LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 22, 26 July 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A wreath of arum lilies and New Zealand foldage is to be frozen and sent to London for placing on the Nelson: Memorial, Trafalgar-square, as the tribute of ' the Wellington branch of the Navy League to the memory of "the freatest sailor since the worldi began." rior to the freezing process, the wreath was on view at Miss Murray's, Willisstreeb, to-day. It will take more than two weeks to freeze clearly. The block of ice, measuring nearly 2 feet each way, will be shipped in its zinc-lined case by the Shaw, Savi]l Company about flhe middle of August.

The whitebait season has commenced unusually early" this year, and supplies have been on sale in Auckland for about a,' fortnight past. Most of the consignments are coming from the Lower Waikato. The season usually begins in August. ' ■ ■ ■

It - was decided yesterday by the Thomdon branch of the ■ Amalgamated Society *of Railway Servants to write to the 1 Oity Council objecting to ffi'e proposed withdrawal- of tram concession tiokets, and to ask the Government to refuse the necessary Order-in-Council consenting to the council's proposed action.

Commissioner Hodder,' of the Salvation Army, said at Dunedin last!week: "I hive confirmed what our people have already done in preparation for the scheme of bringing from the Old Country a number of boys to be educated and trained in New Zealand, and as soon as General Booth gets .Home he. will send us 200 orphans. We are" going to make these boys colonials, and put them on our training farm at Putaruru, near Rotorua."

The cadets who have bean in session in the Salvation Army Training Garrison, studying to qualify for officership, have terminated their term of training, and will be commissioned as officers by Commissioner Hodder, to-morrow evening. This service is the equivalent of the ordination service of other religious bodies, and will be associated on this occasion with, the announcement of their various appointments, none of which are known to the successful students until they with the public hear them declared. This commissioning is especially interesting and impressive in the light of the ctavulopmentia following up th« visit of Gansi'al Booth.

At an auction sale in Timaru on Saturday a 66ft frontage in Stafford-street, tha busiest parti of the town, on which stand five one-storied shops, was sold for £15,000 to Hallenstein and Co. and the Timaru Herald Company conjointly.

• A Press Association message from Christchurch states that the result of the polling to elect a representative of the Canterbury members of Parliament and members o£ the Legislative Council to the, Board of Governors of Canterbury College resulted as follows : Mr. J. C. Adams, 12; Mr. J. M'Combs, M.P., 4.

Napier appears to be in a bad way financially. "Our position is so serious," stated the Mayor at the last meeting of the Borough Council, "that if any further requests are made for financial assistance I will refuse to sign cheques. Every penny counts these days, and councillors do not seem to realise the seriousness' of the position. The bank •may stop our credit at any moment."

The Timaru Chamber of Commerce telegraphed to the local members of. Parliament that the building trade there has stopped for want of cement. Four hundred tons are arriving at Timaru (says a Press Association message) from Auckland, but all of it has been commandeered for Arthur's Paas. The members are to see the Minister, to try and get half the quantity allocated for urgent requirements at Timaru.'

Detective Sweeney, ' for some time a member of the Auckland detective force, has. been appointed to the Invercargill force, and Detective Young, who carried out his probationary*work at Ponsonby, 1 is to be transferred to Greymouth, and Detective De NorviUe, for many years in charge of the plainelofches staff at Newton, is to be stationed at Whangarei. Detective-S.ergeant Ward, of Greymouth, and Detective Fi'tagibbon, of New Plymouth, have been transferred to Auckland.

At its regular meeting, held last week, Loyal Orange Lodge No. 49 unanimously passed a motion "emphatically condemning the insidious attempt of Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., under the pretence _of self-determination, to aid in establishing a hostile state across the terminus of "the trade route between New Zealand and Great Britain." The resolution adds that the proposed Irish Republic will be a hostile military and naval adjunct to any future enemy military operations against the Empire,

"France has been most unfortunate as a coloniser in the Pacific," Dr. G. H. Scholefield remarked in the course- of his lecture at Canterbury College last week. Most of the islands possessed by France were becoming depopulated of their native inhabitants, he added, and cited Tahiti, and more especially, the Marquesas, which were being over-run by animals and by insects, the laist-men-tioned making it difficult for the inhabitants to exist in comfort? Referring to. the recent cable message regarding the proposal that people should go to Samoa or the Marquesas and live "the simple life," Dr. Scholefield said the* the proposer and those who had expressed their willingness to join him did not, know what was going on in islands like the Marquesas. %

The Rev. E. R. Gribble, Superintendent of the Anglican Mission to Aborigines at Forest River, / NorthWest Australia, who is visiting Sydney, told a Sydney •Evening N«ws reporter last week that the race was dying out quickly. If the Australian black waf> to be saved from total extinction, he thought the care of the few thousands .remaining' should be undertaken by the Commonwealth Government, and not left to the . various States. The Commonwealth already had a Native Affairs Department, dealing with New Guinea, and that could take over the care of the Australian black.- The greatest number in any state at present, said Mr. Grib•ble, was 25.000 in Queensland. He added that therß was no case in history of a race dying out so quickly. There seemed'to be a general impression that the race was already dying out when •white settlement took plaoe, but that •was not the case.

