LOCAL AND GENERAL

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4593, 20 May 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

BAND CONCERT TO-MORROW NIGHT. A very pleasant surprise is in store for those who go to the Feilding Band’s sacred concert in the Drill Hall to-morrow evening. The names of the assisting artists may not be published, for a good and sufficient reason, but we have the word of the Band secretary that the artists have a big reputation in New Zealand and other parts, and the Band is most fortunate to be able to have the assistance of these artists. WHAT IS NEEDED. At the Farmers’ Union Conference, Mr Rutherford said what New Zealand wanted Was a fast line of steamers trading between tlio southern ports of India, via Brisbane, to Now Zealand, calling at the various intermediate ports. These steamers could carry our produce and secure back loading. There were many officers in India who would be pleased to spend tbeir holidays in New Zealand if a fast steamer service were available. The possibilities of trading with Java were also enormous, to say nothing of the East. PRESS AND PEACE. A prominent London journalist. Sir Robert Riddell, said at a recent meeting: I used to say that instead of a Peace Conference there should be a Press Conference. It would do a great deal more good; and I still hold that view. ‘‘You cannot have nice houses unless our foreign trade prospers. We all stand on this wonderful trade which has been built up since the days of Queen Elizabeth. If this fails wo are done. The world does not depend only on armaments or tariffs, but upon our wonderful merchants, who- push trade all over the world. The success of the British Empire depends in a great measure upon ‘atmosphere,’ and the persons who can create atmosphere are the journalists in the world. Great Britain should be properly represented by the truth being told in all countries. If the truth is told I shall not be ashamed of it, nor need you.” STRIKES AND GERMANY. Under the heading “Strikes and Ca’ Canny’’ the Sheffield Chamber oi Commerco Journal lias the following: Unemployment is not always viewed in a true light. We mako no protence of dealing adequately with the matter hero, but would like to venture a couple of points. On the last day for which we have official German figures, December 1, 11)21, in the whole of Germany there were only 151,000 registered unemployed. In tlio United Kingdom on the same day there were nearly 2,000,000. In Germany nine blast furnaces out of 10 were working. In Britain five out of six were standing cold. Need we add that between file armistice and the middle of last year the members ol one British trade union lost more individual working days by strikes than the entire working classes of Germany have lost in 10 vears? Here is our other point. Three years ago we had a special delegation from Brazil seeking to fix up an agreement under which we should export large quantities of coal, iron, steel, and engineering products, and receive in turn the rich iron ore of that great country to feed our furnaces. The proposition had to be turned down because our output of fuel was not sufficient to cover the proposed business, and was threatening to go still lower through strikes, ca’ canny, and democratic nationalisation. Since then we have experienced and unprecedented volume of unemployment.

LUCKY AIRMAN. Corporal McCausland of the Royal Air Force seems to bear a charmed life. Oil March 23 lie survived his fourth air disaster by jumping from a machine which nose-dived to earth from a height of a thousand feet. McCausland jumped wlion the airplane was 20 feet from the ground and was so little hurt that he walked round the wrecked s machine afterwards. ‘ He lias escaped in similar fashion three times previously. Hie flying officer who was in the machine with him in liis latest adventure was terribly injured and died in a few minutes. PERSONAL CARE OF HEALTH. Addressing the General Council of the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva, the director-general, cut Claude Hill, said the discoveries ot science were far ahead of their application by the public, and, although it was a truism to say, “You cannot make people healthy by Act of Parliament,” it was equally true that, up to the present time little concerted endeavour had been directed toward persuading people to remain healthy of their own intelligent volition. It was demonstrable that humanity at large, owing to its mishandling of itself, had succeeded in rendering nugatory, or at all events had failed to take advantage of, the many discoverjes of science placed at its disposal. The great truth which tlio League of Red Cross Societies submitted for acceptance was that the only way of remedying this failure was to show people how tliev could avoid tlio miseries of ill-health and suffering, and to persuade them, in tliei rown persons, to lead lives which avoided the risks of ill-healtli, _both mental and bodily, of which 85 per cent, was avoidable. In one word, the process of prevention could only replace that of cure if there was the full co-operation of the public with Governmental measures and with the elforts of scientists and physicians.”

It is stated that Parliament will De summoned for despatch of business on June 20. Tennis racquets which come from India can be sold in England at a little more than one-third of the cost of production at Home. A leading importer of high-class motor cars has shown us figures which indicate that tho average landed cost in Dunedin is 121 per cent, loss than it was six months ago. A story is being told concerning a well-known Greymouth gentleman who visited the Kokiri sports on Saturday. The married ladies had just covered 100 yards in good time, which prompted him to remark: “Myword, but you have somo fast women up here!” Then ho hoard about it.

A ton of butter per month is the average amount required for and usul by tho twelve institutions for which the Otago Hospital Board provides. Mr Bumble would have been incur ably shocked could he have foreseen the day when butter the like-of which lie never saw would be recognised as a staple article of diet.—Dunedin Star. Many English country towns of quite respectable size have practically no proper system of drainage. That is where Feilding scores. The Salvation Army has seven maternity homes in New Zealand. Jn these, 396 children were born last year, and no deaths were recorded. A Masterton motor firm disposed of five second-hand cars last week. During the last three years the Masterton' Methodists have raised £ISOO pel - year for church purposes. The first and second prize-winners of the Memorial campaign gold dust art union live next door to one another in Masterton. When pins were invented in the fourteenth century, the maker was allowed only to sell them on Die first two days in January, and upon these days women flocked to buy them. They were so expensive then that it was the custom to give as a present a certain sum o f money to be used as pin-money. Hence the term.

It is stated that over 300 applications were receivod for the various positions on tho office staff of tho Napier Hospital Board. “Members of Parliament should lop osf their own railway concessions before depriving fire bridagesmen of those they have enjoyed for years,” said a speaker at the annual re-union of the Carterton Fire Brigade. He continued by saying: “We can do without politicians, hut we cannot do without fire-fighters.”