LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 97, 26 April 1916, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

A meeting of the llapaura Patriotic Committee and all others interested will be held in the llapaura Hall on Friday evening.

Mr W. H.J Bennett, representing the New Zealand Farmer, is ■at present in Blenheim on a business trip. .

One of the Post, and-Telegraph Department's engineers has arrived' inBlenheim for the purpose of installing the automatic telephone system.

The annual meeting of the Licensing Committee will be held at noon on June 6th, when all applications under the provisions'of the Licensing Act, 1908. will be .considered.

A Christehurch /telegram states that Wm. Francis Bert Dunn, a, clerk i> the City Council office, pleaded not guilty to-day to the theft of £942 11s lOd, and was committed for trial'to the Supreme Court.

A Press Association telegram from Christehurch states that fresh cases of: infantile paralysis' include four in iSforth Cantpr.bury.(a woman of 34 and three little girls. *a boy aged three and a-half in South Canterbury, and,.a boy the same age on the West Coast.

The friends of Mr and Mrs Albyn Burroughs, of Tua Marina, /will regret to hear of the death of their only boy in his seventh year, after ani illness of short duration. The hineral took place from thoir residence" ".to the Marina Cemetery;(oiJ Saturday afternoon, the Rev. T. 11. B. Woolloxall officiating. • !

The Rev. J. ■-. &\ Chapman, chairman of the Wellington district, and one of the most :able and; populaipreachers of the Methodist Churchy isto visit Blenheim/; ~,this week and preach the anniversary: sermons a,t Wesley Church. B. F. Bothwell goes to Wellington, and will, conduct the "Anzac" celebration services at the Taranaki Street: church.

; Writing under date of March 14th, the London correspondent of the Chi'istchurch Press states:—At the present time there: are 428 New Zealand' Soldiers in 'hospital .in this country, ,or in convalescent homes. Of this''total 202 are .-at.,the- New Zealand military -hospital : at, Walton-on-Thames, 91 are in /: other hospitals, .9;) are' jri isolatiou hospitals, : . and 40 are in convalescent homes. .

Piper Allan'Start,'.who, .so successfully performedaatt t the recent Scottish concerts at Blenheim and Picton, at the Wanganui. Gajed'onian gathering on Easter Saturday annexed two. firsts and one second put' of ,the three bagpipe competitions,\ and-, on Easter Monday at the' I'almerston North gathering he was successful in securing one first and two seconds. All tho Dominion's leading pipers competed at the 'gatherings. Piper Stait now ranks .amongst New Zea.land^s champion,pipers..

An extraordinary and tragic story was unfolded in the Coroner's Court .at Lithgow (N.S.W.) last week, when an inquiry was held respecting the death of Mary Jane Cook, aged fourteen, of Oakley Park. From the evidence:,it appears that the girl helping her sister, aged .sixteen, : to make beds, when they engaged in a pillow-fight. Mary Cook received a light blow on the chest with a. pillow, and immediately collapsed. She died a few'minutes later.. Medical, testiniony was to the effect that death was due to shock io the sympathetic system and nerves.

A Palmerston North resident has received a letter from his wounded son in England which serves to throw a little more light on Hun frightfulness (says the Maiiawatu Times). The soldier referred to was in the Gallipoli fighting, where he lost a leg, ami is now in England receiving medical treatment. He states that numbers of British soldiers who were wounded in Flanders and fell into the hands of the Germans have been subjected to the most callous and inhuman treatment. Where amputaltion of a limb was necessary in these, wounded British soldiers the German surgeons have operated with a view to making the fitting of ail artificial limb an impossibility, or as difficult as possible. Surely the New Zealand soldier adds, this is the very limit of diabolical inhumanity.

