NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10559, 9 April 1920, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

The annual general meeting of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association has been fixed for April 29th.

The quarterly executive meeting of tho New Zealand Returned Se’diers’ Association will be held on May 4th, oth, and 6th. ,

Owing to the Easter holidays interfering with City Council committee meetings?, the usual meeting of the council, due to have been hejd last night, has been postponed until next Thursday.

■ So great was the determination o t many New Zealanders to got away by the Makura, which sailed, early m the week from Auckland for Vancouver, that many of them wont third-class, as it was impossible to. find accommodation in either tho first or second saloons for - all tho prospective voyagers. f

At tho Lower Hurt Police Court yesterday morning, a man, B. Aludgway. and his wife, M. Mudgway, appeared on charges of drunkenness. Messrs Maca skill and James Pearce, J.P.'t, presided. Accused were each fined Sa or twenty-four hours’ imprisonment. On the application of the police, prohibition orders- wore issued against them;

Negotiations are still proceeding for tho purchase of the 8000 acres of Brancepeth station which were offered by Mr H.. H. Beetham to the Government some months ago ( for soldier-sot. tlcment. According to tho “Wairarapa Age,” there appears to-be a slight difference between the owner and the Land Purchase Board in regard to tho price.

A resident of Fiji had a good word to say regarding the promptness with which the Government of New Zealand dispatched a military expedition during th' strike of Indian workers. “These soldiers only just arrived m time,'’ he said, “otherwise there would have been serious trouble. Things looked so bad,, that wo had already got some Island boys over, and armed them with clubs, but the- amval of the New Zealand men ended all trouble.”

In connection with the deputation to Sir William Fraser concerning financial assistance to the Pctono ceremonial, Air J. W. McKwan, Mayor of Potone, explains that the offer* of an extra £56 as a grant to the Early Settlers' Association for its portion of the work at the proposed pageant was made on behalf of tho Hutt Valley Committee, after consultation with several of tho members present' at tho deputation.

It is said that the difficulty of obtaining carpenters is being felt in tho Government departments as well as generally in th© community, though recently a deputation interviewed the Prim© Minister to point out that tho Government was drawing Carpenters to its service who should bo employed in .house-building and other general work. The position, it is said, is that there are only a limited number of artisans of this class in the Dominion ; but to ascertain the real position, the Prime Minister has ordered a census of them to be compiled.

The danger to bystanders through tho parting of strained hawsers was exemplified recently at the Central wharf, Auckland, while a heavy oiano was being hauled alongside a vessel by a rope from the steamer’s winch. The crane apparently refused to travel as quickly as was deemed desirable, and a ’ little extra strain yas put on. This proved t6o much for tho rope, which parted with a leud snap, one of tho broken ends smacking the side of the steamer, and the other hitting the wharf with terrific force. Several watersiders were standing near, but fortunately they escaped injury. '

Easter visitors saw a great deal of flying in Christchurch 'over the weekend, as passenger flights from the Sookburn aerodrome have been numerous. Captain Dickson was early over tho city with two passengers, Mr W. Studhofrao, of Waimate, and Miss Eleanor Teschemaker. In a half-hour flight the Avro crossed the city, returning. by way of Sumner and Lyttelton, where the ferry boat was seen berthing. At 5000 feet a very fine view was obtained of Motunau Island to the northward and Lake Ellesmere to the southward, as well as. the whole of tho southern part of Banks Peninsula. Other flights over Christchurch Lyttelton, and tho Port Hills were made during tho morning by Mr W. Richmond, a Hawke’s Bay sportsman, and Air Luke Wilson, Mr C. F, Vallanoe (Wairarapa), and Air W. Bush, and Mr R. E. Mills.

The attendance at the recent Royal Show in Sydney totalled 451,100, constituting a new record;

The Masterton Dairy Company is manufacturing an average of twenty boxes of butter daily.

The Christchurch Tramway Hoard recently made a call for men to act as conductors, and a large number of applications wore received.

Oatsheaf chaff is evidently a dear commodity in Wanganui at present, the retail price being £ls per ton as against half that figure in Canterbury.

“Xo soldier is a militarist if he has any experience of war; he always wants peace”—Brigadier-General Richardson at, the Boys’ Institute last night.

The Taranaki Producers’ Freezing Works Company has sccurdd space for 10,000 crates of cheeso in the Kent. The vessel sails for London at the end of the month.

It is the intention of the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government to ask all ministers of religion throughout New Zealand to hold special commemorative sendees on Anzac Day.

