LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13565, 2 December 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

/ The s.s. Moana, inward bound from San Francisco, is expected to reach Welington at 10 o’clock to-day. If her mails are got away by the midday express there will probably bo an. over-the-counter distribution at the local Post Office this evening. The Council at its meeting last night decided to ask Mr Black to wait upon the Council to consider the question of his appointment as tiamway engineer. The Manawatu Racing Club has received 186 nominations for the first day of its Christmas meeting, 157 for the second day, and .197 for the third day, a total of 5(59, an increase of six on its previous largest record made in 1913.

At the Police Court yesterday before Messrs Sol Abrahams and F. Aisher, J.P.’s, James McDonald was lined £1 for indecency, and was convicted and discharged for insobriety. A first offender was fined ss, A meeting of the Palmerston North Amateur Swimming Club will be held at the Opera House supper rooms on Monday night at 8 p.m. to receive a report on the baths question from a committee set up at a recent, meeting. All swimmers' and the 1 general public are invited to be present. The Municipal Band will play the following programme at the Hospital on Sunday commencing at 3 p.m.: > March, "Old Comrades”; cornet and euphonium solo, ‘ ‘ When the Ebb-tide Flows”; selection, "Den John”; march, "Lcs Bohemians”; cornet solo, "Therd’s a Long, Long Trail”; march, ‘ 1 The Scouts ’ Parade. ’ ’ At the Council meeting last night the Mayor moved, and Gr. Broad seconded, that the engineer prepare an estimate for making and tarring the following streets: Fitzherbert, Broad, Church, Main Street East, Rangitikoi Line, Main Street West, Ferguson, Terrace, College, Grey and Featherston Streets, 21 and 21 feet wide.— This was carried. The following is Mr Bates’s weather forecast:—Present indications are for moderate to strong easterly to northerly winds, increasing strong to gale in the northernmost districts where conditions are l somewhat threatening. The weather will be warm and sultry, with haze and cloudiness overspreading the country, and a change following in the early part of the week. The barometer will fall everywhere shortly. When shopping at The C. M. Ross Co's, yon will bo able to enjoy dainty morning or afternoon tea or a nice lunch. The well appointed luuchepn and tea rooms arc reached from any part of the store or by direct entrance from Coleman Place,*,

William George Moore, farm-hand, Palmerston North, was the only enlistment at the local recruiting office yesterday. The Mayoress’s Patriotic Guild has just forwarded another consignment of two cases of clothing to the British Red Cross. The first case contained 14.0 flannels, and the other 00 flannels, 20 shirts, and 30 pairs of pyjamas.

Women conductors are to be appointed to act on the Invercargill tramears. The proposal was discussed at the last meeting of the local Borough Council. Mr O’Byrne alone opposed the innovation, as he considered that there were plenty of unlit men available'. Other councillors staunchly supported the clause and expressea the opinion that women conductors would prove as good as —and very probably better than —men. The rehearsals for ‘‘The Brigand” the merry little comedy which the Craven School Games Club are producing oil Thursday, 7th December, in aid of the Y.M.C.A. Soldiers’ Comforts Fund, are going steadily forward and show that this year’s performance will be fully equal to the former ones. “The Brigand” is an original play, staged for one night only, and, as its title indicates, is full of thrilling incident and hair-breadth escapes in the romantic surroundings of rural Spain. $ A committee meeting of the Town and Country Patriotic Women Workers was held in the Anglican Sunday School when the accounts in connection with the catering at the Spring Show were passed for payment. It will be most gratifying to all concerned to know that the credit balance amounts to £1350. This could not have been achieved without the generous and hearty co-operation of all concerned, and the committee would like to publicly thank everyone responsible for this splendid result. A balance sheet will be published in due course.

