LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There are reported to be 350 exRoldiers at present out of work in Aucklariii. i The retail price of butter in New ' Plymouth has been increased as from [ yesterday l2d per Ib. The price in pats | .■pill therefore be Is 7d and from bulk I*B 6d. X instated that the Wellington-New Plymouth mail train is to be heated by steam during the winter months, and that the necessary alterations are now being made to tne carriages. Mr Moses Ayrton, the national secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party, is unable to address the public meeting called for to-morrow evening, but will keep the engagement on his; return to Hawera from New Plymouth. **The Government takes 3d, the merchant and the retailer together take 2£d, and the manufacturer takes 3%d, which covers the cost of the leaf," said the general manager of a prominent Wellington firm of suppliers to the trade of tobacco and cigarettes a day or two ago in answer to a question as to how the 9d the citizen paid for his gaekeE of cigarettes came to be allocated. A message from Florence to the Australian papers, under date 12th inst., states that Princess Mary and Viscount Lasdelles were cheered by large crowds j on their arrival at the city. They were j p«lted with flowers as they motored to Fiesole, where the crowd again bombarded them with flowers, shouting: "Long live the Princess! Long live England!" The British colony and the! Ttalian aristocracy have co-operated in: turning the Villa di Medici, where thej poupl© are staying, into a bower of flowers. A* number of newspapers have retfently,J3£en removed from the register in ihe Dominion. They include the Buller Miner (Westport). th« Wairoa Guartuan (Hawke's Bay), Wheeling, Nfiw Zealand Shipping and Commerce, the New Zealand Nautical Review j (Wellington), the New Zealand Picture News and Theatre Journal (Auckland), j tho Democrat (Dunedin), eto. A thrilling accident, with a miracu.Tous escape from death, opcurred to a workman at Adelaide last week. He was engaged on the third storey of a building in the course of construction, an<7 when testing the scaAolding, fell and toofr some of it with him. Luckily the heel of one boot caught in the steel"®orK of the building, and the man hung suspended. A fellow employee immediately held the heol in th<» crack, and .the man pulled himself to a nearby window and made his escape from a terrible, predicament, having sustained j only a few bruises' ' The cunning of the rat was exemplified by an incident related by Mr n. is. Kiley, at the last meeting of tiie -Heathcote County (JouncilC states tiie Christchurch Press). Mr Kiley quoteu a case in which tne po.sqn provided by the City Council was laid, on biscuits, j wJaicli wero piacW m positions known to be haunted by rats. The result was wholly in favour of the rats, as it was found that the biscuits had been turned upside down, ami tiie non|)oisonous sides consumed, tn<e pomoji 'being left for further experiments. There was an unrehearsed ineideav at a circus performing in AucKluna last week (relates the Star). A stray terrier entered tht tent, and tor O om<? considerable time made himself unpopular by yelping and barking at the performers in tiie proximity ot tiie ring. At last one of the artists could stand ie no longer, and said a fewwords to a baboon, who. at the time was engaging the attention of- the audience. With a bound, the animal, I grotesquely garbed in trousers aim I ( coat, made for $h<» terrier, grasped him by the tail, and swung him round j his head for a moment or so. It had j the desired effect, and in a trie© the ; baboon was back on his stool. Noth- | ing further was heard from the terrier, j except his frightened yelps an he disappeared from the tent. In a recent fcpeech Mr. Winston Churchill denounced "the organised j propaganda of Socialism, with its outrageous threats and its grotesque I fallacies," which, if not faced with j courage, would be a danger of the gravest kind. The advent of a Socialist Gov- I I ernment to power would be a national' and imperial disaster. "The Socialist Party, as I said two years ago, have shown themselves in their present state of development quite unfit to govern." If they came into office they would destroy the credit and confidence upon which the economic revival of the country depended. The Coalition, Mr. Churchill said, stood for the middle way, avoiding both the extreme courses which had brought Germany and Russia to ruin. An amusing, but "true,"' story on the power of imagination was related by Professor E. Mayo, of the Brisbane University, when discussing the psychology of middle-age at a luncheon held by the Victorian Institute of Advertising Men in Melbourne recently. In Brisbane once, said Professor Mayo, a middle-aged man visited the dentist to have a tooth attended to. . After some discussion they both agreed that the tooth should be extracted. Then began a lengthy discussion as to the method by which the tooth should be I tackled. The client favoured cocaine j injection—a friend of his had had cocaine, and it had been successful. The dentist disapproved of this method. When asked why, he rather unwisely told his client that certain people were i apt to contract cocaine poisoning from j such an operation. He then exhaustive. Ily explained the symptoms of cocaine f poisoning. But the* client persisted. ; The dentist, to* assure the client that the operation would not hurt, placed the j hypodermic needle, free from'cocaine, in | the gum. The client immediately collapsed and acquired all the symptoms of cocaine poisoning. It took the dentist an huor to bring the patient round ■ and send him to a doctor. Later the J doctor advised the dentist to use gas l instead of cocaine. The dentist agreed on condition that the doctor would administer gas. Being unacquainted with the gas machine the doctor had its workings explained to him. He applied j the mask to the imaginative patient, ! who immediately fell into a deep sleep. ■ The dentist successfully extracted the j tooth. "Well, that's over, thank goodj ness," exclaimed the doctor, as he rej moved the mask. "Yes," replied the j dentist, "even though you forgot to i turn the gas on!'' i The proprietors of the Ngaere Gar--1 dens notify in to-day's Star that a fine I musical programme will be given by I Moosman's Orchestra on Sunday next, April 2. There will also be vocal items.

