LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 23 September 1914, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

A letter to the editor discussing matters of interest to shareholders in dairy companies and in the South Taranaki Bacon Company appears on page 3.

On Tuesday Parliament met and it was announced that the elections will b© held in the ordinary course. Some routine business was then proceeded with, of which a report anpears on page 6.

Wireless communication has been es tablished with Samoa.

A first offender for drunkenness was convicted and discharged by Mr C. O. Ekdahl, J.P., this morning.

At Harry Lauder's concert at Wanganui the receipts totalled £582 —a record for a one-night entertainment in that town.

New Plymouth has carried by 256 votes to 75, loan proposals for £20,000 for the extension of the municipal electric light and power scheme.

A consignment of about 500 yearling trout from the Waihi hatcheries was sent to Wanganui by this morning's express train, to the order of the Wanganui Acclimatisation. Society. On the motion of Messrs Halliwell and Sellar, Judge Edwards, on the 9th inst., granted probate in the estate of the late Mrs. H. E. Murch, to Mr. George Murch, of Wanganui; Mrs. W. M. Barraclough, of Hawera; and Mr. Cyril Murch, of Hawera.

At a hide and skin sale at New Plymouth on Tuesday bidding was brisk and prices good. Sound calfskins were sold at the lowest for ll|d per lb., or at least 5s apiece. Ox hides fetched up to 9£d per lb. bu™lrew»' cow hides 7|d to B£d, and tanners' cow hides 7|d to Bd. To have beej summoned on the Grand Jury for seventeen consecutive years, with the exception of only one session of the Supreme Court, is a fairly good record, buch, howevei-j was the experience of a Gisboiue sheep-farmer, who was summoned for the Grand Jury last week, but was not called. On the motion of Messrs- Halliwell and Sellar, probate in the estate oi the late Mrs. Jane Martin, of Hawera, was granted on the 26th August, to Messrs E. Dixon and H. Halliwell, the trustees of the estate. Private advice received at Wellington states that all is well on the liner Ruahine. en iro-ute from London to Wellington, where she is expected to arrive on the due date. Similar reassuring news is to hand privately from th© steamer Pakeha. The steamer Kia Ora leaves Montreal next week for Australian and New Zealand sorts.

The first Liederkranz concert will be, held to-night in the Presbyterian Hall, when a very good programme will be submitted. The chorus will be under the oonduetorship of Mrs J. E. Roe. Recent rehearsals show that all the work to be done is going very well. The public can look forward to an interesting evening.

A Wairarapa butcher states that the price of fat bullocks is now just double what it was ten jTears ago. The price of beef will from now on show a continued increase, as there is a scarcity of cattle all over the world. On the other hand, there is every probability that lamb will be cheaper this season than it was last year. s

It is rumoured (says the Standard) that a military camp for the training of Maoris is to be established in the town of Palmerston North. The Standard adds that if there is any truth in the rumour a strong protest should be made by the public, particularly in view of Dr. MakgilPs statements respecting typhoid cases amongst the Maoris and the existence of persons among them known £s "carriers" of disease.

It is stated that there is a shortage of many kinds of Swiss chocolates in New Zealand. The reasoa for this is that the chocolate is shipped through Antwerp, <and owing to the war shipments are held up. The mobilisation of the Swiss army will also cause, a shortage later owing to men being from the factories.

On Saturday, for the first time in the Dominion since the war started, the totalisator returns showed an increase, the amount passing through the machines on the concluding day of the Avondale Jockey Club's Spring meeting totalling £30,712. This made a total for the meeting of £51,280 10s, an increase of £1379 on last year's figures (says the Auckland Star). y

The raising of any kind of local produce just now is a particularly meritorious act, even if it does not bring as much glory ias taking part in a North Sea naval battle or sharing in the occupation of Samoa. The farmer who is at work sowing and planting.is as great a benefactor to his country and mankind as the soldier. For of one fact we may be quite certain, that the war will before long cause a diminished production of the world's, food, and so entail fresh suffering on those ■who escape the actual horrors of battle and siege. Yet with all the unemployment in our towns there does not seem to be enough labour for the farms in the country (observes the Auckland Star).

Six men called at the Masterton police station at about nine o'clock on a recent evening . (says the Wairarapa Age) and asked to be given a night's lodging. They werp English sailors who had served on the German ship "Walkure, which was'captured by the French gunboat La Zeelee at Macadea at the commencement of the war. The story they _ tell is that they were the only Englishmen aboard the vessel' when captured, and they were taken to Tahiti and from there brought on by the s.s. Moana to New Zealand. There was no work for thorn in shipping circles in Wellington, and as they were penniless and foodless, they applied to the Mayor of Wellington, who gave them railway tickets to enable them to come to Masterton in search of work. "We won't get our pay till the war is ended," said one of them to the Age reporter, "and then we do not know who will pay us."