LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1339, 29 May 1918, Page 9

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An aged If) volunteer, W. L. Moore, warehouseman, 46 Division Street, Ricearton, and an aged 20 reservist. E. G. Barrell, undertaker, 221 Durham Street, besides a Second Division reservist who desires that his name be not published, have registered for enlistment at the Christchurch recruiting office. After passing a resolution expressing their deep regret at the death of Mr H. S. Bourn (a past president of the chamber) and their sympathy vith his relatives, members of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, adjourned their quarterly meeting from this afternoon to 3 p.m. on Friday, as a tribute of respect to the deceased member. It has been ascertained by the military authorities in Christchurch that the statement of the man C. C. Jones, who was arrested by military police, with some difficulty, in Cathedral Souare yesterday morning, that he deserted from Trentham Camp about a month ago, is correct. Jones will, therefore, be sent to camp under escort, and will there be eou"t-niartialled on charges Of desertion, resisting arrest, and unlawfully wearing an Australian uniform. Legal argument was heard in the Magistrate's Court this afternoon, before Mr T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., in the ease of the Christchurch Drainage Board (Mr O. T. J. Alpers) v. the NewZealand Glue Company (Mr A. P. Wright), which had been adjourned from March 15. The plaintiffs charged the defendant company with making a drain into the Heathcote river without the consent of the board, and witii causing foul liquid to flow into the river.

Your poultry or your life. Four young sinners have just been convicte 1 at Auckland of theft under romantic conditions. Instead of robbing a henroost in the orthodox ehook-lifting way, they ■would visit a camp of Celestial market gardeners, and 'while one youth fired revolver-shots over the huts in the hope that John would bury his head in the blankets with fright, the others moved freely in the duck-yard and fowlrun. Their next inspection of chickens dead or alive will be somewhere towards 1920. The circumstances under which 2nd.Lieut. C. 11. Holmes won the Military Gross are as follows:—"2nd.-Lieut. C. 11. Holmes led his platoon with great gallantry and dash against a strongly wired and defended position. He crawled through the wire ahead of his platoon, and when held up by machinegun fire he consolidated the position, he had won, his courage and cheerfulness being a splendid example to all ranks." 2nd.-Lieut. Holmes is the son of Mr A. H. Holmes, Registrar of the Supreme Court, in Christchurch.

There are hundreds in the Dominion who have no love for G o'clock closing. But few probably have a more personal grievance than a gentleman well known at Lambton Quay. Had this pious war measure not gravely compromised his chances of getting a drink,. he would already have been a Dominion recordbreaker. As matters stand, his latest was only his 112 th appearance before the Magistrate, and there have been sinners of his age who have just succeeded in beating him. His consolation is that, though he is a comparatively young man, he is old enough and wicked enough to be able to despise the ballot, and may be expected to go far yet.

The distinction between a taxable amusement and non-taxable fun is a question, apparently, of active and passive voice. In connection with a dance held recently in the North Island the promoters duly paid the tax, but subsequently applied for a refund on the ground that a dance did not come within the meaning of the Act, as those attending the function took an active part in it, and could not be described as spectators or an audience. The application was forwarded to Wellington, and word has now been received that this contention had been upheld, and that the tax collected at the dance referred to will be refunded in due course. Moral for the pleasure seeker: Don't take your joys too soberly. Hop, skip, and clap your hands, and the tax commissioner dare not touch you.