LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 7 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The High Commissioner for New Zealand, -Sir T. Mackenzie, says a London cablegram, announces that the apples and pears from Nelson and Napier arrived in bad condition. V

A Sydney cable states that the Y.W.C.A. National Convention has opened, and that several New Zealand delegates are attending.

In -the We&t Australian Assembly a private Bill has been introduced providing for a referendum, on the closing of hotels, the vote to be taken on the hours from six to eleven.

Miss A. Scully, supervisor of the Wellington Telephone Exchange, has been appointed Inspector of Telephone Exchanges and Women's Post Offices.

Two informations have been laid against a Christchurch publican - (says the Press) for an alleged breach of : the War Regulations Act in permitting shouting.

The Mayor of Ohristchurch has sent the following cable message to Mr Lloyd George:—"On behalf of Christchurch citizens, I desire to extend our hearty congratulations upon the magnificent sentiments expressed in your interview with the press. We are with you entirely, and trust the Empire will never lay down the sword until peace Fs dictated, not negotiated, in Berlin, by .the victorious Allies. May God preserve the Empire and grant; a speedy and lasting peace,"

On his recent^ return from England, Mr Robert Burns told an Auckland Star reporter that some English manufacturers do not look forward to the retturn of the made members of their staffs, having formed the opinion that women are quite as good as men in every way, having less broken time and paying more attention to instructions. Th« Auckland Star says that while Mr Robert Burns was in England— whenhe he has just returned—he was told by the son of a well-known Dutchman that it had been a usual sight in Hamburg since the outbreak of war to see picked German troops practising embarking and disembarking, with guns of all calibres. TKe strong impression was that these troops were being held in readiness to invade England—if they ever could.

A peculiar fact is (recorded by Majoi'General McMunn, C.8., in a recent article in Cornhfll. Writing of Egypt and the lands adjacent, he states: — "War has brought many surprises and troubles to the desert arid its denizens. In Sinai,' where the Bedouin lives by the date palm, there has come starvation, and why?—because * the female date must be fertilised by hand, and the male dates are few and far between. The date fertiliser is a professional, and lives in Egypt, and the fact that the Turks are in Sinai at war has meant that the date trees go unwed."

The overheating of an electric iron is an unusual cause of fire, but it is one that the public should .be warned against. By this means an outbreak occurred recently in the wash-house attached ;t>o an eight-troomed , house in Dunedin. The iron had been in use oh the previous evening when the power went off. and had been left with the switch on, with the result that it burned through the table, and set the washhouse on fire. Fortunately the fire was discovered before much damage was dove. ;'

A number of soldiers belonging to th* Nineteenth Reinforcements arrived in Hawera by last night's express on their final furlough.

"Gymkhana" is the name given to a sports ground in India. It is a counterfeat word made up of the first three letters1 of the English word gymnasium and the Indian word "Khana," a place.

In connection with the recent Associated Board musical examinations, it should have been mentioned that the results of Walter Fennell (Hawera Convent) and Olive Vinten (Manaia Convent) ar r e withheld, pending the completion' of their theory papers.

Weather permitting, the Hawera Citizens' Band will play a programme of music to-night, in High street, commencing at 7 o'clock. Included in the programme will be Boyer's "Garland of Flowers," played in memory of those of our boys who have so gallantly fallen during the last few days.

a. iie services at the Hawera Methodist

Church to-morrow (Sunday) will be of a special character, as.the day will be the annual Foreign Mission" Sunday. The Rev. C. Blair will b e the deputation, and there will be a special offertory in aid of foreign missions, and special music by the choir. The deputation will take the service at Ararata in the afternoon.

Attention is drawn to tlie advertisement on page-1 of this issue in connection with the cansus. Sub-enumera-tors" commence the distribution of schedules to-day, and any householder who does not receive a schedule during the coming week is requested to apply to the postmaster, Hawera. The census is to be taken on the night of Sunday, October 15.

"When receiving deputations at Napier this week, tne Minister of Public Works \Eon: W. Fraser) said he» had found that the members of local bodies hadmeo him in a very finev spirit. The only thing they had all 1 wanted was to be treated equally. The' position for everyone concerned was now a very strenuous one, and he was glad to see that jocai bodies were facing the position. ' ;

The strictness with which the Gov-' eminent, is 'interpreting its rule that no change of surname shall be permitted during tie period of the war, is illustrated by the experience of an Auckland family (sajs tne Herald). Not long ago a lady resident in the district, who I had children by her first marriage, entered into a second matrimonial contract. The children were legally adopted by their step-father, and information was? sought from the Internal Affairs Department as to what steps should be, taken to enable them to assume tiieir new father's name. The Minister' has replied indicating emphatically that, under present conditions the alteration desired cannot be made: "Not in any circumstances,", he adds, "can the Government countenance th.c changing of a name during the war."

The Post and Telegraph Department has inaugurated a system of moneyorder telegrams between the Dominion and Great Britain. The charges are 3d for each £1 or fraction in addition to the transmission charges ..on the telegram. These, of course, vary with> the adda-ess, but the average may be taken as the cost of telegraphing 16 words. Th.c telegram may either be sent at ordinary or at deferred rates. At the latter rate 16 words would cost £1 ls-4d in ad-' dition to 3d for each £1 (remitted. The low charges for soldiers' telegrams do not apply to money-order telegrams. The remitter of a money-order telegram may. have a private message in plain language (English) added "to the official telegram of advice1 on payment for the additional words. Money-order telegrama may be sent;.from any .moneyorder office in New Zealand &fi£ those itsued in Britain.vwill be paid at the Money-Order .Office in New Zealand nearest to the address of the payee.

The adoption of the "repeater" in connection "with the telegraphic system in New Zealand is a progressive reform of immense value (says the Otago Daily Times). A little while ago the work of transmitting messages from stations north of Wellington to the South Island entailed an enormous amount of work, and the employment of quite a little army of operators, but now the human operator has been supplanted by the "repeater?'—an .ingenious little machine that takes the sound and "boosts" it on to its destination, without other supervisory aid. The- -general adoption of "repeaters" at what were known: as transmission stations has reduced the staff of operators needed, and consequently means a considerable economy to the country. With the aid of- this little instrument. Auckland may. now communicate direct with v Chnstcnurch or Dunedin, and vice versa, and that *ap-> plied to the quadruplex means that Auckland may send to and receive from Dunedin, and Dunedin may receive from and send to Auckland on a single wire without manual transmission—a very amazing performance %o anyone not acquainted with the science of telegraphy. • The "repeater" is not exactly new to New Zealand. It w-as tried some years ago with American instruments, which did not come up to anticipations, and were not used to any; appreciable extent; but some time ago the department imported English "repeaters,"' with the result that they have been installed at all the essential stations with marked success.