LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 22 February 1916, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

At Napier yesterday Sydney Nettleford, a bookmaker, was iineu £50 for taking bets at the Petane races. A wounded soldier, writing from hos-^ pital, says: '"Dear Mother, —Please* label my next cake 'socks' if you want it to get to me." Since the Ist inst. the price of benzine has risen by 4s per case. It is now over £1 per case wholesale. The Masterton Age states that the cheque of one Wairarapa sheep farmer, who disposed of his wool at tne recent sale in Wellington, will amount to over £10,000. "If we want to gain in commerce after this war is over," said Mr L. M. lsitt, M.P., at a Christchurch technical college gathering, "we will have to foster technical education. Members of all Chambers of Commerce should do all in their power to assist technical «aucation in every way."

Dr Thacker, M.P., of Christchurch, who recently visited the new Featherston camp, says that he noted that the men went about their work whistling and in cheerful mood —a most healthy and encouraging sign. The men were enthusiastic about tneir quarters. One who acted as spokesman said to him: "This is a home away irom home." It was grand to near mese words, showing tnat the men were well satisfied with their quarters and camp life.

"While in Wellington," said the Mayor of Cbristchurcn to a newspaper reporter, "1 was conducted over the Base Kecords Office. I had no idea it was such a vast affair. There are fifty officers and clerks at present employed, and there will be sixty next week. The records contain the nistory of 32,000 enlistments, and any name asked for can be turned up in less than half a minute. The system seems to be a splendid one, and is working out admirably."

A soldier who was fighting the Senussis said, in writing to his father in Wellington: "Here I might state that anyone who allows any but the most physically fit men imaginable to go on service ought to be hung. We are a very good battalion, and yet over 100 had to fall out yesterday.' Their feet were the chief trouble. •Goodness! But it is so important to look after the feet. The G.O.C. issued an order to-day congratulating us on our Christmas Day show."

An increase in wages was (reports the News) asked for by a' deputation from the General Laborers' Union, which waited on the New Plymouth Borough Council last night. 'The rate of pay is now 9s a day, and the secretary of the union pointed out that the high cost of living induced the union to ask for 10s a day. He said 10s a day was the rate paid by every other local body in Taranaki. The Mayor said the request would be considered at the first opportunity.

A Wellington telegram says that the Education Department has effected a saving of about £1200 a year in the salaries of members of the clerical division through arrangements made by the Minister for carrying on the work of officers who have joined the Expeditionary Forties. The Department has lost, temporarily, seventeen of its officers _in connection with the war, but their positions are being kept open for them, and temporary clerks are employed in the meantime.

i "What wise parents most desire for tneir boys and girls is character," said Mr.L. M. lsitt, M.P., at a Christchurch Technical College function, "and I strongly advise them to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by this.institution. Not only will the technical education they receive be of value to them in the future, but they will learn lessons of self-restraint, good conduct, and discipline at the most impressionable and perilous period of their lives."

As a quick-time crockery-smasher the proverbial bull in a china-shop pales into insignificance as compared with the curious and complicated accident that occurred in Manners street on. Saturday morning (says the N.Z. Times). A horse attached to a lorry carrying three large iron -girders, shied so suddenly that a tramcar coming along the street at a good pace could not. be pulled up in, time to avoid a collision with the girders. The force of the impact swung the girders round and they crashed into one of the plateglass windows of Messrs Craig and Co.'s glass and crockery store. The window was smashed into smithereens, a® also was the crockeryware, and the horse, vehicle and girders blocked the street for some twenty minutes before they could be set upon their way again Happily, sudden and unexpected as was the occurrence, none of the passers-by were hurt, and the horse and its driver also escaped without, injury.

