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Otago Daily Times, Issue 18656, 11 September 1922, Page 4

A member of the Daily Times staff asked a well-known Dunedin medical man on Saturday whether he considered that Dr Pitts, *of Waimate, was justified in making the assertion that the number of deaths under anesthetics had greatly increased n New Zealand during the past year or two. The Dunedin doctor said that ho fully supported Dr Pitts’s statement. He said that it was always absolutely necessary to use the beat chloroform—an antesthetio which he favoured. Questioned whether he considered that there was any reason which might cause a patient to succumb, the Dunedin doctor said that faulty training bad a direct effect in the administration of an anaesthetic, home doctors gave such a strong dose of an oneesthetio that the patient’s resistance was severely reduced. As a matter of fact, he became heavily drugged. On the other hand, there are medical men in Dunedin who over a long course of years have not had one single death resulting from the administration of an anaesthetic. In view of the allegations made by Dr Pitts, and from his own knowledge of what had happened in certain cases, the Dunedin doctors held that' the Minister of Health should .take steps to have an exhaustive inquiry made into the whole matter, and that laymen should be appointed to any committee which the Minister might think fit to set up. A first offending “drunk” wSs fined 10s in the Police Court on Saturday morning, the option being 24 hours’ imprisonment. On Saturday afternoon. Detectives Palmer and Lean arrested a man named Alexander Christie Bennet, who will bo charged in the Police Court this morning with breaking and entering the, residence of Ernest Didham, a taxi driver. Several other charges, extending over a period of about two years, are also pending. Acting-de-teouve Sneddon arrested a man named Maurice James Hislop, who 'will be charged this morning with the theft of an overcoat from the Savoy , Tea Room®. The police will apply for a remand in both cases.

Mrs Mary Foster, who resided with her husband and family at No. 11 Hereford street, Roslyn, collapsed when on her way to church last night and died immediately. The Royal Mail steamer Makura arrived at Auckland from Vancouver on Friday with 1211 bags of English and American mail for New Zealand. The Waitemata left San Francisco for Napier on August 16 with seven bags of letters an- 594 bags of parcels, American mail, for New Zealand. The Dunedin portion ia due here about next Friday. The Wairuna left San Francisco on August 31 for Auckland direct. She has on board 195 bags of American letter'mail and 725 bags of parcel mail for Now Zealand, and ia due here about September 23. Tho latest issue of the New Zealand Gazette contains the notification of 13 bankjptcies, of which nine are in the North The majority of the bankrupts are ' farmers. Premises in Taranaki and Haining streets, Wellington, were raided by the police on Friday night, and on Saturday morning two Chinese were convicted of conducting a pak-a-poo lottery, and fined £75 each (says a Press Association telegram). Two Chinese and eight Europeans who were found on the premises were fined £1 each. His Honor Mr Justice Hosking has granted letters of administration in the Otago estates of Daniel Williamson, Lilly Mitchell, and Neil Black, and probate in the following estates: —George Grant, George Course, John Somerville, William Edwards, John Porteous, William Thomson, Robert Robertson, Robert Bums Taylor, George Stumbles, William Duncan, Donald Mitchell, Mary Walls, Edward Loudon Peterson, James Elliot Matheson, William Austin, Catherine M’Lean Ellis, Emma Constance Egley, Archibald Henry Crawford Christina Alien Brugh, Sarah Barker,’Archibald Millar, Williarn Hunt, Mary Crowley, John Davidson, Edwin Oxenbury, Hannah Hannigon, Patrick Healy, George Broad William Henry Munro, William Christie, William Alfred Aitohison, Jemima Barclay, and Elsie Teresa Browne, Ocnvs under test form a valuable section of the annual report of the Dairying Division of the Department of Agriculture, _ in view of the great development of dairying in New Zealand. The Commissioner remarks, however: <n Tho total number ot cows systematically tested last year was 45,564, which is not a satisfactory proportion of tho dominion’s milking stock. One would like to see herd-testing a definite part of every dairy company’s organisation, the cost to be borne by tho company. This would result in more systematic herd-development, with a resultant benefit to the revenue of the individual, the dairy company, and the country as a whole. ’ The popularity of association testing is increasing 25,912 cows being tested as compared with 19,799 last year.” Three claims, totalling £3775 9s 4d, have been registered with the Public Trustee by persons in New Zealand, in accordance with, a notice published in the Gazette in March, 1919, requiring all persons, firms, and companies of British nationality in New Zealand owning property in territory which on August 1, 1914, formed part of the Russian Empire, or having claims against the Russian territory, or against any person, firm, or company, or municipal or other authority, in that particular territory, to transmit particulars of their claims to the Public Trustee at Wellington for registration by the Foreign Claims Office, London. No information has been received as to the prospects of a settlement of these debta. Three single young ladies entered for the "impromptu speech” at the Wellington competitions tho other evening, and the subject was not given to them until they were on the platform, when they were allowed a minute’s thought and five minutes for speech (saya the Poet). When they were faced with the problem “How to cure a grumbling husband,'” they _ were fairly staggered, and one was so irresistibly seized with the humorous aspect of the situation that she could hardly speak for laughing. All she oould say was, that if she had a husband who waa a grumbler she would give him something to grumble about in earnest. The judge agrped that they all deserved a first prize for having had tho courage to face the audience to speak on a subject they knew nothing about. Married ladies had not gained much information. “And,” added the judge, “most of the time was filled in by pausation, of which we have been told a good deal in the last few days.” Two black swan* who live in the river near tho Manchester street bridge receive their daily bread from a Nature-loving bootmaker whose establishment fronts the river on Oxford terrace (says tho Lyttelton Times). Regularly at appointed intervals during the day the swans leave their nest by the waters edge and waddle up the bank and solemnly cross tho road quite undismayed and unperturbed by the passing traffic. They station themselves in the side-channel opposite the boot shop, and if their food is not already there they wait patiently and with certain hope until it appears. On occasions they are joined by a cat and a small dog, and the company then 00-operate in a friendly dinner party. At all feeding times interested spectators stop to watch, A case of alleged wholesale profiteering in the reconstruction of devastated regions is about to come before the Assizes of the Pas do Calais, states tho Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The accused, 10 in number,' include, as well as a number of contractors, officials in the service of the Department of tho liberated Regions. They are to be defended by famous counsel, among whom are Maitrea Henri Robert, De Moro-GHafferi, and Laval. The charges chiefly concern the activities of a syndicate of four men, who as contractors undertook the clearing of certain devastated communes. It is alleged that these men, in conspiracy with officials, received large payments on work supposed to have been done,..but which was not, in fact, executed. The ’spoil, It is stated, waa shared in percentages among all those concerned. The actual amount of the alleged frauds has not yet been fully established, but tho syndicate has claimed about 3,000,000 francs, of which 250,000 francs are said to have been spent in bribes. One official alone is alleged to have received bribes and commissions to the amount of 103,000 franca. 1 The wettest spot in New Zealand is proi bably the area covered by the Waipoua kauri forest, nine miles south of the Hokianga River, according to Mr 137. R. M’Grogor, who visited the district recently on behalf of the State Forest Department. Lecturing at the Auckland Institute, Mr M‘Gregor said the rainfall approximated 100 inches per annum, though personally he thought it would be nearer 104 inches. Rain descended like a deluge, and the heat of tho days produced excessive evaporation. The vegetation waa consequently of a distinctly tropical nature. One of 'the curiosities he discovered in the forest was a gigantic moss, 17 inches in height.