LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 127, 1 June 1920, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Six degrees of frost were registered during tlfo-night. .;' A!,,social (Will be held; in the Tua Marina Efeil by the Starlight Football yiiib vtt Fridayr :" r ?'; . A.Lsho'i:fc,;'.sharp earthquake shock was. felt, at about three o'clock • this* niorning. ■ : -~

The influenza wave has been' substantially« reduced in the: Wellington health district during the1 paist. week.

The -annual meeting 6f: the; WJlirau Licensing; Committee was commenced in. the Blenheim Courthouse at noon, and; was continued in the afternoon.

Owing jto Mr, A.'.-Howard having resigned , his position > as ; County .Ranger, and Pounfikeeper,. no pound is in operation in.. Seddoh until further; notice. . , . •■ i

The Treasury announces tha^; the following information has been received from the High Commissibneiy dated: London, May 27th: The official price of gold # to-day is £5 6s 6d per ounce for shipments to India and South Africa.

It is Understood that everything U nowl in readiness for the demand oi: the Engine-Drivers', Firemen's, and Cleaners' Association to be heard by the special tribunal set up as a result of,; the strike. The tribunal will probably open its sittings on Wednesday morning.

The Customs revenue collected in the Wait-au district last month is the largest monthly collection on record for this part of the Dominion. It amounted to £2376 7s lid as against '£1200. 14s 3d for May of last year. The beer duty realised £212 * 19s, compared with £236 2s Id.

The Magistrate. Mr McCarthy, in a reserved judgment at Christchurch, I 1 eld that premises or places where conditional licensees are authorised to sell liquor at an occasional gathering are licensed premises within the' meaning of the Licensing Act. The case arose out of a. r>rohibited person being found on the licensed booth at the Addington Trotting ground and the police asked the Magistrate fox a ruling. . -

Lasfc month 32 birtlis—those of 15 nales and 17 females—were registered at Blenheim. Twelve deaths were notified, being those of nine males and three females. , Kight marriages were entered up. The statistics for May of last year are: Births 24 (IS males and 6 females); deaths 6 (2 males and 4 females); marriages, 10.

After a lapse of some time owing to the exigencies of the war period, the Marlborough Collie Dog Trial Association has been revived under the presidency of Mr S. M. Neville. A strong working committee has been formed and the Association is meeting with a strong measure of support ,in their effort to revive the sheep clog trials in Blenheim.

The drawings for the second round of the snooker tournament being held at the Soldiers' Club are as follows: H. Avery 7, meets J. E:. Ewart 7. H. J. Robertson 14— F. H. Merrie 10. W. O'Oalla»han 12—M. Patchett 14. W. ■Gibson 16— H. Holmes 17.. H. Wolferstan 14— E. Ewarb 5 behind scratch Captain R. Logan 14 a bye. This round must be ..concluded by Saturday, nighfc.

It is understood that the Omaka Cemetery Trustees have finally decided to extend its burial area to the land, across the road in front of the present cemetery, the Protestant portion of which has been used up with the exception of a very few plots. The Government has not given any indication that it intends to sustain Xh.e> objections; which were raised by the .holders', of .settlement''land-in. the Vicinity.^ and supported-by the Hospital Boad arid Otnaka Road Board; a»d the Trustees can wait no longer.

A Nelson business man mentioned Iran Saturday an instance, which ho said was common in the> trade, of where,■prices, had ; increased while orders were on the j way. Home. An or dor for dress material's ; >vas sent on. 31st Maroh, represetntirig £300, Ptoxrie Pi'ioq, for eight pieces of;serge. On Friday he '.reoeived a cable' from his -Hame buyer stating that r prices had further. risen, .and asking for conjfirniatipn of order before purchasing.

Stating- tliat ho had asked Dr. Ti-üby King to speak *in support of the "FigliT; tho Famine campaign ati.ChristchuEGh,. I. jt-he Mayor (Dr. T. hacker) added,; that ho wanted ■ all citizens, and-'p^rtiejilarly the children —even iif they Md. to- starve for two days—to, d<».,,spmetiiing ' r fpr the children <jf Contral IJorope,;,! who were dying, in woeful dlistress. - If sdmet-,;.thing-..was riot!done, there/ would be a big pestilence, and pi'obably. • the Black ; Death >,would ...break.- ■;out and sweep all over the world. .

; Two trees in th^ Khandaira;h D6irjpin were struck! by lightning on -Friday evening last. Both were jound 'to be smouldering, on. Saturday morning. FoHunately (says the Dominion) ? forked. , lightning; is a rare r-yjcsilp'r,' ,iit the ; '■ district;* ;thffiigh:-ra%; '.sxfe* iptie \;& ; Bash that i Vear&ed'';;"atJWanganui, ? chipped a corner' off the bafee- of a big chimney .stack at the .Ne«v. Zealand Refrigerating" Co. *s works and. travelling along the ground, smashed the windows of • an. ofiice some 50 oa* GO feet distant.

