LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 51, 29 August 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

At the close of the appeal meeting for the Plunket Society at the Town Hall last evening. Dr. Truby King said that .while donations, however small, would be welcome, and the Citizens' Committee- trusted that feVeryoiie Would give something, it was idle to suppose that £10,000 could be raised without substantial,donations. He and his wife felt so strongly the need of/proper Plunket quarters in v Wellington, for helping the mothers and saving the babies, that they would give £200 themselves towards the £10,000 required. Now that people knew how far Wellington was behind other large centres in the Dominion, as regards facilities for the teaching of mother-craft and the safeguarding of mother and child, he felt sure the response would be prompt and generous. The capital would surely set a good example, now the facts were known,, and Wellington would not be content to remain any longer at the top of infant, mortality for the Dominion.

In proposing the 1 toast of the "Test Contestants" (Springboks and All Blacks) at the smoke concert at Eastbourne on Saturday Mr. J. Heenan reviewed the Test 'matches played by New Zealand, since 1893 against different countries (as published in The Post on Saturday). To quote Mr. Heenan's own words, second Tests had been "hoodoo" as far as the All Blacks were concerned. In most cases they had won the first, and third, but the second had, on many occasions, been lost or drawn. ■ Supporters of the game in the Dominion could take heart from this fact, and hope that the third Test would give New Zealand the rubber.

"I have heard that we are trying to save wastrels," said Dr. Truby King at the Town Hall last evening, after he had shown several of a series of lantern slides showing babies as they were before taken in hand, and as they were but a few weeks afterwards, ''but these photographs speak . volumes. Give the babies a chance, feed them as they should be, fed, and save some of the finest stock of the country." Many of the glides shown, "happily prepared from photographs taken in oflier countries than New Zealand tot the most part, were dreadful indeed, bo much so that the final slide of the series, of a very bonny kiddie (New Zealand), came as a positive 'relief. Certainly these slides, however distressing for the time, drove home the lessons to be taught—the value of eduT cation on 'all matters pertaining to mother craft. . ■

Several members of the South African football'team visited Albany gum. lands experimental area last Friday, and were conducted over the plots- by Messrs. T. H. Patterson and W. Dibble, of the Department 'of Agriculture. The visitors (says the 4iucklan«l Herald) manifested great interest in the experiments designed to break in these Tast areas of "waste country" known as gum lands. They were particularly pleased to see kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum) —a native of Rhodesia—growing so well on the gum lands. "In Africa," they stated, "it is liked by stock, chiefly cattle and horses, which.do well on it." They further stated that it withstands the African winter, when other grasses fail. The visitors took photographs of the plots of kikuyu' grass to' add to their New Zealand collection.

Referring to the expenditure in connection with the New Zealand railways, the Acting Prime Minister'(Sir Francis. Bell) said the- increase was largely d»e to heavy payments for material in the first quarter of the present year. This material had, been ordered some time ago, and yet was a charge upon the .revenue for this year. Sir Francis said the first four months of thi.y year were not by any means a fair guago of what the surplus of revenue over expenditure would be for the whole year. There had, however, been a falling-off in revenue. The addition to the wages of the a'ailwaymen made under the agreement arrived at after the strike of last yeaT represented an increased expenditure of nearly £100,----000 a month,.or a little over. £1,100,000 a jear in wages alone, irrespective of the increase in salaries, as it necessarily followed that the wages of the employees in other branches of the service had also to be increased. • '

At a recent meeting of the Educational Committee of the Otago Expansion League, the Daily Times reports, Mr. Cockayne, , chief biologist of the Department of Agriculture, discussing the question of promoting the interest of the rising generation • in matters ■ appertaining to country life and work, stated that the Department he represented looked upon the potato-growing competition, which was inaugurated by the league four years ago, as the nucleus of a movement which had a great educational future. He congratulated the league upon being the originators' of the contests in the Dominion, and added that the Department had men and time and money for practical things ,qf proven value, but nothing for hair-brained schemes. Over and above the subsidy which is already promised to the league for the work, .Mr. Cockayne announced that the Department was proparcd to make a gift of pure selected true-to-type seed for all.entrants to the competition during the* coming season. The -record card to be kept by each competitor is also being prepared by tho Department, so that properly tabulated information, may be available. The success which has attended the league's efforts has led to similar competions being started in the Waikato, North Taranaki, South Taranaki, Manawatu, and North Wellington.

