LOCAL AND GENERAL

Nelson Evening Mail, 7 August 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The C ornithic arrived at- Auckland at 6 p.m. yesterday with 53 sick and wounded soldiers, including 35 Nine Islanders. There are no cot cases.—Press Association.

A ball under the auspices of the Returned Soldiers' Association will be held itha Provincial Hall on Wednesday, tho 9th inst. It is in aid of the funds of the association, and, as it is the first time assistance has been sought- in th s way, a large attendance is anticipated. The arrangements for the ball are being carefully attended, and Music wall be provided by the Nelson Concert Orchestra.

- The run of household burglaries in Wellington- continues without any tangible check (remarks the Dominion). Towards the end of last week a- private residence in Oriental Bay was entered during the evening, in the absence, of its owners, and jewellery and goods, to the value of something like £IOO, was said to have been taken by the undisturbed marauder.

The Nelson Harmonic Society will give its second concert of the season on Thursday week. when, a miscellaneous programme will be presented. One of the solos and most of the choruses of Sullivan's 'Golden Legend" will be rendered, and also Mendelssohn's beautiful setting of the Forty-second Psalm. In addition there will be orchestral, organ, pianoforte, and vocal items, particulars of which will be later by advertisement. Returned soldiers are again cordially invited. l to apply for free tickets.

The grand social and dance, advertised to be held in the Wakefield Hall on Thursday evening next, 10th inst., in aid of the Soldiers' Leather Waistcoat Fund, should prove an attractive and novel event. It has proved most successful in other centres, when ever it has been introduced, both financially and socially. The idea ,is that each lady will bring a basket containing sufficient supper for two. the contents of which is to be auctioned, the buyer of the basket to share the contents with the lady the evening to be spent in social harmony, games, and dancing.

The usual serene atmosphere of the peaceful 'hamlet of Karao was somewhat rudely disturbed (says the Auckland Star) on Sunday week, when a cow that, hitheTto had been regarded as of a particularly mild and docile nature suddenly went mad. in the main thoroughfare, and for a time was a distinct source of danger to all and sundry who attempted to check its wild career. For a time the uncontrollable beast was in absolute command of the township., and wildly chai-ged any vehicle or being that came' within its range of vision. Its reign was short-lived, as an urgent telephone message to brought Constable Paine on- the scene. A. welldirected shot- by the constable dispatched the cow, and restored order again.

An incident worth recording happened in France a little while ago. A New Zealand soldier who had" been at the front for some time was talking to another soldier who was writing at the time, and saw his own name on the envelope. only it was aid-dressed to a lady 'Hie asked the Writer where he -had .corne from. The writer replied, "Upper -Tutaenui, Marton. Where have you come from?" . IHe replied : "From Turakina. New Zealand. That is my sister to whom you have addressed the letter." The soldier knew the: sistc-r, but not the brother, as he had gone to the war before the ot.frer soldier had' become acquainted' with the family-. .This: goes to show how small the world "is after all. and this story is perfectly true, and was related by the -son to his father, who is a resident of Man?ton.

Mr Tudor, Federal Minister of Customs, was amused while at the Tweed Heads by the absurdities created by the artificial boundary between the. States of New Scmth Wales ar.dThe boundary line is marked by lines ofxvire fencing." with a. buffer area- of about 10ft between, on which, according to notices posted,, no one is allowed to camp, but. at one 'end a Chinese has a- garden, and' the Minister was' .puzzled to " know uncler which law the owner was govern- j eel. Hotels/ also exist on both sides of ,j t'bo dividing line, and, since New South j Wales have adopted, six o'clock closing, two must -close at that- hour. while their ! competitors on the other side of the line j may- trade till 11. o'clocic, which means that those residents in: the State of New<i South Wales who desire to talse a -e----fres- a.fter* the "liot-els 011 t-lvfeir own side have closed, have merely to walk into Queensland and foe comforter?? There are other anomalies, and the Minister says- he is astonished, such conditions- can exist in federated Australia. j

