NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14667, 22 March 1918, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY.

MOORE,

During the Parliamentary-municipal trip to Waikaremoana, Sir James Carroll's anecdotes of his -war adventures on the shor^'i of the lake at the age of, fourteen, when he was the youngest soldier in the army, were listened to with attention.

William Cox, married, of Onehunga, aged 35, died at the Auckland Hospital. The deceased was employed by the Totara Milling Company. He was working at Newmarket railway station, and in the course of shunting he fell off a truck, the "wheels of which passed over botn his legs.

There was a report in town yesterday that work had ceased at the Tarakohe cement works in consequence of the departure of a considerable body of workers. On inqniry at Tarakohe we learn that work is proceeding, and that a number of the quarrymen had left. The latter fact no doubt gave rise to the erroneous report.

The following letter has been received by. Mr T. A. H. Field. M.P ' from the Hon, W. D. 3. Mac Donald, Minister for Agriculture:—"l ha-ve the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo with reference to thn location of the proposed National School of Horticulture, and in reply 1 beg to inform you that the claims of the Nelson district will receive full consideration when the matter of the establishment of a central horticultural station comes up for decision."

The predatory habits of hawks in regard to chickens are generally recognised, but that they will tackle fullgrown poultry was exemplified on a Wakapuaka farm recently, when the farmer caught a hawk making off with a White Leghorn hen.' A well-directed shot with a billet caused the marauder to drop his prey and make off. The farmer got his gun and waited, and on the return of the hawk later had the satisfaction of ridding the farm of a most undesirable'visitor.

Entries for the Tapawera dog trials will close to-morrow evening, i^hcn a meeting of the committee will be neld.

There will be no public sitting here of the Defence Expenditure Commission. The Commission will remain in Nelson a few days.

The Prime Minister has written to Mr R. P. Hudson, M.P.,- stating -that the Union Company is having the Komata fittedi'iip to carry 22 passengers, and/ she will run between Wellington and Westport, as was formerly done by the Mapourika.

Mr F. 08. Loughnan, Stipendiary Magistrate, arrived yesterday afternoon for the purpose of taking the Nelson and Bay Court circuit. Mr Loughnan's arrival was delayed owing to indisposition, and a large number .of cases set down for hearing were formally called on before Messrs T. Turnbull and T. Edwards, justices, yesterday, and adjourned till to-day.

A mishap occurred near Saltwater bridge yesterday morning. Mr fl. J. Flatt, with his wife and child, was driving to town from Tahuna. When the

trap was nearing the bridge a locomotive whistled. This startled the horse, which first stopped and then commenced to back and play up. Finally it backed into the train, with tne result I that the three occupants of the trap! were thrown out, both shafts rbroken, j and the harness considei-ably .damaged. • The child was thrown between the' rails,.but the train had by then been-'brought to a standstill, and the girl was unhurt. Mr and Mrs Flatt were thrown clear,, but suffered from shock. An incident of the flood at Bright-1 water was the escape of the occupants: of one of Mr S. P. Clay's vans from a' dangerous situation. In the vehicle were Mrs Lightband and three child-] ren, Messrs F. Silcock, F. Biggar, J.! Harford, and X>. Clay. Near the Brightwater Hotel the two horses seemed lose their feet. One began to plunge, and got down and was drowned. The van did not capsize, and the occupants were rescued on horseback. The storm on Tuesday interfered with telegraph wires in the neighbourhood of the French Pass, but generally the district did not.suffer much in this respect. It is reported also that & good deal of damage was done to launches n parts of the Sounds

It is reported that the first quinnat ■salmon was caught by the nets of the Government fishing boats last week off the mouth of the Waitaki River. It. was a 121b female fish, devoid of- roe, and from that fact, provided this is not an isolated instance, a late-run-may be anticipated, as the salmon enter the river only when fu.ll of roe.

In supporting a motion protesting against Samoa being allowed to revert to Germany, Mr Kinross White, at meeting of the Hawke's Bay County Council, said: "I have heard on good: authority that the Kaiser is a shareholder in a very large commercial firm ithere."

A wheelwright in Essex having done a small job for some troops encamped* near his workshop, sent in his account: for 9s 5d vo the military authorities, To his amazement he received in pay-; ment a cheque for £95. He wrote,! pointirig out that his account was for'ly only 9s sd, and asking what he should do with the cheque sent to him. inj repiy he got another cheque for £95. Not knowing what to do, he consulted a solicitor, who advised him to bank the money and let the authorities apply for its return if the errors were discovered, and this the wheelwright did.

A German prisoner of war, John Gu& tav Blinn, was charged at the Magistrate's Court, Wellington, on Tuesday with a series of particularly mean thefts. Blinn was brought over from Somes Island and admitted to the hospital for treatment in December last, and took the opportunity of collecting various odds and ends.' from nurses, patients, and the board itself. The four charges preferred against him are the thefts of a watch,-valued-at Zs 6d, from Norah Holmes, a* fountain pen, I valued at 2s 6d, from Nurse Willis, and a pair of scissors and a pair of forceps, valued at 3s 6d, the property of the Charitable Aid Board. The articles were found in his possession, but Blinn pleaded not guilty, and the case was remanded for a week.

<A most exciting time was experienced by an overseas vessel •which recently arrived at a New Zealand port while on the voyage from London. "The journey as far as America was uneventful, I ut it was after leaving a port there that the trouble began. When they got as far as —■ — they ran ashore on an uncharted sandbank. This evidently loosened the rudder, for albout 11,500 miles further on the rudder [broke, so the captain had a jury rudder made, but the heavy weather that was being experienced at the time made it impossible to get it into position over the stern. They then made for a South American port, where a new rudder -was made for them. Twenty-four hours later it came loose and broke adrift, so they put back to get another. rudder madei The last one carried-them within 1,500 miles of New Zealand and then broke away. Bad weather was then experienced, and they had to heave to, in consequence of which their stores ran very low. A vessel eventually come to their assistance, and they were towed into port, having been over six months on a voyage from England to New Zealand.

