LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Taranaki Daily News will be published as usual on Monday next (Labor Day). The Te Aro Seed Company has forwarded the sum of £1 is for the Taranaki hospital funds. The recent rains have proved most beneficial to the patriotic wheat that was sown two or three weeks ago in the paddock lent by Mr. H. Western, Bell Block, and the crop is coming away splendidly. An Amsterdam cable states that Kirovic, who was serving a term of life imprisonment for the murder of Av.;hJuke Ferdinand, has die-( in Moollen iui.T military prison. A London cable states that the House of Commons agreed to thp termination of the suspension of Mr. CiinncH, who had sent a written apology to the Speaker. Tho next meeting of the New Plymouth Patriotic Committee will be held on 31st inst., the ordinary meeting night. Tuesday next, clashing'with Comforts Week,

Six nurses on, the staff of the New Plymouth hospital, it was reported at the Board's meeting yesterday, have completed a course of invalid cookery at the Technical College, and have passed the necessary examination.

, A Wellington telegram says that yesterday Frederick George Smith, a soldier, pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate's Court, to a charge of theft from a dwelling, and was committed for trial. On two other similar charges he pleaded guilty and was committed for sentence. In the ease in which Ivan Levy, a reporter of the Xew Zealand Times.'was charged with a breach of the War Regulations Act, the magistrate said the offence had been committed, but not deliberately. He fined Levy 20s and costs.—Press Association. Two donations of parcels of hooks have been made bv Mrs. Matthews, of Fitzroy, and Mrs. D'Arcy Robertson, to the hospital and nurses home respectively. At yesterday's meeting of the Hospital Board, the donors were thanked for their kindness.

A Press Association message says that G. S. Thomson, of Christchurcli, who was committed to three months' imprisonment for failing to pay a £SO fine imposed on him for refusing to display a military poster, has been released,'the amount having been paid on Saturday last by the secretary of a society in which Thomson was prominent. That local applicants for appointment as |ii-"bationcrs to the nursing staff of tli» New Plymouth hospital should receive preference was a decision come to by the Taranaki Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday. An application was received from a Blenheim resident, anil it was decided that the matron be written to informing her that in future the Board would not consider the applications of residents outside the district until the list of local eligible applicants had been exhausted.

The Inspector General of Hospitals (Dr, T. H. A. Valintine), wrote to the Taranaki District Hospital and Charitable Board yesterday stating that the Ministei for Public Health was desirous of extending the system of assistance in maternity to other than the centres whore the State maternity hospitals were established. Under the Hospital and Charitable Institution! Act, Boards were empowered to establish maternity

wards, and the writer asked the Taranaki Board to consider the matter. lit was resolved to reply stating that the Board would give the matter consideration, and that when it had considered its proposals with regard to the old hospital, it would give the matter special attention.

A par'y of New Zeahid 'o-Uiorj who (vera cither on furlough 01 sick leave ; n r.Lgliiuil recently went for a trip to f.'lrpstow, aid met wit'i an hiterestms "xperieiice. They found thai; their pi" nic. basket was minus a teapot, so one of the number, Lanee-Corpora! H. Skinner, an old New Plymouth boy, who is recuperating from wounds received at Gallipoli, went to a farmhouse near by to borrow one. Noticing his uniform, the lady of the house asked where he came from, and. was informed, "Taranaki, New Zealand." "Do you know {few Plymouth?" "Yes," was the reply. "Oh," said the lady, "I have a brother there. Perhaps you know him." "Who is he?" asked T.ance-Corporal Skinner. "Ben Tippins," answered the lady. No further introduction was required, and those soldier lads were royally treated.

With a view to making the "Singing Service" in the Recreation Grounds a thorough success on Sunday next (the opening day of Soldiers' Comforts Week), arrangements have been made with Mr. A. Gray to organise a big choir, to lead in the* singing of the hymns. All members of choirs, and any other ladies and gentlemen who can assist in this way, are asked to attend a special practice of the music for the occasion, which is to be held in the Temperance Hall on Friday night next, at 8.30 p.m. The lateness of the hour has been decided upon so as :o allow of choir members attending their respective practices first, and then assembling to rehearse Sunday's hymns for the "Rec." All vocalists are urged to give the proposal their practical support by their presence on Friday night,

A London cable states that Lord Clifford Chudleigh's estate is valued at £(10,10*. The nott shortage of the Taranaki quota for the 1 22nd. Reinforcements is -8, and arrangements have been made to lend all recruits ollVring to camp on on 2otli inst. ■ Those who arc willing to go forward by that date arc requested to communicate with the Defence Department at Hawera or New Plymouth at once.

Five hundred more women have been accepted by the. British War Office as Army cooks and will be sent to the front to join 1500 others who have been satisfying Tommy's appetite. These women wear khaki, live in camps and banacks, mess, draw rations, and are the nearest approach the Army has- yet seen to Thomasinn, Atkins.

