NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10155, 18 December 1918, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

To-aav's. issue of the "New Zealand Times" is a special Christmas number, of 20 paces, and contains a great variety of interesting original and selected matter. Practically the whole of the letterpress, blocks and decorations have boen produced bv tho literary and mechanical stalls of the "Times." and an endeavour has been made to produce a budget of reading to suit every kind of reader. Amongst tho special features are a fine poem "A Whisper of God," from the pen of Mr Edward Tregear; a study from lilo. "The Backblocks Woman." bv Miss Eva M. Butts; and a beautiful Maori legend by "Mac," a well-known member of the literary staff. Tho "A.8.C." contributors are all represented bv characteristic contributions, and there are stories from tho pens of Ivan •M. Lew and "Walter Greig. The issue should be of local interest and uselul for the purpose' of sending to friends ahroad.

Soldiers comprising Returning Draft 200, it is expected, will disembark tomorrow morning at the Glasgow wharf between 7 and 8 o'clock.

The Eastern Cable Company notifies that delav on full rate and deferred traffic is now normal.

The largest mail fiver sent from San Francisco is being brought by the Ventura, which left there on tho 2nd inst. for Sydney.

Casual visitors to tho wharves who rind pleasure in watching sailor-men aloft would be wisely advised to keep clear of overlapping yards. "Look out below." was tho first intimation of tho descent of a steel marlinspiko that narrowly missed a driver of a lorry team yesterday afternoon.

There is verv little sickneßS in tho military, camp hospitals, most of tho patients having reached the convalescent stage. There are no patients in tho hospital at Awapuni, and of 135 who are in the Trentham institution 22 aro suffering from influenza. At Fcatherston there are 43 patients in the hospital.

At last Wellington is taking upon itself tho cheerful earb of Christmas. Tho glorious weather of the last few days has been mainly responsible for crowding the city streets. Shopkeepers report good business, Christmas goods aro bcine bundlod into tho shop windows to promoto bettor trade, and everyone, both tradesman and customer, appears to have shaken off the dismal stagnation in things general that has ruled for weeks past. Flags, balloons, and Kay postors are adding to the colour of tho scene, and countless noises from Christmas bugles and trumpets blown bv lusty children complete tho festive accompaniments of tho period. If tho fine weather continues Wellington should have a very fair' imitation this»year of pre-war Christmas scenoß.

"Roto Itoa is not a bad place. You aro only degenerating, unfortunately, into one of the dei-eliots that one sees about tho streets occasionally, and a holiday at Roto itoa will do you good." So said Mr F. V. Frazer. S.M., yesterday to an offender who had been before the court on five occasions during the past, six months.

In a civil case heard before Mr W. G. Riddcll, S.M., yesterday, in which Herbert Parson Rnwson sued Joseph Godfrey Holdsworth for the possession of a dwelling, together with the sum of £l4 os, judgment was given for plaintiff. Tho defendant, was ordered to give urj possession of the tenement by January 6th. 1919, and pay £1 6s costs.

A German doserter who recently gave information to French troops, said: —"I hope you will send it as many shells as I have received kicks from the colonel." In one German dug-out was an unsent Jotter, in which tho writer said: "The French shells have killed a horso. What luck for us. We ate it; but since then we have had no more meat."

Cecil Eemplcman, aged twenty-two, a conscientious objector, was charged as an absentee at Brentford, England, and was ordered to be handed over to the military. He requested that the decision might be repeated. He then dropped some books which ho was carrying, slipped off his boot, and threw it at" the chairman. The boot struck tho rail in front of the magistrate, and narrowly missed his head.

At the meeting of tho City Council to bo held to-morrow night. Councillor Norwood will move: —That a special committeo bo set up to investigate and bring down.'a comprehensive report upon: (a) Tho housing question in all its bearings with the estimated amount of money required to overcome present difficulties: !b) the best means of dealing with and. it possible, eliminating the slum areas within thet city.

