LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 6 May 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The flag was flying above the Post Office to-day in honor of the anniversary of the accession of King George

A first offender for drunkenness was fined ten shillings, the amount of his bail money, by Mr ,W. K. Wallace, J.P., this morning. At Ohawe in April Mr Livingston reports ram fell on 15 days, a total of 4.36 inches, aboat the general average for that month. The wettest April during 25 years was 1886, when 8.88 inches fell on 26 days; the driest 1808 when 1.13 inches fell on 8 days. Fishing in the Kakanui river recently, a South Island sportsman landed three trout, the heaviest of which turned the scale at 17ilb. The big fellow, which was in excellent condition, was caught with ordinary tackle and live bait, and landed without the aid of a gaff. The telegraph linesmen have made a start with dismantling the old overbead telephone wires. When these have been removed, together with the posts, very few telephone wires will be' seen in the street. Under tbe new system nearly all the cables are underground. The Walkure left Hull on March 9 and is duo at New Plymouth on or about May 10. She will be the first ocean-going steamer, excepting intercolonial vessels, to visit the port and her successful berthing will go far to establish Jsew Plymouth as a firsit-clase JSew Zealand port, says the Herald. Our Meremere correspondent writes: .The nfle range was opened at Ohangai on Wednesday last in fine weather, | when there was some very good shooting, most of it being class firing. Some or the new recruits showed up very well for a start, and giv.e promise of making good shots* All members and intending members should note that the range is open every Wednesday for shooting practice. Preparations for the commencement of boring operations by the Canterbury Petroleum Company at Chertsey are well under way (says the Ohristchurch Sun). A derrick, which •will be 72 feet in height, is being built. An electric lighting plant 20 "-P- boiler, and 15 h.p. engine are installed^ and a number of buildings erected. A commencement is to b« made with sinking at an early date.

"I should like," said Mr G. Scott, chairman of the Christchurch Technical College ! Board ©f Governors, in his monthly statement, "to bring before your rotice a practice in connection with other Technical Colleges which might with advantage be introduced in Chnstchurch. I refer to the enlistment or the actual co-operation of prominent men in trades, industries, and professions. In the London Polytechnic tor instance, addresses are given from time to time by experts to the members of certain classes, such as building construction, engineering, typocraphv, chemistry, electricity. Such addresses could not fail to be of immense benefit •*£ tho student®, while at the same time they ormg the college into closer touch .with the outside world. I feel confident thnt there would be no difficulty in securing sufficient honorary lecturers from ohis district, and we have for the purpose a well-equipned lecture room arid a. good lantern for the disnlay of films." It. was decided to refer the matter to the -Appointments' Committee ™r consideration, says the Lyttelton Times.

Speaking at the civic luncheon in Glinstohurch on . Saturday, General Sir K»n Hamilton said, referring to the Kowai camp, that he did not usually single out a corps for special mention, but the Engineering Corps was a very good one.to single out. He had asked j£?7,offi(?er > wllen Poking at the men, "What is your strength?" The officer replied: "One hundred and thirteen " How many have left camp?" "None." "How ma-ny went away when the road was open?" "None.". "Then you must be 113 on parade?" "Yes." Thpse men had. not only done their ordinary work, but they had turned out, volunteering to a man. to help the camp out of a tight place. They had worked with the right spirit, and "hoy deserved a pat on the back for \ (Applause.)

