LOCAL AMD GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 11 July 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AMD GENERAL NEWS.

The will of the late Mr Robert Gtendinning has been filed for probate, me estate is valued at £360,000.

In the House yesterday Mr Massey read a letter from Mrs Constance Gillies offering her house at Rotorua as a home for returned soldiers. The gift was accepted with applause.

At a meeting of the Manaia Town Board on Monday evening, the engagement of Mr Hayward in various capacities, and the schedule of his duties were fixed up.

The Hawke's Bay Education Board is experiencing considerable difficulty in retaining the services of their teachers. It is understood that the Board may seek the introduction of regulations prohibiting teachers from transferring from one province to .another during the currency of the War.

In a discussion on toll-gates at the Egmont County Council, Cr. Mcßeynolds said his opinion was that there were too many local bodies. It would b» much better if some were abolished.

At a meeting of the Farmers' Union, Manaia (our correspondent reports), the chairman referred feelingly to the death of Private W. A. Claque, and moved a motion of sympathy with his relatives, which was adopted. One naw member was elected. Several members complained about the careless way in which boxthorn is left lying on the roads, and also the large number of stray cattle running on the roads. It was resolved that the attention of the Waimate County Council be called to this matter.

The following resolution was passed at the annual meeting of the Taranaki Dairying and Farming Union of Employers last week: —"That this meeting is of opinion that, by reason of the operation <of the Military Service Act, the position of tho dairying industry with (regard to obtaining adequate labor, both in the factories and on the farms, has become so serious as to endanger the carrying on of the work of the industry, and that the Government be requested to give this matter serious consideration with a view of affording protction to the interests of the indusItry."

The Palmerston police on Saturday last effected the arrest of an alien enemy named Karl Brackennbush, and sent him to Wellington under escort to be handed over to the military authorities. It is stated thart Brackennbush was a familiar figure up and down the North Island, and was a man about town in the larger centres. For some time he had been carrying on business in Rotorua as a masseur, where he had a private hospital, and worked up a considerable connection. The authorities, however, entertained certain suspicions regarding him, and he was kept under observation, and instructions being eventually issued for his arrest. The man left Rotorua and came south, but the Palmerston police quickly unearthed him at a local boairdinghouse, where he was residing with a woman. He will be dealt with by the military.

When the deputation waited on the Hon. G. W. Russell in regard to picture film censuring, at the request of the Minister, Mr Joliffe made a few remarks. He said that the work would be equally difficult for a board of censors as for one man. In many cases it is exceedingly difficult to draw a line in the course of a picture being shown between, what should be permitted and wha£ should be excised. Frequently, when in doubt, he had obtained his wife's advice, which showed that his sympathies were with the idea of a woman censor, although he considered that there would be delay if a board exercised the censorship, and that there would be o':her difficulties to contend with. Many times he haa had to decide off-hand, and no doubt in some cases, if he had had more time, he would have cut pieces out which had got through. Mr Joliffe referred to the big demand amongst the public for what he termed strong pictures. Recent exhibitions of some scenic pictures had proved a failure, and if he was to exercise the law to the extreme point he would empty the picture theatres. He wished to assure the deputation that he had endeavored to act without fear or favor, and had sought to carry out his duti.es conscientiously and faithfully.

A resident of Pebbleton, Canterbury, who is reported to have won £5000 in TattersalPs sweep, will bs duly called upon by the Income Tax Department to pay £2250 excess profits tax.

Two gentlemen keenly interested in the food problem were dining together at one of London's most important lioce<s. One was a great purveyor of food, the other was a, great official admonisher. They came to the coffee, and the waiter brought them each two lumps of sugar enclosed in a paper bag. "There," said the admonisher, "that is true economy." . "It. might be," retorted the purveyor, "were it not- for the fact that the paper costs more than the sugar."

In answer to a nuestion by Mr A. S. Malcolm (Clutha) asking for an increase in the allowances to school committees, the Hon. Mr Hanan stated in the House that the conditions at present obtaining were exceptional, and to meet them, but as a purely temporary measure only, he was prepared to consider the question of including in the Estimates a small additional grant, to be made payable during; the _currancy of the war, to relieve the position.

A league of business men has been formed in Dunedin under the name of. the Dominion Welfare League. Its object is to get Parliament to seriously consider the position of the men likely to be called in the Second Division, and suggesting, 'among other things, the fixing of a limit to the number of men they propose to send out of the Dominion on account of the depletion of the man-power of the country and its result in non-productiveness.

The I,oooth day of war (April 26) passed rather quietly at the front (says the Observer). Not since Napoleon's time have we been engaged in a 1,000----dav war; and then —from May 18, 1803, to" June 22, 1815—it lasted 4,418 days. The South African war stopped short of four figures on the 962 nd day, and the Crimea War ended on the 732 nd. The Spanish-American and the Russo-Japan-ese Wars lasted 597 and 575 days respectively.

