LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Featherston Co-operative Dairy Co. has decided to consign the whole of the season's exportable output of cheese through the Bristol Producers' Association. A contract has been let for the erection of a boys' hostel at Palmerstva North High School, the cost to be about £IO,OOO. The dormitories will accommodate 34 boys. The postal authorities are advised that the K.M.S. Niagara, which sailed from Vancouver for Auckland on the 10th inst., carries 730 bags of mails for New Zealand. The 5.9. Paloona, which sailed from Melbourne for Bluff on the 18th inst., carries six bags of Australian mails for Welllington. At a meeting of the Council of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce it was decided to appoint a committee to interview the various Chambers of Commerce in the province jn regard to direct importations and the railway service. The committee will on Tuesday next visit Stratford at 2 p.m., Eitham at 4,30 Pjn.j and H&wera at 8 sja.

A Southern journal slates: The. drop in the price of Cadbury's cocoa a few days ago caused great surprise to gro> cere. Cadbury's was the fast to jump up prices &ix months ago. Now it is the first to cut down, The price of best j loose cocoa has been reduced by 3d pel lb. It can be bought for 2s sd. It is reported that several of th: new houses erected in Wanganui for speculative purposes did not find new owners as readily as anticipated, and that in some instances the owners are prepared to accept less than the amount originally asked with a view of releasing capital to carry on the good work in which they are engaged.—Herald. A meeting of the Taranaki branch of the Home Service League was held in the Soldiers' Club, New Plymouth, last night. There was. a good attendance of members. A number of new members | were enrolled. The resignation of Mr. Ireland, secretary of the branch, was received, Mr. Ireland having left New Plymouth for Australia. Mr. A. G. Lowry was elected secretary and treasurer to fill tho vacaney. It was decided that it was advisable that all home service men should become members of the League, and they should he requested to send in their names to the secretary. Mr. Jennings (Waitomo) has given notice of his intention to ask whether the Government will consider the advisability of encouraging tobacco-growing in the Dominion by the payment of bounties on the tobacco produced. In a note to his question Mr. Jennings says:— "The Governments.of the Commonwealth are encouraging the aboVe proposition, owing to the high price of tobacco; and experts have shown that the gross returns are as high as £IOO per acre, while the expenses all round do not exceed £25 per acre." The coal trouble will not affect the Kaupokonni Company, which has about a year's supply of wood on hand, as well as a fair quantity of coal. The company has also its own hydro-electric plant, which is being extended so as to do away altogether with the necessity for coal or wood, except for minor purposes. Another big dairy company in South Taranaki is not so fortunately placed, its coal supplies only being sufficient for a few days. There are not wanting signs for a coal famine, and it would be well for every factory dependant upon steam to get in as quickly as possible all the firewood possible. "It is wonderful how easy the burdens of the country appear to rest upon the shoulders of Mr. Massey," said a Taranaki resident who has just returned from a visit to Wellington. "When in Opposition he was petulant and somewhat unreasonable and difficult to, get on with, but all that is changed. He is uniformly liked and trusted, even by the Labor extremists. The Premier has lost all his old pettiness, and is now a big mRn in every sense of the word. He is no longer a politician; he is a statesman. In his attitude towards the members of the House he takes the broadest and most generous view, and manifestly ho is out to do what he helieves to be in the best interests of the country, and | not of his party. But the strain must tell. He cannot be expected to keep up for much longer such a cracking pace. His lieutenants, generally speaking, are of a mediocre type, and Bhould anything happen to the leader it would be the end. J of the Government, for there is no man available to take his place." Wednesday, September 29th, will he the 74th anniversary of the opening of St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth, in 1840', and the occasion will be marked by a special festival service in the church on that day at 7.30 p.m. The service will be fully choral, and the music which has been in rehearsal for some time past will be a special feature. The choirs from the Anglican Churches at Stratford and Waitara, and representatives from the Inglowood and Te Henui choirs, will assist in the rendering of the music. The annua) choirs' festival service will thus be combined with the festival of the birthday of St. Mary's Church, .a very happy arrangement. The music will include Lloyd's Magnificent and Nunc Dimittis in P, Stainer',s Te Deum in B flat, neither of which has been sung in St Mary's' before, and Mendelssohn's well-known "Hear my prayer" for an anthem. It is hoped that the congregation will be worthy of the occasion, and that this service may become an annual event on Michaelmas Day. The collection will he devoted to the expenses of the festival, and towards the purchase of church music for the various choirs taking part. An address will be given by the Rev. R. J. Stanton, vicar, of Inglewood.

"This claim that the output oi a 40hour week can be made to equal that of a 44-hour week has been made over and over again, and many secretaries of unions have tried to prove the same thing, but they have not succeeded yet," said Mr. S. E. Wright, at the Arbitration Court at Auckland on Thursday. "They put this down to the employers not running the industry properly, and immediately begin to try to teach them to ■do it. The only point of wonderment to us is that if they are so capable they are not running businesses of their own, instead of merely criticising those who are doing so." The fact that some furniture factories were already working a five-day week did not necessarily imply a 40-hour week, added Mr. Wright, referring more particularly to the dispute under consideration. The employers merely found it more convenient to work 44 hours in five days, and thus save starting the machinery on Saturday mornings. They would not agree that this should be made the general practice. Dunedin is in urgent need of a moral "clean-up" according to the annual report of the mission chaplain, the Rev. V. G. Bryan King. Mr. King, who is an old experienced social worker, reported an "alarming increase" in cases of men neglecting their family responsibilities, a growing tendency to open adultery, and a great increase in immorality. He had been simply appalled during the past twelve months by the eases of wives deserting their husbands and husbands their wives, and living with others sometimes in the same street. This occurred not in single instances but there were dozens of them, not only young couples but old counples also. He wanted to say in justice to a noble band of men that this was not due to returned soldiers. They were blamed for almost everything under the sun, but in his experience they were responsible for very few of these cases; in fact, he could only remember one. On Sunday next, weather pei'mitting, the Citizens' Band will give a music recital at the Breakwater, when a varied musical programme will be given. Fuller particulars as to the nature of the items, which will include an air varie arrangement of "My Old Kentucky Home," will be given in to-morrow's issue. The collection is to be devoted to the band fund, For Children's Hacking Cough, ' Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, .1/9, 2s>.