NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14546, 26 October 1917, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY.

, —• -««o~ - : ■ Beneficial rain foil yesterday, aftei a si>en of tlry weather.

i } l mg to the Parent*' of a Nelson lad, who was on leave in London from the front, Mr M. W. P. Lascelles, honorary commissioner of the V.M C A mentions that he had met their son' who was looking well and in good spirits. After referring to the temptaj? S °I the g^eat city> Mr Lascelles adds that it is a privilege to be of some service to the boys, who lon^ to be back in New Zealand.

associated with the Loyal iNelson Lodge of Oddfellows will be interested in the notice-' in the advertising columns with reference to Dr .Bett being cow the sole medical officer available, I)rs. Andrew and - Jofinston beiW with the Expeditionary Force.. To ensure the surgeon's ,;fullest attention, members are askeU to obseive the Lodge 4-me that requests for calls-be delivered with the surgeon before 9 a.m. daily. During the; dearth of bottles for use of patients members? are requested to promptly return them.

The Nelson Harmonic Society- will render Gade's "Psyche!' at tho"School of Music on Thursday evening next.

■ Frank admissions- as to the inadequacy of their stipends were made by several clergy in a debate at a sitting of the Auckland Diocesan Synod.

An examination will be held by the Plumbers' Board of New Zealand on December 14th and 15th, for registration purposes. • .

An elderly native named Ilawiera Tarairi was convicted at Gisbome and fined £25 with £9 7s costs, on a charge of tohungaism. The charge arose out of an attempt to commit suicide made recently by a Native, who alleged that the defendant had bewitched him. A sitting of the C 2 Medical Board was held at Nelson yesterday, when a large number of men were passed as fit for the C 2 training camp at Tauherenikau. . The "our day" appeal at Auckland on behalf of tho Red Cross Fund had reached £6127 on Tuesday, and sub-1 scriptiolis are still coming in well.

No trace has yet been found of Miss Martin and Young, whose clothes were found among the lupins a few clays ago (says the "Olagb Daily Times").'

- -In the House of. Repres<}i:tatfvo3 last I night, oh."■■consideration of tho Expedi- £ tionary Forces , Amendmont liill in •* Committee, an amen.li.it«nt by.~--S'r 1 Joseph Ward to'esemjjt all teachers vas curried on a nose division ;telegrarhs our correspondent;. !j

Practice is evidently not one of the . saving graces of country brass bands' (.observes the "Oamaru Mail"). At a| ■recent function in an Oamaru country j district one of the bandsmen, on going! to tho bandroom for his instrument/ found that a sparrow had taken all the necessary. 3teps to bring into the world a batch of young sparrows, and had built her nebt in the bell-mouth of tho instrument.

The Minister of Defence announcer', to the House of Representatives last week that 12,652 New Zealand soldiers J-iad returned to the Dominion. Of these 9C52 had been gazetted out of tho force or discharged, 1254 had returned to duty 51 had died, 494 were awaiting discharge, 300 were awaiting return to duty, 780 were out-patients of inpatients of institutions, 290 were om sick leave, 21 were on special leave, 4 had deserted, and 6 were in prison. The report on the petition in favour of using Miss Roberta's dressmaking! chart .in technical and secondary | schools in the Dominion stated that the [evidence given demonstrates that the charts are not educative, but rather of utilitarian value, and that their use should be made optional in the technical and secondary schools of the Dominion. Tho committee strongly recommended that Miss Roberts be given an opportunity of proving her confidence m her own scheme and its value by being placed in charge of a class rqr a period of six months. Dr. Thacker, M.p., speaking at a public meeting held in Christchurch the other evening in connection with increased allowances for the dependents ,of soldiers,.said that he did not' believe Sir Joseph Ward when ho said that the finances were stretched to the limit. It was unbelievable while there were from thirty-five to thirty-seven railhons in the Bank of New Zealand, and while the Imperial Government was oftermg 155s a hundredweight for butter. He believed that the price would be 255s if New Zealand could extort it from the British Isies. Whc got the difference between the shiliin" a pound for butter before the war and ; the two shillings to-day, or the differ/ence. between lpd and 2s\ for wool, 6r ..Ifxivama lid for cheese? ft went, tc .the xich -men, and the National Government was a rich man's Government with rich men pulling the wires, and ruling as dictators of New Zealand

fepeaking at a largely attended public meeting convened by .-the Second Division League at Christchurch, Mr J iMcCombs, M.P. for Lyttelton, said that he was not a member of the u'n. Yvision though he ought to be, and so ought everyone who was a second division reservist. H« was surprised at the modesty of the leagues demands. The new proposals brought forward by the Government cost,^ country the sum of £1--10/,000 Ihis would.provide for another 13 reinforcements. The total cost, it the demands of the Second Division League were given effect to, would be £2 088,000, or £931.000 more than what the Government was giving tt these demands were conceded it! would with interest and sinking fund cost the country only Is lid per head of the population. If that were too gr iea 1 t 1 burden the country as a whole, hovr much greater a burden was children of the Second Division? The trovernment asked where all these millions were to come from. Ho could quote the frime Minister in his capacity of president of the Board of Trade to show, that in two, years of. war the country had Aiado-- £15,000,000 in war profits, lv England, under Mr Bonar iSv/SJ^B6*'" a man a*'receipt of .i.10,000 per annum would pay a total tax of £7081, and if that scale of taxt hon Were applied to New Zealand, there would. be ample money to meet the just demands of the Second Division League.

