LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 22, 25 July 1918, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A 8 the number of returned soldiers increases, so do the 1 applications to the Wellington War Relief Association made by intending soldier settlers and men who are desirous of establishing themselves in sundry small business ventures. Claims of that nature require a> great amount of attention, and there is also a. growing tendency for other societies throughout the Dominion, as well as Australian bodies, to request the advice of the association on many subjects, and consequently the total - volume of work carried on by the association is still increasing.

The Chairman' (Mr. C. E. Daniells) told members of the Harbour Board at the meeting of that body last night that there are 20,000 bales of wool in the sheds at present. Mention was at- the time being made of. a bale of wool which had somehow gone astray and for which the board is liable, and the Chairman added that over a given period the board had handled 800,000 bales without the slightest loss being incurred.

On the motion of the Chairman, Mr. L. 0. H. Tripp, the Executive Committee of the Wellington War Relief Association yesterday afternoon passed a motion that, subject to the approval of the Minister of Internal Affairs, a sum not exceeding in all £900 be voted to the Advisory Board for the regimental funds, the money to be paid to the Advisory Board from time to time as requested. A second motion passed was to the effect that in the future the Advisory Board be requested when allocating the amount payable by each society to have the calculations assessed as a pro rata share of the total funds belonging to each society, and not upon the population basis. ,

A well, established Wellington fish merchant to-day reports paying 3s 7d apiece for warehou in the market—an unprecedented price. It averages out at practically 8d per lb. He further reports that no fresh-caught groper has com© into the market for some eight or nine days, no doubt on account of the weather. Enquiries from other fishing centres failed to obtain supplies. The weather has been too bad for fishing under the ordinary New Zealand conditions, and with tho boats and appliances in use. The point is that the sea fishing industry of New Zealand must be put upon a wider and more up-to-date basis if these periodical shortages of fish food are to be avoided in future.

A watersider named R. A. Wilson, a married m^n, thirty-eight years of age, residing in Toru-stveet, was crushed by a bale of wool while working on the Queen's wharf alongside the Manuka yesterday afternoon. Wilson, who is employed by tho Harbour Board, was pushing a truck past a lorry, when the bale was thrown' off the vehicle. The bale jammed him against a cask of tallow, injuring his right thigh and hip. Messrs. F. O'Connell and Luff, of the Harbour Ambulance Corps, rendered first aid till the arrival of Dr. Cahill, who ordered Wilson's removal to the hospital, whither he was conveyed in tho Harbour Board's motor ambulance. AVilson is badly bruised, but no bones were broken.

"Sometimes there is a danger," said Mr. G. Hogben last night, "that the public may yield their tribute of homage to the men o£ scientific research, hut regard them from afar with mysterious awe as a sort of 'medicine men. 1 But science does not need that kind of worship; it must he made part and parcel of daily life; it must be organised, and in ■ our ■national education and in our national industry and in our national thought it must have its due place." After quoting historic accidental discoveries by scientists in their laboratories, the speaker remarked :—"Wo nnist clear away from our minds any notion, if it still exists, that wo may us a .State subsidise applied science, and leave pure scienco to private generosity or starvation. But if ; strikes me as a most salutary moral arrangement that, not by striving after material advantage, but by enquiry directed to the discoveryiof truth, doe* man make his jzreateat discoveries."

Papers tabled at last evening's meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society included one by Miss M. K. Mestayer on "New Species r>f Molluscs, from Various Dredgings taken off„ the Coast of New Zealand, the Snares Islands, and the Bounty Islands," and one by Mr. W. J. Phillips on "A Vernacular Index of New Zealand Fish." A bright brief lecture, with lantern illustrations, was given by Dr. J. A. Thomson oil "Stephen's Land, a, Natural Sanctuary for Land Animals."

Speaking at the Wellington Early Settlers' Association last evening, Mr. Amelius Smith mentioned that in the sixties nobody thought anything of walking from the centi-e of the town out to Miramar and back, or to Island Bay— then known as Hunter's Farm. Now people used the tram-car to go shortdistances of even a few hundred yards. "What the future generations are going to be I do not know, unless they go about on 'all fours-' " added Mr. Smith, "for they wont be able to walk."

Complaints are being ma-dc in Oaniaru of indiscriminate shooting in the vicinity of the town. A girl of ten years was assisting her mother to milk and attend to the cattle, when a shot was heard from the adjacent reserve, and the bullet actually embedded itself in the head of a young steer she was about to feed. Were this an isolated instance it would be bad enough, but the principal sufferer has lost seven head of cattle recently in this way, besides ducks, geese, and fowls, says an exchange.

