, but, rather a development, with certain novel features of the styles' which gained prominence iv 'the past season. Tho- characteristic note throughout being one of simplicity and restraint, those identical fashion notes apply to the choice material now awaiting your inspection at C. Smith's, the Drapers, Cuba-street. —Advt.