LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 22 April 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The season for shooting native and imported game (except protected game) will open in the Wellington district on May ist and close on July 31st. The Timaru Herald reports-that an applicant before last week’s Old Age Pension Court was found to have property to the value of and from it he was getting 6 per cent. On Saturday Southland Trades and Labour Council passed a resolution complaining of the action of the Premier in giving the portfolio of Minister of Justice to a member of the Upper House, “There is no doubt about it,” said Colonel Tuson, a member ot the Defence Council, to an Auckland Herald representative, “ that a week’s training every year is the least volunteers ought to get. At Home the volunteers go into camp for eight days’ training, and they go in by brigades, so that we generally get between 2,000 and 3,000 in one camp, and can get very good work out of them. Here we’get very small camps and a very short time in which to get any proper training in it at all. Considering the limited training they get I consider the volunteers here are very efficient indeed.” The Invercargill correspondent of the Otago Daily Times states that the flaxmill industry is in a bad way, and the mills that are going are doing very little for export, their principle work being to fill New Zealand orders for twine. Several Southland mills have closed down owing to the poor prospects of the market, and millers all over , the district are waiting for a rise in the market before re-starting. An Invercargill labour agent said that the whole trouble lay in the royalties that flaxmillers were called upon to pay. These were always about the top figure that could be demanded, and when the market fell the royalties were not reduced, and so millers had to close their mills. The wages had gone down to 6s a day, and they could not go much lower than that. In his opinion the only solution of the difficulty, other than a rise in the market, lay in the Government considering the question of royalties.

The Sydney papers are wrath at the following description of Sydney in an article in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, a well known English paper: “Sydney,” said the writer “ like most other large Colonial cities, is a very cosmopolitan place, and has a population in which the white man is outnumbered by swarms of aliens, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Arabians, Negroes, etc. The Chinese and Japanese are, for the most part, wealthy and respectable citizens, and are the proprietors of several firmly-established businesses in the city—their occupations ranging from huge banking-houses to laundries and market-gardens. The Jews, on the other hand, who, it should be stated, in no way resemble the high caste Hebrews one meets in England, are chiefly engaged in the peddling trade, and several are frequently to be seen roaming around the docks for the purpose of selling trashy wares to the easily-deluded sailors.”

WOLFE’S SCHNAPPS stands preeminent among stimulants and cordials.

Subscribers are reminded that the Herald quarterly accounts are issued, and we should esteem as a favour prompt settlement of same.*

The District President of the Druids Dodge paid a visit to the local lodge last night. At the Wellington Races yesterday Mr O. E. Austin’s Toa Tuhi won the Waiwetu Handicap of 150 sovs.

Cr. Coley notifies that be is a candidate for a seat on the Council at the forthcoming municipal election.

Much interest is already being evinced in the local municipal election. There are 13 candidates nominated for the nine seats to be filled.

Mr F. Woods, local inspector of factories, has received the registration of 39 shops and 46 factories in the Foxtou district.

Over one hundred men, the majority with wives and families, have recently received their dismissal ticket from the Addington railway workshops. There is a man in Kansas City whose name is “ Burst.” It is a misfortune that would not have attracted much attention if he had not called his two children Annie May and Ernest Will. The Otago Daily Times is informed on what is considered reliable authority that a phase ol the Government’s retrenchment scheme is that all officers over 60 years of age who have been employed for 40 years in the public service are to be retired. A benefit football match is to be played on the racecourse on Saturday next between two local teams. The “ gate ” is to be handed over to the Walden Benefit Fund. The kick-off takes place at 3 p.m. It is hoped there will be a large attendance present. Tickets of admission may be purchased from members of the executive. Elsewhere in this issue Mr J. T. Levett, a candidate for a seat on the Borough Council sets forth his views on municipal matters for the approval or otherwise of burgesses. If Foxton requires progressive men at the head of its affairs then burgesses cannot do better than include Mr Levett on the new council. His programme is worthy of perusal. Mr Fred Hadfield has purchased the Manawatu Hotel, and will take possession of same at an early date. Mr Hadfield is well known throughout this district, and was for a number of years mill manager for Mr Jupp. From what we know of Mr Hadfield, he should conduct the premises in an exemplary manner. “I attribute the falling off in marriages to the general depression, and to the good sense of the young men,” said the Rev. F. Ogden, vicar of Holy Trinity Church, West Seaton, in an address to his parishouers recently. “They are wise enough to see that although the Church tells them they are to be made one in marriage, two appetites cannot be satisfied at the same cost as one.” The New Zealand exports for the year ended March 31st last amounted to in value, compared with ,£16,603,280 for the previous twelve months. There were increases in butter, cheese, beef, lamb, oats, and timber, and decreases in wool, tallow, mutton, kauri gum, hides, skins, rabbits, hemp, and gold. Under the heading “Healthy New Zealand, the London Daily Mail publishes the following paragraph: “ New Zealand is rapidly increasing her population. During 1908 there was au increase of 31,000 Europeans, while the birth rate was nearly three times as high as the death rate, a fact which speaks volumes f()'r the healthiness of the country.”-' A remedy for the “ welsher ” is simple, remarks the Hawera Star. At the first opportunity next session, it Parliament does not remove the bookmaker altogether, it should at least amend its legislation by providing that every application for a bookmaker’s license shall be accompanied by a guarantee of, say, ,£IOO that all wagers made will be promptly settled. Another way out of the difficulty would be the establishment of a Tattersall’s, the society of bookmakers to be jointly responsible for the wagers of individual members.

It is stated that au unusually heavy lot of oats will be offering from Southland this year and as the New Zealand market is practically controlled by the south, prices are expected to weaken. Chaff is inclined to slump. There are, it is stated large lots held in that district and in neighbouring provinces, while extensive shipments are coming forward from Canterbury and Blenheim. The prospects are, therefore, not very good and prices generally are very low. The market shows little activity which it is held is due in

a measure to the closing down of a number of sawmills and flaxmills.