THE COLONIST. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1919. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 14976, 25 January 1919, Page 4

THE COLONIST. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1919. NEWS OF THE DAY.

The mails which left New Zealand for the United Kingdom on December Ist arrived in London on the 10th inst.-js

A Nelson soldier, who was with the 40th when the transport was stricken by disease, writing to a friend from a military camp in England, says: r:Have read enquiry, not at all satisfactory, white-wash all over!"

The Acting-Prime Minister (Sir James Allen) has informed Mr C. W. Batten, president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, that New Zealand soldiers who are not members of an Expeditionary Force under the Expeditionary Forces 'Aqt, 1915, are not entitled to vote. Thus New Zealand soldiers serving with the British Army are excluded from tne poll:

The Town Clerk reported to the City Council Uust night that the annual valuation of the city had been completed, and the roll deposited. The valuation was £1004 above that for the previous year.

The City Council last night appointed Captain Dee and Lieutenant btotvart fire inspectors for the city. The Council further, on the motion of Councillor Marris, congratulated x&e two officers mentioned on their recent appointments in tho Five Brigade.

A public address on r'National Efficiency" will be given by Mr F. JVlilner in the Theatre Royal after church tomorrow evening. The Mayor will take the chair.

In response to an inquiry by the City Council, Mr E. Parry, the Government's chief electrical engineer, lias intimated that he expects to roach Nelson, in the course of his inspection of the water power resources of the South Island, early next month. A visit to Lake Rotoiti by the Blenheim Borough Council has been arranged in connection with the proposal that the two municipalities should undertake a joint electrical scheme using tlie lake as tho source of power, and the visit was to have taken place on Wednesday next. Tho City Council decided last night, however, to suggest that the visit be deferred until Mr Parry can accompany the party.

Tho ladies of the Wakeiield Methodist Clmrch have been busy preparing for a &ale of work which is to take place next Wednesday, Jan. 29th, in tho Oddfellows' Hall, Wakqfield, commencing at 2.30 p.m. There will be stalls of plain and fancy needlework, produce, sweets, as well as a fairy well. There will also be competition.l! of all kinds. Afternoon tea and. supper will-bo supplied at the usual price. No charge for admission will be made, and as the proceeds ai%e to be in aid of the building fund of the new Church, it is expected that a large number will attend.

Mr Will Lawson wrote to tho City Council last" niglit stating that he was engaged in the preparation of a book on the Takaka and Nelson districts, dealing particularly with their attractions to tourists. "The Tourist Department had guaranteed to take several thousand copies, and local bodies across the Bay were interesting themselves in the matter. In order that the work might be as comprehensive as possible he sought the assistance of other local bodies, and he invited the Council to make a .subsidy of £30 towards' the cost of production. The Council referred the letter to a committee, the Mayor stating, that further information would then be available. .'..-■

At the Thames Magistrate's Court this! week the licensee of ..the Warwick Arms Hotel was charged vefKl permitting drunkenness. Evidence was given by: the police that they visited the hotel on the afternoon of December 24, and found a man on the premises in a state of intoxication. The attention of the licensee was drawn to the matter, and it was alleged that tho licensee made unreasonable delay in ejecting the man from the premises. For the defence it was contended that the licensee used all reasonable despatch in getting the man out, short of bein^ unnecessarily harsh, | which tho Act did not require. It was [more reasonable to adopt persuasive measures in such circumstances than to use force. His Worship dismissed the case.

Mr W. D. Bayloy, the Canadian prohibition lecturer, fell foul of returned soldiers at Palmerston North on Tuesda yevening by stating that a young New Zealand soldier in the trenches deserted while under the influence cf liquor and was shot. The statement was challenged by a. returned soldier and Mr Bay ley declined to give the name -A' the man or the report of the court martial. He declared that the incident had heen told him by an officer, but expressed his willingness to give the name to "any competent military authority. : Mr Uayley was obviously .annoyed" at the questioner of his story, and invited the soldier on to the platform if he wanted to make a speech, to which the soldier retorted "I am not a paid agitator. lam one of the boys. lam sticking up for one of the boys who was shot," the remark being received with applause. In a sub-leader the Palincrston "Standard" takes Mr Bayley. to task for hid remarks, declaring that h« committed a very serious error of judgment in his reference to a New Zealand soldier, to .say nothing of the very bad taste h edisplayed in alluding to the subject. The paper also commends the courage and manliness of the soldier who questioned the- propriety of Mr riayley's conduct.

In sentencing Norton Thompson, solicitor, of Hastings, to four months' imprisonment, Mr Justice Hosßing eaid he was sorry he could not apply the Probation Act. He had the police report before him, which showed that for toe last three or four years Thompson had not been attending to his business but had been drinking, gambling, and following up races in the North Island Ims had no doubt caused the whole trouble. It was sad that such a young man should damage his career in this manner. A breach of trust, especially {in the case of,a solicitor, was always f regarded more seriously than an ordin|ary case of theft, and as a rule was | severely dealt with. The jury, However, had strongly recommended in his favour, and he also took into consideration that Thompson had been before the Court smce last July, had had two trials, (and because or the Court adI journment he had been for five or six | weeks longer under this charge than he | otherwise might havo been.

