THE COLONIST. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1916. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14129, 4 July 1916, Page 4

THE COLONIST. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1916. NEWS OF THE DAY.

011 M ay 26th arrived in London on the jsu inst.

A-conference of representatives of local bodies will be held in Nelson today to discuss hospital matters.

Some persons have been making" it a practice to remove manuka sticks from the Rabbit Island. A notice appears m this iss-uo warning persons found ren.ovmg manuka sticks from the island without' permission, that they will be prosecuted.

iAn -Australian mail ex Riverina snould rent-!: Xslsou this morning.

Mr James Bell, a.candidate for East Wfa-cl i!i the Education Board election, publishes a notice to school committees.

Sir Joseph Ward (telegraphs our Parliamentary correspondent) now proposes thia-t the exemption of mortgages from mortgage-tax shall be provided for as ho proposed in the first place.

Subscribers to the Nafvy League Fund for Widows and Orphans who .wish their contributions to go to the special fund in connection with the Battle of Jutland are asked by (advertisement to notify Mr- Cecil King, the hon. treasurer.

It is uudeiNstood that an appeal has ■been lodged against the decision of Mr J. S;. Evans, S.M., in the recent case in which a conviction was recorded ngainst T. M. Brennan, licensee of the Royal Hotel, for exposing liquor for sale during prohibited hours.

Tho Helping Hand Shop will be open for business as usual on Thursday morning, i*nd on Wednesday for receiving only. Contributions promised for the first Thursday in the month will (be be collected in the city, and at Tahuna may be left rat Mrs F. A. Bamford's l'osidonce.

Stops are being taken to remove the inmates of the Alexandra Home (destroyed by fire tost week) to the Home for Defectives, Richmond, as soon as possible. It is hoped to-day to take out |he old men who have (been accommodated at the General Hospital, and the others will follow at the first opportunity afterwards.

Two little- girls were charged before Mr J. S. Evans, S.M., at a sitting of "the Juvenile Court yesterday, with stealing 21b of butter. * One was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and the information against the younger defendant was dismissed. An undertaking was given that tho elder girl would'be sent-to relatives in the North Island, where she is to report to the police.

The Christchurch Lady Liverpool Coirmittee has received from Miss E. A. Rout, secretary of the Volunteer Sisterhood, through the V.M.C.A., over two hundred envelopes containing fiowers (dried) taken from the graves of soldiers who were buried in either the old Cairo Cemetery, Cairo, or the Chatby Cemetery, Alexandria. The flowers were placed on the graves on the morning of April 25th, 1916, and some were taken off on.the evening of the same'day by the Sisters and sent out for distribution to the relatives of the fallen soldiers. The committee will be _ pleased to hand the envelopes containing the flowers to the nearest relative on application (and quoting the number of the late soldier) at the Depot, 644 Colombo street, Christchurch.

A _ pupil of the Neudorf School has received a pleasing acknowledgment of thaughtfulness shown by her for our soldiers. Iris Bensemann sent a handkerchief as a gift. It proved a token of cheer to its recipient, and the following letter has come to hand from ■Lieutenant C. P. Worley, from Zeitoun Camp, Egypt, under date March 4th: "My dear little Iris—l was visiting Private T. M. Driscoll in tho -hospital yesterday. He has had his arm cut off, and is returning to New Zealaud by tho Maheno to-day. While he was in hospital ho received a handkerchief which had b&sn made by you, (and he was delighted with it, so on his behalf I write and -thank you immensely. I am sending you a little, silk handkerchief in return, which j-ou may keep as a token that you have given pleasure to at least ono poor sufferer in the hospital."

-An earthquake was experienced at 1.35 this morning.

Owing to ' the continuance of the diphtheria epidemic in Napier, the Hawke's Bay Education Board has decided to close the schools for a period of three weeks.

, Moving pictures of the Dublin riots are now being shown in Christchurch.

There seems every prospect of an exceptionally good whaKng season in tho Sounds and Strait this year, says the Picton "Press." Up to'the other day tho Perano party had secured nine whales, the majority being fairly good speciments. For the corresponding period of last year, the total captured was four.

•It is understood that an agreement is to 'bo ratified between the Board of Trade and the Colonial Sugar Company that the wholesale price of sugar in New Zealand shall remain at £21 per ton for a year. This should mean that the retail price of sugar need not ba advanced to the consumer.

Mr. Hugh Morrison, chairman of the Wairarapa Patriotic Executive, stated at an executive nteeting the other day that approximately £165,000 had been given to the Wairarapa Patriotic Fund.

Butchers ir. Melbourne and Sydney advertise that they will hot wrap up tho family chops, steak, or sausages in paper unless they are paid an additional penny for so'doing. The consequence is that customers now bring along calico cloths in which to wrap their purchases, while the unbiquitous gugar bag is in increased demand.

The latest newspaper to suffer from the heavy increase in the cost of newspaper production is the "Bay of Plenty Times," published at Tauranga. It has announced that from July Ist the subscription, rate for the paper will be increased approximately by 50 per cent, and some adjustments made in the advertising rates. Should this not prove sufficient the paper will revert to a tri-weekl3' issue.

