TOWN EDITION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14574, 9 April 1918, Page 6

TOWN EDITION.

The Gisborne Fire Board has decided to renovate the various notice boards m each block indicating where telephones may be need for giving the fire alarm. Members of the Gisborne Savage Club are holding their annual meeting and first korero of the season m the club's new- rooms (New Zealand Insurance Co.'s building) to-morrow evening. The experiment of closing business premises for the lunch hour at midday has been brought into iovoe at Palmerston North by a number of firms. This new departure will ' be given a three months' trial. Whilst a taxi-driver was cranking his car at the Peel street stand this morning, his engine "back fired," with the result that the starting lever flew off and crashed through a large pane of glass m a shop front. The sixth wool valuation this season commences to-morrow, tha valuers arriving from Napier thjs afternoon. The catalogues for the various firms connected with the Stockbrokers' Association amonnt to 3000 bales for Gisborne and 800 bales for Tolaga Bay. Tho Gisborne Farmers' Co-operative Cb.'s entry was expected to be somewhere m the vicinity of 1000 bales for Gisborne and 400 for Tolaga Bay. The valuers will be engaged for several days, and it is expected they will -proceed south by the boat on Sunday night. A returned soldier, Daniel Fogarty, was admitted to the Wanganui hospital, suffering from injuries about the body and head, the result of a dynamite explosion. Mr. Fogarty was working at Mangapafaua on the up-river, and on Wednesday morning was blasting some rock with dynamite. A charge failed to go off, but when he returned to it the explosion took place, with the result that he was blown over a cliff lose by. Mates of the injured man carried him seven miles through the hush, and he was brought down the Wanganui river. The Dunedin School of Arts has been for some years conducting classes on architectural history and design, under tha auspices of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (says a Dunedin paper). In no other profession has the country's call. been heard and responded to more nobly than by young architects, so that, with tho exception of one returned Gallipoli hero and two deferred aspirants, articled pupils have vanished from the offices of our local architects. It is now proposed to throw open the classes to young women. The Ashburton County is at present governed! by nine road boards and a County Council, and the question of abolishing the Road Boards and having the county divided into four smaller counties* was discussed at the last meeting of the Mount Hutt Road Board. As an outcome (says the Ashburton Guardian) the latter has invited \all bodies interested to attend' a meeting to be held towards the end of April to consider the whole question. At present there is a dual control of roads and bridges m the county, and" it is held that a change as suggested would result m more efficient and economical administration. A number of people have bought horse-flesh from the depot m Camden Town, where it is being sold under an arrangement with the Army Veterinary Depot of the War Office. A large crowd stood outside* one morning, and m a quarter of an hour ten English men and women bought portions of horse-flesh. One woman who tried a sirloin at Is per lb, said: "J had horse-flesh steak yesterday for the first time. It was beautiful, as tender and swefei as any meat I have tasted. The pnly^drawback to it is Jthat it has hardly any, fat of its own." In the course of a fefi£ days 'the demand had doubled itself, and five carcases were bought for shops m the southwest suburbs. — London correspondent. Quite a large number of appellants attended the Courthouse to-day only to ; find that the Military Appeal Board was not sitting, and when they made enquiries from the staff they could get no satisfaction as the members of the staff had received no intimation. The sitting set down for last month also had to be abandoned on account of the floods and heavy weather.' On that occasion a reservist who had a ' small farm about 37 miles from Gisborne had to attend for the^iitting ,and while m Gisborne awaiting the arrival of the Board to deal with his appeal, the flood came over and his stock of 100 sheep were drowned. He attended again this morning, only to find that the Board had not arrived here. As he could not get any satisfaction as to whether the Board was really coming or not; he decided to return to his farm. If some arrangement could be entered into whereby the Board advertised m cases of this sort when a sitting would be held it would save a great deal of inconvenience and loss of time. A story of the courage and resourcefulness of British merchantmen was related m more detail m a London Court last month during the hearing of a case concerning the salvage of the sailing ship Ainsdale. The vessel, loaded! with gram, was torpedoed off tho British coast 12 months ago during, a gale on a rough night, the crew being given five minutes to leave. The men were subsequently rescued. The Ainsdale was supposed to have sunk, but the Glasgow steamer Basuto sighted her six days later rolling and drifting to leeward. Despite the likelihood! of her being a submarine