To show 'how scientific research had opened the way to modern comfort, Mr. G. Hogben Itated in his address last evening : "By reason of research, v electricity, as used fov telegraphy, telephony, electric light, heat, power, and engineering, has in the last fifty years changed the whole of the possibilities of ■human existence. The researches that culminated in the liquefaction, •• forty years ago, of the so-called permanent gases have enabled us to establish the frozen meat, trade, and have opened up whole realm's of industry."

Mr. George George, director of the Auckland Technical College, stated to a Herald reporter that at present 30 returned soldiers were attending classes at tie college. He believed this was the largest number for any one college in New Zealand. Many were taking a commercial coursa. A few others were studying engineering,' having the use of the machines all day and being taught by two instructors. Others were learn-, ing to become electrical engineers and plumbers. The latter had partly learned their trade before going to the war, and were employed for portion- of the day. Some of the men, who had positions in the Public Service, attended at night to study for Public Service examinations.

In its report .placed before the executive of the Wellington War Relief Association yesterday afternoon,, the Application Committee stated that since the previous meeting of the executive seven meetings had been held. There had been a falling off in the number of applications coming before the committee, only,two hundred having been dealt with. This reduction was ascribed to the recent decision of Cabinet to increase the mufti allowance from 30s to £5 5e.. Because the Defence Department had referred the matter to the annual conference of the Returned Soldiers' Association which took place in Auckland in June last, the press, when reporting the decision of the Government, had ascribed' as due to that conference the satisfactory conclusion of a much-vexed question. As a matter of fact, the committee was requested by the general secretary of the Returned Soldiers' Association to uphold' the contention that the mufti allowance should be increased, but the committee had been for months past in communication with almost every other society in the Dominion, and had written hundreds of letters relative to the subject. ,„

There are (says the London correspondent of an Australian paper) a very large number of American'soldiers in England completing their training, and a great deal is being done by various organisations to make the Americans on leave feel that they are warmly welcome whenever they go. B\it what the Americans want to know is, Can they play baseball on Sunday without placing a strain on the affectionate relations now existing between the English and American peoples? In America some' of the most important baseball games are played on Sunday. In the military training camps in Kngland Sunday is the nearest approach to a day of leisure, and the American soldiers want to get up baseball matches with rival teams, and with teams from the Canadian camps. It is pointed out on their behalf that in England people play golf and lawn tennis on Sunday, and that no comment is heard. But golf ,and tennis matches are not played-in England on Sunday, and, from the English point of view, there is a great difference between a match .vhich attracts thousands of spectators >md a friendly- game which is of no hiterest except to the persons playing. English public opinion has progressed a little since Thackeray was rejected at the polls, at Oxford because he was in favour of opening the museums and picture galleries on Sunday, but it is not ready to regard baseball matches as a desirable competitor with the "pleasant Sunday afternoon" entertainments.

The war has dealt a succession of severe blows to the ©West End clubs, (according to the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age). The casualties among officers havo reduced the membership of the clubs, and as young men of the upper social grades are at the war there are very, few new members coming forward. Subscription fees have therefore fallen off. Men who belonged to half a dozen clubs are resigning from some of them on the ground that the Government is impressing on everyone the virtue of economy. -The food rationing and the "lights out" order have affected the attendance of club members, and thereby reduced the profits from catering and the sale of wines. If a man wants to dine at his club and eat butcher's meat, he must •give an order for the dish on the previous afternoon, and must hand, over one of his precious meat coupons as a guarantee that if he changes his mind about dining at the club the meat cooked for him will be covered by tho coupon. The meat supply of each club is rationed, and it has to prodnco couponsfor all themeat meals served. The "lights out" order has the effect of turning most of the members out of their clubs at 10.30 p.m. The rooms in which food and drink are served must be in., darkness after that time. And now the olubs are threatened with inclusion in the luxury tax, the form of inclusion being. a tax on members' subscriptions. The imposition of such a tax will reduce the membership still further, and will bring some of the clubs to the verge ot bankruptcy.

Owing to the increased price of children's, exercise books, some country schools have gone back to the slate for the lower standards.

Before the end 1 of a lecture on "The Need of Research." (it laat night's meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, several persons, not so well wrapped in science as ' members of the institute, wished that somebody's research had _ found some coal: Regular members of the society have a warmth of interest in things scientific, which seems to ma.ke them indifferent to cold or the discomfort of very hard unscientific benches, but others do shudder and shiver during a wintry night in that unheated Museum Hall. It is' about the coldest hall in Wellington. . "Science ir. cold store," was the remark of one person as he emerged from the philosophers' refrigerator last night.