"The way to care /or the nation's teeth is not to patch them up," said Dr. Truby King while speaking on "The Duty of Health" last evening. "The patching is essential, but the true remedy is to build the body and the cell* of the body so well that there will be' no decay."

While excavation work was in. progress at an old building in Berry-street, St. Albans, a contractor discovered under one wall I copy of the Lyttelton Times, dated 10th December, 1861. The newspaper was in a remarkably good state of preservation and the- contents could be clearly read. The finder intends to koep the copy as a relic of the early days. - ..

"Growth is most rapid at the-age of thirteen years," said Dr. Truby King while speaking at the Tbwn Hall kst evening, "and yet it i» at that very .period that the school child is taught most. One. thing is essential, and that is that more time should be spent, by growing-children in the. open air and the sunlight. It should be compulsory for each child to spend at least one full hour each day in the open air."' Several lantern slides vshowed open-air schools and open-air dormitories, the latter being, said the speaker, thoroughly popular with school boarders. Swimming, he said, was the finest, of all 1 exercises ifor boys or girls. .

In a tenement case heard'at the Christchurch Magistrate's Court, says the Lyttelton. Times, the plaintiff said he had been unable to get married because lie Scould not get possession of the house in question. As soon as ho could get possession he intended to marry. , The defendant was a married man with a wife and four children, and his counsel suggested that he would suffer greater .hardship by being evicted than plaintiff would suffer by not getting possession. In delivering ' judgment the Magistrate said that lately he had seen the conditions under which some people were living in tenements. In one case he saw seven people living in one room, about 10ft by 12ft. In .view-of this~he could understand ,a • young lady ■ not wishing to ' get married unless she could,get a house of her own. The Magistrate ordered that possession should be, given' in two months' time. "

There is a considerable, quantity of flax country in Southland, and previous to the war there was a fair number of mills engaged in the^manufacture of fibre for !rfome consumption and export (writes the Invercargill "correspondent Of the Otago Daily Times). The. wai demand gave the industry a considerable filip, and between twenty and thirty mills sprang up, employing something like 300 men for six months of the year at high rates of pay. ■ Now, however, it would appear that the industry, so far as Southland is concerned, is in its last stages. In 1920 very few mills' operated, and when the season begins ' again shortly it is not expected that more than three will open up, and these will be-mainly under .contract with. New Zealand factories. This state of' affairs hag been brought about by the great fall in prices in the London markets, millers considering that under the present royalties, shipping freights, and wages it is impossible to see exportation as a payable proposition. '■„

One of the lantern slides shown by Dr. Truby King, Director of the Child Welfare Department, during his lecture at th» Town Hall last. eTening was as beautiful as it was simple, a photograph of a young mother suckling her child. "This young woman came to us," said Dr. Truby King, "to ask our advice, for like thousands an 4 thousands of .others she had been wrongly advised, had been told that her milk was poisonous. That is nonsense,,for no breast milk is poisonous. .She .had no hesitation in handing me this iphotograph nor in: giving permission ;fpr its use, arid she. is■ one of many who, realising their duty to others, carry on the good advice." Another slide summed up. the (lesson in the words: "What is tlie duty of society? To persuade and assist every mothei to suckle her baby. 1 ' Later in his address the'doctor referred to the terrific summer mortality among babies in Continental and American cities; due in large measure to the.fact that artificial feeding carried untold microbes to the child. . ■ ■- • • . ,