"The time is coming, >f it has not already arrived," said Bishop Averill, at the opening of the Auckland Diocesan Synod, ''when we ought to liava at least fifteen to twenty more clergy in this diocese, and if we cannot find men and train them here, the work of the Church must inevitably suffer. Owing to the constant and rap'n growth of population in the dioces?, there is ur-

gent need for the division of most o: our country districts."

It is forty years since the Prime Minister saw the ('•'■' Country ~s a hd. ~He has been brought up in New Zealand, and looked forward to the. sight of England as a strange, yet familiar spectacle —strange to his vision, but a place which has always been dear to his heart. The relatives he left behind as a boy have disappeared one by one, until there are only an aunt and a few cousins left to greet him. A soldier, writing from France on August 20th, says: "In reading the New Plymouth papers, from time to time I noticed Mrs. George's orchestra has given several benefit concerts. I would like you to tell her what a real good friend the Y.M.O.A. is to us, and I hope they will not be overlooked by her orchestra. As for the Y.M.C.A., they are out on their own, and deserve to be well supported. Being a past member of the orchestra, it would give me great satisfaction to see that body do something for the Y.M.C.A." Says the New Zealand Times—A W'aitara man, wljo has three sons at the front, and one on the way, is of opinion _that some concession should be given to parents of soldiers in the way of reduced fares on the railway when seeing their sons off. Tliia particular citizen, with his wife and daughter, came down on Thursday at considerable cost to see his son on", and he thinks it is only reasonable that the State should bear a share of the cost entailed in travelling so far to see his soldier son off, which appears reasonable enough The dogs most sought after 'by the French in the trenches are English fox terriers .and Irish terriers. Those want practknlly no ''examination." No amount of gunfire can distract their attention from a rat. Only show them one rat and even a Jack Johnson bursting within ten yards of him will not prevent his pinning that rat if there is anything left of the two to pin or be pinned. One of them, called Pat, was buried by a shell explosion the other

day. Pat was dug out still alive, but not ?o was the rat, for 'Pat was still gripping liim by the hack of the peck. These dogs patrol the trenches regularly night and day and take no notice of the heaviest artillery fire or of anything at all but rats. Poiln is always trying to "Mock" one of them away and keep liim in the dug-out, with bribes of bones and ),itbits, so as to have the sole use of his services. This is all very Well until his master's peculiar whistle sounds, and then nothing, will hold either Jock or Pat from answering the call.

In describing lioumania to on Auckland Star reporter, n Roumanian, who is a resident of Auckland, describes his countrymen as the democrats of the Balkans. He says that there are municipal hotels in the towns, and that "each municipality lias its hotel, where a man coming into the town is entitled to be boarded and lodged free of cost for three days. No questions are asked beyomf his name, and the place from which he came. If the man elects to stay longer than three days, then he has to pay, but the charges are on the very lowest scale possible. Roumania was the first country in the world to introduce a Pure Food Act, and the State of Victoria was the second, but we have'no Workers' Compensation Act or Old Age Pensions as you have in New Zealand. There are no private hospitals in. Roumania. • Our hospital system is quite different from that of New Zealand. Any funds given for bospitajs must go to the State for the public institutions, because no fees are charged patients, whether rich or poor; nor are any questions asked, beyond name and address. There is a paid, as well as an an honorary medical staff at the hospitals. Another thing is that no pri-

vate practitioner is allowed in the rural districts. Doctors are appointed by the State for such places. What is more, no medical man can register unless he is prepared to,give for two hours each day advice gTatis to patients. On his plnt'e the free hours have to be stated'. There are also State dispensaries, where patients get medicine free. The maternity homes are also free." The. Christmas "smokes" for soldiers' tin, specially prepared by the New Plymonth Patriotic Committee, will assuredly b.> one of the most popular gifts for the men at the front. The tin contains four plugs of Havelock tobacco and five packets of Three Castles ■liparcttes, and is put up in a specially designed colored label: Stamped l -eady for posting it cost; only 3s. Bought in the ordinary war it could not be got for less than Cs BU Orders are being taken by *he Taranaki Daily News, J. Avery, Ltd., C. Carter, J. Abbott, Gilmour and (larke. Country readers may send *o any of the above, with soldier's full a lire.'t and a small card or note to be enclosed. The tin, like a letter, goes straight to the soldier, and will be posted, in time to reach him for Christmas.— W. J. Chancy, hon. treasurer. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd,, wish to draw the attention of clients to the sale which they are holding in their Taratu Yards on .Friday, October 20, at 1 o'clock. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns on page 8 of this issue. The reason why Melbourne Ltd. suits are so popular is easily ascertained. Mainly the prices are the'lowest obtainable, while the suits in themselves are chock full of merit. We solicit a visit of inspection from the keenest buyers. The better the judge the greater' the appreciation of our values, - The .New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., wish to draw the attention of clients to their Spring horse fair, which they are holding in "their Stratford yards on Saturday, October 21, at 12.30 o'clock. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns on page S of tjrig issue* " I: