LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 20, 12 March 1918, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The usual fortnightly euchre party takes place in the library this evening. W. H. Orsman has a replace advertisement in this issue.

A slight shock of earthquake was felt in Havelock about 1.40 a.m. yesterday.

“Money spent may serve a more deserving person: food and man power wasted is utterly lost to the world." The weekly show of pictures was well attended on Saturday night, and the programme Avas voted one of the best yet shown. Another ‘all-star' programme is promised for next Saturday.

Mr F. H. Brittain, who has occupied the position of Inspector of Stock for the Marlborough district for the lust nine years, has received definite notice of his transfer to Auckland. He will leave Blenheim for his new post in about three weeks' time.

“The true basis of life—the very essence of life—is struggle," said Pro ; lessor Macmillan Brown, at Christchurch recently, "and if you cease to struggle you may as well die." The worthy Professor, speaks as though he had had some experience in running a country newspaper!—Eltham Argus.

A very hearty welcome was accorded Corporal E. G. Pope (who left with the Main Body) and Private L. Bovey on their arrival in Havelock on Friday evening. The large crowd which assembled at the Town Hall steps joined lustily in the cheers that were given to the returned soldiers.

The March stock sales arc always the most important of the year, but an unusual number of sheep of all grades appear to have changed hands in this district during the past week, and prices in some cases established new. records.

Shine your tan shoes with ‘ TAN-OL' —the brilliant polish that won't rub off.

We remind our readers of the euchre party and dance to be held in the Town Hall on Friday next in response to the Y.M.C.A. "Red Triangle Day” special appeal. It is expected that the public will respond liberally, for there is no question as to the worthiness of the cause. The secretary of the local Patriotic Committee (Mr J. B. Lovell) will be pleased to accept donations from those who cannot attend. The Government is determined to retain Samoa, said the Hon. G. W. Russell, nt Te Kuiti, "for the first victories of the war achieved for the Empire by New Zealand soldiers. If we let Samoa go, we shall have to maintain a standing army and a strong fleet, with tremendous expense in building docks. Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, when they go Home to attend the sittings of the Imperial War Cabinet, will urge the retention of Samoa.”

Mrs Jaue Cocking, of Camberwell, died on February 19tb, in her 102nd year (says tbe Sydney “Herald”). She was a remarkable woman in many ways, _ both physically and mentally. She did not use spectacles, and until three years ago could see to thread a needle. Mrs Cocking was born in Kent on December 13th, 1816, and was married in 1844. She came out to Adelaide with her husband (an architect) in 1848. '

A resident of Parnell, (Auckland), had a narrow escape from serious injury the other day. While he was walking along the road near Druary he entered a whare to wait for a storm to pass over. The storm increased in violence, and without any warning the. whare collapsed, burying him so that he was unable to free himself. Fortunately two young men who were passing noticed his danger, and hurried to his assistance. He was rescued and conveyed to the Auckland Hospital in the evening suffering from broken ribs. Sr Auckland Gcddes, in a speech at Aldershot, discussing German w r ar aims, said that the most dangerous time will be when Germany, for her own purposes, desires peace negotiations on the understanding that it is a drawn fight. Then the pacifists, who were net numerous, but very vocal, would redouble their efforts. Peace under such conditions would mean that the world would sleep with bayonet and rifle by its side, with security impossible until the Germans were convnced that their doctrine of superiority was false. “Spend all your surplus wealth: save all your surplus products, thus you doubly servo your fellows.” The Duke of Buccleuch, in a New Year message as president of the Navy League, points out that between 176183, 3300 British merchant vessels were captured or destroyed, the loss representing roughly 35 tons per annum for every thousand persons of the population of the British Islands at the time. The outstanding lessen of history is, he says, that an insular power can never be crushed “so long as it retains command of the sea.”

It is interesting to note that the prophecies of Mr Clement Wragge, the well-known meterologist, that the effect of cyclonic disturbances over the (South-western Pacific Islands and between New Caledonia and the Australian would be felt on our coasts have received ample fulfillment on all sides. One of the heaviest seas known was running at Napier last week and considerable damage is recorded. The sea at Waihi beach, where a row of cottages was wrecked, was described as presenting a magnificent spectacle, the surf breaking miles out with great rollers shooting up tremendous heights. For polishing linoleums, floorcloths, leather goods and furniture, TAN-OL is most efficient and easy to use.