The fine spirit of patriotism in the average New Zealander is well illustrated (says the Lyttelton Times) in a letter just received iron the front. The writer, who was a dentist by profession, and whose parents reside in Wellington, left a lucrative practice in Christchurch to join the Medical Corps with the Ist Expeditionary Force. But the desire to be "in the thick of it" was irresitible, and the dentist joined the ranks. This is how he informed his father that he had been in the firing-line: "I am afraid I. have deceived you. I have been in the front trenches, and have returned safe and sound. I didn't tell you before, as I thought you would * worry, but I wouldn't have missed the 'experience for worlds. This game grows on one, so much so that you actually don't fear a thing. In fact, after 'the first night (sleeping on a road under machine-gun tire)' I got quite used to the noise of bullets and shell-fire. It was great the way we dug into the hills to make a home."

The farmers in the Wairarana are not troubled by any labor problem, despite the many enlistments from the district. They have overcome the difficulty to a rgeat exten tby helping one another, an unusual practice in the oast when labor was plentiful. A Wellington Post reporter was also informed that the shortage of men was a blessing in disguise, because it forced the farmer to pay greater personal attention to his own affairs. There are no mfen out of employment in the district—no able-bodied men, at any rate, for they are told pretty plainly that the farm is no place for the shirker. Even in the towns there are scarcely any men looking for work.

For some time the Minister of De-' fence has been considering the question ot how best to provide for the housing and control of unruly convalescent sol- i ciiers, whose presence in ordinary hospitals or camp hospitals may be subversive of good order and discipline, i Experience at Hanmer and elsewhere has already shown that there are soldiers who require stricter control than is possible at hospitals or other institutions under civil control. The Defence Minister stated on Saturday that re had been considering whether itwould not be necessary to establish a •special hospital in each island to which refractory patients could be sent. These hospitals would be under strict military control, and only those men would be sent to them who would not submit to the discipline of the hospitals and camps controlled by the Public Health Department. Mr Allen thought that the existence of these special military hospitals would have a, good disciplinary effect, and would make it more easily possible to control the men at institutions like Rotorua and Hanmer.

The effect of the war upon the cost of production is being shown in goods imported from Japan. By the last mail an Auckland firm received advice, dated January 7, from a merchant in Kobe, that on account of the smart advance in value of soda ash, which enters largely into the manufacture of glass, and the enhanced values of nails and iron bands, makers have advanced their quotations. The firm therefore states that all quotations submitted last year have been increased by 15 to 20 per cent. . In explaining delay i» the shipment of orders, the Kobe firm states that a great scarcity of freight space is being experienced by all firms enfleavoring to obtain shipment for goods. "On account of the enormous demand that has cropped up for various Japanese articles since the war commenced," the letter states, "manufacturers have been full up with orders, and, generally speaking, business has become disorganised as compared with normal times. It is futile for us to complain, as we know for a fact that our competitors are having to face the same difficulties.

While the Commonwealth Parliamentary Standing Committee was engaged in Adelaide on an enquiry into Northern Territory railway prospects, reference was made to the white ant evil. Mr L. A. Wells, whose experience of the Northern Territory extends over many years, when questioned regarding the possibility of railway construction with/wooden . sleepers, emphatically negatived the suggestion. He said he brought a piece of sheet lead to Adelaide on one occasion to give proof that white ants could eat holes even through that. He had met with cases where sheet lead a sixteenth of an inch in thickness, which had been used to cover and protect wood, had been pierced by the insects and the wood inside completely consumed. They also ate growing trees, and drovers' dared not leave their packsaddles on the ground overnight because the ants would make a start on them. He had even heard of a set of billiard balls being damaged by them. The ants had eaten the boXj and, hot being appeased, had made an attack on the balls.

The wonderful ingenuity of a child's mind is a perpetual delight to those who have tne opportunity to observe and to study it. in it, or in connection with it, we may still see at work the naive mental processes which led men, in -the childhood of the race, to construct those curious cosmogonies or systems of religion which brought the nature of things into line with their own needs, or wishes, or notions at that stage—the child stage—of their development. If primitive theories and beliefs are studied in the light of this principle, they become marvels of childlike ingenuity, and delightful as exhibitions of the child-man's efforts to bring things into adjustment with his own secret desires and intentions. A Hawera child, two and a-half years old, very charmingly, and of course quite unconsciously, gave an illustration of this the other day. While he was absorbingly engaged in carrying armfuls of large stones from the street\to the walk inside his mother's gate, his mother, or his mother's