decoy, John Macoonald, chief officer, and a crew of eight, boarded the Ainsdale. The only things on her were a cat, a parrot, and a monkey. The steering wheel had been shot away, andl the compass was broken. A strong wind andl heavy sea precluded towing, so Macdonald and his eight men decided to navigate the vessel. They rigged a jury wheel and reached a Scotch port 19 days after the vessel had been torpedoed. After 11 days of incessant bad weather, during which the nine men did the work of 26, on the scantiest of rations, a tug picked! them <up and endeavored to take them m tow. A head gale and heavy winds compelled the tug to abandon the task, and 1 the Ainsdale drifted on, her sails having been torn to ribbons. On the following day patrol boats went out and helped to set new sails. The tug then completed the towage. The court awarded £9630, Macdonald's share being J82600, and the crews' £800 each, and the tujr £3600. • . An investigation into the Nelson fruit crop and the general conditions aur-. rounding the industry has just been completed by Mr. T. W. Kirk, director of the horticultural division of the Agricultural Department. Mr. Kirk stated that he found the trees m excellent condition this year. Some system was wanted by which the consumer could obtain his fruit at more reasonable prices than those now ruling. When this was made possible there would, of course, be on enormous increase m consumption. At the present time the populations of the New Zealand towns had not, speaking from a fruitgrower's point of view, begun to consume fruit. "We look to the time," said Mr. Kirk, "when fruit will, appear on the table at least once every day." .This could be achieved by cooperative organisation. Such organisations had made big strides, towards the goal, but much remained yet to be done. Referring to cool stores, Mr. Kirk said the co-operative cool store at Motueka Was doing excellent work, but on going through it he noticed what he had seen m cool stores m New Zealand and other countries, that a few growers would persist m sending fruit to the cool store that should never have been allowed to | leave the orchard. These growers seem-, ed to think that cool storage could improve the quality of the rruit by a miracle. "It cannot be too strongly impressed on growers," said Mr. Kirk, ."that fruit for cool storage must be of good quality, and be picked just at the right time." The bulk of the fruit &t the cool store was excellent. Mr. Kirk added that at no distant date there would have to be an enormous increase m cool storage space provided m the Nelson district.

The Auckland Daily Produce Committee fixed the wholesale price of butter and eggs for the week ending April 4 as follows: Farmers' . butter, first grade, Is per lb. ; fresh eggs, Is lOd per dozen. The Government lias given consent to the Red Cross Society to open a home m Dunedin for convalescent soldiers. It is understood that the society has not yet decided to buy any -particular property. Among the matters dealt with by the Minister for Justice on his recent visit to Southland, was the question of reclaiming by prison labor of the Invercargill estuary, an area of 2025 acres. Satisfactory conferences were held between tho Minister and the Borough Council, but the matter is still m progress. • Two milk vendors recently appeared before the Public Health Committee of the Wellington City Council to show cause why their licenses should not be ctealt with for breaches of the law, one for selling milk containing 6 per cent, added water, and the other for selling milk low m fat. The oommittee took no action exceptt o warn the offenders to be more careful m future. Lieutenant Walter Schafer, the Chicago University half-back, who claims to have been the first American officer "over the top" m France, tells the following amusing story < "At the critical moment," he says, "a French officer came along yelling/ 'Guess! guess!' 'Guess what?' we asked him. 'Guess! fuess !' was his only reply. 'I'll bite. 'U guess your right hand,' said one of my men, who looked at his clenched fist. 'Non ! non ! Guess masks !' shouted the Frenchman, as he seized his safety helmet. We had just time to put on our gas masks, and if we had 'kidded' him much longer there might have been sad results." Amongst the visitors to Auckland is Lieutenant Walter Marks, R.N.'V.R.,.j commodore of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club who is on furlough after three and a-half years' naval service. He was on board Sir Thomas Lipton's steam yacht Erin, which was accompanying the baronet's racing yacht Shamrock across the Atlantic on August 5, 1914, when a wireless message was received that England had declared. war on Germany. The Erin thereupon made fast to the Shamrock and towed her to Bermuda, and thence to New York, where she has been hauled lip ever since.