Mr Albert Kaye, wno lias lately returned from a visit to England, speaking at a Christchurch meeting this week, said that .he believed that people out hero got a better view of what was going on in connexion with the war than in England. “I have said over and over Hgain to my English friends that the papers in New Zealand collate the messages and put everything in a more readable and understandable form than those in England/’ said Mr Kaye. The letters from correspondents and cabled summaries aided those at this end to get a better grasp of the situation. New Zealanders had much to be grateful for to their press. • ' “In every case in which a member of the Police Force is drawn in (i ballot I propose to apply for Iris exemption,” stated the Hon. A. L. Heroin an yesterday. “It is with the deepest regret that I feel compellea for public reasons, to refuse to allow men to leave the force to enlist for active service. I know that the men are bitterly disappointed, but the safety of the public in New Zealand has to be safeguarded. The public, I hope, will clearly understand that the. full responsibility for members of the force being debarred from rendering military service rests with the Government. The men have no choice in the matter. They are obliged to abide by the decision of the Government. ’ ’ Corporal C. P. Wood, a member of the German Concentration Camp Guard, was tried by court-martial at Sydney last week, charged with being absent without leave from October 31 to November 9. Coolnel V. Le Gay Breretou was president of the Court, and Major H. G. Edwards prosecutor. Accused pleaded not guilty. It was stated in evidence that accused drew tne first horse in Tttersall’s consultation on the Caulfield Cup, and that he had the cheque for £SOOO in his pocket. Lieut.-Colonel Holman, Commandant of the Camp, stated that accused’s general character was good. Accused stated that he had gone to Melbourne to see his mother, who was very ill. He had been refused leave. The finding of the Court will be forwarded in due course to the convening authority.

Soon after the outbreak of war, various stories were circulated about super-patriotic people, who invited all their friends to “piano evenings,” which resolves themselves into orgies of destruction, in which every guest was provided with a hammer and the company made a massed onslaught on the household German piano. Perhaps some of those tales were true, the probability is that the majority of them were hardly so. Be that as it may, an. organised “smashing match” which would have delighted to heart of the most exacting small boy took place in Invercargill lust week (says the “Southland Times”). The s«ene ol action was the back-yard of certain premises in which was stored, in bond, a considerable quantity of light hardware of enemy manufacture. The Customs Department carried out the execution order in no 'uncertain manner, and, at the end of half an hour of determined work, chaos reigned supreme iu that back-yard.

Recently tlie Timaru Borough Council made a by-law compelling drivers of motor-cars and bicycles to obtain a license to drive such vehicles, and a great many people •nave taken out licenses at 5s each. One driver, who did not do so, was prosecuted, and he defended the case. His counsel, Mr Campbell, contended that the council had no power to make such a by-law. In upholding this contention, the magistrate, Mr V. C. Day, said the licensing of drivers of private carriages and the imposing of tests of skill have never been the subject of municipal regulation, control, or prohibition. Assuming that the council had at one time the power to make such a bylaw, the passing of section 3 of the Motor Regulation Act, 1908, would, in his opinion, have impliedly repealed such power. If it did not, we would have the absurd position arising of His Excellency the Governor making regulations which would operate generally and equally throughout the Dominion, and each local authority making local by-laws to operate only in their respective districts, winch might bo in direct conflict with the regulations made by the Governor. Added to whisky, Wai-Rongoa Natural Mineral Water brings out the flavour, makes it softer, mellower, while imparting crispness to the drink. Wai-Rongoa is charged with its own natural gas, and reaches you in the syphon just as it flows from tho Springs—ice-cool and of crystal 1

During the next few days the local corps of the Salvation Aarny will join with the other Dominion corps in making an appeal to help the distressed Belgians. The Salvation Army has special facilities in Belgium for the distribution of relief, and the whole of the amounts subscribed by the public and entrusted to the Salvation Army is used on behalf of those suffering and in need, without any deductions of expenses whatever. This afternoon the Boy Scouts’ Band will play selections in the Square, and lady collectors will be out on the warpath on the people’s pockets for this good object. “Wayfarer,” writing in the * ‘ Weekly Press, ’ ’ says there are two and a-half million vicros in the districts surrounding Palmerston North, specially adapted for the production, of milk, and to-day there are not by the most reliable estimates that can. be obtained more than 125,000 cows within the area, while it might, if entirely devoted to dairying, carry at i least 600,000 cows, which would produce, even at normal prices, butter an 4 cheese -worth seven million sterling. This writer adds; The district ,is neither one-tenth peopled nor onetenth cultivated, and its broad acres are calling aloud to-day for the hands that will unlock its potentialities for the legitimate enjoyment of the -whole community.