Yesfcerdnv it was announced that a complete settlement had been arrived at in the dispute between the New Zealand Freezing Workers' Federation and the various freezing companies operating in the Dominion. The Federation now embodies all employees in freezinc works, and the settlement provides for an intacase or 5 per cent, all round. This will bo in addition to the 10 per cent, war bonus now received by the men.

Because of the stationary price of gold, and the increased cost of material, food, and supplies, there is a pronounced exodus of miners and their families from tho Yukon and Alaska that has caused a slump of 50 per cent. in the gold output of the territory. British feold producers complain that tho Government gives them but 85s an ounce, whereas they could, if permitted, sell it for commercial purposes at 115 s per ounce. *

An Australian told a London pressman this story:—We were advancing, and had been going about' an hour, and my platoon numbered about fifteen men. Going over a ridge we saw a pill-box. We poured machinegun fire at it, and threw too. No reply came, and we congratulated ourselves that xro had no casualties. All the time we could see smoke coming from the aperture; this worried us, so we decided to chargo it. We had our charge, with whoops and yells. I got to the doorway, and was met with: "Say, digger, what tho —— is, all the noi.se about?" There stood an' Australian with a frying-pan in his hand, cooking bully beof over a fire which the Huns had left.

A preliminary decree for dissolution of marriage was granted by the Chief Justice yesterday in the case of Emily Fiveash v. Henry Fiveash, on the ground of desertion. The petitioner stated that she was married in December, 1897, at Dannevirke, where the respondent was employed as a sawmill hand. There were three children. In August, 1907. her husband left her. The cause of tho separation was cruelty, and his neglect to provide for her. During the 11 years that had elapsed he had only contributed to the children's support while they were living with their grandmother. The case was undefended. Mr H. F. O'Leary appeared for the petitioner. A rule absolute was granted by His Honour in the case of Ludlow v. Ludlow.

A considerable amount of evidence was heard before Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M., yesterday at the Magistrate's Court in respect to the alleged faulty/ construction of a cottage- at Hataitai. Tho case was one in which Abraham Levy McDuff, builder .of Hataitai, for whom Mr A. W. Blair appeared, claimed from Charles .Tames Bennett, settler, of Kilbirnie. the sum of J 3160 18s, as balance of monevs alleged to be luo for tho erection of a cottage. The defendant, for whom Mr M. F. Luckie appeared, counter-claimed for £l5O as damagos for alleged faulty construction of the building, and an additional £25, which he stated ho had incurred in order that the work might bo properly carried out. The cai-3 was not cbncludel when the court rose, and tho further firing was adjourned till next week.

Before Mr Justice Hosking in the Supreme Court yesterday, the adjourned divorce suit was proceeded with in which tho petitioner was Emma .MoGill and the respondent Daniel" McGill, the ground of tho petition being habitual drunkenness. Mr P. W. Jackson appeared for the petitioner, and tho caso was undefended. Miss May Kinross, who had known the parties at Cross Creek for three years, gave evidence to the effect that it was the habit of McGillj who is a. raiisvay fitter, to get drunk every Saturday night. He used disgusting language to his wife, and on ono occasion ho broke all the crockery in the kitchen. When they were living at Petone, witness was a visitor for six weeks, and the same sort of thing went on. Miss Myra Whiteman, sister of the petitioner, who ha<T frequently visited the parties at Pe'tono, stated that tho respondent was in the habit of ill-using the petitioner and using most offensive language to her. Because he could not find his pipe ono night he struck his wife on the face, causing her nose to bleed. Corroborative evidence was given by Mrs Mary Wilson, a widow, and Miss Ida Jamieson. Mrs McGill, reciilled, stated that when Bhe informed her husband alio was going to take proceedings for divorce, ho said. "Go on with the good work; I wont opposo you." The visual preliminary decree was granted, to be moved absolute in three months, £2O costs and disbursements being allowed. The petitioner waß granted the interim custody of two children. A decree nisi was also granted in the adjourned case of Jane 3loPheo v. Norman McPhee, in which the grounds of the petition were haGlfcual drunkenness and ! cruelty.

Priority permits, states the Department of' Munitions and Supplies, are no longer necessary in connection with orders of goods from the United Kingdom.