- The Shamrock was being taken across the Western Ocean to sail again for the America Cup. It is hoped that the race will be got off when the war is over. The formation of a Good Roads Association for New Zealand was- decided upon at a meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association. The meeting also adopted the following motion: — "That m the interests of New Zealand generally, and to open up its lands, increase its production and develop its resources, a more comprehensive and consistent method of dealing with the roads i of the Dominion, than now exist is 'desirable ; and that to this end the Government be urged to adopt by legislation a scheme* — to become operative when the necessary funds are available — for dealing with the main roads of the Dominion upon the lines of the Victorian Country Roads Board Act, with such variations as local circumstances may make necessary or advisable." A war story, which is claimed to bo true, comes from a soldier m Franco. It is a well-known fact that a. number of Chinese are employed on fatigue work behind the British lines, and one day Fritz paid a party of these Celestials the questionable compliment of bombing them with fatal results. Such treatment was not to be regarded lightly by our Eastern Allies, and! a form of revenge not allowed! for m Army Orders, was decided! upon. Behind the lines also was an enemy internment enclosure, and with this m mind the "diggers" collected a quantity of hand grenades iaaid set oft m the direction " ptk the imprisoned Boches. By medium of these deadly weapons the wily Celestials carried out, reprisals, but, needless to say, a strict watch was subsequently kept over everything m the shape of ammunition. Giving evidence at the Defence Expenditure Commission at Palmerston North, Captain F. Hudson, an officer of 16 years' military service m the British Army and! m New Zealand, said that m New Zealand and Australia there was the best material for soldiers m the world, adding that the men were amenable to discipline, but did not know how to march. He stated that troops coming into Awapuni camp from other camps "slouched"— they were civilians m uniform — but after they had been at Awapuni a week they were transformed 1 . He blamed the system of centralisation for the failure of the men to march properly. The chairman (Sir Robert Anderson) added that the New Zealanders and! Australians "sized up" their officers for what they really are, not for what their social status may be. The romance of the British aircraft industry is the most wonderful m the' history of commerce. From a mere handful of badly-equipped factories it has sprung to hundreds and thousands of well-equipped concerns m every part of the country. Major Baird, early last year, stated m the House of Com^ mons that "there aite now 958 firms engaged with work for the Director of Aeronautical Supplies — 301 as direct contractors, and 657 as sub-contractors, with a possible output of 16 machines per month agiece." Taking this to be the average output, the yearly aggregate would be 57,792 machines. One of these British firms commenced m 1915, with a drill hall and 20 workmen. To-day that firm employs over 2000 workmen. The workshops — equipped with all the latest and most up-to-date machinery— extend over 30 acres. And the aerodrome provides over 330 acres y of landing ground. Conditions are sfrhilar with every warring power. TEe Wairarapa Age says there is serious need for reform m the method of treating returned wounded! soldiers. It says the experience of several Masterton and Wairarapa soldiers affords striking proof of this. Three or four wounded' men who returned with a recent draft were receiving special massage treatment m England and on the voyage out. They were informed before leaving the ship that treatment must be continued m New Zealand, or they would probably have stiff "limbs for life. On reaching Wellington they were ordered to report at Masterton Hospital, and this they did, but they discovered that there was no apparatus and no masseur at the hospital. Cbnse-_ quently they received no treatment." They have to report at the hospital <moe a week, but their wounds are not \eceiving the requisite attention, and they are gradually becoming worse. Tho matter has been represented m strong terms to the Minister of Defence by Sir Walter Buchanan, M.L.C Mr. Charles Thompson, formerly a storekeeper m Napier, but who left for Britain shortly before war broke out, writes to a friend m Napier as follows, under date January 9 : Since I wrote to you last I have been m Russia again, for seven months this time. The steamer I was on was torpedoed. Fortunately, I was saved, with all others on board except one. The ship was only four and a-half minutes from being struck to going out of sight. We were very soon picked up, but jthe experience was such that I should not care for a repetition. I was m Petrograd during the July revolution, and m Moscow during the October one. The latter was a bloody affair, and the damage to proiperty was very flarge. It will take years to put Moscow into the State it was before the war. As for the people, they have simply gone mad. They were given ligerty, but riot understanding the meaning of the word, .' they have taken it as a "license."' Everyone is doing as he or she, likes, both morally and socially. Murder 'is taking place every day, and no steps are taken to punish the offenders. Of , course, such a state of things cannot last long, but it is awful to be there while it is going on. Sooner or later the people wjll come to their senses. Then, again, someone will have to pay. I think it will be the Jews, who nave been taking a very prominent part m • the revolutions.