LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1915, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

The weekly parade of the Blenheim Campany of the National Reserve will take place at 7.45 this evening. Through a clerical error the name of Knight Rein was omitted in the list of nominations for the Wairau Valley Cup rate in last night's issue. Last day o£ Hall's' White Sale tomorrow.—Advt. r , A vote of thanks was accorded' by the Borough Council last night to Messrs Bythell and Co. for their donation of a springboard for the municipal baths. r The formal opening of the new hospital at Amersfoote has been fixed1 for December 15th. Invitations will be issued shortly to the members of the local authorities. ,;* .

The Gazette contains a notification by the Hon G. W. Russell, Minister for Internal Affairs, that all persons leaving- New Zealand for Great Britain will require a passport to enable them to land' in •the United Kingdom. The'usual resolutions providing for • the payment of. the December wages before Clhristmas, the renewal of I licenses, and the granting of leave of j absence to the Town Clerk for a fo-rt- ! night, were passed at the meeting of , the "Borough Council last night.

It was stated at the meeting! of the ; Borough Council last night that the whole of the repayment loan of «£5450 had been secured locally by means of hypothecated debentures, the rate of i interest being 4 per cent. The transj action was spoken of as a very satisj factory one. ] Blenheim (68) wa a the warmest anct Bealey (50). the coldest station in the Dominion at nine o'clock this morn- . ing. The skies, generally were par- \ tially' clouded. There were rough ; seas at Cape Campbell and Cape Pali User, and a smooth outlook at Stepi hens Island.

The junior anniversary in connection with the Salvation Army will take place on Sunday. The services •all day will be conducted by the. Young People's Workers and the juniors. On Sunday afternoon a programme will be given by the young people, .and a service of song at night. Correspondence that had passedl between the Town Clerk (instructed by the Mayor) fhd:'-the manager of the •municipal abattoirs, relative to a question of having about two tons of butter placed in cold storage at tins abattoirs in behalf of a Blenheim merchant, was read at tlte meeting of tho Borough Council last, night. The manager stated that me<at and butter could not, without detriment to one or the other, be stored in the cooler at the one time, and he declined to acceut responsibility. The correspondence was referred to the Abattoirs Committee.

The Marlborough Farmers' Union held a special meeting of the Executive to consider the question of the income tax-returns that the farming community were called on to fill in and return by the 4th inst. It was decided to communicate with the Minister for finance and the Prime Minister and forward them the resolution passedl, viz. -.. "That this Executive, representing the Marlborough Fanners' Union, considers the statement for income tax purposes as demanded by the Commissioner of 'Taxes to be unreasonable and an impossibility, inasmuch as formers do not record data from which to compile such an elaborate statement of their business transactions as demanded by the Income Tax Department, and urges, on account of the short notice given, that tho returns which are to he sent in by 4th December be held over for « year, so that time and opportunity may bo given to simplify and modify the form of the demands."

At the half-yearly meeting of the Bank of Now Zealand to-day th« chairman of directors (Mr Harold Beauchamp) reviewed the financial situation in its relation to the war. His remarks <*re reported on another page. The resolution amending the Bank's deed of settlement was confirmed. The directors' proposal to give £10,000 to the Wounded Soldiers Fund was approved.

At-present there are 164 members of (he staff of the Bank of New Zealand on military service, while another 100 have volunteered and are waiting their turn-■••to be relieved. Thirteen of those who have gone have lost ■ their lives, and 22 have been wounded. When all the volunteers have joined the forces the BankV pay-sheet for men on active service will amount to something like £20,----000 pcn1 annum. .

The B team of the Blenheim ; National Reserve turned the tables !on the Spring Creek B team last night, winning by 12 points. The scores were as follows:—Blenheim: McCallum 31, Mogridge 31, Relling 30, Vercoe 28, Logan 27, Patchett 27, Bent- 26, Hulme 26, Dawes 26, Torrance 21; total 273. Spring Creek: Sheridan 30, McArtney 29, Lamb 28, Grklley 28, O'Sullvan 27, Mills 26, McDonald1 25, Brown 24, Robertson 23, Ford 21; total 261.

The need for a Soldiers' Club, where departing and returned members of the Expeditionary- Forces could find a lesting-place, conveniences for correspondence, appointments, and so on, was referred to by Councillor Curry at the meeting of the Borough Council last night. Incidentally it was mentioned that probably over 100 men would be revisiting Blenheim during the Christmas holidays. The Mayor said that the Patriotic Society fully recognised the desirableness of the object mentioned. The matter of securing suitable quarters had been placed in the hands of Mr W. Pollard, who would most Jikely present. a report to the Society this week.

