LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17007, 14 November 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Advertisers are requested, during the period of the prevailing epidemic, to send in advertisement, copy for the Herald as early as possible, preferably before noon each day. To minimise telephone calls, the copy should be delivered in writing to the offico. The land slip on the Main Trunk line has not yet been cleared. Passengers by the Main Trunk express, which left Auckland last evening, will require to change to another train as before. Another floating mine has been wa<hed up a little to the north of Waiorongimai Stream, about four milwt north of Beach Road, Otaki. A telegram was received by the DeputyMayor, Mr. A. J. Entrican, yesterday from Mr. James Stewart, chairman of the Helensville Town Board, forwarding a donation of £100 on behalf of the resi dents of Helensville. The telegram stated that the money was to be used to assist those suffering in consequence of tho epidemic. A serious feature in connection with the epidemic was mentioned yesterday by | several voluntary workers, it being stated ! that acute poverty was being experienced | by many families where the father has j died, or is lying ill, or by reason of his ■ family's sickness .ias been uiuible to work. ! Many very pathetic cases of need are 1 being brought to tho attention of the ' volunteer helpers. One such case, mentioned by a St. John Ambulance officer, was that of a frail old man living in Khyber Pisa, who walked all the way down to the Hospital Hoard to ask for a little help. There was not a penny in the house, no said, and there was a sick friend staying with him and his wife, for whom they could buy neither food nor medicine. Another piteous case was that of a poor woman in Edendale, who was lying sick in bed with a dying baby; neither of them had had anything but dry bread to eat for four days, the busband being sick m a country district. The need for financial relief is thus becoming urgent.

The prices given for fat stock at the Westfield markets yesterday were equal to rates recently ruling. Choice ox beef sold up to £2 i3s per 1001b. Sheep were penned short of requirements, and advanced 3s to 4s a head. Medium woolly wethers realised from £2 Is 3d to £2 3s 9d ; extra prime shorn wethers up to £2 4s 6d, and ewes up to £1 19s 3d. Hoggets realised up to £1 14s; lambs from £1 Is 6d to £1 12s 6d. Choppers brought from £4 to £4 12s 6d, and large porkers from £3 to £3 7s. Tho Postmaster-General has issued a request that henceforth the name and address of the sender be superscribed on every postal packet addressed to a New Zealand soldier, whether a member of a New Zealand unit or not, or to a New Zealander in the navy. The object ie to facilitate the work of the post office during the process of demobilisation of the forces. The Rarawa did not arrive at Onfhunga from New Plymouth yesterday until 4 p.m. She was delayed at New Plymouth for 12 hours, awaiting mails from Wellington, which aro to be despatched by the Niagara. The mails were sent via the West Coast, to avoid the labour their transference over the slip on the Main Trunk line would have involved. The City Fire Brigade roceived a call shortly before seven o'clock last evening to an incipient fire in premises in Federal Street, owned by Messrs. Wilson and Kelly, iron founders and engineers. The ou break was confined to a wooden box, containing iron chains. Although the ch tins were red hot when the brigade arrived, only the lid of the box and some sacking wero burned, the bottom and sides being intact. This matter 's being considered by Cabinet, stated tie Minister for Internal Affairs, in reply m a question in Parliament by Mr. E. Newman (Rangitikoi), as to whether it is the intention of the Government to p'ace the sum of £4400 on the Estimates for the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). Tho grant, said the questioner, was understood to be to enable the society to carry out ooligations which Mere incurred, with some exceptions, with the Minister's approval, and on the understanding that if the society collected from the public the sum of £83 6s Bd, a subsidy of £100 for each nurse would be provided by the Government.

The Methodist Synod, which was to have been opened on Wednesday next, has, on the advice of the acting-chief health officer, Dr. J. P. Frenglsy, been postponed until December 11. It hat also been decided to hold morning services only at the Methodist churches on Sunday next. The Auckland Law Socioty has decided to close all legal offices from to-day until Saturday in order that staffs may assist local authorities in dealing with tho epidemic. 0 A street collection, to be made by members of the Soldiers' Mothers' League on Friday, November 29, will be handed over for the relief of the distressed families through the prevailing epidemic. The nor'-west gale which set in over North and Mid-Canterbury last week did a great amount of damage in the direction of levelling trees and working mischief among orchard®. At Temuka much damage was done to buildings, a wooden building being blown into the road, while the top of the spire of the Presbyterian Church was blown off. _ At Springbank over 100 trees in the drive leading to Mr. G. Rutherford homestead were blown down. Several outhouses suffered at Loburn. In addition to damage to orchards and outhouses at Ashburton, many windows, including one of plato-glass, were blown in, and a number of trees were uprooted in the Domain. Telegraphic interruptions resulted in the Mount Somers, Springburn, Rakaia, and Methven district. At Mead, the roof of a residonco was blown bodily off. Notice to ask the following question of the Minister for Finance has been given in the House of Representatives by Mr. W. 11. Field (Otaki) :Whether ho is aware that wealthy men are inviting, by advertisement and otherwise, tho sale of New Zealand War Bonds, and are purchasing same at a heavy discount; and whether the Government cannot devise Bomo method whereby holders of bonds who find themselves by ntress of finance obliged to sell may be relieved from making substantial losses for the benefit of rich men, who secure by the purchase of bonds not only direct by profitable investments, but are, by such purchases, still fi.rther relieved of income tax, which loss to the revenue must inevitably bo made up by heavier taxation of less favoured members of the community

"Thero are thousands of acres of the best land in New Zealand and thousands of the best homes not being properly developed at present, because tho owners are i not prepared to take just any kind of outside labour inside their homes," said MrT. D. Burnett, chairman of the Canterbury Shipowners' Union, at Christchurch last week. "Yet thero are now thousands of women roaming about New Zealand drawing soldiers' pay and living a life of idleness. There is something wrong with our social system when that state of affairs can exist.." The question of a minimum wage for married men is discussed in the annual report of the Public Service Commissioners. " The present minimum of £110, even taking into consideration the war bonus given by Government, is altogether insufficient," » says the report, "and it is hoped that some provision will be made during the coming session of Parliament, under which the commissioners may be able to pay & reasonable wago to married men whose classified positions carry a lower payment this £3 a wwk."