LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A meeting ia being arranged in New Plymouth to discuss the question of forming a boxing association here. The Union Steamship Co. has received advice that one of their steamers is to leave San Francisco early in March for New Plymouth direct. The Taranaki Workers' Council has taken over the Good Templar Hall in New Plymouth, and has re-named it the Workers' Social Hall.

One of the applicants for the position of engine-driver to the Moa Koad Board forwarded a reference which stated that he was "a lit subject for examination!" Some 200 acres of Crown land in the North Auckland district, 325 in the Auckland district, and 17,830 in the Hawke's Bay land district are gazetted as set apart for soldier settlement.

Taihape's police recently cleared the town of 1.1 loafers and wasters, seeing them off the premises with instructions to get to work.

A large camp has been established at Maaterton by the Seventh Day Adventists. Between 300 and 400 delegates from all parts of New Zealand are present at the annual conference.

The farmers of Lumsden district showed their patriotic spirit in a practical way on Saturday, December 27, by turnin? out in strong force with, their teams and implements to help three returned soldiers who have taken up sections in the district. A splendid day and honest labor resulted in a largo block of land being not only ploughed but fully cultivated ready for sowing. Local bodies have to fix the day of the statutory half holiday for the "ensuing year at a special meeting t ( . be held in January, and failing this" the day is fixed by the Government. On Saturday the Moa Eoad Board briefly discussed the matter when reference was made to the desire expressed some time ago for a Saturday half holiday. No action was taken, however, the day being left for the Government to decide.

A Timaru young man, who enlisted in a Scottish regiment and saw about four years' service in various theatres of war, has just received information that the difference between trie pay he received with the Imperial Forces 'and what he would have received had his service been with the New Zealand Forces amounted 10' £3Gn (says the Timaru Herald). A cheque for this amount has been forwarded to him from the Paymaster-Gen-eral, Wellington.

__ In November. 1017, there were only nOl civilian medical practitioners in Now Zealand, but according to the latest information available there are now (12S medical practitioners in civilian pracOn a return previously published, in many instances the population to each medical officer was considerably over 3000, but at present that is the position in only very few instances. During the past two years the average population to each medical officer has decreased from 2269 to 1872.

Sheffield is now developing industries largely wrested from Germany during the war. The output of gramophone needles will shortly reach 20 000,000 a week. Gramophone springs are a wartime innovation, and thousands are produced weekly. Sheffield's output of aluminium spoons and forks, an industry held solely by Germany before the war, will run into millions annually. One firm produces- weekly 2,000,000 nonelip studs, and 3,000,000 washers for pneumatic tyres and 2000, safety razor frames a dav.

The annual meeting of ratepayers of the Moa Road District was held on Saturday, and, despite the fact that it was the last meeting prior to the coming into heirs of the Inalewood County, the usual lack of interest wns'ssown by ratepayers, only eight members of the hoard being present. The business done was purely formal, consisting of the adoption of the annual balance-sheet, the meeting being over in a couple of minutes, causing Mr. Bowler, who is also chairman of the Moa Dairy Co., to remark that he wished they could get the annual meeting of the Moa Dairy Co. over as quickly.

Timber prices have been advanced this n-eek, but the scarcity of material is even more serious' than the high price, (says the Auckland Star). From present indications it will be a long time before sufficient houses are built to meet the urgent requirements of the growing population of Auckland. At the present moment the mills are short of supplies, nnd can only supply a fraction of the orders in hand. But the temporary nature of a local shortage is nothing' compared with the serious position of the industry in general. ''You young ladies are well dressed, in fact, too well dressed." commented Mr S. K. McCarthy, S.M., at the Christchurch Magistrate's Court, when three sisters were charged with various thefts from the Christchurch Hospital, where they had been employed. "There are many women in this town in much better portions than you arc who-cannot afford to dress as you do with the present prices of drapery and soft goods. Yon ynserve to lie taught a severe lesson." The accused were not imprisoned, but restrictions were nbiced on their liberty for the next twelve months.

A rapid decrease is beins shown in Hie number of and ox-soldier oatients boin? hv the Medical Services of Hip Defence Denartment As compared with 4520 in and out patients receiving treatment on .Tune Ist last, only 33?n wore bcin* treated on December »th last—a reduction of J4fl] m seven months. The number of outpatients ivbo renovted and were hem" [rented drooped from 2940 to 15A7 dur"incr the Inst seven months in question. Die number of in-natients hninn- treated m December. 7070. was 1733 „, ron . trasted with ] S Pf) on dune Ist preceding -n reduction of K<?. The number of Rnl.lior n,„l o.v-soldier in and outpatients for the respective military districts «„ December Bib last were as nn- < err-Wellmrton. ofift. Canterbury, R74Auckland. S2l: Ota?o. RRB. The ],™ number of natienta in the Wellington military district is accounted for hv the inclusion within the district of the Pukowa Sanatorium, and the bi s military hospital at Trentliam, both of which draw patients from outside districts The appbes to the Canterbury military '■strict, which has within its area Oneen .Vfarv', Hospital at Hanmer for SS^i^ the Cashmere

A list of boys who will join the training ship Amokura tliis week includes Eugene Zola Amor and Henry Cecil Wright (New Plymouth). "They want to have Australia white," Or. Truby King is quoted as saying, "but if they find the Eastern nations more moral, more nobly willing to make more sacrifices for the continuity of the race, the result must be the same as has been the case with the great civilisations cf the past. Greece and Kome went down, not through am failure in the valor and courage of their young men, but because of the increase of luxury, the repugnance to rearing families, followed by decadence and sterility, and eventually extinction. if the population of Australia do not do their duty to the race then there cannot be any resistance to other races coming in and populating that fair land."