A cat has the credit of the discovery of a rare bird—a wren (now extinct) —on Stephen's Island. . Long years ago a lighthouse-keeper's cat brought in a specimen of this bird/ which was a subject of much interest to scientists. As the wretv was partly nocturnal in its habits, it fell an easy prey to the cats that had multiplied on the island, but these destroyers have the distinction that they were the first to bring the bird under man's notice. It was characteris-. tic of the cat tribe, however, that this was not done till the wren was almost extinct. This incident Jielped to bring a ban upon the cat for the. islands. The lighthouse-keepers on Stephen's Island h<tvc shot or trapped many cats, but it is believed that the sanctuary is riot yet free from this pest.

"Rothesay boys and girls (says the Buteman and' West Coast Chronicle) aye bravely doing their duty for their country, and so are their, descendants everywhere. Mrs. Ramsay, of Dunedin, New Zealand, nee Elizabeth M'Alpine, granddaughter of the late Mr. Angus M'AJpine, police superintendent, Rathesay, has 4ost her eldest son—Alexander—a cadet on a New Zealand transport which was torpedoed on leaving a British port. He was, a very 'promising youth,_ only 18 years of age, but much older in his ways,, and had every prospect of a brilliant career." Young Ramsay, who lost his life through'the sinking by the Germans of the Union Company's Aparima, was a grandson of Mrs. Sarah M'Alpine, of Thompson-street, Wellington. His father; now dead, was a New Zealand Government^lnspector of Machinery, formerly of the Union Company.

A case of hardship on the part of an Ashburton married reservist which came before the Asliburton Second Division League last* week is reported in the Timaru Post. The reservist was under orders to proceed to camp in March, and a few days before he was put back a' month, and finally till sth July. In the meantime he was out of work. His wife became very ill, and last week was removed from the Ashburton County Hos^ pital to Chnstchurch to undergo a serious operation. He recently applied to the Financial Assistance Board through a solicitor, and was granted an allowance of only five shillings a week for rent from the date of going into camp. He made a further appeal to the board, stating his circumstances. The'board replied, adhering to its previous decision, and stated that,it could make him no allowance until he was actually in camp. On account of his wife's health he has been granted extended time, and is still out of employment. The league severely criticised the attitude of the Financial Assistance Board, and decided to write pointing out the exceptional circumstances in connection with the case.

An adventure of an unpleasant nature was experienced By Messrs. P. P. Chaplin and B. Byrne while on a motor journey from New Plymouth to Wellington, I via the Wairarapa and over the.Ritmi; taka Hill. The full blast of the blizzard of Tuesday.was encountered (when they were three miles on the Featherston side of the hill, and the wind increase., in violence until they reached the summit. That short distance was covered- in two hours, the car having been twice held up by the snow, which at times reached to the running boards, while the gale threatened to lift it over the precipice. At the summit they were met by Roadman Jones, who was camping in the shed, and who kindly supplied them with warm drinks, which were indeed welcome. The snow was four feet deep there, arid, had it not been for Mr. ■Jones's assistance in digging the snow away, the car could not have continued its journey. The journey down the hill was less eventful, but at "Windy Point" thtf car was unable to face the gale, and as there was danger of it being overturned the hood was lowered. The motorists intend to return by the Manawatu route. , The heavy gales durng the autumn and? winter have indirectly added to the collections of the Auckland Museum^ The cyclonic gale of 20th March was responsible for a fine specimen of • the • frigate bird, which, though common in tropical seas, has only been seen in New Zealand on three previous occasions. If was picked up in the Manukau Harbour, and sent to the museum by the finder, Mr. H. C. .Small. A few weeks later, after another gale, the museum received' a specimen of the sooty torn, which breeds on Norfolk Island, but of which none has been previously seen in New Zealand. It was found in an exhausted state in a paddock near the Waitomo Caves, and was presented by Mr. H. F. Smith. This week a fine specimen of the broadbilled dove-petrel, an oceanic bird wljich seldom comes, near the mainl.Tpd, was found in a garden at Pukekohe, worn out by battling with the incessant gales of the last fortnight. It was forwarded by the finder, Mrs. I. B. Brown. On Monday, states the Herald, two other specimens of these petrels were received—one from Mrs. F. Wallis, of Tuakan, and the other from Mr. C. C. Sandfoi'd, who picked it up'near Westfield.