It will be remembered- that a family of the name of Sellar, who lived for -a time at Fitzroy, achieved some prominence in the early days of the universal training system by refusing to submit to training, as .required by the Act. After a series of prosecutions l and imprisonments. they eventually left the Dominion ar.d returned to live in England. It is scarcely necessary to "say that the Sella,!' family remained stubborn, in their objection to 'military service. Mr Sellar, sen., and one son have been engaged in a printing business at Basildon, in the vicinity of London. They have become members of the No-Conscription Fellowsnip, and have resisted l the Act by merely ignoring it. As a consequence, Harry- Sellar, the younger of the two youths who were in Wanganui in 1913, -has now beeii arrested as an absentee. He was brought- up at Clerkenwell Police Court-, and fined_ 40s and handed over to the- London Rifles, and sent to camp at Salisbury. There, il, is stated, he refused', to obev orders, and was confined in a. cell, 'lhe other members of the family who are liable under the Act are still at large.

In a. long article entftled' "The Fetish of Germ-any Efficiency," the New York Times defends democracy, as personified by Great- Britain< for showing more efficiency during the war than German absolutism. The greatest contribution, it fays, that Great Britain lias made to the war is not the number of men she has mit into the field, or the .ships, which have .soiled the seas, but the imbr-okc-n front, solidarity, and stubborn tenacity, of the nation as a -whole. That is" a true oicturo of the English which everyone knows instinctively to be true. The confusion is in technique, and that :-s •unimportant. There. are nations that might run the war better, but there is not ona that could .'be niQre trusted to win Hie-war, and that, a+'ter all, is the thing 1 that counts. To foe sure of this, you have onJv to consider what would hap--11 en to England if the Allies 'deserted 1 her. . She would go on alone, as she lias- been known to do before. England denouncing herself as inefficient is yet tlie greatest moral asset' of democracy in- Erarope. Againstrhgr is arrayed wllat the world has been pleased to make a fetish of—namely. German* efficiency, and what is that? How shall it* .he judged l ? By results? Perhaps. Well', then, its first justification would be victory". In this it has failed so far, and is in danger of failing utterly. ' |

The death duties for July im the Nelson district have, been levied on the following : —Cooksey, 'Catherine, £1623 : Fleming, Clara Ada. £1396: McGovan, Edward, £1,134. —Press' Association.

Further Belgian Fund contrir.tions for schools in the Nelson l>'stvi?t have been received by tlie Secretary <»i ciie iselson Education Board : —i V 'Hey fechool £4 13s Od : .Dovedale 10s ; bovdon ss_ld ; Rocky River 15s : total to date £576 3s 6d.

Writing from London, whither he had been invalided after the Galipoli campaign, an Anzac from the South Island says in. the course of a letter to a relative : —"Are the Government taking .steps to stop our fellows from marrying in England? All the boys seem to be°'picking up their affinities here. Our chaps have "all got a name for being most affectionate fellows.

A correspondent from one of the English counties writing to a Dunedin friend, has the following remarks to awake with regard to daylight saving : "We have ibecome used to it now. The days certainly seem much longer, and one gets so much more sunshine. Tlio drawbacks are that when one rises in morning they feel the cold, the time being 6.30 instead of 7.30, so that one never knows how to dress. At nights it is so light that you remain working in the garden until dusk, and on going inside find it is 10.30. If you go to bed at 10 p.m. it is .broad daylight, and the- birds are still singing! '

In the course of an address 'at the Otago Expansion League luncheon j _«<-t Dunedin yesterday, Mr Lionel Curtis, founder of the Round Table movement, said l that liad New Zealand not adopted prior to the war a form of compulsory training, he did not think it would have been adopted in England to-day. The Act of the New Zealand democracy, followed by the Australian democracy, made the whole difference when the moment of trial came to England. Again, the influence of New Zealand was felt in Canada, when that Dominion was debating -the question of naval defence.

