LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 19 December 1914, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Weather permitting the Hawera Municipal Band will play in King Edward Park on Sunday afternoon at 3 O'clock.

Mr J Turton (Phoenix Assurance Coy., Ltd.), and Messrs James and tollman (united Insurance Coy ) have forwarded calendars "on behalf of the companies they represent.

As? an illustration of how keenly votes were hunted up in the Grey Lynn electorate, it may be mentioned (says the Auckland Star) that at one booth' a woman, who was both blind and paralysed, was brought up to record her vote. .

What appears to be a discovery of great importance—the soldering of aluminium to itself or any other metal— has been made by Mr W. Overend a resident of Auckland, and some specimens of his work, shown to one ot the Auckland Star staff, appear to bear out all that ihe inventor claims for it lhe possibility of obtaining a solder tor aluminium has been one of the problems of scientists, and if Mr Overend s discovery will meet their re-quirf-n ents, it is no doubt one of a- r eat value.

One thing that had been noted in London, said Mr C. A. Ewen, manager of the Commercial Union Assurance Company, who has just returned from England, was (he told a Dominion reporter) the remarkable decrease m crime since she outbreak of .he war. lhe records of the Courts proved that there had been a ctrikinodiminution in all classes of crime eince Inland went to war, and the fact had been quoted as one to pj-ove how deeply all classes were affected, or rather influenced, by the national situation.

The following notice appears in this week's Gazette: "It is hereby directed that all foreign residents' of New Zealand who have not been naturalised' within this Dominion, and who are subjects of any of the Sovereigns with whom his Majesty the King is now at war, are required to forthwith report themselves at the nearest police station, azid there register their namesand such other particulars as may be required. Such persons are hereby forbidden to travel more than twenty miles from their homes without first receiving a permit from the police so to do."

The monthly meeting of the Hawera District High School committee was held on Friday evening, Mr E. B. Bates in the chair. The headmaster reported that the attendance, in all the departments had been very good for the whole year and the school would be entitled to another assistant in 1915. The roll numbers at present were: District High School, 605; Tawhiti side school, 53; secondary department at Technical School, 2*9. Only routine business was transacted.

The schools in the Wanganui Education Board district broke up yesterday afternoon for the midsummer vacation. There was no ceremony at the local District High School. The marks gamed at the recent examinations were read •out to the scholars before they were dismissed. The dux awards were:: Girls, Dora Sheat, 505; Nellie Ellbit.t. 503. Boys, Oliver Rees, 500; Ken Duckworth* 497. Prizes were given by he W.C.T.U. for the best essay on the temperance wall sheets in the school, and these were won by Grace Bunn, Lilly Hellsby, V. Laurent, Fergus Doig, *M. Osborne, and R. Blavnev.

The difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of different materials is daily becoming more and more apparent to New Zealand importers. Dress stuffs and soft goods, drawn largely from the north of France, are no longer available. Linen is a line likely to be seriously affected, for the flax" used comes largely from Austria and Russia, and Irish linen is made to a large extent from. European supplies. The glove trade is also goiug to be seriously affected, the French manufacturing towns being mostly in the war zone. Altogether the soft goods trade is, during the coming year, likely to be faced with a growing problem in the matter of supplies.

At a recruiting meeting at Hackney, Sir Evelyn Wood told a good story of Sir Horace* Smith-Dorrien, in command of the 3rd Ar-ny Corps, in the fighting line in .France:—"ln 1882 I was left fwelve miles outside Alexandria with sis battalions to coyer a frontage of over five miles, which in the previous week had been penetrated by the enemy. I sent an order into Alexandra for a smart subtaltern, who was to go to the Khedive's stable and all the saddlers' shops and produce in one»clay some mounted infantry, Sinith•Dorrien received the order at 1.30 p m., and at 6.30, with SI horses, three mules, and a donkey, carrying' Derbyshire men, the Sherwood Foresters, few of v.-hem had ridden bsfora, he passed mr> at Razlab, went out into the desert, engaged an Egyptian outpost, killed its commander, and never let them inside our line of outposts again."

The'-question as to whether merchants can secure compensation lor losses sustained through the interning of enemy ships of commerce was again referred to at the last meeting of the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce (says the Heiald). A letter ivav received from a local firm. ti«p writers stating that they had suffered loss through the detention in Sydney o( a. German ship, which was carrying goods for them from New York. They •asked the Chamber for its opinion upon >h(\ matter. The president, Mr Bart. Kent: said that it was entirely a question for the British Government and could not be decided until after the v.ay, when the whole subject of dealing with interned vessels would have to be gone into.

The newspaper L'lndependance Beige has made its first appearance as a newspaper published in London. Within a few weeks this well-known and influential journal had been published in succession at Brussels, Ghent, and Ostend leaving each town within a few hours of lie^ r t7 m4 ll} s. takjng possession. The staff left Belgium among the last of the refugees, and with undaunted spirit will endeavor to carry on its work and propaganda from London until Belgium again provides a safe home. L'lndenendeßce Beige is the oldest of all the Belgian papers having been first produced at L'lndependant on the eve of the insurrection of 1830, and assuming its present title when Belgium was made an independent State. With the motto "Conservation par le progres »' the paper has fought steadily for Liberal causes Among its contributor^ the time of the coun d'etat of 1851 I 'Ve\V iel Or F ugo> Cballenel Lacour and Deschanelpere. The staff Jthe paper m London baa decided to issue it as a n evening edition. X

Some very remarkable bargains in dazzling bargain i s a line tf pS MTV* b»?* Y «r£ ling, is exceedingly low^Aclvt

T?R r S &n Sly>e' Specialist in Eve

At the Presbyterian Church Nor--raanby, to-morrow (Sunday) morning the- prizes will be presented to the Sunday School children and the Worshipping Children's League Mr Butler will conduct both services at Normanby and r,ill preach at Mokoia in tne arternoon.

lhe Patea Farmers' Co-operative freezing Company, Ltd., are at present working at high pressure, and the season promises to be a very successful one. The completed portion of the new building is being used daily, and when the whole of the new works are mushed, the handling of stock will be still further facilitated (says the Press).