Speaking at the half-yearly meeting of the Bank of New Zealand: in Wellington to-day, Mr Martin Keri* nedy, one of the directors representing the shareholders, said:—"ln the earlier years of my becoming one of your representatives on the Board, when speaking at these statutory meetings, I called attention to what appeared to my. mind the anomaly of Government nominees taking part in the discussions, especially as neither they nor the Government held any shares in the capital of the bank. That anomaly, if such it were, now no longer exists. As you are aware, ■the Dominion Government now holds •a substantial number of shares in the capital of the bank, and its nominees moreover are not debarred from holding shares."

The hearing of the case of Dalgety and Co. Ltd. v.. John Higgins, in which £38 11s 7d is claimed in respect to damages caused to the firm's motor-car in a collision with the de-

fendant's spring dray hear Seddon on , the evening of August Bth, was re- | sumed by Mr F. 08. Loughnnn, \ S.M., this morning. Mr W. T. ; Churchward appeared for the claim- • ants, and Mr A. Rogers for the defendant. A considerable amount oi evidence was called on both sides, the case lasting into the afternoon. The defendant maintained that at the mo-, menfc of contact the car had ample room to pass by, and its occupants were to blame. The driver of the cai1 was Mr F. T. Rhodes, formerly auctioneer for the firm, and now a member of the Expeditionary Force, and he was accompanied by Mr Lees, a member of the plaintiffs' Wellington staff.

I On the occasion of a-recent visit to J , Blenheim, Mr Leader, engineer to j the Grey town Borough Council, spent { {some time in the company of Couiir ' cillor F. Birch, chairman , of the Water and Drainage Committee. He interested himself especially in the Taylor gravitation scheme, proceeding |to the site suggested for the head- i

I womcs and viewing the- surroundings. | Councillor Birch informed the i Borough Council last night that Mr Leader readily recognised the suitableness of the country for the formation of dams, and otherwise expressed himself as very favorably impressed with the resources of the Taylor River as a source of supply to the town. They made a rough test of the " capacity of the Taylor at the bend below the third crossing, and found enough water for 70,000 people at the rate of 50 gallons per head. That supply, of course, was more than ample. Mr Leader said that he would like to make more accurate measurements, and would probably revisit Blenheim with that idea in mind.

The Deputy-Mayor (Mr E. S. ! Parker) formally reported to the Borough Council last night that during the visit made to Blenheim recently by the Rev. H. Mason, the water diviner, that gentleman kindly consented to test the lesources of the block of land on the Wither Run that the municipality proposed to acquire for the purposes of a public park. Mr IT. J. Mitchell supplied and drove the motor-car used for the journey. Mr Mason found am ample supply of water at two places, one at the foot of the low knob and the other further up the valley, where the ground formation wa,s so suitable for the creation of a lake or lakelets. These spots had been marked, so that they oould be located at any time. .

The Government Statistician in South Australia has anticipated a record wheat yield of 27,250,000 bushels, of which over 22,000,000 bushels will bo •available for export.

The population of New South Wales on June Ist was 1,863,751, an increase of 11,643 over the previous year. Births during the year totalled 54,715, and deaths 18,263.

j The Bishop of Nelson is among ■ those who are optimistic in regard to ■ the final result of the war. He stated 'at Picton on Tuesday evening that the outlook was infinitely better than : was -imagined at the moment. The full facts of the case had not «pI pea red in the newspapers. At Home, | brilliant statesmen were working for ! the one great end: Victory for a free people!

I Country children are at present • suffering certain educational disad- •! vantages (as compared with town j children), according to Mr Moss, who touched on the subject at Tuesday's • meeting of the Wellington Education {Board. "You say: 'Keep the popu- ! lation in the country,' " remarked Mr Moss, "but there are men who have found it advisable to sell their farms and come to town because of the han- i j dicap on their children."

Speaking in Canterbury on Tuesday night, the Hon. Dr McNab said that there was a feeling in many ; quarters that several of the ■ young ! men were failing in their duty. He had been told there wei-e families ot ■ which every son had gone, and there j were other families all the sons of ! which had stayed behind. And they ] were not always the poor that had stayed. (Applause.) They were, however, poor in the possession of everything worth having, and rich in the possession of things that were not worth counting when the final trumpet sounded. Lots of young fellows in the Civil Service were chafing to get .away to the front, but they could j not be spared. Unless he were over the military age, he would not dare to speak in front of an audience for \ five minutes unless he had volunteered for active service.