"I make the iSUggesiibn to sports clubs.that they should! refuse to play members who do- not discharge their obligations under' the Defence Act," said Mr V. G. Day, 8.M., during the hearing of a case, against a defaulting Territorial at the Cnristehurch Magistrate's Court. "Certain cricket clubs did this during the war, and I know of several soeiil clubs which refused to adriiit men who failed to join up with the colors. One man was actually blackballed!, from the principal club iri> Timaru for not joining up. It would help the authorities considerably if all sports clubs declined to permit men to play who fail "to-'do-their drill.". *

Although the scarcity of houses is- still pronounced at Cdiristchurch, inquiries go to show that there is much less property changing hands. Naturally the fact that further applications for grants ixnder - the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act are being entertained by the Government has ■had' its effect on the property market, but even apart from this land agents say the demand for the purchase of both houses and farm property has eased considerably. "There is not now the frenzied buying there has been, and values were becoming more stable," said one man. He added that he had found that a certain percentage of those who had acquired homes recently at high prices were evidently finding it a struggle to keep up their payments of principal and interest. In a number of such instances the property is back on tho market for resale.

Over .61000 is now in hand for the Nelson War Memorial, and steps will soon be taken to put the work in hand.

The International Postal Conference is to be held at Madrid in November next, and it is likely that New Zealand will be represented. When the Willesden magistrate refused to grant an eviction order against a ten-ant the landlady retorted: i:Very well, I shall turn the gramophone on all day."

It is said that a Wairarapa man bought and sold, threo farms in twelve months, and netted £12,000 ion the transactions.

At the Dentists' Conference held in Wellington recently ifc was estimated that 250,000 people in the Dominion have not a. natural tooth in theb heads.

The now 3000 kilowatt generator for tho new unit at Lake Coleridge hydro-electric plant is now on its way to tho power station. It weighs about 20 tons, and was unloaded ofl.' the railway at Ooalgifce., from where it is being* hauled by traction engines to Lake Coleridge.

The s.s. Aorere, which was recently wrecked at the mouth of the Rangitikei River, was sold at auction by Messrs E. Johnston and Co. on Saturday, the buyer being Mr F. C. Palmer, of Wanganui, tor tho sum. of £75.. .

- It was reported! at the meeting of the Nelson.City Oonmcil on Friday that, the' necessary fateps for the inauguration of tho continuous telephone were nearly complete. Only one objection to the proposed service was received in the city.

In connection n rith the proposed hydro-electric schomo,. a motion was carried |at the meeting of the Nelson City Council on Friday night that the Blenheim Council be asked to take tho initial steps to arrange for any further conference.

Negdbnition^ fpr.tlie purchase of seven thou^ind'nJictes .of the Brancepeth siatioii:;, tii :'the i'east of Master-? ton, for1 h'ol&er sfittle'inen^, have been completed!' The'-piiite : wa& offered to tho Gbyemjmeitt' , '#y .Mr: H. H. Beethanv iii November last, but difficulties la?o^>: which' required some time t^joVercbMiei/,'-' ,' ';'' ■ '

In his -will,- lately proved a wellknown {-English: 'titled sportsman made the folovvmg bequest: "I bequeath to my brother —(named)—the..,,sum (qf rtne'siiuHingrtb'rshow my appreciar of bis noble sacrifice to his country hi -avoiding' militai'yißOi'vicev., until compellfidto join up." The testator .had. served, with the forces.

Thfek) R*syal birthdays synchronise with the vi&it of tli© Princ© of Wales to Au^tnvlisi. The day- elf his arrival in Melbourne,. May 26Ui§ ■■\\ras . the ■fifty-third' birthday of Queen Maa-y; June 3rdi is the King's fifty^fth, bia-thday. . On Juno 23rd the twentysixth annivei-sa;-y of the ; Prince's own birthday, he will arrive....in Launceston. . ;

"At the Masterton Magistrate's Court yesterday, Alfred Cole and .Wiiliam H. Wilson were each, eonnieted and fined £5 for selling underweight1 Dread.1 Both defendants iHleaded Ruilty. The prosecutions "were 'coifdueted"'"under instructions irom th 6 -inspector for the Fublic Health Department, to whom the bread had been sold. -

The alleged" prevalence of the practise of detaining in mental hospitals in England persons of sane minds has been denied in a recent edition of the Hospital* The journal states:—"As a matter o( fact even were a sane person to find his way into an asylum it would be difficult to i detain him, granted a conspiracy to do so. He has the right to see" a magistrate, if he has not already seen, one before being admitted; he can writ© to various officials, the Commissioners, the 'Lord Chancellor, or his visitors, Secretaries of State," and so on, and his letters must be sent; he is visited at regular intervals by members of the Board of Control, with whom he may have, if he s5 desires, a private interview. Anyone who says that the Commissioners, for example, do' not fulfil their duties in this respect is simply talking nonsense, and has no personal knowledge of what actually takes place. The alleged incarceration of sane people in asylums is a bogey to which the amount of attention ' directed is quite disproportionate."