friend, said: ".Shut the gate, L ." To have done-that would.have required him to drop the stones, and the paramount purpose of his life at the moment was to carry-them to a certain spot, then some way off. That was not to be thought of, and .must somehow be instantly averted; so quietly and quickly as' a beam of light, his baby reasoning faculty linked up to the accomplishment of his purpose, what his mother had frequently told him about leaving the door open to let in the air, and to the request to shut the gate lie gravely replied: ,'No; leave itopen to let in the fresh air!" The mental ingemiity and the humor,of it were surely exquisite.

Gunner Eric Blomfield, No. 1 Battalion, N.Z.F.A., Main Body, writing from "Dugoutinople," Gallipoli, on December 6. 1915, described himself as a I general sample or his comrades: "See me ill a dirty shirt, torn slacks (with red down the sides like a postman), sandbags for puttees and hobnail boots, without a wash or a shave for live days, swinging a pick or a long-handled 'banjo.' Then I'm flask. Some fellows maiiage to keep a tilt on their hats, and shave in salt water with a dry ! razor. But they all manage to lose their swagger when the mud gets halfway up their legs, the seat drops out of their 'trou.,' and the bully and biscuit makes their tummies turn somersaults until their cholera belts and their eyes turn yellow with jaundice. This is a place to be flash in all right I I think the Ghurkas and the Sikhs are the best dressed people here. The Turks come last, anyhow. They take the bun (and the clothes off the first dead man they see). We had a light fall of snow. It blew all the time, and everything froze. I left some v tea in my cup, and had to warm it to get it out. We put on our warm .gear—Balaclavas, gloves, scarves, socks (two pairs), underclothes, cardigan jackets, everything—pimply piled 'em all on, and weathered it. Great stuff! This slushlight simply eats fat —burning low again. All I want is a box of cigars and a glass of whisky and soda, and you'd think I owned Turkey. » "It matters not how long we live, but how."—Bailey. What pleasure is there in a life of contiiiiinl ailment—the uncertainty of never knowing when the hand of sicfcj ness will strikes a^ainr Le fortified | with a bottle of Baxter's Luno- Preserv- ! er. It not only dispels all chest and bronchial troubles, but al*o tones up the wliola system, strengthening it I against all attacks. Such feeling of ■ security does irdeed add to the pleasure of living. A big bottle of "Baxter's" costs only Is lOd from the chemist or storekeeper.—Advt. CHAMBERLAIN'S TABLETS . are intended especially for stomach troubles, biliousness and constipation, and have met with great success in th« I treatment of these diseases. Peopl? ' who have been sufferers for years from | stomach troubles have" obtained uerj manent relief by the use of Chamber- ! lain's Tablets. " Chronic constipation j ' may be permanently relieved by the. ' nse of Chamberlain's Tablets. They ! i are the most agreeable of laxatives ' when the proper dose is taken. —Advt, ,

r The annual conference of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers is to be held in Christ-church this year during May, and will be attended, it is expected, by between 70 and 80 members from different parts of the Dominion.

A lady resident of Masterton has become a recruiting officer (says the Age). On Wednesday a young man called at the office a.nd expressed his desire to enlist. There was no officer to be found, but Mrs D. Caselßerg, who was arranging for the soldiers' dinner, took vie young man's name, gave him a card that she found in the room, and sent him to the doctor. Later in the day, a second man called, and he was similar," treated.

The dairying industry in the Wairarapa is growing in importance, although dairy-farming has decreased and is decreasing in the vicinity of Masterton itself. Judging from enquiries made m uue disiiL-t by a Wellington Post reporter, it is apparent that farmers Ilu., ioci.ise vl.e imporcan.ee of keeping oiiiy the neat cows —that it takes no more to feed a good cow than a bad one; in fact, less. What one puts into beef the other puts into butter-fat. The prospects round about Carterton are regarded as increasingly good. Excellent markets and a favorable season have kept the dairy farmer, like the agriculturist and pastora)i»t. smiling.