According to the Melbourne Argus it would cxj^l, £3V jUvJOjVuU to make the ranway gauges oi Australia uniform or. the 4fo. aim. standard, while to adopt the oft. bin. gauge would involve a cost of £51,000,1)00. Tho estimate for a line from Brisbane to Perth on the 4ft. Bi-ni. gauge, apart from general uniformity, is £12,000.000. The following is quoted as an instance of tiie ignorance in some State schools of the meaning of Good Friday: "In a school in the Wairarapa, prior to the faster holidays, a master invited a show of hands from those who knew why they had a holiday on Good Friday and at Easter. The first answer was, 'We keep Good Friday because Captain Cook discovered New Zealand then. 5 The second answer was, 'To commemorate the South Island being joined to the North Island.' " With respect to the statement going the rounds that the American Heef I'rust has decided to start operations in lNew Zealand, and to that end has acquired tne Ucean JtJeacn Freezing Works at the Bluff, Sir Joseph Ward states that so far as his firm and the reported acquisition of its freezing plant are concerned the report in question has no foundation in fact. "The chief magistrate of the city" is a title which it has been popularly eupposed may rightly be applied to the Mayor of the town, it was so applied to Mr Parr at a meeting at Auckland, but m acknowledging the compliment, the Mayor said that whilst the title "chief magistrate" was given to mayors in England, New Zealand mayors had no right to it. A more correct appellation, he suggested, would be ' 'chief citizen of the city." General Sir lan Hamilton made an amusing remark at the official reception given him in Invercargill. His tour of Canada and Australasia, he said, had made him realise that colonials were more British than Britons themselves, although their surroundings were different. The Bluff, as he landed, reminded him of the country where the Mayor and he were both brought up—Argyle. What had surprised him most after the parade was the excellence of the Invercargill whisky. (Laughter.) He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the decanter on the table. The ..early closing of the freezing works at Onotiki is expected. Speaking at Te Puke last week the chairman of directors of the Bay of Plenty Freezing Company expressed the opinion that his company would have to be wound up owing to insufficient support. The failure of the company was due, he explained, to the fact that the company could not get sufficient sheep. A young settler of the Masterton district recently had a most unhappy experience when travelling abroad (relates the Age). He deposited a sum of money with Cook's Tourist Agency, and procured a book of passes, which entitled him to travel in many parts of the world. When he had barely commenced his journey this book was stolen, and he was left practically stranded in a foreign country. A cable to his friends brought the necessary financial relief. Another extraordinary idiosyncracv of fashion is the futurist sleeping suit. We have heard of all kinds of futurist things, but futurist sleeping suite for women are quite the latest. Pyjamas and sleeping suits marked with" queer circles, cubes, and oddly distorted characters are to be seen in the West End shops, made of silk in the weirdest of mingled blues, oranges, and greens (says the Daily Mail). She can be a poster-like creature, from the top of her head, to the tips of her toes of wild orange, blues, and greens, and other startling colors. The police authorities are searching for a young man who it is alleged has been guilty of a theft of a most impudent character (says a recent Melbourne Argus). A girl named Alice Oatby 5 residing at Merri street, Brunswick was sent to a bank in Sydney road to cash a cheque for £8. After transacting this business she walked along Sydney road until reaching the intersection of Merri street, when a young man, who had been riding a bicycle along the main street dis-i mounted and snoke to her. He had evidently watched her £ o to the bank, as he questioned her about the cheque!, He finally told her that the cheque1 she had presented was a forgery and that die w^ wanted by the author*-1 ties at the bank. He thereupon took the bag containing the money from the girl and extracted the cash." With--2? + 2 ayi"e a, n^«g further he mounted the bicycle and rode away. It was ascertained subsequently "that the cheque had not been questioned. The system of local government which obtains m the cities of New Zealand is not on right lines according to the views of the City Engineer (Mr rL?# r h ', *? e*Pressed to the Greater Auckland Commission (says the Auckland Star). Mr Bush condemned the practice of having a central city, with a large number of surrounding local bodies such as road boards and borough councils. Such a system, he contended, was more costly because of 'the overlapping which naturally occurred. As an example of laand, Mr Bush said that Birmingham had increased its boundaries four times, the last occasion being of recent rfel^ e .ulty area was more than doubled and the population was increased from 500,000 to 900,000. He suggested that the cities of New Zea-

™I<W»1 <W» al 6 vei7 ,son 2to tear the news" observed the Railway Review m chronicling the appointment of Mr Jrf-rt, T* T* lde£' S<M- as or the Railway Board of Appeal The Review adds: "Mr Haselden is "no! legarded as a sympathetic chairman, value of the Appeal Board in the eyes of the service is discounted. We give Mr Haselden credit for doing his best according to his lights, but that dss not prevent persons associated with the work of the Appeal Boards from complaining to that they do not; get that sympathetic and helpful attention from him which they, expect, and which m the case of another gentleman who held the position was alI ways forthcoming.1 . . By appointing Mr Haselden chairman of the two boards the department has made an astute move evidently designed to prevent a recurrence of an embarrassing position when the North and South Island chairmen held different opinions upon the interpretation of the regulations. \Ve doubt the legality of this appointment.. and hone the "A SR S Executive Council will" go further into the matter. As a matter of convenience to appellants the position is highly objectionable."

