LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 21 February 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The School Committee meet to-night in the Technical School, at 7.30. Try D. Jones, Egmont Street, for plumbing and tinsmithing repairs. Telephone 111. * Tronsers-wearing in public is iioaacompulsory for men of the American colony of the Philippine Islands. The penalty for aptpoariug in the streets Avithout trousers, according to a telegram reeciA’cd in Paris, is live years’ imprisonment. It is slated that the first result of the ucav law has been a demand for 500,000 pairs of readymade trousers. This represents the number of Filipinos avlio are obliged to stay indoors owing the inadequacy of their Avardrobo. Some idea of retailers’ profits was givon in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. In ansAvcr to counsel it Avas stated that oranges bought at 7/(5 per case Avcre sold at twopence each, Avhieh the lawyer Avorked out to 225 per cent profit. Soft drinks cost 4/10 per dozen bottles, bottles included, and sold at 7/-. a profit of 50 per cent. On cigarettes the profit Avas 2d. per packet, and on vegetables never less than 25 per cent, according to the Avitncss’ statement. A startling occurrence took place one day last week Avhen a set of piles collapsed at about the centre of the Motueka-Riwaka bridge, letting down a couple of spans of the structure. Fortunately no traffic Avas passing at the time, othenvise very serious consequences would have resulted. Had the collapse taken place at night a tragedy would probably have been recorded, as the bridge is on the main road, which is considerably used by motorists and drivers of other vehicles. M. Flaudrin, Fnder-Seeretary for Aeronautics, gave some interesting details, at a dinner of the Aero Club de France, of the development of aviation in France. '‘ Wo have to-day,” says M. Flaudrin, ”2800 miles of routes. This result has not been equalled elsewhere. In 1919 our airmen covered 218,750 miles. During the first 10, months of this year the distance was 937,500 miles. The degree of safety is shown by the fact that only one accident involving personal injury occurred per (52.5 00 miles floAvu. The rate of accidents resulting in death was 1 per 134,375 miles.”

Two hundred pounds of cocksfoot seed is advertised for sale in this issue.

A reward is ottered for the recovery of a brass plate removed from Mr. E. C. Gilbert's premises on Wednesday last.

The Egmont A. and P. Assiciation notify that late entries for their forthcoming Show will be received up till 9 p.m. on Thursday next.

A meeting of the Committee of the Patca .Sports Club will be held at the Fire Brigade Station to-night to arrange details in connection with the forthcoming- Easter Sports.

A cargo of jam, honey, ami tinned fruit, valued at £9OO has just arrived in the Thames (says the London Times of December .14). having been presented to Dr* Barnardo’s Jubilee Empire Bazaar and Christmas Fair by the Government and people of New Zeland. The goods will be offered for sale at the Xcw Zealand stall, at which Lady Allen will preside.

Professor William Lyon Phelps, of Yale, declares he gets credit for only -5 per cent of the. after dinner speeches he actually makes. “Ecvcry time I accept an invitation to speak I really make four addresses,’ ’ he says. “First is the speech I prepare in advance. .That is pretty good. .Second is the speech I really make. Third is the speech I make on the way home, which is the best of all, and fourth is the speech the newspapers the next morning say I made., which bears no relation to any of the, others.”

' ‘ After examining fairly closely into a great many of the postal systems of the world, ” said the Secretary of the P. and T. Department (Mr. K. B. Morris) who has just returned from England, “I am able to say that we in Xcw Zealand are well above the standard. I met many men, and after comparing notes, they were invariably surprised to learn how progressive Xcw Zealand was in postal matters. Of all the telephone systems of the world I had experience of, I should say that Sydney’s was the dearest and worst. Wo also felt the high cost of livingmore in Bvdnev than anywhere else.”

A well-known Wanganui farmer on Thursday happened to enter a local store where a man was endeavouring to change a cheepre of which the proprietor of the store appeared to be doubtful. Evidently knowing the farmer, the stranger greeted him, and told him that he was Mr. , of Marion, and asked could the farmer oblige him by endorsing his cheque for a small amount. The Wanganui farmer not having met a Marton farmer of that name before, good-naturedly applied his signature to the back of the cheque, On its presentation at the bank a little later, he learned that the document was valueless. In the meantime the police had been put upon the trail of the erring one, who, it is alleged, had already traded off two valueless cheques on Wanganui business-men, and an arrest followed.

A peculiar position lias arisen in, connection with the assigned estate of Henry Thomas Harrell, saddler, of To Puke. Harrell, who is at present serving a sentence of three years for bigamy, was put through a severe examination before the official assignee, Mr. W. A. Haines, last year, when a representative of the creditors, most of whom were in Auckland, was present. When the official assignee came to deal with 'the estate it was discovered that Harrell had previously been adjudged bankrupt in Christchurch in li)U(5, when ho paid nothing in the £. According to the law, the assignee who deals with the first bankruptcy is entitled to call upon any assets in the second estate to pay the creditors of the first. The Christchurch creditors will therefore receive payment in full after 14 years, whereas those in Auckland will get only what remains of the estate.