Three new shops are to be erected shortly in Victoria street on the High. street side of Mr Hardiey's coal yard. It was 74 years last Thursday (the Utago Daily Times reminds the public) since the first pioneers landed in Otago and the day is being celebrated as practically a general holiday. All Government offices were closed for the anniversary.

A witness, when asked what he paid for a hous-3 m Auckland (reports the Star) during the hearing of an application for possession of a tenement replied, "About £1000." "-Are you not adding the legal costs to the price? was the next question, and the prompt answer, "No; the lawyers did that, caused a smile to pass round the court.

When notice is given by a borough council of the intention to impose a 10 per cent, fine on all outstanding rates after a certain date there is usually a rush to get the rates paid before th» imposition comes into force. This proved no exception to the rule this year in Napier (states the Hawke's Bay Herald), as on the three days prior to the date notified a sum of £20,405 was received by the Napier Borough Council, which is a record for the period the previous best being £19,071.

This season the tests of milk at the various >Vairarapa factories show a drop all round on last year, most likely accounted for by the extraordinary season (says the Wairarapa Daily News). The quantity of milk received on the other hand, is a good deal in excess oi last year, and it is quite reasonable to expect that the increased yield this year will practically compensate dairymen for their lower test, and bring their balance-sheets out about square with last year. Hamilton has gained a new distinc- ■ tion (says "Mercutio" in the New Zea- ! land Herald). The census reveals that j practically every town of any size has a j surplus of females. Not so Hamilton, which still retains a small preponder- ■ ance of males. If the girls of Hamilton i are wise they will not boast about their luck over-much. Dunedin City has over 4000 more females than males, and Canterbury has now more than its share of | women. The possibility of an organised invasion from the south must not be overlooked. One of the latest economies on the part of the Government is the stopping of free distribution of copies of awards or amendments, except that each cited party is entitled to one copy. Previously it was possible for , individuals or firms interested to ob- ' tain copies on application to the Lab- ! our Department; but now these must ' be applied for to the Government ' Printer in AVellington and paid for ~ at the rate of sixpence per copy. Cited > parties must go through the same pro|\cedure if they require extra copies. By \ many people (comments the Dunedin Star) this latest "reform" is looked | upon as another "Penny wise" raea-! sure; but the Star is assured by tho '< Labour Department that thousands ot the copies or awards and amendments I that are applied for arc wasted. Mr J. C. L. Fitzpatrick, a eandi- j date in the N.S.W. elections, speaking in reply to Mr Dooley, said that the ! Premier had said that the existing taxation was imposed to make good the accumulated deficiency of nearly I £2,000,000 left .by the Nationalists." If the accumulated deficiency was nearly £2,000,000," said Mr Fitzpat- : rick, "why did the Government in- | I crease taxation by £4,000,000, not to ! mention the increases in rail and tram fares and freights? On Mr Dooley's own showing the Government increased the taxation by £2,000,000 more than he stated was necessary. And I have •> further poser for him. Why did h^T Government, although the revenue wps nearly £5,000,000 more than in the previous year, end up the last financial year with a deficit ? And why does he now find it lipees.tary to increase tax-1 ation by .yet another" £2,00u,000, in or- ' der to avoid a deficit of £1,996,000? ' Un his own statement he has made good ' the accumulated deficits left by the ! Nationalists. The subsequent deficits ' must, therefore, be of Labour's own i manufacture." :