An accident occurred near .Mr Waterhouse's store, Wai-iti, the other day. It appeal's that 3lr Shaup was exercising a young horse that he was breaking to harness, when it suddenly became restive and jumped into the ditch at the side of the road'. Mr Sharp was thrown ont of the trap, his foot got caught in a rope attacked' to the trap and was dragged about 100 yards along the road before •getting f.re'e. The horse continued its career" for some further distance before being stopped. M<r Sharp was found to have sustained some severe scalp wounds that required several stitches, also other cuts and bruises about- the arms and body, as ■well as a severe shaking. Mr Sharp will be laid up some time as a result of the accident.—Own Correspondent.

A Willow bridge fanner had a visit the other day from a friend who had ' a wheat holding amid the New South Wales wheat belt, situated 300 miles by rail back from 'Sydney (reports the Waimate Advertiser). iHe stated that along the line/last season wheat was standing rotting in huge piles. Two station masters had resigned their position's because of the stencil from the; decaying wheat. Nobody would take it away. The New South' Wales cropper told the Willowbridge farmer that lie. and,his boy were able to sow and reap and', put into the bags the whole crbj}„ of 400 acres, and the only outside wages they haid to pay was Tls iper day to a man to cart the wheat to the stores. He could' not understand how New Zealand farmers could afford to bestow the amount of cultivation that they did upon their land for wheat-growing. In Australia cultivation is such a small factor.

The Wanganui Herald records .that-at a certain office within the of the town, where marriages are occasionally formalised, there •1? a- big placard on winch "is printed 'an.' "bold letters the words, "Am I a shirker? Am I sheltering behind petticoats ?" On one occasion before (pu&lic attention was riveted on the compulsion dan?es of the new Act, a mail and a maid happened along there to be united. The man seemed, to be more than usually concerned, and his eye continually drifted —against his will, it seems—to the placard. After the ceremony ho was heard! talking to an acquaintance. "Well, I never felt so ashamed of myself in, my life as in that office. I couldn't keep my eyes off-that placard in there. !By George, it's' true,' too! Anyhow, I'm going along to enlist right now!" And he did.

Reference was again made at Auckland on Tuesday, .by Mr F. V. Frazeiy S.M.. to some of the conditions in**- hotel leases common in Auckland (says the Star). Mr W. J. Napier, in defending the licensee of the United: Service Hotel against a, charge of having permitted drunkenness on'* his, licensed pre;?mises made passing reference to t-li© fact of "the serious ' financial result to the lincese in the event of a; conviction. "If a man is fool . enough," remarked his Worship, "to sign any lease a brewer likes to' stick in .front of him, by which he signs away all his rights in the hotel if he makes a breach of the Act, I can't help it." Mr Napier said that the form of lease was a, uniform and quite a proper form, but his Worship remarked' that it contained a clause he did not think quite proper, and a'licensee could not expect consideration from the Bench because of that form of lease.

Mr J. Mall out, Timaru, lias received by mail , from a friend in : New York (says the 'HlsraM) a copy of the American Arabic News, a paper published in Arabic in that city, where there are domiciled some thousands of whom Arabic is tne native tongue. This number tells the awful condition of the Christians in Lebanon and Syria. The Turks and Germans, are running the country, commandeering and taking everything the Christians have. Starvation and mise.rvi are the result. No light, fire, or food is left them. Three Roman 'Catholic bishops and one Greek bishop have oeen exiled to Kon:ia , and' a whole family of high Syrian society in Mr Mallouk's own town (ißaalbek), have been, exiled, besides thousands of others. Further proof of that was given in last week's cables, stating that SO,OOO people had died' of starvation since lait May. The Arabic newspaper 'blames the Huns chiefly for everything, as their, policy is to starve and terrorise the people whoso sympathies «re.against them.' The pity of it is that no outs-'ido help can reach them. Many French cruisers patrol the Syrian coast. Some people who made an attempt to escape to themi were shot down. Many people know of the misery of Belgium and Poland, but few know the misery of ■the .Syrian people, who are reduced • to. the last stage of destitution bvi the Turkish and German exactions, and no comrouriiration between one place and another is; allowed. The neople are hoping soon to see the end of Turkish misrule and of German militarism, for the sake of the whole human race.

