NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9756, 4 September 1917, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

The House of Representatives meets this afternoon, when the Finance Bill will be further dealt with. The Finance Minister hopes to have the Bill put through all its stages this week. The negt measure to engage the attention of the House will bo the Licensing Bill. By Gazette Extraordinary additional War Regulations are announced having the effect of including the naval authority in. any reference to military authority except where the contrary is expressly stated. A general meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, to which all commercial men are invited, will _ be held to-day at the chamber to consider the taxation proposals and particularly the taxation of shareholders cf companies. Representatives from other centres are attending, and as the matter is one which is of considerable concern to the business community it is expected that the meeting will be largely attended. A letter received' from a soldier at the front (states tho Oamaru “Mail”) incidentally mentions tho number of callow youths tho Germans have in their fighting lines on the West front. In one of the recent great battles the New Zealanders, charging up a hill, were confronted by a number of youths whose ages ranged from about fourteen years upwards. So boyish were they that the New Zealanders could not bring themselves to treat them as fighting men, and many of these boys had their lives spared to them because of their almost infantile appearance. A returned soldier tells tho following story, which he heard from officers in France, and which he certainly believed : —A New Zealander was missing from Lis quarters. Aitoi a critical figat somewnere near Armentieros he was found idling m that or some neighbouring town. He was courtroartiolled and sentenced to death foi desertion. This sentence was confirmed oy the Brigadier and by the Genes nil of the Division. It then came before General Godley, who examined the papers minutely, and found something in the evidence which did not teem to have been quite cleared upHo accordingly referred the _tive b;.ek to the court-martial for further inquiry. Having obtained answers, he either quashed or varied tho sentence, and the man’s life was spared. The narrator seemed to think that the man Lad been allowed to go back into tbe firing-line with a modified sentence hanging over him to be served after the war. The soldier who told the story admitted that General Godley was not popular, but dwelt on the fact that his care for tho well-being of even a law-breaker gave the impression that he was a, just man.

At the quarterly sitting of the Licensing Conn, yesterday a transfer of the license of the Britannia Hotel tvas granted from C. McEnroe to B. 0. Englundh. The Waerengaahika Hotel and Colebrock’s store, eight miles north of Gisborne, were destroyed by fire oa Saturday night. About £SOO worth of stock front the store was saved. News has Been received in Hokitika that the auxiliary kotch Jane, 21 tons, which stranded on the Okuru bar on Saturday week, has become a total wreck. An Auckland Press Association message reports that Robert M. Douglas, a married man, who was engaged, in felling trees at Mafcahuru gorge, was found dead with a tree across his nock and chest. Of all the compliments paid to theif country during the visit of M. "Viviaiu and Marshal Joffro to 'America, the one that touched them most (says the "Daily Express”) was the description of Franco as "the sweetheart of the world.” Cabinet considered the question of liquor legislation at considerable length yesterday. but the Prime Minister, on being seen by a ‘‘Times” representative last evening, said that he was not in a position to make any statement as to their decision in regard to the earlier closing of hotels. The death occurred suddenly at hot residence, 16, Yale street, off Tasman street, yesterday morning of Mrs Alice Matilda Caines, aged forty-six years. Mrs Gaines’s husband is at the frtnt, and she resided with her daughter. It is not known whether an inquest will be necessary. The Hon. Arthur M. Myers, Minister for Customs, states that the amount' of Customs revenue collected for the month ot August was £326,865, and the Excise beer duty £16,-2-08. The figures for the month of August, 1916, were £3-10,252 and £13,302 respectively. J. Gavin, a man aged forty-seven, who was admitted to the hospital on Thursday last suffering from ammonia poisoning, died in that institution at 5.30 o’clock yesterday morning. He was a married man, and resided with his wife in Adelaide road. By oocupa-, tion he was a dyer. An inquest will l ' ho held at 10 o’clock this morning. The Chief Justice has ordered a fourth trial in the Hawke’s Bay case in which a Maori named Wirihana is charged with manslaughter. Three juries have disagreed in the case. The next trial will be held at Palmerston North. The charge is the outcome of the death of a newspaper runner, whom Wirihana, run down at Hastings. The Gisborne branch of the Victoria League has within the past fifteen months, as the result of the proceeds of a Red Cross shop on Saturdays, forworded a total of £6600 to the British Red Cross, London (reports the Press Association). It is understood that Gisborne for tho size of the tpwn holds the highest record in the Empire for subscriptions to this fund. The, sub-committeo in connection with the organising of entertainment* and side-linea, for . raising funds for “Our Day” and blind soldiers and sailors met at the Red Cross Society'* rooms, Mercer street, last night, when over a score of attractions-were considered for approval of the main com. mittee. Mr W. B. Fuller was in the chair. Particulars of the various attractions will be published later. Shipping agents and Customs clerk* employed in mercantile houses complain bitterly of what they describe as unnecessary - trouble occasioned by the new regulations. These require each man to get a separate pass from the shipping companies concerned every time it is necessary to go on to the wharf, where a doep-sea vessel is berthed, ft is stated that the bother will become intolerable Unless a more workable system is adopted. A Press Association telegram from Wanganui states that Mr L. M. Isitt addressed an overflowing audience in the Opera House there last night. At the co’iiciusion a resolution was carried, ‘ ‘emphatically reaffirming the demand for 6 o’clock closing for the sale of liquor, as the absolute minimum of re-| form, and refusing to consider any later hour such as 7 o'clock.” Failing the enactment of 6.o’clock closing the meeting demanded a referendum on , the question of national prohibition. An amended classification of the Sec. ond Division of the Military Reserve has been gazetted as follows:—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the schedule to the Order-in-Council of the 4th day of July, 1917, the deserted child of a reservist shall not t* counted as his child for the purposes of that schedule. l2j “Deserted , child”! means a child whose father has for a. period of not less than three month* nest before the date of this Order-in-Oourtcil flailed without just cause to provide that child with adequate maintenance. (3) The circumstance that the marriage of a reservist has been dissolved, or that he has been Judicially eepara ted from his wife by decree of judicial separation, "separation order, /or otherwise, or that the reservist hag not the legal guardianship or custody of his child, shall not be deemed to constitute a just cause for failing to provide his child with adequate maintenance within the meaning of the foregoing provisions. An officer who returned to New. Zealand a few days ago informed a reporter that his impression of England was one of wonderful cheerfulness.' There was absolutely nothing in the nature of depression, and he was assured that the theatres and music-halls were doing more business than ever. Food, in spite i of the many official placards warning, against waste, was plentiful, and he l personally had never been refused anything that he asked for In the hotels. Great- tracts of country, previously lying waste, were now bearing nrom•3’ng crops, and there were still dozers of parks that. had not been touched wr this purpose. The only difference noticeable in the food was the bread, which- was of a rather coarser brown va-iotv. Ke wag urtorWVd to sec !l>" i-’differ—c- vr*-b which The average Ee.rPchrnnn vVyed the ferny nir raids. At n’s’-'t. whiV a rirfd was on. j one would imagine, '’•ot -tremendous 1 •ia-mcce was being done, -but when j morning came it was diO’cult to find traces of the Hunnish bombardment. It seemed as if the public forgot all about the raid five minutes after the aircraft had been driven off. Donnelly’s Hair Restorer —A real Hair Tonic. Cures' dandruff, stops hair falling. Chemists, stores, hairdressers: 2/6. Donnelly’s, 65, Vivian street. •