In a reference to the last banking returns and the trading figures for the quarter, the Trade Review says that they give ample evidence of the prosperity of the Dominion, and the abundant supply of funds available consequent on the splendid prices which are Lcing realised for New Zealand's staple articles of export. "The present position is a record for the Dominion—we have an enormous surplus of exports of over twelve millions, and the bonks have a surplus of deposits of 1\ millions. While money is exceptionfilly plentiful there is a good deal of hesitation as to investing, chiefly due to a feeling of uncertainty as to how long the war will last and wliat conditions will be subsequently, and consequently lending rates keep firm." .

A Maori named Kangi Moa met with rather a curious accident whilst in v fivd-seater motor-ear on the Wairoa road, a few days ago (says the Hastings Tribune). He had driven some passengers from Napier to Wairoa, and was returning to Napier with three more passengers. When about a mile on the Napier side of Wairoa, the driver went to sleep, and the passengers, stopping the car, got out and left it and! the driver did' riot remember' anything after falling asleep until he was awakened on the bank -of the Wairoa river by a policeman. When questioned, he said that he had a faint recollection oi smothering at the bottom of the mtr. It is surmised that he started the car whilst asloep, and drove it oft

the ioad into the Wairoa river 30 feet below. Nothing has been seen of' the car since.

Our latest war economy is to save all bottles of every description

(writes a London correspondent). ■ Glass bottles are becoming a luxury. The shortage is so serious and progressive that many big firms supplying, beer or. milk, or other liquids in bottles, and even chemists and hospitals, are at a loss to meet the growing deficiency. This shortage arises, it is explained, from ' the fact that during the years immediately prior to the war "a very large percentage of bottles of every description were imported into tliis country. Foreign' competition became so acute that a great maiiv of the glass bottle factories in" .the North of England were closed, and , many operatives were driven to seek work in the coal pits. .Foreign competition was so severe that manufacturers found the industry unremunerative. Home manufacturers are now engaged in. making bottles once moi-e. ; : As Sergeant La rke patrolled the park He heard-two sneezes in-the dajk. With staff gripped tight he flashed his light. t 11i.5 stern tones echoed through the night. "Kape ahf th' grass! ye coople there: Ymedith ay cowld yell get, f'r I shure! • •

.Yesterday morning an accident, attended by no serious results ,_occurred [on the Redwood Pass road. Mr G. M. Vavasour was driving a motor-car towards Blenheim,, and was ascending ,+he bill on the Sedddn side of the pass. A party of carpenters on rpute to their1 work at Seddon were coming down the grade. One of these came a cropper just in the way of the car. Mr V avasour had three alternatives— to go over the mart, "over.the bank, or try to cliiiib the face of the bill. He ■ chose the 'last-named, course, with the result that the car overturned. The driver and a passenger managed to extricato themselves fromUjeneath the oar, little the worse for their experience. The:'cyclist, of '..course, escaped unhurt.

The great importance of rifle shooting in war under present conditions was emphasised' by Major R. C. Dawson in Sydney' last week, in replying to speeches of welcome made by members, of the council of the National Rifle Association of New South Wales. "I believe that if troops leaving here did nothing but--musketry." he said, "and learned to handle their i ifle.s properly, it would in> the greatest said in this difficult warfare" they could possibly have. The men must, get into the way of making the rifle part of their being, as it were. Rapid fire is the most essential thing. B On the 19th of May, vm Gallipoli, we took the Turks at a disadvantage*, and tho terrible slaughter we inflicted on them then was due to the fact that most of our men knew how to use their rifles; I noticed that among the Australians tho more excited they were the better they used their rifles. In Egypt we ha<l the good luck to he placed under General Bird wood, and he was very particular in training; the men in t-lie use of the riflo. He had under him two famous rifle shots—General Leslie, the winner of many Queen's medals, nnd General Cari-uthers, V.C. We received highly valuable instruction in Egypt..- and 1 believe that that did wonders for our men in the trenches. Several members of this association became noted marksmen, or snipers, and some did great execution/ The Major' Avert on to tell of one young j man from Mudgee, who was reputed i to have shot 350 Turks.