Tenders are invited 'by the Nelson Education! Board for the erection' <>f a. school at Owen Junction. Particulars twill .be found in the advertising . col-' uawns. '

The Conciliation Commissioner (Mr J. R. Tragus) will sit at Nelson on Wednesdav next to hear a. dispute between the Nelson branch of the Canterbury Freezing Workers' Union and the Neleon Freezing Company Ltd.

'9 . # The residenc© of Archibald McNeil at Stafford, says a Hokitika Press Association message, ivas burned to the -ground at 1 o'clock this morning-. Four children were burned' to death. —James, 7 years, William aged' 4£, Eileen aged 3 and Patrick 15 months. The charred re-, mains were recovered. Six other persons in the house escaped.

An Auckland Press Association message says that John McDonald Patter-; son, second mate of the schooner Ysabel, is.,reported missing. He left the*Ysabel in a small'rowing boat on Saturday afternoon.

At the benefit dance at the Port on Friday night, Mr Neiman, who won the Kaiapoi rug, handed it back to the committee to be given to one of the'widows. A pair of blankets was promised, and these will also be given to one of the widows.

■ The work of cleaning out the weir was completed, on Saturday afternoon, iand the high level main therefrom again "put into commission 1 . This .restored the supply to a large portion of the city where the position hadi been acute. The pressure generally, however, is not yet back to that prevailing before the flood, this no doubt- being due to 'blockages in the mains, caused by the quantities of debris, which have entered the pipes.

A public .meeting will be he'd at tlie City 'Council Chambers at 8 o'clock tomorrow evening, to commence arrangements for Daffodil iDay, the prcceedfw of which' will be devoted to Christmas? presents for Nelson soldiers at the front. Tlie meeting is being held under the auspices of the Tvady Liverpool Committee. Tlie Nelson 'Horticultural Society offered to hand over its Bulb Show to the Lady -Liverpool 'Committee; - and the offer lias ■been accepted. The prdposa'- is that the Bulb Show shall be held on Wednesday arid Thursday, September '6th and 7th, and that Daffodil Day, on the lines of last year, shall follow on Saturday, September 9th: The. worthy , object should ensure a large, attendance, at to-morrow evening's meeting , of those willing- to help. . _ , ■

"This man claims to .foe a returned soldier, and he may possibly be one," 'said the sub-inspector ,t'he. Christeliurch Magistrate's 'Court on "Wednesday, w ; hen a first qffender for -drunkenness was,being ; dealt with. "J3ut," continued the police official, "it does not excuse his wearing a patch over one eye —an eye which is perfectly good. • He appears to be a cadger, and on his arrest £2 3s 3d was found on him in. coppers and) threepences, which alone looks suspicious." The police were instructed by (.lie Magistrate to keep' aneve on the man.'v

A reminder is given of the concert to be given in: (the School of Music this evening, in add of the.Red-Oross •Senior pupils of the .School of Music arid Mr J. Bird' will provide the programme.; Returned soldiers will -be admitted free.

Sir Joseph Ward informed the Mail's Parliamentary coirespqp derit' to-day that tile prospectus of. the local loan would, foe issued in a few days. Debentures would be issued in sums of £5 "and, upwards, this giving people with, small means as well as those controlling large ■amounts, an opportunity to'participate.. Applications will'close on 21st August..

Messrs Bisley Bros, and Co. report having yesterday received the following cable from their London, agents, Messrs, James Morrison andi Go. : ; "Rumoured" New Zealand •Government likely vto fix. price wool Also English. Govern?; : ment desire use English-clip to, rediuce" values. ' Market dull owing to -uncertain, future." ' '

Messrs E. Buxton and Go., Ltd., "by advertisement, notify wool clients that the crutchings sales have been postponed from the 18th August and 29th September to .the Ist September' and 13tli October. \