A visitor from Christchurch to Greymouth had occasion to visit the Ten Mile Bluff last week (says the Greymc'uth “Star"). Ho came across a party of roadmen, and gold entered into the discussion. One of the roadmen took a shovelful of gravel ho Avas spreading and panned it off, with a result, it is said, of a return of yelloAv metal of three grains. The “sample" Avas presented to the visiter, who now prizes it as a memento of his trip. That the macadam placed on West Coast roads is of the same alluvial nature as that turned over by the early miner and contains varying “prospects" is generally admitted, but if you told the good people of Kumara that public bodies cn the West Coast to-day spread gravel carrying three grains to the shovelful they Avould not believe it! A soldier, writing from France (or thereabouts) Avrites to the Editor as folloAvs: “Sir, —In IJp. 25 of the “Chronicles” I notice a letter from

“Waikanae” cracking up the Y.M.C.A. He put? it very mildly. I have seen the Y.M.C.A. supply whole battalions with tea, biscuits, and cigarettes free. I’ve seen a man in a Y.M.C.A. hut on the heavily shelled road handing out free tea and biscuits to fatigue parties with only one layer of sandbags between him and—the future. A few weeks age four of us left a strong post, having been wet through, covered with mud all over, sleepless, and foodless for 36 hours, and wo had a six-mile walk ahead of us. In this condition you can imagine how our spirits revived when we passed a Y.M.C.A. shanty, and got free tea, biscuits and chocolate. The hour was 2 a.m. There is no need to say what the boys think of the Y.M.C.A., is there? In recent remarks made by the chairman of the Marlborough Patriotic Society (Mr J. J. Co'.ry), he is reported to have said that the British Red Cross had several millions of money invested, and inferred that the cause was not in immediate want of funds. An official statement from an English journal has been handed to us, (says the Picton “Press”) which places the matter in a different light. The extract says: “From January to December of last year, the British Red Cross average weekly payments were £62,015, or over £6 per minute. During the same period the average weekly receipts were £42,705. How was this deficit of £20,000 per week met? It was not wholly met, but the “Our Day” world-wide special collections saved the situation, for without them the deficit would have been over a million pounds for the year, instead of £187,812.”

Dame Fortune is a treakish wench; she woes or jilts with callous partiality. Just before one of the recent big pushes, a Canadian Tommy received the news that the only relative he had in the world had died and left him £50,000, says London Opinion. He joyously passed the news along to his chum, an Englishman, who was waiting by his side to go over the top. Then the thought struck him, what was to become of the money if his luck changed and he "stopped one?" So there, in the muddy trench, he scribbled his will at the back v of his pay book, with a stubby piece of indelible pencil, making his pal his sole heir. Sure enough, the poor fellow’s luck turned. In the early hours of the day's fighting he went West, leaving his friend the richer by a fortune.

The rumor that airships had been seen over the Marlborough Sounds district is no doubt the companion of a rumor prevalent in Christchurch on Monday that enemy seaplanes had been observed flying over Nelson. The Christchurch Press says that inquiries were instituted by the Canterbury Headquarters Office of the Defence Department of the Group Commander at Nelson, which is in the Canterbury military district, and he reported that the only alleged witness of the seaplanes was a lady who stated tnat she saw two rise from the sea and disappear among the clouds. As the result of his investigations the Group Commander seriously discounted the story as improbable. Mr H. E. Longwcrth, physical instructor for the primary schools in Canterbury, states that during his annual tour of South Canterbury he noticed a vast improvement in pupils who had undergone a special course of drill during the year to remedy physical defects. He could safely say that 80 per cent of these children who had been suffering from round shoulders, etc., had developed wonderfully, and were now smart in appearance. The valuable results through physical culture were nullified to a certain extent by defective teeth. Many parents were quite indifferent to the state of their children's teeth, while, on the other hand, many parents could not afford to pay for the necessary dental treatment. He considered that the time would come when this problem would have to be faced and a system adopted to provide free dentaltreatment for the teeth of all pupils in the State schools. He considered also that many of the parents were to blame for the state of their children's teeth. They stuffed the children with sweets and biscuits. The pulp from the latter lodged between the teeth, and if the brush was not liberally applied decay soon set in. A dispatch from San Francisco, California, says that amateur and professional astronomers all over the world will heave a* great sigh of relief at the news that the lOOin mirror of the new Mount Wilson telescope has safely completed its perilous nine-mile ascent of the mountain side, and is now securely installed in the observatory. This priceless mirror, which took twelve years to_ cast and shape, and cannot be duplicafed in the rongh owing to the war, is expected by many, in its explorations of the abysses of space, to solve at last the mystery of the canals of Mars; to bring no fewer than 10,000,000 new suns into the observer's ken; to advance materially the solution of the mystery of the origin of the universe by determining still further the nature of the gassy nebulae, which, science is generally agreed, are unborn worlds —suns and planets visibly in the making. The mirror weighs four and a half tons, and all sorts of remarkable mechanical precautions have been adopted to prevent any climatic or other interference with the 100-ton telescope of which it forms the most important part.