The removal of shell from below highwater mark in the upper reaches of the Auckland Harbour has recently engaged the attention of the Superintendent of the Mercantile Marine (states the Star.) In a letter to the New Lynn Town Board recently the superintendent stated that as the shell on these beautiful beaches js fast disappearing, and they are being gradually spoilt" as pleasure resorts for the public, all these beaches and banks have been closed. The Inspector of Beaches had informed the Department that the Town Board's con. tractor had been removing shell from below high-water mark. The Board was asked to supply information as to what Act or Order-in-Council gave them control of the banks and beaches. After discussion, the chairman (Mr. George Lawson) stated that he had only discovered during the past week that the board's permit obtained some years ago was only for a short period, and had really expired.- A royalty of 3d per yard had been fixed.

Congratulations are extended" in the latest issue of the New Zealand Locomotive Engineers' Journal to the members of the Locomotive Engineers, Firemen, and Cleaners' Association "on the splendid discipline which was exhibited by them under trying circumstances when the Public Expenditure Adjustment Act was before the country." "We are proud of the manner in which the members retained their own business within their own ranks, and depended upon themselves to right their own wrongs," continues the journal. • . . • "Fishing expeditions were out in all directions trying to know what the E.F.C.A. was doing, although it was none of their business, except that they were waiting to get on your back again. We again congratulate the members throughout New Zealand on their splendid exhibition of organisation, which is as perfect and solid today as it was on April 27> 1920."

General approval of tne Government's nominative scheme in connection with immigration was expressed to an Auckland Star reporter by an officer connected with the Salvation Army's operations in that direction. He went on to say that a very good class of citizen was, on the whole, being introduced into the country, and generally they were very well satisfied with conditions when they arrived here. Up to the present he had not had any difficulty in placing them, and they were not very long in the city, except in certain cases. "So long as the Government can find work for them, that is what we want/ he continued. "Up to the present we have not had any difficulty, because their friends very soon take them off our hands. It is only in exceptional cases where the Government has had to come to their assistance." Conditions had been so bad at Home that the men were anxious for any employment, and he considered that things could not be any worse in the Dominion to what they had experienced in the Homeland. What they desired was a living wage andthe right to work. That was the Solitude, he concluded, of the average emigrant with whom the Army had come in contact.

Foreign-born people in the United .States number 13,920,692. Of these 6,493,088 are naturalised