} There are at least two members of ■ the Blenheim Borough Council who.'* J would like to see the "weekly lialf-.holida-y observed on the Saturday instead of the Wednesday. .At the statutary meeting oi.-tho Council, to be held in January, which will be duly notified', business, industrial, and other interested sections of the community will have the opportunity of making whatever representations on the subject they care to bring forward. It was suggested that the | Retailers' Association and the United ; Builders' Association—which two i bodies have in the past held opposite j views oil the half-holiday question— should be invited to communicate •

their wishes to the Council. This course, however, was not adopted, it being remarked! that the entity of the Retailers' Association was doubtful, and the benefit of lack of organisation on* one side should not be given to the other side. If the retailers were • sufficiently interested, it was observed, they would not allow the occasion jto go by default.

This morning Mr F. 08. Loughnan, S.M., delivered his reserved judgment in the case of the Wairau Harbor Board v. James Penney. The proceedings were taken under section 146 of the Public Works Act, 1908, amended by the Act, of 1914, and varied by section 179. They were brought with a view to compelling the defendant to remove from the Opawa River willow trees which had fallen from his land and which had already caused damage to two vessels. The- whole question turned on the interpretation of section 179. His Worship said he thought the Legislature intended that this liability should be imposed on riparian owners,' and he had tried as far as he could

;to make the statute apply. He must i hold, however, that the section did i not apply to this case. The Legisla- \ ture had failed to express its inteni tiou in plain words, evidently I through a mistake in draughtsmani ship. Judgment was given for the j defendant, with costs amounting to |£2 16s. The security in the event of nn appeal was fixed at ten guineas. Mr C. H. Mills appeared for the : Board, and Mr W. T. Churchward i for the defendant.

A wounded soldier, in a letter to the Prime Minister, writes as follows about^ his treatment in England. "I am -ad-ding this (postscript) to let you ; know what a splendid reception our j m-en have received since landing in England, and how the efforts of "the people of New Zealand are appreciated by all classes. Since landing T have visited a number of different places, and have everywhere been received with kindness and sympathy, everything being done to moke my stay a pleasant one. 1 will always entertain an affectionate regard for this grand old country until the end of my life. From the point of view of a wounded soldier it makes me feel that my sacrifice has not been in vain when my efforts hove been so j well appreciated by all with whom 1" j have come in contact."'

"Wowser!" said the Rev. Mr Sorpell during his sermon at the Mas> terton Methodist Church on Sunday? morning. "if anyone uses this expression to you, ram it down thoir throats. I was travelling in the*train the other day," he continued, "and I hoard an individual referring to someone as a wowser. I went up to him and said, 'If you consider the> person who absents himself from tli€> racecourse, he who does not geti drunk and lives a clean life, a wowser, then I am pleased to say I am one. 51 Hurl it back at them every time."

The Bishop of Nelson is ardent lrff the cause of recruiting, and he stated in his address at Picton on _ Tuesday evening that there was in existence a» Military Ballot Act, which only needed a proclamation to make it operative. He hoped that it would not* be iound necessary to introduce conscription, and urged all men who*' wore able to do so to go forth to battle. Tn days gone by, he had done* his "goose step," and knew something about a rifle, even if it were ai Martini with a "kick like a bullock."" He appealed" to the young men to fill the gaps in the ranks of the New, Zealanders, and thereby help the people of the Empire to retain their, liberty. Laced boots, black or tan, foil ladies, size 3 and 7 only, usually 17a t>d; now 9s lid—at Hannah's.—Advt.The arrangement for the. supply of? cheese to the Imperial authorities is working well, said the Prime Minister at Wellington on Tuesday. "U have received communications on thei subject fi>om factories in all parts of the Dominion, and in every case the* new scheme, under which one-third of the total output is to be requisitioned for Imperial purposes, at ai fixed price, has been accepted in ai good spirit. No objection has been" raised in any quarter. The people! ■ connected with the cheese industry; have shown a very patriotic spirit."

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that the new season's meat was* beginning to come into the works, bufc as yet ho very large numbers of sheepwere offering. One of the reasons! was that grass was plentiful in all ofi the sheep districts, and also the facfe that wet weather had hampereci shearing. He did not think the reported mortality among shorn sheep during the recent cold weather had! been at all widespread, nor had! he* 1 heard that it had been anywhere very serious. Mr Massey expected to? have «. very good season.

Writing to friends in Dungannon,. a New Zealand soldier now serving at* the Gallippli Pensinsula says:—"l ara! afraid after twelve months' fighting" we will all require to be re-civilisett when we get away from this God-for-sakon country. We will likely forget to take off our boots, and will use*1 powerful language, etc.; but there are a few things I am going to do when* T return home. The very first thing I will do will be to turn on a watertap and watch the water running to* waste for &. whole day; then I will go* to my aunt's and feed on now-laid* eggs till I 'bust,' then to the pubs, about every hour for a Guiness'» stout, and, finally, buy some flypapers and gloat over the deattt