"I fought with Haig in the South African war," said the Mayor of Prahran (New South Wales) lately. "I remember when I saw him first. Things were pretty warm, bullets were flying everywhere; and most of us were exposing ourselves as little as was consiste*t with the demands of duty. All at once an officer rode up and circled about as calmly as though there was not a bullet vithin 30 miles. 'Who on earth was that?' I asked, after he had gone. 'Oh, don't you know? That was Haig, one of Kitchener's pups!' an Australian lieutenant replied. 'The pup.' added the Mayor, has turned out a dam good dog.' "

The cod fishery is the oldest established in the province of Quebec, and was the incentive which settled the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the emigrants of the French regime. -Gaspe county fishermen have been engaged in shipping dried and salted cod across to Europe and to the Brazils for over three hundred years. In the early days of Canada's history the fish and fur of Quebec were regarded as of the greatest value to France, and latterly Great Britain.

The abounding opportunities of the time are happily illustrated in the story of the Dover destroyer fight (says the Observer). Commander Evans, who has within five years been to the South Pole, and routed the Germans in an engagement which combined all the efficiency of the new with all the picturesqueness of the old, cannot lay any charge of monotony against his "fate. And midshipman Donald Gyles, still 19, was through the Dardanelles campaign, and was twice wounded before he faced the German invaders with his revolver. Isn't this sort of young gentleman— and there are thousands of them—likely to find the future a little dull?

Chili,, which has now severed relations with Germany, owes much of her prosperity to the vast nitre deposits of the plains of Tamarugal. The salty earth, termed "caliche," in which the nitrates occur, is found some five or six feet below the surface, and when dug up is first crushed, then dissolved in boiling water, when the insoluble matter is precipitated, and the solution containing the nitre allowed to crystallise. The exportation of "Chilian nitre" began in 1830, when something less than 9,000 tons were shipped, and the supplies have risen steadily to an annual export of two alad a half million tons, of which quantity some 75 per cent, is used for agricultural purposes. Unfortunately, the caliche" deposits are limited, and it has been computed that they will probably be exhausted by about 1940.

In regard to the question of dental treatment for school children, the Minister for Education states that with only six medical inspectors on the staff, only a small proportion of the children of the Dominion can be examined each year, and sufficient provision cannot be made for frequent re-examination. He hopes that when the war is over, the dental plant in the various camps will be given to the Education Department for the equipment of State school dental clinics. When the estimates for the current year are being framed, consideration will be given to the question of provision for a travelling dental clinic to visit the outlying districts, and thus provide immediate dental treatment for the children of the back blocks.

In tne Magistrate's Court, Christchurch, the other day, a motor-car driver was prosecuted for "using lights of such dazzling brilliancy as to interfere with the vision of approaching persons." Sub-Inspector Mullany said that this case was the first of a' number to follow, and the charge had been laid as the result of numerous complaints. The motor inspector gave evidence that a car approaching the one on which were the dazzling headlights was nearly in the ditch owing to the driver benia; dazzled. Witness added that the City Council was testing apparatus for abolishing the nuisance, but each outfit cost from £3 to £3 10s, which drivers of cars could hardly be expected to pay. An apparatus used in the city consisted of a shutter worked mechanically by a lever, by means of which the light could be thrown downward at will, "but " said the inspector "I think that the motorist has already sufficient levers to operate, and the apparatus is somewhat costly." Ho" suggested that if motorists using electric lights with dimming apparatus would not in many cases press the dimming button when necessary, they would surely not take the extra trouble of manipulating a lever of this nature.

lne social and dance at Manaia for the wounded soldiers this evening promises to be a- record success, and an excellent entertainment is promised.

The citizens of Thames have decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Thames goldfields by a series of commemorative services, to be held at Thames on August i next.

Commencing with the instalments due on August 1, 1917, old age, widows', military, miners' and war pensions will be paid on any date from the 23rd of the month preceding the due date of payment to the first d^y of the month succeeding the due date, both days inclusive.

Hawera Bowling Club has just taken a ballot on the question of whether on visitors' days alcoholic liquor shall be included in refreshments, and the proposal to cut it out was negatived by 38 to "35. Fifteen members did not record a vote. A proposal to stop all afternoon teas during the season was rejected by 67 to 5.

Lately a bogus inspector of telegraphs appeared on the scene in Hawke's Bay and Manawatu, and among other things got a confiding taxi man to motor him hundreds of miles to various offices. He left the taxi man to inspect an office in the Manawatu. and disappeared. So far he has not been discovered. It was a remarkable fraud in many respects, but a correspondent of the Dominion pertinently observes- Suppose he was a German? What a lot of dupes he found —an open door everywhere—and yet we profess to be such a wide-awake lot. Why should anyone in charge allow anyone to inspect without showing his authority, and if not known to the postmaster in charge, why not wire or telephone to headquarters for con-oboration or confirmation of the man's story?