At the close of Miss Pankhurst'a address at Westport a- lady in the audience expressed strong disapproval of the tenor of the address, and vehemently denounced the speaker, who, she said, would never have been allowed under the German flag to deliver such an address. Miss Pankhurst replied, and. after a further stormy protest, the mterrupter bounced out- of the meeting exclaiming: "If I had my way I'd shoot her. She'd get a drumhead courtmartial in the morning."

The "Marlborough Express" of June 28th says: "Apparently the High Commissioner for New Zealand has tiaikeu] to heart Mr A. T. Ngata's protest in the House the other evening regarding the cable messages sent from London for transmission to £out-back' distncts dealing too exclusively with the doings of the British Army in France. Yesterday, for instance, . the inhabitants of the Wairau Bar, Molesv/orth, and other remote settlements were .supplied with the startling; intelligence caibled and telephoned at the taxpayers' expense, that Lord Selborne had resigned the Presidency of tho Board of Agriculture! Reports have not yet come to hand as to how the news was received—whether everyone took a 'day off,' or ho>v many cablegrams of sympathy were forwarded m the noble lord."

The following. is culled from the "Westport News": On receipt of a cablegram stating that- the British troops, with the .Anzacs prominent, had penetrated the German lines on the west front in no fewer than ten places, a representative of tho "Westport News" rang up Mr R. J. Paul, of the Empire Hotel, and gave him the message, with a suggestion that it should be made public at the meeting in the Victoria Theatre. Mr Paul immediately hlaoided up a, note to the chairman, Mr Woodward, who consulted with Miss Pankhufst, and then handed it back, with the message unannounced, to Mr Paul.

The jurors in the Rua case at Auckland are not quite satisfied with the amount of remuneration they are receiving, which is the statutory allowanceof eight shillings a day. 'Some of the jurors are business men, says the "Herald," and are suffering great inconvenience, while others arc ordinary workers who are accustomed to a good weekly wage. One ov the latter is stated to be paying another man ten shillings a day in order to keep his position open until the problematical time arrives when the ea.se will conclude. It is understood that tho jurors will make representations to his Honour Mr Justice Chapman on the question.

In a leaflet published in the United States, Mr. George L. Fox, principal of the University School, New Haven, Connecticut, makes the following comparison of crime in Germany and England. The population of Germany is to_ that of England as 5 to 3. As to crime, the proportion of bigamy is 1 to 2 nearly; in incest, about 13* to 1; in procuring it is 264 to 1; in procuring abortions it is 29 to 1; in unnatural offences it is 7 to 1; in sexual crimes ib is about 9 to 1; in murder, manslaughter, and other death-causing crimes it is 5 to 1; in arson it is about 4 to 1. With regard to divorces it is 22 to 1. As to illegitimate births, it is 5 to 1. The number of suicides is four times as great as in England. These figures will not surprise those familiar with the religious condition of Germany and with the materialism that dominates its rulers. They indicate that the criminal brutality that has characterised the German treatment of defeated foes is just what aight have been expected.

A number of members of the Fiaxrcill Employees' Union keenly resent the action of the extreme section of the union in compromising all members by the resolutions passed at the "mass meeting" held at Palmerston North in respect to the military Service Bill (says the Manawatu Herald"). We are informed that the attempt to compel members of the union to sign a pledge to go on strike when the Bill became law, will result in failure. As one employee says: "The union executive are asking us to oppose compulsion, vet the union members are subjected to a more stringent form of compulsion.by agitators, and these men will find that there is a limit to compulsion even in industrial unions." He adds that because a- man is compelled to join the' union it doesn't follow that the union owns his body and soul, and he and many others are not going to be compelled to follow in the footsteps of the Roger Casement dupes.

The Thermometer.—At 3 o'clock this morning : the thermometer oufr»de this office registered 43 degrees.

At the farewell to ■Marlborouah's draft for the Eighteenth Reinforcements, Commissioner Hodder, of the Salvation Army—who incidentally mentioned that his only two sons were at the war front—made an admirable speech, m .which he adjured the men going,forward to draw their strength fron-, faith in God, loyalty to their King and Empire; personal integrity and determination.

During his lecturing tour of the Dominion in aid of the patriotic funds, Mr. John Clegg, formerly of Dunedin, and now resident in Nelson, delivered 56 ; lectures in various New Zealand towns, addressed over 20,000 people, and. raised £1072. Mr. Clegg paid his own hotel and travelling expenses and put a large amount of personal effort into the sale of tickets."

In a letter to a Hawera resident, Mr James Kowin, writing from Streatham, London, under date May 16th, among other things, says: "We are suffering just now from greatly increased prices of nearly all necessaries of life, and people with limited incomes -are feeling the pinch. In many cases prices are double what they were before the war. Pork is Is 4d to Is 5d per lb, beef is 4d to Is 6d. But one hears very little grumbling. We shall have a big fruit harvest this year; I never saw the blossom. s so tLick on the trees."