*f ® mlchre **}** and dance in aid of A v. Tower, which was to have 1 eon held m the Town Hall, Manafa, this e o *n\ ng ' «as been unavoidably post-

A system of inspection visits to prominent manufacturing establishments has been introduced in one of the Auckland schools, and is a practical step towards encouraging an interest in home-made goods alon^ the lines approved by the president of the Auckland Industrial Association^ Good entries have been received by the hon. secretary of the Winter Show tug-of-war. to take place on Monday next and to last each night until Saturday. This popular form of amusement draws large crowds wherever it is held. It is expected that there will be large _ attendances. Entries have been received from as far away as Halcombe and Whangamomona and all parts of Taranaki. The- drawings will be notified later.

At a meeting of the Palmerston A'orth branch of the Farmers' Union (the Standard reports) Mr Balsillie brought up a remit to the effect that the Supreme Court now sat four times instead of three times a year in Palmerston, and that several settlers were called to sit on the jury at more than one sittmg of the year, while others were not called for years. He held that to enable a fairer distribution, when a settler had sat on the jury once he should not be called upon again until the great majority of the other settlers had also sat. This remit is to be forwarded to the conference. Miss Annie Cannon, a member of the staff of the Havard College Observatory, has been honored by beiiig elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society. A fellowship i s not granted to women, and at the present time the only other honorary member and the only other lady in the society *s Lady Muggins, widow of Sir William Huggins. Miss Cannon has acquired considerable skill in distinguishing the type to which a star spectrum belongs, and has completed the classification of no less than 150.000 stars in this way. Although the Portuguese Senate approves of granting the vote to women, the Lower Chamber is still opposed, but, nevertheless, women manage to get in good work. The feminists in Portugal have recently worked for a bill for the repression of smoking and drinking among children, to be presented in their House of Commons. They have also presented a peti+ion to Parliament demanding1 refusal oT bail to prisoner*? accused of wronging children, a bill upon the subiect having been now promiced by the Minister of Justice. Some amusement was caused by the Mayor of Auckland at the annual meeting of the Society fqr.the Protection of Women and Children and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Society had a large scope, Mr Parr re-' marked, yet he sometimes wondered why it did not undertake the protection of poor man. (Laughter.) '"You laugh," the Mayor added, "but a fortnight ago I received a visit and had a very doleful tale from a man who had been badly beaten by his wife. (Renewed laiighter.) You may not believe it, but he showed me the marks where he had been belabored with a broom. Certainly the man admitted he | had been celebrating a friend' 3 birth- I day." (Cries of 'TSal"). Mr Parr concluded the story by saying he had recommended his visitor to see the society's chief inspector. Convicted of robbery for having stolen a, kiss from a white girl, Charles H. Guyton. a. young negro, was sentenced on March 3 to thirty years in Folsom Penitentiary by Judge Willis, of the criminal department of the Superior Court. The charge on which the negro was tried was that he held up Miss Daisy Stagwell and relieved her of a dime, all the money she possessed. Then he compelled her, under threat of death, to kiss him, after which,' he save her back the dime. Guyton was alleged to have treated six otner white girls in a similar manner, and when he pleaded for probation for the cake of his wife and children, Judge Willis cut him short with a declaration that such a man was too dangerous to be allowed at large. The following letter, from Mr J. W. H. Scotland appeared in the Wellington Post: "I take this opportunity of tendering my sincerest thanks to all enthusiasts in aviation who so generously assisted with subscriptions to create the- nucleus of a fund to replace my aeroplane destroyed in the recent mishap at the finish of my first flight in Wellington. Though my experience of flying in New Zealand has cost me a large sum of moiiey^ which I can ill afford, I feel the needs of the dependents of the victims of the dreadful tragedy at Tipper Hutt are much more / urgent than mine. I therefore desire, with the permission of those who voluntarily came forward to help me, to transfer the whole of their contributions to the fund for the. benefit of those who lost their relatives in the sad disaster at Upper Hutt. . I may ( add that I.have not given up my flying 1 career in New Zealand. I hope to re^ < sume aviation, on my' own account, < here in the near future." 1