"Mi- McGirr * reported to have stated that the British financiers were responsible for reducing wages in Aus- ' tralia. 1 am surprised at a Minister it the Crown making such an unwar- I rentable assertion as this." writes Mr I Ii" r. H, a 2°n in the Sydney Morning Herald. "I would like to ask Mr McUirr what he thinks our position in Australia would be if it were not for the British financiers?" The nomination of Sir Ernest I Rutherford for the presidency of the ! British Association is the latest of 1 many honours that have fallen to this ! famous New Zealander (notes the i Auckland Star editorially). It is one of the most interesting, for the British Association for the Advancement of Science is the chief association of its ; kind in Britain, and its meeting is ' the event of the science year. Founded ninety years ago to help to remove the reproach that England was backward in science, it has attracted the most famous scientists to its discussions and covered the widest range of .subjects. Sir Ernest Rutherford was clearly marked out for such an honour. He is in the very front rank of the scientific workers of his country and the world, and there is every likelihood that he will become still more iainouSi j For selfish and economically unsound party reasons war prohibitions on industry and trade have been maintained after the special need for them has passed. Costs of production and of transport have been greatly increased without any regard for the welfare of the larger State interests which are unable to recover them from their returns. The reins of government have passed into the hands of a party representing a section determined on grasping and keeping all the spoils that the possession of power could bring within their reach—a party without real concern for the tillers of the soil and other primary producers who are at the base of every enduring social edifice. Arbittrary wage-fixing without regard for the capacity of industry to pay, price-' fixing, the merely Utopian limitation of hours of work,^the heaping of taxes on taxes, and the placing of industry and production under the heels of union bosses—these must go before the State can right itself and go on confidently to the great future which is surely before' it.—Sydney Morning Herald. , "In the throe years since the war, ' when every man of goodwill and good courage and patriotic instinct had only I one question to ask himself—and that was: How can I contribute in these i difficult and tragic days to the reconi struction of the stricken State? what i has been the part played by the Labour I leaders? It has been one of consistent and abject courage, if the leaders of the Labour Party had told the truth to the trade unions in the months which | followed the Armistice—if they had told j them that the man who laid aside his j tools and refused his necessary and individual part in the industrial life of ; the nation was a traitor to the Commonwealth—if they had done that, we should not have lost, as we have done, j | hundreds of thousands of working days in the last thre years, and the whole ! financial position of the country in these days w Tould have been at once a different and a more prosperous one. I I am an old politician, and if it comes to me to defend the Coalition against , the Labour Party, 1 say this plainly— j that knowing well political valuations I and the terms and the conditions of j political combat in this country, ! am prepared to go to the great centres of population in the country, in their own strongholds, and brand them with the stigma of men who have not played their part in those three years, and are wholly unworthy to conduct the affairs of a great Empire."—The Lord Chan-, cellor (Lord Birkenhead), in a recentspeech in London. j We like 'to give credit where credit ;is due. "Cyrano," in an article in the , Christchurch Press, says: At last one I tears sonjejliing good of the Russian \ Bolsheviks. They have, I suppose, j been accused of every sin and crime j from promiscuous immorality to mur-

der with mediaeval forms of torture. But one redeeming bit of policy stands to their credit. They have made it an offence not to return borrowed books. Two book borrowers, it is reported, have just been sentenced to 1\ months' imprisonment at Moscow. "The Peo- , pie's Court holds," said the president, j as quoted in one of the Bolshevik organs, "that the criminal dishonesty of some citizens about books ought to be rooted out." To which a world of ; book-lovers bereft of some of their pre- ' cious possessions says whole-heartedly "Hear, hear!" The pronouncement stands amid the gloom of Russia like Portia's candle—"a good deed in a naughty world." ■. Because he was without a uniform, a ' City Council fire escape inspector caused some alarm among Thorndon residents j a few days ago. All inspectors em- I ployed by the corporation (says the! Otago Daily Times) are accustomed to wear uniforms, with the exception ot j those whose duty it is to see that houses and other buildings are fitted witn j proper means of exit in case of fire. On the occasion under notice the in- : spector's close scrutiny of windows in '■ various houses, especially in the upper : storeys, gave rise to the apprehension that he was meditating a midnight raid. It toolc several days of inquiry j to clear up the matter to the satisfactioji of the alarmed residents and to establish the fact that the man was merely a harmless omcial. To avoid • trouble in future any residents of the ' "ty 9.L suburbs who entertain doubts as to the bona fides of individuals discovered^ wandering about their backyards sliould ask them to produce their credentials, as all City Council inspectors carry cards of authority, which ' have to be produced on demand. The : suggestion lias been made that it would '■ be as well if the corporation inspectors were uniformed.

Mrs Asquith has been giving a series of lectures in America, dealing with politics and events in England. The first lecture was not entirely successful owing to the fact that her voice did not carry well, but the second was reported to be a great success. The New York World, commenting on Mrs Asquith's reference to America not being really a free country, since she was required to throw away a cigarette she had lit while waiting to deliver a lecture in Philadelphia, says: "There are greater degrees of personal liberty everywhere in Europe than in the United States, which is now governed by legislative reform blocs for the regulation of personal habits. Mrs Asquith confesses herself unacquainted with the type of American legislation which has for its object the regulation of what free American citizens shall eat or drink, or wherewithal be clothed, even to the texture of a wife's stockings."