1 Foi tho first time for several years a ipublican's booth was open on tho Treniham racecourse on Wednesday (says an exchange). The booth appeared to j be liberally patronised, but there was an1 f entire absence of drunkenness on the' i course. MrA. Ilodgkinson, of "Jersey Bank," ij Takalra, has received word that his cow ; i Pretty Polly has won the Jersey Breed- i ers Association's gold medal for the highest production of butter-fat J:or mature Jersey cow under C4overnment 1 semi-official test for the year 1918. ; Mr Alfred Stephen Amy, a married;' man, aged 37 years, died at the Auck- j land hospital this week from injuries '] received through falling oft' the top of a ] 'oad of wood in Richmond Road. Tliej accident was caused by the wheel of the! cart catching in a- rut and displacing j the wood. Mr Amy, who was an i engineer, had his spine injured. He leaves a wife and six children. Invalid soldiers to the number of about 40 from "the Dunedin Hospital and ■ the Convalescent Homo at Montecillo were treated to an outing at Puketeraki ; the other day. At the lunch a number of Maori women acted as waitresses, and it is worthy of note that Mrs Rial Tikiii'., a lady oi 1 108 summers, assisted : in the task. When justice had been j done to tho good faro provided, (the ; visitors were entertained by the iocal', Maori residents. That the King does not forget things j that strike him is shown'by an incident related by a returned soldier'who was invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. His Majest3' engaged m conversation with different members of the party, and in a chat to one of them mentioned his interest in the drawings done an Gallipoli by Mr Moore-Jones, of Auckland. As the drawings were on exhibition before His Majesty some con-, aiderabJe time ago, it is all the more re- i. markable that he should remember and mention them to another Auckland soldier. , Early in the war preparations were made for tlio establishment of an extensive camp in the Federal capital territory for the internment of Germans and their families, who were to be brought to Australia from the East. The project was, however, abandoned after an expenditure of £157,000 had been incurred'by the Commonwealth on behalf of the British Government. The camp includes 80 f blocks of buildings, each con-' taining 21 rooms, and is, in fact, a model village. A Scotch breeder of prize cattle, .says' the Central News Glasgow. corres-1 pandent, recently headed/out -.of the auction ring a yearling calf for which he had received a price almost equalling the salary of a Cabinet Minister. 'He gleefully shouted "Long may the warlast!" * Turning to his clerk, the auctioneer said, "Cancel that sale and boycott that creature's herd!" The. farmers present loudly cheered the auctioneer's decision. i It is not generally known that soldiers who were in camp and were discharged j at the time of demobilisation are eligible' to take up land under tlio Discharged Soldiers' Settlement A,ot. Section 18 of the Repatriation Act, 1918, provides ; that discharged soldiers within tho moaning, and for the purposes, of see-, tions 2 and 3 of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Amendment Act, 1917, in-: eludes all discharged menibers of an Ex- I peditionar y Force who, having boon j classed as medically fit (whether! absolutely or contingently) for service; beyond the seas, have seVved as members of that force in a camp of military, training, and remained attached to that •?amp on November 12, Iylß.

A very peculiar case is reported from Otaki, where the postmistress, at Oh&u. pleaded guilty to a charge of opening fifteen potal "packets. The evidence showed that only one of the letters open-f-d contained anything of value, and the contents of this packet were intact. Tileopened letters were left about the office, and no attempt was made to hide what bad been done. When interviewed by Detective-Sergeant Rjawle tho accused admitted her guilt, and said she had opened other letters and forwarded them on. "The only reason I can give tror my action is that the surroundings are dull, ,and my/ curiosity, together with a breakdown of nerves." caused me ta do it. I knew when I <i'id it it was wrong."

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Protestant Political Association at yanganui, the Rev. Howard Elliott re-ferred-to the happenings which followed thje dawn of peaco^ .the tumbling of thrones, and the uprisings of the people n. European countries, the crisis bein^ the greatest ever faced in the world's history. Men of all nations, he said, '.vere demanding justice, and we have got to hear their claim. All men the world over should share in the benefit of our common existence. The time had come when all things were changinc, and the crisis was as real here as m Europe, as in New Zealand tb<^e were men who claimed to be Bolsheviks, who say that those at the bottom must rule but tho grinding of one class by another is a tragedy. In demanding iustioe, the extremists will crush others mere w.as also a political crisis, and f>B a Irotestant Association, they must look at the facts as they were. Protestants had nover before laced the political situation as a political body, but they must do so now. The National Government was tremendously unpopular it was adopting A ;"taihoa" policy in-re-gard to its treatment of returned ?ol•iiers, but this cannot b& permitted. Ihe men who had gone to fight for us should be given opportunities to settle on the land, or obtain other employ- ! naent He intended to ask the Protestf.nt men who could afford it to finance the returned men. Rome would do this for her men,., and the P.P.A had got to see that Protestant men'were pufc on land and given a chance.