LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17167, 22 May 1919, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Prices for fat cattle yesterday at Westfield markets were equal to last week's rates, but there was a sharp rise in mutton values owing to there being a rather small yarding of sheep. Choice ox beef sold at £2 10s per 1001b, ordinary and prime beef from £2 6s to £2 9s per 1001b according to quality. Wethers realised from £1 8s to £1 10s, and ewes from £1 Os 6d to £1 17s, these prices being a rise of from 3s to 4s a head, as compared with last week's rates. Lambs fetched from £1 2s to £113s, and bacon pigs from £4 6s to £5 2s 6d.

| An accident in Mount Eden Road yesterday afternoon resulted in the admission to the hospital of Mr. Joseph Vincent, aged 74, of Roße Road, Grey Lynn. Mr. Vincent was driving a horse and cart, when part of the harness broke and the vehicle tinped up, throwing him backwards oil to his head. When taken to the hospital the injured man was in an unconscious condition, and he was reoorted early this morning to bo in the same state.

The twelve-vear-old boy who reached Auckland last week in charge of two soldiers, who paid his fare from Wellington owing to his plea that he wished to come here to \isit* an uncle, has been returned to his parents. At first the local police wero unablo to trace the latter, but they eventually succeeded in locating them in C'hristchurch. The lad has now been sent home, the parents defraying his expenses,

The matter of the incoming Main Trunk expresses making a stop at Newmarket was discussed by the Newmarket Borough Council last evening. It was decided to circulate a petition in favour of the proposal, Mr. Seceombo stating that he would be pleased to donate £50 toward the expenses.

As a result of the recent drought in the North the output of the electric power station at Wairua Falls has been seriously restricted for several months past. The Wairua River had fallen to a lower level than recorded for manv years, and as a, result the supply of electric power for the lighting of Whangarei was greatly reduced. Now that the drought has broken tho output will revert to normal. Excellent work in the interests of returned soldiers is being done by the

employment bureau under the Auckland

Patriotic Association. The president, Mr. J. H. Gunoon, stated yesterday that, since

it was reconstituted in March, 420 men

had passed through the office. Of these, 250 had been placed in permanent employment. Others had left the city and secured positions as the result of their own efforts. There were on the books a few cases which the officers were dealing with. An urgent need still existed, said Mr. Gunson, for the fullest co-operation on tho part of employers generally, as the number of returned men was being steadily maintained, and no effort must be spared to cope with the position.

1 A petition demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the poll taken at Northcote on April 50 on the question of rating on unimproved values, and asking that the noil be declared void, has been filed :n tno Magistrate's Court at Auckland. An inquiry will be held by Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., on Friday, May 30.

As the outcome of a visit to Auckland by Messrs. P. W. Maddock, Hamilton repatriation officer, and Mr. N. A. Ching, secretary of tho Waikato Returned Soldiers' Association, the association has decided to set up a land bureau in Hamilton, similar to that Conducted by the Auckland Association.

Three boys, who escaped from the Wereroa Training Farm last Sunday night, caused some excitement in Palmerston North in their endeavours to avoid recapture. They all appropriated bicycles, and then set off on the commandeered machines. In the meantime, however, the alarm had been raised, and Mr. A. Blackbourne set out on his motor-cycle in pursuit. He overtook the lads near Afhhurst and ho'd them until tho police arrived by motor car, when they were conveyed to the police station, and afterwards sent back to Wereroa.

" There is nothing better than the old station life in New Zealand for training men for the world," Colonel R. A. Chaffey, officer commanding the Canterbury district, said at the officers' reception to Sir Andrew Russell in Gh'istehurch. He took Sir Andrew Russell as an illustration to support the statement. Sir Andrew, he said, was manager of a large New Zealand sheep station. In that capacity it wa> necessary for him to know the men under him and to study thorn and their ways. A station manager's knowledge of his men, and hie methods of treating them, might add 10 per cent, to the value of their labour. Training in that direction hr.d served Sir Andrew in good stead when he led the New Zealand division into the war area. Ho never asked any other man to do what he could not do himself, and he could take the place of any other man and do that man's work "a jolly sight " better than that man himself could do it.

A Masonic thanksgiving service in cele. bration of the end of the war will he held in ChriKtohurch next week in connec

tion with the r.nnual communication of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand, which is to be opened there on Wednesday, May 28. It is expected that a large number of Freemasons who have returned from active service will bo present at the communication, and it is proposed to tender them a " welcome home."

| A prolonged discussion took place at the meeting of the Cook Hospital Board, at Gisborno recently, regarding the right of an inmate of the institution to have the privilege of calling in his or her own private medical practitioner for consultation with tho medical superintendent if the patient so desired. After a free exchange of views, in the course of which much apprehension was expressed of dissension in the event of such a regulation boinu placed on the by-laws, a motion bearing on the subject was lost on a show of hands by four votes to six.

Tho housing problem has its perplexing side for tho house agent as well as for his clients. One house agent in Palmerston North recently had to arrange a date in which to move several of his clients out of and into five different In uses. Another agent offered a client who wished to purchase a certain house £100 off the purchase price if he could persuade the occupant to givo up possession The client, apparently ;i man of keen business acumen, offered £10 to the occupant to leave, which was agreed to, leaving the client £90 to thu £ood.

In at least one respect Saturday's welcome to General Sir Andrew Russell was unique in the history of Wellington. For the first time in the history c,f the city there were four generals on the platform of the Town Hall at the same time. They were Major-General Sir Alfred Robin. Major-Genera] Sir Andrew Bus fell (who commanded the New Zealand Division in France), BrigadierGeneral 11. S. Richardson (who commanded the New Zealand Force* in England), ;nd Brigadier-General Hart, of Masterton.

"It is not the amount of produce, but it is the number of the population that the Government looks to." remarked Sir W. Eraser at Manutahi last Thursday. "Every settler that comes here to the Wainpu is an added argument to the opening up of the country. The population along the road I came has been small in the past, hut it can, and will, be greatly increased' I have great faith in this district that it will provide homes for ,i great number in the future."

"I consider it a very fine district, remarked Sir W. l-'ra.'fr. Minister for Public Works, to tlx deputation of Waiapu residents which v.:i•; t -d upon him durin:; his recent visit to tin- Hast Coast. "The trip," lie said, 'has been a very interesting one to me, and not the least interesting has b.o n the settlement of the Native race and the farming of their own land. If they continue on these lines and pay their rate's I think they should be well treated."