* A visit to Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, to inspect the condition of a house will be made next week by the twelve jurymen who have been sitting with Mr. Justice Stringer at the Auckland Supreme Court to hear the case in which John Henry Ralfe, solicitor, Te Puke, claims from Leonard Earle ' Bayliss, . land dealer, Auckland-, £1325 damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation of the condition of a house (says the New Zealand Herald). When the case for the defence concluded his Honour said it would be to the advantage of the Jury to see the house and the floors and walls which were alleged by the plaintiff to be ruined by the borer. After considering the matter *in retirement for twenty minutes the foreman' reported that the jury were unanimous Jhat the conflict of evidence rendered /it necessary to view the house. A suggestion that the party should leave by the steamer for Tauranga on Monday was abandoned when it was ascertained that the' sleeping accommodation had been booked by those returning from the football match. His Honour finally directed the jury.to leave, with an officer of the Court and an expert from each side, by the boat on Thursday evening. They would arrive at Tauranga on Friday morning, journey out about 20 miles to Te<Puke, and view the house. The party would return by the boat leaving Tauranga on Friday evening and, arriving' at Auckland on Saturday morning, would resume sitting at the Supreme Court. « ' '■ '

, "Most people in these clays have given up the habit of public worship, and I think, for ourselves and for our fellowmen, it is a great wrong," declared Bishop Sprott when consecrating a new Anglican Church at Makara on Saturday 'afternoon. '."I cannot understand why people should not desire to get more and more knowledge of God. One reason for our coming here is that we ma-y learn more and more about God our Father. Is not 'it a very strange thing that we should not care to learn as much as we' can about our Creator, in whom we live and move and have our being? And then you know that here we learn or help to realise that there is another world than this. This is the House or.God, a refuge in this world of ours, with all its sadness, difficulties, and trials and death, where we learn there is another higher, purer, and truer world. We rgb ourselves of a great deal when we give up the habit of going to church. There are also the common sorrows and trials in life, and we ought to come here so that we may keep in closet touch with the Divine Consoler, who understands and sympathises and is touched with the sufferings of our lives. I think, too, that we do our fellowmen a great wrong by giving up the habit of worship—knowing we ought to feel more in common, we should meet around the^feet of the common Father. That is what the world wants to-day. There are too many sorrows and antagonisms. What we want is something to bring men together, and I know nothing that could do it more readily than a return to the old Christian custom of.united worship^n God's House."

The Postal authorities ' advise that R.M.9. Marama; which arrived here to-

•day from Sydney, carried 284 bags of mails for the Dominion.; The Maheno, due at Auckland to-day" from Sydney, carries 95 bags of mails. The Kaitangata, which sailed at 5 p.m. on the 26th instant for Dunedin, carries a small mail for Wellington and Auckland. Failure to notify a change of his address was responsible for the appearance of an American citizen, William Rutledge, in the Magistrate's Court this morning. Rutledge pleaded guilty. Inspector M'llveney -said that the defendant's explanation was that he thought the Act making it necessary for him to notify his change of address had been repealed. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: "The trouble is that -an American- does not consider himself an alien." " Rutledge was convicted and ordered to pay 2s ■costs.' .'-..< ■ The suggestion that xNew Zealand . standard lime should.be altered-to 12 hours ahead of Greenwich time has been revived. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. Downie Stewart) h«s intimated to chambers of' commerce that . it is .proposed to place the matter befmV Cabinet o x ii the return of the Prime Minister, to decide whether legislation givingeffect to the'pi'oposal should be.introduced this .session. Dunedin, Tarariaki, and Wellington chambers have approved of the idea, the latter body stating that some two years ago it had expressed the advisability of giving effect to the, pro- ■, posal. - ' " .. ■. ." "Let me.add my appreciation to wjiat has already been said of the good, work of Mr. Wilkie and Mr. Hunter in endeavouring to get the public of New Zealand to realise that the starchy food of white bread is not of the same value as the food of brown or wholemeal bread," 1 said Dr. Truby King at the Town Hall last evening. "It is strange that we should give away, in the form of bran or pollard, to the lower animals the very foods that we require ourselves. The more our'foods are elaborated, the less useful they •become, to iis. We must get back to more primitive foods and the more virile will we be. Re-. form in this direction is absolutely necessary." ■ ' Spectators at the Athletic Park on Saturday afternoon were again provided with progress scores of matches elsewhere, notably the second Test, and from the receptions of the posting-s' on the ; Board it was evident that the Springboks had Vjained a greater - following ■'•' since the first Test. Even so,, the enftfusiasm after the first': score, s—o, wns very weak compared with the cheers which met the news that New Zealand had equalised. When the announcement was made that the scores 1 > were unaltered with twenty minutes to go, the crowd- eagerly awaited the final.- It , was late ,in coming. At length Ait. j . F. J. M'Comisky, secretary of the Wei- ' lington 'Rugby . Union, emerged from the players' gate with the result. A light cheer. went up from those, near by, and the crowd on the bank, a? had been the case with the first Test, took up the cheering enthusiastically. It ■ was renewed when a small boy made the board show: New Zealand 9, South - Africa 5. ■ -But then "came the South. African supporters'. turn. - There had been a mistake; the figures, were re-, versed; and the minority cheered. South Africa had w.on-r^and the crowd -a» it -..- worided its way towards the gates, thought more seriously of the Ohird Test on that ground next month. Fof announcing the scores oh Saturday, Mr. . M'Comisky had. the use of a small Magnavox, lent by/Mr. P. Griffin. It is proposed to use some of these instruments at the third Test.