Christmas services will be held in the Hawera and Normanby Methodist churches to-morrow. Following the evening service at Hawera there will be a programme of Christmas music, rendered by the choir, from "The Wise Men." Solos will be given by Mr W. Hutchens and Misses E. Young and L. Rands. An instrumental trio will iilso be included. An offertory will be taken for the Methodist Orphanage Fund.

The Kaponga Methodist Sunday Scho&l anniversary will be held in St. John's Church to-morrow, when special services will be conducted by the Rev. F. Rands. The children will be assisted by the choir and orchestra, and the singing will be made a feature of the day's services. On Monday the anniversary social will be held in St. John's Church, when an attractive and varied programme will be presented, and supper will be provided. A large attendance of parents and friends is expected.

In Egmont street, Patea, on Wednesday evening (says the Press), Father Duffy bad occasion to leave his motorcar on the street for a time, and while absent some mischievous individual" interfered with it and inserted the clutch, thus connecting the engine with the machinery of the car. Or Father Duffy re-starting the car it of course commenced to move, and ran over him, then upending against another car further on. With the exception of some scratches and bruises, however, Father Duffy fortunately escaped injury.

At the Stratford Magistrate's Court on Friday (reports the Post) Frank Faulkner, horse trainer, was charged with breaking into the dwelling-house of r:>

to intimidate the said Charles Ruscoe, his father-in-law. Counsel for accused asked that the charge he reduced to that of merely doing damage to the '-operty. The case, he said, arose as the result of family differences. No "blow was struck and no personal injury done, but in a 'fit of temper accused smashed windows to the extent of £3 12s. Accused had undertaken to pay the damage t© the seven windows, panel and dpor, amounting in all to £3 12s, and Ruscoe agreed to accept this. -V fine of £3 and costs was imposed.

Banks Peninsula has a climate mild enough for the cultivation of orange groves. Such delightful places as Holmes's Bay can rear large numbers of orange trees, and, although the fruit might not be perfect enough foi dessert purposes, it would make excellent marmalade. Mr W. J. Courtier. Government orchard expert, has just paid a visit to Banks Peninsula, whf.ie he inspected the oranges, and found that the groves had set' very well, the frosts not being very severe. Mr Com tier was shown some orange trees growing at Mr C. W. Leete's ori:lidr:l at Akaroa, and also sampled souie marmalade made from the crop. It was generally conceded (says the Lytteitou Times) that the marmalade was quite equal to anything that couid he jji'oduced. on the Christchurch market.

An amusing incident connected with the departure of the Rotorua detachment of the Maori Expeditionary Force was related by the Rev. F. A. Bennett at a meeting in the Auckland Town Hall- (says the Star). An old rangitira was farewelling the young warriors, explained Mr Bennett, and in doing so, remarked that he had heard the Germans were in sore straits for food. "I hear they are even reduced to eating grass. Now, let it not be said that you ever ate grass," exhorted the old warrior to the departing taua. "If you have nothing better than grass to eat, follow the footsteps of your noble ancestors." The grim allusion to the practice followed by those ancestors of eating their enemies on occasion was no doubt made in all seriousness by the fierce old rangitira, but the pakeha audience in the Town Hall hilariously enjoyed the joke.

It may be news to many people that persons who, as habitual inebriates, are committed to the islands of Pakatoa and Rotoroa (in H&uraki Gulf) for reformative purposes, are not disfranchised, and at each Parliamentary and licersing election polling booths are set up at these placas. The polling at these two places (says the Auckland Star) should provide interesting data for Students of psychology, for the reasons that, while it gives "'he viewpoint on the licensing question of those who have had good reason to think about the drink habit, it also is the only quarter where one can get the male vote and the female vote set out in contra-distinction The figures on the licensing issue arer—Pakatoa (women), on local option: Continuance, 1; nolicense, 6. Rotoroa (men): Continuance, 30; no-license, 29. Pakatoa (women), on national prohibition: Continuance, 1 j prohibition, 6. Rotoroa (men): Continuance, 26; prohibition, 34. These figures suggest that, while'men mei.lally sort out the two licensing isi sues and put them on separate planes, the wcanen apply the one idea, .or set of idi-as, to anything relating to the drink habit.

The Rev. T. G. Hammond, in his interesting history of the early Maoii, raises the question as to whether the missionaries or settlers were responsible tor the introduction of the blackberry into Taranaki. A correspondent, who claims to have had a good knowlecly of .the various weeds in this province prior to the war, writes to say that, in his opinion, settlers, with a desire to push on colonisation and reproduce British growths in New Zealand, introduced the blackberry in the seventies, when it was largely planted as hedges, the fruit being used extensively for wine-making and preserves. At first the blackberry was looked upon as a godsend; but subsequent events have proved the fallacy of this belief. \ lhe same correspondent mentions the great scare caused in Taranaki when the hcoroh thistle first made its appearance. This was in the days of provincialism. Farmers -were nearly driven frantic by the demands made upon them for the eradication of Scotch thistles, lhe faranaki Provincial Council seemed to devote the best part of its time to framing and oassing Scotch Thistle Eradication Ordinances, the penalty being increased in each fresh measure. One thistle in a paddock was finable, and farmers used to go about'with a miniature prong-fork for the purpose of lifting small plants when seen. It was eventually found out that Scotland's emblem wag an absolute benefit to the land; but the farmers had a rough time of it until the-discovery was made.