LOCAL AND GENERAL

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4590, 16 May 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

TAUPIRI COAL DOWN.

Official advice has been received in AVellington that the prices of Taupin coal at the mines have been reduced as follows from to-day: Household coal, Is per ton; kitchen and steam coal, 2s (3d per ton. GLIDING STOP CONTEST. The Feilding Motor Club's competition for this month, which will be held on Saturday next, will consist of a gliding stop contest. From the interest already taken and the number of motorists who have been practising, spectators and competitors alike are pretty sure of an afternoon which will ue Interesting and also amusing. The competition will be held in the town, and the following is a brief outline .of the conditions: Competitors, car and motor cycle, will start off, and while travelling at not less than 15 (miles per hour will declutch and disengage gears at a point from which, in their judgment, the momentum of their vehicle will be sufficient to carry them just on to a line marked on the road. The competitor coming to rest nearest the line is the winner. Contestants must steer a straight course after declutching, and any touching of brakes will result in disqualification. Particulars as to time and place, trophies, etc., will be published in our advertising columns on Friday. CLUB SECRETARY'S FALL. At the Magistrate's Court at Palmerston North yesterday, a charge of having stolen the sum of £8 lis s<d, by fraudulently omitting to account for it, from the funds of the Tokomaru Football Club, was prcferTed against its late secretary, Percy J McCallum. He pleaded guilty, and the facts as stated by Senior-Ser-geant Eraser were that on March li the whole of the club funds, amounting to £7 12s Sid, wore handed over to accused. On April 21 he received another guinea, and then left the.district, having tailed to pay in any of the moneys. He returned on May J and was arrested. Accused, who was not represented by counsel said hecommitted the theft without criminal intent. Tbe Club had no banking account and he kept the money. AVhen he left the district he did so for a fortnight's holiday, but returned to Tokomaru at the expiration of a fortnight. .He wa s then arrested. Accused added that he had served three vears and eight months with the N Z E.F. as a sergeant, and gained the Military Medal. If he was given a chance he would refund the money. The Magistrate decided to admit accused to probation for two years and ordered him to pay the cost of the prosecution and 10s a week to the football club until the deficiency had been made up. BLIND. YET THEY SEE! A great number of people labour under the impression that when a man loses his sight other faculties disappear automatically. Speaking to an Ashburton audience, Mr Clutha Mackenzie, M.P., the blind Anzac, said it was astonishing how many believed this to be so. It was far from being correct. "I have been lifted bodily out of a taxi," said Mr Mackenzie, "and people have bawled into my ears thinking I might be deaf also." Ho added that his secretary, when having a haircut in an Auckland saloon, was addressed as follows hv the operating barber: "How sad it must .be for young Mackenzie. He might have had brains had ho not lost his sight "

THE DANGER OF MIGRATION

"In tho whole of the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, including New Guinea, there are onlv one and a half million natives," s.-jid Or Guy Scholefield, lecturing at the Wellington Community Club. "They would carry ten or oven twenty millions. In Australia the population is only I.G to the square mile. Yet close at hand, in the island of Java, is a vigorous Asiatic population of thirty-Bight millions—as many people as there art? in France. India has .300 millions, China probably 100 millions, Japan 50 millions. This teeming mass of people, hard-worling, patient, intelligent., could pass by mere boat passiges from their own densely crowded lands to these fertile islands o fthe Fast Indies, which it is estimated could carry 500 millions. Tho only thing that has kept them back has been the insufficiency of leaders and of means to develop them."

Lead pencils have not . changed in design for a hundred years. Last year chewing gum to the value of £200,000 was sold in England. The Gisbome Borough Council is raising a loan of £25,000 to pay off its antecedent liability.

Ripe strawberries were gathered in a garden in Batt street, Palmerston North, last week.

Two further cases of typhoid fever were reported at Auckland on Saturday. The total number of cases reported since the outbreak began is 116.

British emigrants to Australia, who numbered as many as 78,000 in one year before the war, are expected to total 100,000 by the end of this year. Prisoner: Good morning, Judge. Judge : How old are you ? Prisoner : Twenty-nine. Judge: You'll bo thirty when you get out. It is common knowledge that a charge of burglary is more serious than one of breaking and entering, but what is the difference? The burglar works at night, the man who breaks and enters by day, night being defined for the purpose of the distinction as from 9 p.m. .to 6 a.m.

Money may bo scarce, but there are still people with plenty to lose. The other day a lady left in a tramcar a handbag containing £2OO and a bank book showing a credit balance of £75. The motorman, who saw that it was returned to its owner, was rewarded with her thanks.

It is reported (gays the Mataura Ensign) that a deposit of gold and copper has been found at Pukemaori, about two and n-half miles from Tuatapere. Several claims have- been pegged outAn interesting specimen has been secured by a local stamp collector (says the Poverty Bay Herald) in the shape of an Irish Republican stamp, n Gaelic inscription being printed over the ordinary stamp issue.

The Posi says that a writ lias been served at the instance of a well known firm of provision merchants., with offices in Wellington and London, on an Auckland district dairy company for £IO,OOO damages for alleged libel. The action has arisen out of statements said to have been made with reference to the marketing of butter in London.

A special meeting of the Borough Council is to lie held on Saturday morning to confirm the resolution regarding the rates and to pass the special order authorising the loan of £750 for drainage works. The Works Committee, has a report on approaches to the Warwick street bridge. The lonic, which arrived on Sunday night, did not berth until 2 o'clock on Monday afternoon. There were half a dozen eases of light measles amongst the children in.the third cla=s The last case was registered on the" 26th April. The vessel was disinfected in the stream. The lonic has 540 passengers including 424 immigrants. New Zealand's prima donna, Rosina Buckman, yesterday set foot once more on her native New Zealand, bhc was most enthusiastically received, a civic reception being accorded her at the Wellington Town Hall, where the Prime Minister,/the Mayor, Sir Joseph Ward, and 'Mr Robert Parker—the last named on behalf of the musicians—cordially welcomed her and her husband, Maurice Doisly. Mr Massey, Sir Joseph Ward and Mr Wright spoke of the rapid rise to fame of the New Zealandor, ot whom we were justly proud. They congratulated Miss Buckman upon the position she had reached in the musical world Miss Buckman, who was overwhelmed with the cordiality of her reception, said it was nine years since she had left. New. Zealand. The interval had not been without hard work. Covent Garden was not attainable without close study as well as voice and ambition.