The hearing of a claim for compensation, Alice Dighton, represented by Mr. !f. W.: J»cksoffi;v. Gharles Williams-,-for .whop- Mr. W/'.N. Matthews appeared, was set down for hearing by the Arbitration Court this morning, but, owing -to the fact that certain medical evidence was not available, the hearing could not be. concluded, and was, therefore, adjourned to a date to be fixed. The plaintiff wa.- engaged as cook and stewardess on the coastal steamer Huia, and while going on board the boat on 27th October last, she stepped on a hatchway which tipped, and caused her, to fall upon | a deck pump standard. She sustained s severe wound to th.c stomach, and w»s, according to her statement of > claim, compelled to undergo lengthy hospital treatment, and. had been unable to do any work till Ist February, but, she maintained, she was then still, suffeving from.the.injury, and was even'now partially" incapacitated. Her wages had been : £30 per calendar month, to.gether with, board, equivalent to 25s per week, aild her claim was for compensation up,to Ist February, for compensation as from that date, together with such other relief as the Oiurt might consider proper. The evidence placed before the Oourt, Mr. Justice Frazer; Mr. W. Scott (employers' assessor), and Mr. J. M'Cullough (employees' assessor), today chiefly concerned the extent of plaintiff's injuries, • in regard to which the main dispute lies. Further, medical evidence will be heard when the case is again called. . . ' " '

In the old days of the volunteer forces, the Petone Navals were as much an institution of the town as the railway ■ workshops. When the Territorial scheme came. into force the name of the company was changed, and the personnel was changed,.but the old spirit and traditions were left and have been' upheld by the Territorials. Under the new re--organisation scheme the Defence Depart- ■ 'meat has. now changed the headquarters of the company, which is now known as the 17th Heavy Battery," N.Z.A., from Petone to the Lower Hutt. TJiis Jias caused much regret and some consternation in Petone, and at a representative meeting held on Friday* night, the. Following resolution was unanimously passed, and an instruction "given that a copy be sent to the Defence authorities:— "That it be resolved by this meeting ;of ex-officers and non-commissioned officers and ■ men of the Petone Navals, No. 5 Company, N.Z.G.A., and representatives of the Petone ex-Navals' Association, that it be respectfully pointed out to the ' Defence Department that this meeting views with great conecrn and regret the probability of the old associations* and esprit de corps of the original company and the Petone borough being severed from the present successors in a military sense of the No. 5 Company) N.Z.G.A.. viz., the 17th Heavy Battery N.Z.A. It is strongly felt that if by any rearrangement or alterations the Petone district can be let remain as the- headquarters and main recruiting base of the present battery, it will be of incalculable value to the' Defence Department, as it will conserve to the new battery the traditions and spirit of the past compajiy, which was, both as a volunteer and as * Territorial company, distinguished for its efficiency and discipline to which locil sentiment and pride did much to contribute." ■. '