LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXII, Issue 54, 15 January 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tuesday of tins' week wrs* ike 75th anniversary of the captuie of the Euapekapeka Pah at the Bay of Islaiids,. frßttn the Maoris by the British troops under Colonel Despard and the friendly native 8 under' Taihati Wakan6ne. The 58th Regiment took 1 pari in these operations. The capture of '‘this psh brought Horae Hoke’s war to a close.

’ln connection with the aivioun e ment that the A.S.R.S. had, decided to take a strike ballot in the event rl the cost of living bonus not being paid, .an official,in Christchurch states •that’the Prime Minister (Hon. W. F. Massey) announced he would give the men another Wages Board commission to go into the question of wages only. The commission will consist of three. of the Society and three of the Department, with an independent chairman. The members are asked to vote not on '» straight-out strike, hut whether they will'Support the executive in an> action they may take.—(Press Association).

Jean Sinclair, aged 13, elest daughter of the Rev. J. Sinclair, of St, Outhhert’s Preshy Church, Brighton, Melbourne, died suddenly 'on returning hoffi 0 after plhying lawn t nnis. ’Miss S ncla.'r took, f >r a slight cold what she thought to he a do 4 of medicine. ITn fortunately the battle contained a solution of nicot"e used for setayi'g rose bushes. Mlsg Sinclair fell ur.cOnse'ous, and died in a. few 'minutes. Mrs Sinclair, who went to her daughter’s assistance, had a narrow escape. She tasted' the con - tents of the bottle, and was also seized with convulsions, but subsequently recovered.

The officers of the famous Fifty-first : *; Bivision—cons’stmg mainly of Scot-. iish territorial battalions—held their - first post-war dinner in Edinburgh in November, Tbe toast of th© cvenrng •was proposed by Dr Neil Munro, the novelist of th e vV>t Highlands, * whose son lost hi.'; '.ife with the divisDr. Munro claimed that whether tho men dam© from Clackmannan or Stirling, Argyll or Sutherland, Perth ‘ or Glasgow, they had a’l more’ or icss of Celtic blood in them, and th e Celt, always anticipating the worst with a certain fatalistic dourness and endurance, was a®, unpleasant person ,to tackle in a fight. Dr Munro predicted that a hundred y a"s hence, if there wer© ;any ancestral balls and poriflie'. 1 owner would point to one particular portrait and say: . “That was my great-grandfather in . the Mlt. % was the pick of the -htmeh. He Was in the 51st.” %

‘M think jiou Nelson people,” said Dr. Tillyard, of the Cawthron Insfrtute, in an address at Motucka, “arc inclined to think that Nelson is ‘the limit” Us regards pests; but i want Jo tell you that for every pest you have got there are 20 pests as bad waiting to come in at the first opportunity. So you have to organise, and realise that, so far as New Zealand being the worst place for posts, it is the best. The reason why America sends out clean fruit is that every university turns out entomologists by the and they ar e eagerly snapp ‘d up. It i s only by organisation that America has prevented the country being ravaged by pests. If you go to America and see the different th'iigs that try to destroy th 0 orchards, you will be astonished to see what has been, done to combat them, i’ou must realise that your safety lies i n encouraging the scientific study of insect pestg of all kinds, and in getting the Government to do the same. Above all, I would urge the great importance of prevention rather than ■<sure. Once you get a pest in it is l a particularly hard job to control t it.' Organise to Iceep out those things which have not got in.”