At Montreal girls pursued the Prince of Wales' car, defying the panting police. Two of them rode triumphantly on the step to the very door of the pavilion at the top of Mont Royal, while the Prince, holding their autograph books on his knee, wrote his name. One daring girl stormed the car suddenly while it was moving and kissed the Prince, to the delight of the crowd. The Prince, polite but pink, resumed his salutations amid a hurricane of cheers. The success of this attack quickly became known, and half a dozen determined girls made a rush for the car when it returned to the station after lunch. They were, however, outilanked, and one was literally carried away in the arms of a policeman just in time.

The fact that foreigners, including British subjects, who have lived in the United States of America, but have not been naturalised, are heavily taxed upon their departure from the* States, was mentioned by Mr. Stanley C. W. David, of Palmerston North, to a Po3t reporter, upon liia return to New Zealand by the Tofua. Before leaving California Mr. David was called upon to pay, by way of tax, S per cent on his gross earnings for the year preceding his departure. The American official whom he interviewed on the matter said that a similar tax was being imposed upon Americans leaving British countries, hut, added Mr. David, he had been unable to find that this was 60.

ftuit is now coming on to the Auckland market in fair quantities, though the dry weather that has been experienced has affected the early apples, which are rather smaller this season than usual (says the Herald). It is somewhat early at present to determine to what extent blight and other diseases are likely to affect the fruit crop. Brown rot has already made its appearance, while nectarines and peaches have been attacked/ with curl-leaf. Peaches are selling at prices ranging from 6s to 10s a case, wholesale, and plums from 2s to <is 6d, except English varieties of the latter, which are selling as high as IDs and lls a case. There is a good demand for Bed Astrachan apples, which are realising from 5s to 10s a case. American apples are fetching from about 23s to 2fe a case. The strawberry supply is now diminishing and the berries are also going off in quality. They are realising from lOd to Is 2Jd a clip. The Auckland sawmillers complain that the fixing of the price of timber is more or less of a farce unless the price of other things be fixed. 'They say that it is manifestly unfair (o fix the price of timber while the price of almost everything the miller uses is not fixed and is subject to any fluctuation. "It is only playing with the question," said one miller this morning, "and one cannot help thinking that the whole thing is simply playing up to public opinion." To show that the fixing of the price of timber does not help the man in search of a dwelling it was pointed out that before the war the cost of the timber necessary to build a five-roomed house was £l5O. To-day the cost of the same amount of timber is only £3B higher, but the actual price of the finished house is just double what it was before the war. The sawmiller cannot gel labor for the hush, and he has to contend with other difficulties, facts which probably account for the going out of business of no less than eight-timber firms in this district.

Dr. Truby King declares that the fate of the individual is decided at the age of two or three. Such statements help to emphasise the importance of looking after our farmers, merchants, engineers, and so on, of to-morrow. This subject has become very much more important for Australia with the serious decline in its birth-rate and the conditions generally set up by the war. Wc need immigrants now more than ever, and just [it present there are not the ship* to carry them, even if Britain could spare us the kind of man we want. The result is that we have to make the very most of our own. Much, no doubt, can be done by the proper nursing of babies by their mothers at home, together with the establishment of the infant welfare institutions which Dr. King recommends. But it is also extremely important to attend to health in the schools. The education system of New South Wales is now, thanks to the Director of Education, Mr. Board, and to several Ministers for Kducation, who have successively supported him, one of which no State in any part of the world need be tishamed. But from the point of view of health it has some scvious defects, which were admitted frankly by Mr. James. They have also been emphasised by the conference of teachers which is now in session. They boil down to this: that many schools arc overcrowded, so that the pupils have insufficient air to breathe, and that heated and bad. Obviously they cannot learn well under such conditions, but even if they could, such conditions ought not to be allowed.—Sydney Sun.

Mr. and Mrs Hope Gibbons, of Wanganui, have notified the local Patriotic Society that they have acquired the local Soldiers' Convalescent Home and intend to have the building' equipped as a Women's Welfare Institute—a home for the accommodation of women before and after maternity. Mr. Gibbons remarked that no definite plans had yet been considered by himself or Mrs Gibbons with respect to the scope and conduct of the Home. The simplest way. of course, would be for them to hand over the building' to certain authorities, and let them work out a plan. That was not. however, the desire of himself or Mrs Gibbons. Tlicv wished to see the institution in working order and thoroughly established before they handed it over to the public authority by whom it would ultimately be controlled. Mr. Gibbons added that he had consulted Dr. Trubv King, who had just recently returned from England, and had discussed with that gentleman the lines upon which such an institution should be run in order to render the maximum service to the community. I n connection with the Aotea Home, Mr. Gibbons mentioned that the trustees were arran<rin<: to award to the nurses and other members of the staff of that institution (all of whom had now returned to New 7,-. n . land) gratuities similar to those panted bv the Government to members of" the Expeditionary Force.