SHARLAND’S MALT VINEGAR makes delightful salads. Brewed from malt and sugar. Free from mineral acids. Conforms to requirements of Food and Drugs Act. All grocers.

“Lavish living in times of peace leaves us a surplus from which by economising we may relieve those stricken by war famine.”

The number of stars visible to the naked eye in the whole sky does not exceed 6,000, so that an observer can never sec more than 2,500 at any one time. In the telescope and on the photographic plates there are millions. The most complete data respecting the number of stars and the light they give is provided by Prof. Chapman, who remarks that the total light of all the stars is equal to the light of about 700 iirst magnitude stars, and can hardly reach 800, i.e., on the photographic scale, or between 900 and 1000 on the visual scale. A star magnitude full moon gives about 100 times the light of all the stars, and the sun gives about 100,000,000 times.

Speaking in Christchurch on life in the backblocks of New Zealand some fifty years ago, an old gentleman, now over seventy, said that on the survey he found he could live well on flour, sugar, a certain quantity of fat, and what meat the country yielded. Birds and eels were the principal sources of meat. The supply of wekas seldom failed. Even if guns and ammunition were not available, those inquisitive birds could be caught with snares. On one occasion, on the banks of the Teremakau river, West Coast, he told a bushman that he intended to spend an afternoon shooting. The bushman said he must go down the river bed for his sport; otherwise all the birds near the camp would be frightened away. His afternoon’s sport resulted in three ducks. .On returning to the bushman's camp he found eighteen wekas hanging ready for plucking. They had been caught by snares. The pioneer employed Maoris on the survey, and found them good workers. They snared wekas, caught eels by ‘ ‘ tickling ” them and using a hook, and, when hard put, cooked the pith of the cabbage tree, which, prepared in a Maori oven for twenty-four'hours, made a palatable dish.

The Runanga murderer, Eggers, who was executed at Lyttelton on -Tuesday morning, asked while on the scaffold that a sum of £SOO, which he claimed was not part of the money stolen, should be paid to Mrs McMahon. He stated that he had written 85 foolscap sheets, covering 37,000 words, which he desired to be published. Failing that, he asked that the statement should bo handed to his solicitor (Mr Hunter), and he particularly requested that the original copy should be shown to Mrs McMahon. Eggers declared that he would go out unflinchingly, relying on his Creator. “Standing here as a condemned man with two moments to live,” he said, “I say I am not the man that did the shooting.” He repeated this phrase three times, and added: “Let it be the last words I speak—l never shot John Coulthard.” A writer in a Dunedin newspaper, advocating the development of‘hydroelectricity, says: “Let me mention just one effect it will have: it will put on the scrap heap the explosive motor lorry. A petrol lorry costs 2d a mile for benzine only. An electric lorry can be run for one-quarter of that cost, and has a much longer life owing to the fact that no explosion is taking place in its “innards.” Christchurch has

about a dozen of these cars running, and the indications are that in the near future this will be increased to the best part of one thousand. Remember, also, that we have to pay foreign countries for our petrol. When we use the electric cars we shall be using our own water power, at present running down our mighty rivers into the deep and dark blue ocean.”