LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3999, 27 November 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr B. Franklin, Health Officer, has so far recovered from the effects of influenza as to be. able to resume duty. Sir James Allen states that over four thousand men have already, been demobilised from New Zealand camps.. The Minister hopes to have them all out of camp within a fortnight.

Mr Hall, a returned soldier, who died at the Thames Hospital on Monday night, saw 3%year's' active service with" the N.Z.E.F.- Since his return to New Zealand he had been working" for the Lands Department at Kerepeehi.

Notice is given that an officer will be in attendance at the' Paeroa saleyards on Saturday next at 10 a.m. for the purpose of . inoculating calves against blackleg.

A correspondent writing to the Dominion says :—Practically a total abstainer, I've been down with the "flu" ten days, and the doctor has soaked me up to the neck with whisky—to my disgust—but he says it has saved my life. Oh, how can I live —saved by whisky.

At five o'clock yesterday afternoon we received a copy of the Financial Statement from the postmaster with the compliments of the Right Hon. the Minister of Finance, Sir Joseph Ward. The statement contains twen-ty-nine pages of foolscap printed, so it will be seen that the Hon. the Minister of Finance has dealt very fully with the financial aspect of the country. We appreciate very much the thoughtfulness of the Hon. Minister in arranging for us to receive the statement at the same time as it was being delivered-in Parliament.

Private John Patrich Kirby, N.Z. Medical Corps,.a leading and popular storekeeper in Te Aroha, died on Saturday afternoon. He had only been home on 1/eave a few days when he contracted influenza. A wife and two young children are left to mourn. On Sunday morning Mr James M. Maloney, a very well-known sportsman and flrebrigadesman, succumbed at Te Aroha, leaving a wife and four young sons. On Monday morning two well-knwon residents, Messrs Edward H. Hawken, dentist, and Samuel W. Cope, auctioneer, passed away. Mr Hawken leaves a widow but no family. Mr Cope leaves a wife and four children. Writing to a New Plymouth friend, a settler from one of the Main Trunk towns says that in consequence of the epidemic things there are something ..terrible. He relates a case in point. A settler, his wife, and two children were down. He could not get medicine or a doctor, for none were available. He did his best for his wife and children. One of the children died. He tried to get an undertaker, but could not do so. He buried the child himself on his own place.. Then the other child died, followed quickly by the mother. He buried them both in the same place. And now the father is expected to succumb. It is one of the most harrowing incidents that has ever been recorded.

It sterns that the Rail y way Department is paying half-salary to all its employees during any time they are absent from duty through influenza. A ' meeting representative of all branches of the railway service in Auckland has passed a resolution deploring the attitude of the Government in granting only half-pay to absentees ill with the disease, considering that anything less than full pay was insufficient. The resolution embodied the opinion of the meeting that members working overtime on account of the epidemic should in all cases be paid for this extra work. This resolution emphasises the risks of infection to which raihvaymen are subject.

The Farmers' Auctioneering Company will hold their stock sale at Coromandel to-morrow, November 28, when 400 head of mixed cattle and 800 head of sheep will be offered for disposal.

The Commission to hear the evidence in connection with the petition to create a new county for the Hauraki Plains has been adjourned until Wednesday, December 4. A wire was received by the clerk of the Ohinemuri County Council from the Minister of Internal Affairs stating that the Public Health Department considers all annual meetings of county councils should be postponed for the present. When the Public Health Department decides upon a date on which, meetings may be held the Council will be duly notified and meetings will subsequently be validated.

The business premises of Messrs Wallace and Co., Waihi, were burglariously entered at an early hour yesterday morning, and a safe, containing over £400, was dynamited. Evidently alarmed atvthe loud explosion, the thieves, when within an ace of achieving their object, decamped. The contents of the safe were found intact,

A question of some importance in military circles is settled by a notice in General Orders. Where a scale of rations is laid down and issues in kind are made it is to be clearly understood that only such supplies required and authorised by that scale may be drawn. The value of the ration for allowance purposes only is fixed at 2s per diem, and where rations in kind are drawn it is not to

be assumed that all ranks are entitled to a ration costing 2s per diem.

A pathetic case of influenza has been reported to the Waihi paper. The whole of Mr and Mrs Dickey's family, residents of Katikati, ten in all, • were stricken with the disease. Mr Dickey succumbed in Waihi on Monday morning, and Mrs Dickey and one son are seriously ill in Waihi The remaining seven have been admitted to the temporary hospital at Katikati. The deceased, who was a son of Mr Nathaniel Dickey, late of Paeroa, lost two brothers at Dargaville through the malady,.

A eucalyptus plant will help to keep away flies (says an exchange). The smell-of the growing foliage is not very obvious to the occupants of the room, yet the insects give the apartment a wide berth. The best way is to stand the plant (which should be one of those small ones i largely sold in pots) in the window. Such a specimen may even be placed on the.sill outside, where it will-very much discourage the visits of flies. Perhaps few people know how all kinds of flies dislike the bracken fern. Many country folk are well aware of the value of the fronds in keeping away the winged visitors. The fern is very pretty, and might be used freely, in the decoration of the room, mixing the bright green fronds up with flowers. In a general way it has been shown that all the aro-' maiic herbs are distasteful to flies. A few bunches of lavender', rosemary, thyme, etc., in a room will prove helpful.

The extreme view of the seriousness of the yellow peril taken by some people was referred to by Mr A. S. Malcolm, M.P., in an address at Invercargill a few days ago, when he assured his audience that the danger was not as real as was generally imagined. His opinion was that France and Britain in the centuries gone by could" time after time have dominated the world, and he asked what was it that saved the world from such domination. Instead of those two countries combining they flew at each other and spent their best blood and treasure in the most desperate war upon one another, because they were such close neighbours their interests were constantly clashing. He thought it would be the same with Japan and China. They were two great peoples very much alike, whose interests were bound to clash. They were clashing already, .md the nations referred to would And all their efforts taken up with their own relations.