LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 4 July 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The rainfall from 9 a.m.. on Saturdaj to 9 a.m. on Sunday was .31 inches; from 9 a.m. on Sunday to 9. o'clock mi morning 146 inches. During May 62 men were employee! on the east end of the Stratford Iviaii Trunk railway and 54 were on the wesi end. Forty men were working on tQi Opunake line. The number of men employed on roads in fi'arahaki ■ iby tJti€ Public Works Department was 210. i The fact that only two magistrate's are available in Auckland has further congested court work. Quite a number of cases had to be adjourned last week. In <me instance this meant a useless trip for vvitnesses from Morrinsville. Two legal gentlemen, seeing no hope of getting a case heard, adjourned to a private room^in the court,"and in about half-an-hour arrived at an amicable settlement, thus saving loss of time and costs to their clients. The Mercantile Gazette says: ''How Sensitive the market is may be judged from the fact that the announcement of a censorship on'cable messages purporting to transmit the utterances of New Zealand Ministers had a very disturbing effect. Mr. Massey's instructions for the withdrawal of the' censorship, are alleged to have been of a peremptory character. The censorship, as we£all know, has been cancelled with ma~hy apologies and explanations.'/ In connection with the effort to raise money for. improvements1 to the Tawhiti school grounds a sale of produce will be held in Union street, next McGraier, Bone and Co.'s;' on Saturday nest. The stall will 'be in charge of a number of kdies from the Tawhiti district, and there "will ibe an excellent assortment of cakes, produce, sweets, etc., on sale. A couple of large cakes and a sheep have been presented for competitions. The goods will beisoW at reasonable prices so as to merit patronage. ■ Father Fros, S.J., the director of the Sicawei "Observatory, near Shanghai, North China, who has saved thousands of lives during th.ej past" twenty years by warning ships at sea of'approaching typhoons (circular cyclonic storms), has been awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour. Father Fros, says the North China Daily Mail, keeps the shipping of the China Sea in constant touch with weather conditions by co-operating with a chain of twenty station1: stretching from Tokio to Swatow. He has perfected a system by which he can detect the track of the typhoons which periodically sweep the China coast; wrecking ships at sea as well as devastating and flooding the towns. Father Fros's system has enabled the Sicawei Observatory to determine the curve of any approaching ( typhoon, and vessels in the path of an oncoming storm are then warned by wireless ; which course to take for safety. "

The £100,000 worth of bonds offered by the Elmers' Union Trading Com- ' pany, Auckland, have been over-' subscribed. Two single men who applied to the Hastings representative of the Department of- Labour for work were referred to a job waiting i» the country. The applicants chartered a taxf for the purpose of driving out to view the employment offered them, and after making an inspection they declined the work and drove back again, ■ The outstanding unsolved mystery of the seas is the fate of the crew of the snip Mariej Celeste. On December 4y 1875; she was. sighted in mid-Atlantic and reported aU well. Two days later 6he was hailed-,, and no response waff made. A boarjling-party found everything aboard in perfect order, lunch ready prepared in the galley, all the ship's boats stowed and secured, but not a living soul anywhere. From that day to this not one of the persons known to have sailed in the Marie Celeste has ever reappeared. Endless theories and alleged solutions have been advanced to explain the mystery, but it remains inscrutable. During the course of an address om the ministry of song at the Baptist Tabernacle, at Auckland on Saturday evening, the Rev. Joseph Kemp said that there had been much deterP oration during late years, and especially ' during the past decade in the class of hymn that was> usually sung at revival meetings. ;_ It was a sign of the times that people now demanded catchy airs- It was; thought to> be up to date to have the new type of hymn, and they as a church were soon going to have the very latest of them. There had been a big downward slide, and far too much time was taken up by the singing, of the choir members. If he had to choose between the singing of a trained choir and congregational singing he would say give him congregational' singing every time- No one could be in a" thoughtless mood who was singing & song full of deep meaning for the' needs of the soul. A vivid glimpse of conditions in the ramine-stricken provinces of China- is Riven by an Aucklander, Mr. Gerald Wordsworth, writing to his relatives. Writing from Shan Hsien, Shansfii Province, he says: , "It is all faminestricken through here. People have died by thousands, but we are keeping them ahye now, though you can notke ' the whole population sinking through I under-nourishment. Dreadful things happen in China in normal times, but in famine it is awful; all the young g}™_have been sold, for instance and all girl babies have been, and" are still being killed. We are making 'all the able-bodied men work l building roads, and m return they get food for themselves and their families »< A httle later he says: "At-Pingting Chau SESbSP? 1 lr° -dfiys wl th American Methodist Mission, which is superinIr^7^ th + tf^ int relief ™rk;.and it knLffi 0* them aAd their tW ? 6u f *c. language and locality there would be but very few Chinese triE. ™? -in **» Shansi fLhie S , ffi^&sss?** year;^ ***; The present winter season; W brought to many farmers hardship and distress such as they have not known' for many years nast telegraphs the Post's Auckland co?res' Eavf 6it he dty' S social wSw! have had an increasing number of visi- ' tors seeking help. Among them are w°men -**? have had nothing t^give their children to eat for ace? Svt era^f anfct thin^ stew- Old-age^LsS; ers, feeble with infirmity? wearing wn P^Per in.their boots instead of soles,_ widows with families of five or six httle ones, and nothing but a small pension to meet all their wants- j .these, are actual cases vouched for by I workers who are striving valiantly Z carry on their good work against odd*. These and other stories of distress o7SJW c •? Uii' by * *J e relie™g officer fl AoJ Chj^table Aid Board, who stat- - 7.™ r e board-was at present aiding 200 families, all of them in dire need. The primary delegates to the annual me,?ting of the" Auckland Primary School Committees' Association on .Saturday evening were unanimously of I opinion that the -Minister of Education was doing right in his recent action to instil patriotism in the schools, and suggested that this movement should apply to private and denominational as well as State schools The meeting also carried a resolution asking that the Education Act should" be amended to provide that no private or denominational school shall be carried °n jUnle-ss licensed by the Government, and this license shall insist upon all owners principals, and teachers of these schools declaring their allegiance and loyalty to the King and the Con!i t^j Q" A Previo«s resolution of the Education Association, that . all g^Pk working under the direction of the Minister of Education, including teachers, members of school commit tees, and education boards, should be required as a condition of their appointment to take the oath of allegiance to the King, was, also formally confirmed by the Civic' League.

Some months ago a gentleman who had just returned from abroad stated to a Masterton audience that he had found things in a fery bad way in America. In the majority of the large cities it was common %o> see hundreds of motor cars of all descsiptions parked together, their owners bcangf v willing to take whatever was offered for them. Similar statements liave been made since, and it is therefore interesting to note (writes a special cofflSespondent at Masterton) the remarks contained in a letter »«celved by a Masterton resident from California, "the land of millionaires." The writer state* that ©R his return to California ten months ago everything was very prosperous, especially in Los Angeles. In every direction garages, etc were in the course of election. The writer also states: "The Chicago Opera Company took between two hundred and thr*e hundred thousand dollars for their San Fsa»cispo seasoa of a fortnight last moisth (April) arad 1 about one hundred thousand dollars for a one-week season' in Eos Angeles. This week (the letter was written on May 26) the Oakland Audrionum, seating many thousands, was packed at prices ranging from three dollars to one for Al Jolson^s New York bhow,. running for twor nights, and it was impossible for- a great many people to buy seats. During the performance motor cars were narked three and four deep all round the great building. Mr. iidwm Lemare continues to draw ten thousand dollars a year for playing the city organ in San Francisco about once a week." In conclusion the writer points out that, although prices for clothing had come- down somewhat, there was still a lonff-wav to go before pre-war prices were reacfred.