The question of Germany's possessions in the Pacific was touched on by Sir Joseph Ward in an address at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. Actually some people, he said, wanted to give back the islands in the Pacific to Germany—to give these fine bases for aeroplanes' and for submarines, and coaling places for warships, to. the enemy! We were going to have the British Empire stronger than before the war. And, surely, we were not mad enough to give Germany back these bases in the Pacific to enable the Germans to become strong enough to fight us with. success in the future. (Applause.) Any sum raised over and above the 9i millions now asked for would, he added be kept towards any further loans that-Parliament might authorise. (Applause.) Let them remember that they - were fighting for their country, fighting for freedom, fighting side by side-with all the greatest countries in the world outside themselves to prevent (victory for a country : dominated by Prussian 'militarism, and which wanted to dominate the whole world. (Loud applause.)

The Manitoba (Canada) Board of] Moving-picture Censors have prohibited the screening of comedy films as calculated to make the public too frivolous in these times of war sacrifice, and while men are daily dying for the country. ■ ■.' ■ ' • ' '

A littie before 9 o'clock the otter j morning a gentleman was walking along Mount Edeu road, Auckland, enjoying his smoke. He was., carrying an umbrella, and evidently a spark from his pipe must have dropped and ignited the cover, for it suddenly burst into flames, and was not only completely destroyed, but the light coat of the wearer was also damaged on one side. To throw the umbrella aw.ay and get out pi the coat promptly was a bit of worK very speedily effected. ,

The leading illustrated weekly newspapers in New Zealand are announcing that from April their prices will be raised to Sd per copy. The reaeon given for the increase is that news printing paper has advanced to over 300 per cent, above pre-war costs, and that pictorial and cover papers are difficult to obtain at any price. The heavy advance in all chemicals and photographic materials is also an important 1 tactor in the increase in the cost of pro- | duction of weekly newspapers.

A resident of Hong Kong, writing to a friend in Christchurch, says: —"Am sending you a paper with an account of a tragedy—a hold-up, and triple murder, by a band of desperadoes—about iialt a mile from the centre of the city, and on the way to the golf links. There's no doubt it's a parlous age, "but this part of the world always appears to be in a state of unrest. Canton, quite near here, sports a 'scrap' of some sort weekly. Europeans sort of take tea and cakes out to the battlefield, and seldom get hurt." .The eighth annual conference of the New Zealand Poultry Association .will ibe Hem in Wellington during Easter | week. Remits to the conference will ! deal with tuo food question, the importi ation oi Asiatic eggs, tax on poultrykeepers, stamping or cool store or chilled eggs, the State poultry farms' experimental work, Government-control-led egg-laying competition, and im- ■ provement of the constitution of the as- | sociation. Much interest is being taken in the proposal that conferences be I held at different centres each year,_and {it is hoped that a resolution in that direction will be adopted this year.

Considerable interest lias been taken in Auckland m an appeal for exemption made to the Military Service Board by Mr Charles Fisher Gardner, manager of the New Lynn brickworks. Evidence was given that Mr Gardner's services were essential, and that if he was called up the works must be closed and the

employees dismissed,

The board held

that fee was not indispensable to the life and existence of the business, and it dismissed x-he appeal, but ! granted leave until June 27th. When tiae board's decision was announced the appellant's counsel stated that the works would be closed,

*xie Minister e£j>efence is delighted with the results oftheCl training camp at Featherston. "It has been an extnaordinary success," he said to an Auckland "Herald" reporter. * "By, judicious physical training .the health and strength of many men have been great'mproved. iNot only have men below the standard measurements Been made fit for service, but others, includ- | ing those with slight heart trouble, have been made fit. The men in the cam P are ve.rv keen," he added. "The great majority of them aru 'very anxious t0 Qualify, for admission to the active service drafts. Captain Brock was specially brought from England for this work, nnd to give instruction in bayonet fighting, and he has done excellently, and nas now trained an efficient staff of instructors:'"'

The veil of mystery surrounding the' disappearance of Mr'A. J. Thompson,-! of-.the staff of the Dunedin Magistrate's Court, was happily lifted to a certain extent last evening (says Tuesday's "Otago Daily Times") by the discovery of Mr Thompson at Tomahawk, though much remains still to. be explained. About G o'clock Mr George Coughlan, of Tomahawk road, reported to the Anderson Bay constable that he had found the missing man on the verandah of week-end cottage at Tomahawk. Mr Thompson was,found to be in a very weak and emaciated condition, and was conveyed by motor car to tfie Dunedin Hospital, -where there seems every prospect that he will make a good recovery. He was able to converse quite rationally, but appeared to be suffering from serious loss of memory. For this reason and also because of his weakness from lack of food he was unable to give any connected account or explanation of his movements since he disappeared on February 17. It is still quite uncertain wnother he went away of defiberate intention or whether he was overcome by sudden lapse of memory.

Kaitaia has been furnished with sensation for the last day or two by the escape from custody of Vladimir Carevich, a Dalmatian, who was tracked from Houhora to Waipapakauri on Fri-! day, and arrested on a charge of house-; breaking and robbery from some of his' "TTollof / a, n t>o^Patnots (says Monday's Herald') Carevich, whc is 26 years at S a W^ S in tjthe Kaitaia Police" cells on remand. He was working during the latter part of Saturday afternoon m the yard or the police station J™t when his tea was ready he pleaded indispositzon an d for about three minutes found Carevicl-. had flown.