Local and General.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IX, Issue 288, 21 November 1919, Page 4

Local and General.

The Hastings Band will give an open air concert in Cornwall Park on Sunday afternoon. A slight shock of earthquake was experienced in Hastings and Napier this morning at 11.5 o’clock. David Gray, foreman of the Blackball Coal Company; who met with a shooting accident on Tuesday, died in Wellington yesterday evening.

'The new Edison Battery 15-ton tractor, recently purchased by the Hastings Borough Council in Christchurch, at. a cost of £1,700, came to hand yesterday. The tug Terawhiti, in Dunedin, arrived this morning from Wellington and began operations on the Karori. It was expected Ahe Kessel would be floated this afternoon. —Press Association.) At a special meeting of the shareholders of the Press Association today it was decided to hold the next annual meeting at Wellington instead of Akaroa, the place originally fixed. At next Wednesday’s sittings of the Hastings Magistrate's Court, Mr R. W. Dyer, S.M., presiding, the civil list will include 40 undefended cases and 10 defended actions. Two breaches of the Licensing Act and seven ordinary police cases.

It is announced in the Gazette .that the notice issued by Commissioner Cullen on December 9, 1914, respecting the restriction placed on the movements of enemy subjects is revoked, as well as all subsequent instructions relating thereto.

Owing to the fact that the Supreme Court is sitting in Napier on Monday there is not a very large Police Court list being brought Morward. Three maintenance cases, a charge of indecency, and several actions against youths for failing to attend drill are set down. “This is a sort of Harbour Board Tattersall’s” remarked the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board (Mr. H. D. Heather), in referring to a sale of unclaimed luggage. He referred to an instance of a man paying several pounds for a portmanteau, only to find it was full of advertising matter.

“There is too much of this sort of thing going on and it is not fair to the tradespeople,” stated a creditor at a bankruptcy meeting in Napier this morning, referring to what he called the. practice of car owners running up accounts for motor repairs without any sense of responsibility. Another murder has occurred at YVadioga, a country centre on Viti Levu, Fiji when two Indians named Xanhu and Matau, heat a fellow Indian named Ismail with clubs, from the effects of which he died shortly after. Both men were at Lautoka, sentenced to death, with a recommendation to mercy. At a well attended meeting of the citizens of Napier held this afternoon, the Mayor (Mr. J. V. Brown) presiding, it was decided to . accept the offer of Mr. Gladstone Hill to bring the New South Wales State Orchestra to Napier, and a committee was appointed to make the necessary arrangements in connection with the visit. The Commercial Travellers’ Association of Wellington raise'd in all £6,719 for the Mercantile Marine fund, of which £5,719 was sent to England arid distributed by the High Commissioner. The remaining £lOOO have been handed to the War Funds Council and will be administered by a committee appointed by the Association. The amount will be spent during the next twelve months.

Thc Southland Electric Power District, the first under the HydroElectric Power Boards Act, has been gazetted. The Act was promoted by the Southern Progress League in connection with the Lake Monowai scheme. The board will be elected on December 20, and immediately the ratepayers of the district will vote on the proposal for a loan of a million to carry out the electrification of the whole of the province, with part of Soutifern Otago. Statements with regard to the prevalence of cattle tick in tbe North were referred to by a prominent breeder and farmer who arrived in Auckland from the north the other day. He declared the tick, usually widespread at this time of the year, was affecting the cattle of the North and very badly in one or two instances. Generally speaking, however, there was nothing abnormal in the experience of most of the farmers in this respect this season, and rhe visitation of the. pest was certainly not so. severe year.

A meeting of the Napier Chamber of Commerce was held yesterday afternoon. Mr. B. M. Chadwick presided. Particulars of a discussion proceeding between the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce and Minister of Customs in connection with the rate of conversion of American invoices for customs purposes, were received. A lengthy report from Mr. W. L. Prentice, on native land matters was received. Discussion was referred pending the members becoming conversant with all the features of the report. A discontinuance of the practice of cutting and telescoping mutton and lamb carcases with a view to economising freight space has been decided upon in consequence of the demands made by traders against the Ministry of Food to meet the wastage. The practice was inaugurated in the 1917-1918 season, and resulted in a storage space of from 20 to 25 per cent. This decision will mean serious congestion of the storage space in the Dominion unless adequate shipping facilities are forthcoming and representations have accordingly been made to London to meet the situation.

Sir J. Allen who passed through Christchurch yesterday, told a reporter that active steps were being taken to substitute civil for military administration in Samoa. They were anticipating the mandate by removing the garrison and replacing them with police. "Me are issuing a circular to all newspapers about indentured labour. said Sir James Allen. “There is great misunderstanding about the position. Mhen we took over there were 3,000 Chinese and Solomon Islanders, and we introduced none at all during our administration. They . have gone down now bv repatriation to 1.000. and we have been hoping against hope that we might induce the Samoans to keep the plantations going. But it is impossible for them to do so. The result is that there are 1,000 indentured labourers there. The white man cannot work there on the fields, nor can the Samoans themselves undertake sustained labour. The only people that seem to undertake it are the Chinese and the Solomon Islanders.”

The Premier was explaining to anaudience up Waiuku way the other afternoon the tremendous admiration the French had for the New Zealand soldiers. He was telling the story of a fine win a New Zealand crew' had at some rowing races on the Seine. “You know, the Parisians are more volatile than w;e are ; they don’t mind showing their feelings. The crowd were frantic with delight when the New Zealanders won, and I assure you it was with the greatest difficulty that I prevented the ladies round about embracing me.” The audience laughed, and so did the Premier, when a quiet-look-ing countryman sitting in the corner of the room asked seriously, “Did you try very hard ?” The Napier Technical College has appointed -Mr. L. Hay as their architect in connection with the rebuilding of the school. This matter i» now before the Education Department in the form of an application for a grant for the building. The 4ite of the new school will be near the present Tramway Depot where the school has its agricultural plots. The majority of the land required belongs to the Napier Borough Council and there w ? as to have been a Clause in the Washing Up Kill to enable the Council to hand the land over to the Education Department. The balance of the land is owned by the Napier Harbour Board and negotiations will be opened with a view, to securing it.

A woman’s susceptibility to a pretty pair of shoes is indicated in the report of the Profiteering Commission, presented to the Victorian Parliament (says the Melbourne Age”) . The ’report, states that there is profiteering in the manufacture and sale of boots and shoes and it gives figures to prove that retailers are alive to the weakness of women where elegant bnt.not necessarily sound footwear is concerned. Some retailers, it is pointed out, make l a uniform addition to the prices at whlcn their goods are •invoiced to them, but the majority increase the added percentage according to the quality of the boot or shoe. The commission expresses no sympathy for those who are made the victims of profiteering in high-priced and fancy goods.