Rises in salaries amounting to about £SOOO per year have been approved by the Invercargill Town Council. Some councillors objected to the permanent increases as >again«t a bonus on, say, a, 15 per cent, basis.

The Secretary, General Post Office, has been advised that legal time in Austria has been advanced by one hour from the oth instant to September 13th. and in Holland from tho sth instant to September 27th,

The high price of' ammunition will make .shooting for sport an expensive undertaking this year. The season opens on May Ist, and already parties of sportsmen have taken up camping grounds on the shores of the Wairarapa lake.

The cost of delivery has risen to such an extent at Auckland, due to the increase of wages, prices of horso feed and benzine, that the Milk Vendors’ Association has resolved to make only one delivery of milk daily instead of two.'

Yesterday was a somewhat remarkable day in the Wellfngton l*olice Court in that there was not a single case presented to the magistrate to deal with. It is very rarely that such an occurrence has to be recorded, iind it is about four years’ since the last occasion of tho kind.

Some 1127 acres of settlement laud in the Otago Land District were gazetted yesterday as eet apart for sol-dier-settlement, also 260 acres in thb Matlhorough district, together’ with 243 acres of Crown land in the Auckland district and 393 in thb North Auckland District. •

During Easter (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday) the bookings at the Dunedin railway station numbered 16,559, compared with 14,168 during Easter 1917, when excursion tickets were last issued. The receipts on tho tramways for (the same period amounted to £1478 9s Bd,' as against £1033 12s 4d the previous year. '

By Order-in Council gazetted yesterday the representation of the constituent districts on the Wafrarapa Eleijtrio Power Board is apportioned as follows: —iMasterton Borough, two, representatives; portion Maaterton County, portion Wairarapa South County, portion Fcatherston County. Carterton Borough, Qroytown Borough, Fcatherston Borough, and Martinborough Town District, one each.

The claims of a body of workers of whom the public hoars little—the trained nurses—for an increase in fees to enable them to meet the extra cost of living, were considered last week by the Auckland Trained Nurses’ Association, when it was decided that the fees should bo increased from £3 3s to £3 13s 6d per week. So far there hai; been no announcement of a similar move in Wellington, but it is not condcsired to he unlikely.

Wellington householders, in common with thou© of other parts of the Do. minion, continue to experience difficulty in obtaining adequate supplies of coal. During last week large shipments of coal arrived from abroad to bo stacked in Newcastle (N.S.W.) to the order of the Admiralty. ' The collier Kanna brought nearly 3000 tons from Westport and the Australbrook over 3000 tons from Wales. Welsh coal costs £7 per ton at present, without freight. 0

Bri gadier-Gencral Richardson remarked at the Boys’ Inititute last evening that unfortunately he witnessed the evacuation of a great portion of Belgium. The horrible scenes wore impossible to relate, hut it made one thankful to he in a peaceful place like New Zealand. He cftuld recall the feeling he had when the first shell went, overhead and h© knew that it was going to drop in a great city and kill innocent women and. children. - The boys here should realise how great a blessing it was to be protected by the strong British Nary and the soldiers of a hug© Empire.

At a meeting of the New Zealand Utility Poultry Club, held at Christchurch, it was stated that there were 3,000,000 fowls in the Dominion, and a bushel of wheat per annum per fowl was a fair average, but, allowing for a proportion of oats and maize, the total requirements of pqultrymen for the Dominion were 1J million bushels. Mr Massey had got 4 ths requirements down to one quarter of what was actually needed. Poultry men expended £50,000 annually on wheat, and a suggestion was made that a man should be engaged at £IOOO per annum to purchase wheat. The proposition mot with little support.

A court case was tried in a bakehouse at Lyttelton last week. A<-man had been arrested on a charge of petty theft, and onlv one Justice of tho Peace was available. Sincq, the police did not, deeiro to' keen the accused in custody over the holiday, tho whole court proceeded to a bakehouse, where another J.P. was hard at work making Easter buns. Here the court was held in a corner of the bakehouse, the court orderly first _ proclaiming,, in front of the confectionery shop, that “the Magistrate’s Court is now open." Tho clerk, with bin book on a sack of flour, road the charge, imd the bench, one, member, of which was in the usual baker's dress, including apron, retired a few paces to consider tho case. Tho decision was soon arrived at. and the whole nartv filed out into the street again, leaving the baker, Who had not been taken from tun work more than tbroo -to carry on.