The shortage of matches is breaking down not only the Englishman's reserve, but lil=r class distinctions (writes the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age). In smoking carnages the man with a match seldom strikes it without first lo.oking round to see it' there is anybody who wants a light. With regard to cigarettes, there is a superstition that lighting throe cigarettes with one match presages bad luck, and* this superstition is respected even by those smokers who individually would scorn to subscribe to superstition of any kind. In the street it is becoming a common thing for one man to stop another who is smoking a cigarette and ask for a light from it. To ask for a match would, be equivalent to begging money, and would meet with a curt refusal. Since the war began the consumption •of tobacco has increased, and it is now in restricted supply. Several things contribute to the increased consumption—the two chief things being the increased amount of smoking among tlie soldiers and the growth of the cigarette habit aiming women. But, according to tobacconists, the short-age of matches hrs also increased the consumption of cigarettes. In order to save matches, cigarette smokers indulge in "chain smoking"—lighting a. cigarette from the previous one before the butt is discarded. Cigarette smoking is now general, having displaced the pipe among all grades of the working classes except the elder men. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated in the House of Commons in connection with the Budget that 75 per cent, of the tobacco consumed in Great Britain is in the form of cigaiettes, 15 per cent, in pipe tobacco, and 10 per cent, in cigars. '

"That the Mayor be appointed to con fer with £he City Organist and tht Education Board with a view to instiV tiiting. regular afternoon organ ■ recituii'. for the scholars of the city schools." —The text of a motion to be -moved by Councillor J. Castle at to-night's meeting of the City Council.

The Bay of Islands County Council has passed a motion protesting against returned soldiers being placed on the -poorer clusses of land, and uvging that men with a knowledge of local conditions should be allowed to co-operate with the Land Purchase Board in the buying of estates for soldier settlers.

The secretary of the Wellington War Relief Association reported to the executive committee yesterday afternoon that the total invesmenta on 30th June stood at 574,015 16s lOd. Current accounts amoifhted to. £74- Os 3d, and there was £20 cash in hand. The total funds were therefore £74,109 17s Id. The income for the month of June was £505 3s Bd, and the expenditure £901 15s, consequently the excess of expenditure over income, paid out of capital, was £396 11s 4d. Accounts amounting to £125 18s 2d were passed for payment.

Distressing accounts are given in letters received In Auckland of the sufferings which the crew of the Matunca the Burns-Philp steamer which Was captured „£}•„ the raider Wolf some twelve months ago, are enduring in the German internment camps. It is "shown that both officers and men are without boots, and have only the' remnants of the clbfchinf in which they were captured. Apparently, also, their food, is very restricted Phe officers and crew of the Union Company's steamer Wairuna, another captured vessal, are also piisoners of war in Germany, but are evidently faring better than their Australian comrades'.

Very eulogistic references to the engineer of the Harbour Board (Mr.- J Marchbanks). were' made at last night's meeting of the board. The Chairman (Mr. C. E. Daniells) spoke of the approaching departure of Mr. Marchbankf on a visit to America, and asked Mr. ■R. 'Fletcher, a-s an old chairman of thr board, to say a few words. Mr. Fletcher paid a warm tribute to the personal and professional ability of Mr. Marchbanks, who was eminently thorough and "practical. • No matter who approached him, on whatever subject, they were sure to get civility, attention, and 'advice. Mr. Marchbanks knew he would carry with him the esteem and goodwill of all who knew him. On behalf of the members of the board, the Chairman then, handed to Mr. Marchbanks two pipes, and paid a great tribute to his ability. The engineer's "yes" or "no," he said, had saved thousands of pounds to the board. Messrs. W. Cable and M. Cohen spoke in similar strain, and Mr. Marchbanks voiced his cordia! thanks for the gift, for the spirit which prompted it, and for the expressions of goodwill which had been made concerning him and his work.

A meeting of the Wellington Early Settlers'. Association was held last evening at Godber's rooms, Courtenay-place. Mr. J. E. Jenkinson (president) occupied the chair. Mr. Amelius Smith gave an interesting description of Wellington as it was in the year 1866; when he arrived here to take a place ori the staff of the then Governor, Sir George Grey. Mr. Smith has lived almoßt continuously in Wellington-for some 53 years. Before beginning his description he said he intended to avoid politics. In view of his past official positions, and the confidential nature of much of his work, he thought it would be hardly rigHt to deal with public affairs and party politics. The relations and descendants of some of those who took a prominent part in connection with the Government and Partial lnent in those days were still living, and he desired to avoid saying anything which'might -possibly hurt their feelings. Before passing on to give a chatty account about Wellington in the 'sixties, Mr. Smith remarked, amidst laughter, that his experience had taught him that, "for ways that are dark and for tricks that are vain, the politician is peculiar,— which the same I don't mean to explain." Government House, the Provincial Hos* pital, then in Motnroa-street, and the old Supreme Courthouse, situated on Lamb-ton-quay, near the end of Grey-street, were described. He referred to the trial of a 1 number of Hauhau Maoris on charges of treason, and related incidents connected with the court proceedings. Some of the well-known citizens of those days were alluded to, and many old landmarks' and public buildings were sketched. The address, which was listened to with marked attention, was followed b"y a short general discussion, and a hearty vote of thanks was passed to the lecturer. During the evening musical items were rendered by.members of the association and friends.