The holders of British Government securities numbered before the war 350,000; there are now 17,U0U,UW. There are 400,000 local agencies that have collected .£79,000,000 in sixpences and half-crowns.

According to an announcement made by the Ordnance Department, 146,322 machine-guns, rifles of all types, and iail.Wl pistols have been produced since the entrance of the United States into the war.

Regulations are now being drafted, under the Licensing Amendment Act, passed last session, to enable the soldiers absent from New Zealand to voto at the special licensing poll which is to take place in March or April next.

Captain Hall-Thompson, Naval Adviser to the New Zealand Government, reports that forty-eight New Zealanders who originally formed part of the crew of H.M.S. Pyramus, and were transferred to H.M.S. Doris in March. 1917, will be paid off at Bombay shortly, and will return to New Zealand.

Mr John Castle remarked in his election addiess at Brooklyn last night that people might think that ho was a stranger to Brooklyn. Tins was not so. Twenty years ago he had attended a. marriage in Brooklyn. Mr Cost-lo mentioned the names of the happy couple concerned, and the audience appeared satisfied.

"Experts of the Bureau of Mines of the United Statea Department of the Interior have succeeded in increasing tha production of oil from fifty wells in the North Gushing field of Oklahoma 2000 barrels a dav by cementing tho wells to keep out the detrimental flow of water. The cost of tho improvement was 10,000 dollars, and the gain is estimated at three-quarters of a million barrels of oil, or 164 dollars increase for each dollar's worth of improvement. It took the bureau two years to demonstrate to the operators the feasibility of the plan.

The ta'sk of the American Army engineers in France in constructing railroads, docks, hospitals, and other aids in the care of the Army far exceeds in magnitude the building ot the Panama Canal. Ten miles ot docks have been built, and twenty miles more are needed. A,n average of three warehouses a day are put up, each 500 by 50 feet in dimensions. On one day during the past week 36,1*1 ■ tons of freight were discharged from American ships at all French ports, and 11,438 tons at a single port. These aro announced as record feats in the handling of cargo.

Reports by the War Department show that for the two months' period ended August 31st, the annual deathrate from disease for troops in this country and overseas was SJ.IB per 1000, a fraction more than two men per thousand per year. The annual death-rate for disease of men of military ago in civil life is 6.7 per 1000. During tho month of August remarkably low figures for all troops were set. The death-rate for disease for August 16th and 23rd was 1.73 per 1000. The lowest rate reaced in the United States during the two months' period was 2.12 per 1000 for the week ended July 26th.

Tho fact that an Indian woman, Mrs Sarojini Naidu, presided over a recent publio meeting of tho Madras Provincial Conference is commented upon by "New India" as marking "the coming of a new great force into modern Indian, political life—the Indian woman." It was Mrs Naidu who, at the meeting of the Bombay Provincial Conference, moved a resolution, supported by 100 women of Bombay, recommending ; tl)o extension of the franchise to women at the same time as to men. The question of suffrage was discussed at, the All-India Congress, and was referred by resolution to tho Provincial Congress Committees. One of these, the Punjab Committee, has already passed a resolution that no distinction of sex bo made >n tho coming reforms.

Amos Pinchot, who argues for tne creation of a Federal Business Administration for the purpose of freeing the Government and the public from the evils of the profiteer, states in a letter to Chairman Kitchin, of the Ways and Means Committee, that i2b7 of the larger business corporations in the United States made excess profits aggregating 1,569.331,730 dollars during tho fiscal year 1917. The 1917 profits of the United States Steel Corporation were 457,685,000 dollars; its pre-war profits were 63,585,777 dollars. An •support of his claim that the 80 per cent. tax will not crush business, Mr Pinchot cites the increase in British trade under an 80 per cent. tax. Great Britain's export trade in 1915 was £384,900,000; in 1916 it was £509,300,000; and in 1917 it was £526,000,000.