Replying to the Welfare League, J. M'Kenzie in a letter to the Kditor criticises the league's letter in Saturday's issue as an illustration of the maxim—"no case, abuse the other side." "It may be another example of Labour stupidity," he continues, "but the idea exists that the league is not) really concerned about the defence of New Zealand, and that the question is only laised to divert attention from tha economic question. I am sorry I have annoyed the league by attempting to pin it down to something definite, but if it means to continue the 'holy wa?' on behalf of more production, I suggest that it ought to give some guarantee that greater production will result in a fall in the price of commodities. . . The league's implied claim to represent the views of a superior brand of patriot is nauseating, in view of what has taken place during the last aix.y«iars, and it is tSme it seriously faced the question whether people who took advantage of the country being engaged in a great war to enrich themselves at . the expense of thencountrymen are really patriotic."

The possibility of obtaining'supplies of motor spirit from .Persia has been suggested recently, and the Hon. E; P. Lee was asked in Christchurch on Saturday whether the Government had done anything in the matter (reports a, Press Association message). He replied that the question had been addressed to him in Parliament, and he had promised to look into it. The agent of the Shell Oil Company was in New Zealand at present, but had not approached him, but he had had a conversation with the chairman of the Board of Trade about the matter 'Mr. Lee did not support the suggestion that there was profiteering in regard to motor spirit. He said the Board of Trade from time to time fixed prices according to the invoice prices of the companies importing, and no increase was authorised unless the whole matter was gone into again. Mr. Lee added that care had to be taken' in handling big American companies, for if they liked they could pass New Zealand altogether in the matter of supplies. Following close upon the resignation of the AntiProfiteering Tribunal, it is understood that the members of the Christchuroh Petrol Committee, set up in connection with the Board of Trade for the purpose of controlling the distribution of petrol, have sent in their resignations.

Mr.'lt. W. M'Viliy, General Manager NeV Zealand Railway*, will viiii Chrwtchurch on Saturday, for the purpose of going into railway matters, and especially the question of giving effect to th« Hiley scheme.

The- plea, that he was riding behind; another cyclist who had a brilliant light was unavailing in the case of a cyclist who was charged before Mr. V. G. Day, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, in Christchurch last week with having cycled without having a light on his machine. "That makes it all the worse," said the Magistrate, when the plea was put forward. "It is most- dangerous for a man who has no light on his bicycle to ride near a man who has."

. Two residents of Silverstream had an unenviable experience on Saturday evening through the horse attached to a gig in which they were driving taking fright near the Petone Railway Station. The horse bolted, and, during its career, thf' occupants of the vehicl< were thrown out. Both received a severe shaking and slight injuries, and, after receiving attention, returned by train to their homes. ■ ;

Mr. P. Hally, oi the Board of Trade, left for Auckland to-day by the midday express, to act as Conciliation Commissioner Jh the Sugar Befinery employees' dispute, during the absence on sick leave of Mr. T. Harle Giles, Conciliation Commissioner for Auckland. Mr. Hally will return in time to preside at 'Wie conference between the parties in the Merchant Service Guild dispute, concerning: pay and conditions of officers on coastal steamers, to be held at Wellington on Tuesday week, 3rd August.

A motor smash, by great good fortune not attended by serious results, occurred at the Hospital gates about 8 p.m. on' Saturday, when a car, owned and driven, by Mr. J. W. Martin, of Pirie-street, collided wih the Hospital, ambulance as the latter vehicle was turning out on to Biddiford-street. Mr. and Mrs. Martin, <■ who occupied the front seat of the car, escaped with a shaking, but two other passengers, Mr. A. Croker, of 75, Rin-toul-strest, and Mr. W. Aldred, of. Christchurch, were thrown out of the car, though their injuries were not serious. Mt. Croker sustained injuries to his right arm, and the other to his right arm and leg, and both suffered considerably from shock. Neither car was seriously damaged.

A Magistrate has no jurisdiction under the Destitute Persons' Act, said Mr J S. Evans, S.M., at the Magistrate's bourt this morning, to grant a. separation order between husband and wife 'by consent. ' A separation order was of similar nature to a divorce, and no one would suggest that a. divorce should be granted "by consent." Further, Ik saw no reason why a separation order should be made in cases in which husband and wife were already living- apart. The issuing of an order was justified ■when the facts adduced, in evidence showed that the wife was in fear of her husband by reason of his behaviour. The facts should in each case be placed before the Magistrate. An order for the payment of maintenance could, however, be issued "by consent." <