-Among'the judges at the Wairarapa Ehqw' this week were Messrs Jb\ W. Fairey- and George Hunt, of Nelson. Tho former judged the fat sheep and cattle and the latter Roinney sheep. ■ It is understood thai; the prices to be offered by ihe freezing companies for fat stock at the opening of the season'.■this year will be' somewhat lower than last year.

'Seven single men and .one married man from the staff of the "Wairarapa Age" have already gone on active ser vice. One lias been killed in action, three have been wounded, and the remainder are serving. '

At a public meeting held at Blenheim on Monday night a resolution was passed "that tha Government bo respectfully ' asked to reconsider the scale of allowances for soldiers' dependents before the session closes."

"It is only the reactionaiy section of the community, sheltering behind (the age limit, that is denouncing the attempt of the Second Division JLe«gu<v to obtain a living allowance for theil dependents," states the ""VVairarapa Daily Times."

To relieve the schoolboy's instinct to carve his name, and to .save school desks: from damage, the llangiora High bchool Board, at the suggestion of the principal, has decided to mount.a suitable board in the playground on which the-pupils would be" permitted to carve to their hearts' content.

A conference representative of the people of Natal recently passed a unanimous vote to present as a free gift to Great Britain £50,000 worth of maize, potatoes and beef, and farmers have agreed to allot acreage for growing their respective contributions.

Ihe Dunedin correspondent of a Chnstehurch paper states :—Unprecedented prices are ruling for all fatstock, and it is the opinion of the majority of master butchers of Dunedin and suburbs that the price of meat (particularly of mutton) should be advanced. Butchering is an unprofitable business these days, and while no concerted action is being taken by th^ butchers, it is almost inevitable that the retail price of meat trill advance immediately.

lhere as a considerable worry looming ailead m the matter of cornsacks ?o d . wo?l^^, writes "Agricola" vbouth Island correspondent in the ''Farmers' Advocate"). There is a threatened shortage of these requisites, and it behoves every farmer and pastoralist to be careful of the sacks and the packs that they have on hand -There is usualjy a good deal of waste m these respects en most farms and an enooavour will have to be made to sort out and mend up any sacks that can be made to hold grain or srats seed. to ! It was a letter from an Anzae. He had been buried in a collapsed dug-out for several hours; but during that time ho waar comforted, ho wrote, by knowj ing ho had sent five Germans to hell. {The regimental censor was a wag. for he had drawn a thin line through the last word, and had appended the comment: "The enemy's whereabouts must not be disclosed." • A peculiar accident happened near Avondale the other day to Mr Donald Cattanach, who resides at Parnell. lie was sitting, carrying a rifle, in the side-car of a motor-cycle^ when the jolting caused the rifle to explode. The bullet went through one boot, injuring ; several of iiis toes. U.he injuries, liowJcver, wero not serious. ! The trade in Britain is an extensive one and represents an enorjnuus amount of capital. There are financially interested in the trade eight <lukes,' seven marquises, -. 62 earls, 18 viscounts, 77 lords, 888 knights, over 1000 military and naval officers, and more tiian I i!OU clergymen, in" addition jto a very large number of private j business people.

One of our most distinguished commanders (says fche Liverpool "Post") was recently home in London on leave. Glad to get rid of uniform for a while. he dressed himself in mufti and weni one evening to a music hall. In the tTomenade he encountered an Australian private—jusfc a little exhilarated —who entered into conversation witli him. The hearing and manners of the general delighted the Commonwealth soldier, who finally had an admonitory hand on his shoulder and said, "My boy, you ought to be in the Army."

i "The Church has undou'btetdly failed m the past to lend a sympathetic ear to the ■ just claims and aspirations of the great wage-earning class which has done so much to produce the wealth of this and other countries," said Bishop Averill in his address to the Auckland Diocesan Synod. "If the Labour movement has to some extent developed! a corporate spirit and sense of brotherhood apart from the great brotherhood of the Church, doos the fault lie al together on the side of the Labour movement?" ho asked. The great bulk of the workers, he added, were not extremists, fanatics, or iconoclasts, but the real backbone of our and every other Empire—and had they not fully justified their claim to such a position by their readiness to sacrifice all in order that the Empire might live?

'Duty is the demand of the passing hour," and our duty clearly is to see that so far as in us lies every man, woman, and child has the brightest and best Christmas possible. Let the future hold what it may, the season's stocks have fully arrived, and now is the time to buy or resenve gifts or toys. This week Christmas cards, patriotic cards, and Christmas postcards will be specially featured. Bargain parcels will be sent to any friend in the country at 2s 6d, ss, 10s, 15s and 20s each, poßt paid, and so certain are we of giving satisfaction that, money will be cheerfully returned, if you are not more than pleased. The cards are indeed lovely, and most appropriate for tie times We are in direct touch with the best British card makers. Nothing like them in the province. They are quite unique.—"Novelties," 42 Hardy street, kelson.*