A now political group, called the Radical Council, and formed by a number of Liberal and .Radical members of the British Parliament, has recently issued its manifesto. Its proposals for social reconstruction alter tho war include a capital levy, retention of the excess profits duty in an appropriato form, a tax on land values, reform in tho assessment and collection of income tax revision of the death duties, and above taxes to be accompanied by complete free trade, and the consequent abolition of the breakfast-table duties. The .Radical Council also demands "Recovery by the State of the publicly-created value of land by <«.) taxation of land values and the removal of rates from houses and improvements, leading up to (b) nationalisation and Stato control of the use of land if found to be necessary."

Complaints have been made as to the quality of the food supplied on the transport on which the 40th Reinforcement sailed for tho Old Country. A letter received from a lance-corporal, nn Auckland boy, and forwarded to the Defenco Minister, puts another aspect on tho matter. The following are extracts from tho letter:-—"July 21st —Just finished dinner —soup, meat, vegetables, and pudding. .. . July 29th.—Wo have no complaints about tho food, for it is of tho best. But, of course, you will find some who always complain, even if they were fed in Grand Hotel style, never satisfied. .... The nurses aro real Britons, to see tho way they work, and they cheer the fellows up so much better than the men. Towards the end of the voyage tho bakers were all ill, so we could get no fresh broad, so had to buy fruit and other things from the canteen. Left New Zealand weighing eleven stono six pounds. On arrival weighed twelve stone ten pounds."

Sergeant McLean arrested .a woman in the city at 10 o'clock yesterday morning on a charge of bigamy. She will he brought betore the court this morning.

A waterside worker named Tyerman, residing at No'. 15, Nbrniandy street, Newtown, had one of his toes severely crushed while engaged on tbo waterfront yesterday afternoon. He was admitted to the hospital at 5.15 p.m.

Asked whether he was in favour of the P.P.A., Mr John Castle stated at his Brooklyn meeting last night that this was a "ticklish matter." No matter how his attitude might bo misconstrued, he would prefer not to answer the question. Sectarianism should not tie brought into the present contest.

Edward Shiffeldon, who resides in Cuba street, while, engaged in working at the Windsor Manufacturing Company's factory yesterday had three of his fingers of his right.hand caught in a press with the result that they were severely crushed. IJ# war. admitted to the hospital at 10.10 a.m., where it was found necessary to amputate ono of the injured fingers.

The fire brigade was called out twice yesterday to suppress gorse fires close to the city. At 10.55 a.m. some gorse near the Hutt road, at the back of the Vacuum Oil Company's store, was ablaze. Tho brigadesmen soon beat the flames out- • Shortly after 2.15 p.m. the brigade was summoned to Macfariane street, where gorse and grass was alight. The men promptly extinguished tho outbreak with hose pipes.

The Examination of the underwater esterior of tho hull of the liner Dorset by the diver was continued throughout yesterday. Mr Archibald Walker and a Government surveyor of ships completed their inspection of the interior of tho vessel last evening. It is understood that no structural damage has been found. The Dorset ia proceeding with her cargo-loading operations and is now timed to sail on Tuesday for Port Said.

Tho following resolution was passed at the last quarterly meeting of the Wellington Musicians' Union:—"That this union condemns the action of the military, authorities in allowing the Trentham Military Band and Orchestra (termed the Trentham Camp Orchestra) to play at public functions, thereby depriving civilian musicians of engagements that they have enjoyed in the past, seeing that the musicians have done so much for patriotic purposes in the past, gratis."

There was a roar of laughter at Mr John Castle's Brooklyn meeting last night when the candidate mentioned, the Zoo; many disconcerting interjections, Mr ' Castle went deeply into the question of the danger to the community from diseased animals at the Zoo. He told his audience of a. paralytic pheasant in the Zoo that took two steps backwards for every one he took forward. Then there was a wolf in the Zoo who suffered from a disease that sounded like and two kangaroos who' had died -of . mouth disease. Many other problems of weight were dealt with by the candidate in this connection, which included a blockage in tho drain, from the sea lion's pond and the guard round the bear's cage. Finally Mr Castle related a, touching story of a monkey who caught a cold at the Zoo; complications followed, nnd the animal finally died of brain disease.