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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16423, 25 April 1919, Page 2

Cabinet has agreed to the extension of the right to financial assistance to soldiers who left the Dominion before the scheme was in operation, and who, being unaware of the scheme’s existence, were unable to take advantage of it. Lloyd’s surveyor examined the Bessa on Thursday, but discovered no further damage. The divers are making further examination of the hull. A court, presided over by the Norwegian Consul, heard evidence regarding the mishap and made certain recommendations, but could give no finding.

There is no doubt that football clubs will have great difficulty in obtaining a supply of jerseys for the coming season, worked up in club colours. This week a Taranaki club forwarded an order to a southern mill for 100 jerseys and received a reply that tncy could not undertake its fulfilment. The secretary of the General Post Office has received advice from the censorship authorities that, unless unforeseen circumstances prevent it, tho press bureau in the United Kingdom will ho abolished at the end of this month and that there will then be no censorship of press telegrams to and from the United Kingdom. The estimate presented to the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board provides for a gross expenditure during the year 1919-20 of £97,847, less estimated receipts other than subsidies and levies £28,430, leaving £69,417 to be found. Of this amount £38,115 is apportioned among tho local authorities, while the amount due to the board by way of subsidies from the consolidated fund is placed at £31,302. On Wednesday next at the residence of Mr. A. V. Sturtevant,,Webster Bros, are holding a clearing sale of house furnishings. The articles to be submitted are" good and numerous, and includo a handsome upright grand Broadwood piano. In the upper room of the Soldiers’ Club this evening at 8 o’clock, a meeting will he held of those desirous of supporting the Mayor and some of the candidates for the office of councillor whose names appear in a notice in our advertising columns. It is evident that there will be a lively contest on clearcut lines. It is good to see ratepayers talcing some interest, and it is hoped that the old councillors who have done useful work for the town will be returned. Ladies 1 Do. not wear out your beautiful summer clothes on the old-fashion-ed washboard. Let “No Rubbing” Laundry Help and the pure “Golden Rule” Soap da the work. AU stores.

The eminent English ooncertinaiste, Colin and John Campbell, have been further engaged to perform , at both Everybody’s and the People’s Theatres to-night and to-morrow night. Many leading astronomers, in all parts of- the world have told us that their first incentive to , pursue their lofty and inspiring science was obtained when they were young e by some casual statement they overheard, or through their attention being directed to the heavenly bodies by some picture or description. Who knows but that we have in New Plymouth some embryo Barnard or TTaumarion, who will receive the impulse and vision necessary when he hears, from the lips of the director of the AVanganui Observatory, on Monday April "28 the wonderful story of the heavens?

Five boys whose ages ranged from nine to iT years succumbed to temptation” at Kaiiottl on Good Friday and 1;c(,l; j Jnto a shop, removing from it and converting to their own use certain goods which have a very powerful at--u-uouou for the young, 'they entered the premises occupied by Momona Tamibana through a window and from the billiard room found their way to the shop, where they took possession of several packets of cigarettes, tins of sardines and certain lollies. The culprits confessed their guilt to Constable O’Neill when he made inquiries and they were brought before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., at Opunake on Thursday. They were admonished in. the presence of their parents, and no con viction was entered 1 . The parents agreed to make good the value of the missing goods.

A correspondent writes to the London Evening News of March 5; The casualty statistics given to the public have not got beyond general totals, so far, but a New Zealand medical friend gives me some interesting details concerning their losses. Among the total of 55,000 casualties in the Now- Zealand force, including 15,000 killed, there has onlv been fcho surprisingly small number of 20 cases of blindness. the “limbless” cases also have been remarkably few in number, when it_ is borne in mind the loss of any portion of -a limb, from a hand or foot upwards, brings a case under this classification. Losses of fingers, or toes do not count as limblessness, hut practically everything above this does. Of such oases the New Zealand casualties include only between 800 and 850, which works out at something under 14 per cent. All these men, I am told, are undergoing special educational courses wherever their loss has made a. continuance of .their pre-war occupation impossible.

Tho need of an overland railway from Adelaide to Darwin may be seen from the following incident (writes the Farina correspondent of the Adelaide Advertiser). Recently Mr. R. V. Brumby trucked 90 donkeys. These animals wore bought from Murnpeowio station, where it is estimated that about 2000 of them are running—many wild. Tho donkeys were trained to Oodnadatta, and from there are being droved overland by way of Alice Springs and Newcastle to the Katherine, in tho Northern Territory, a, distance of about 1000 miles, including a stretch of 100 miles with only one water hole in it. 'flic average speed will be about 15 miles a day, so that the journey will not bo completed until the mid!lo of June. Mr. Brumby considers the donkey to bo tho best animal for transport in tho Northern Territory. A few rxpeniments have been made with camels, but these have all ended in failure by reason of the animals having eaten of poisonous bush. There are only a few donkeys there at present, and these are being taken mostly for breeding purposes. Mr. Brumby has been engaged for a long period in transport work in the Northern Territory, and considers donkeys and mules 1 to be the onlv serviceable animals there.

The cost of the war to Germany doubtless came as a great surprise to the Gorman public when the German Minister of finance made the announcement to the National Assembly on February 15. The estimate made by him (saye the Melbourne Argus) amounts to 161,000,000,000 marks, which, on the basis of pre-war exchange at about Is, aggregates over £7,660,000,000. This total exceeded by approximately £700,000,000 the credits which had' been voted. The Minister explained that in October last the German Government was on the brink of financial cxnaustion, and that when its request for a credit of £750,000,000 was refused, it raised the amount by bank-note issues. He felt it necessary to ask the Assembly to vote a credit of £1,265,000,000, the greatest loan the German people bad ever been asked to raise. In summing up the situation tho Minister declared that the war expenditure had been met by loans only, tlie interest on which had been covered by taxation, and tho Government would need £950,000.000 during the current year to cover interest payments alone.

It is estimated by tho Lands Departments of the two States concerned that iii Australia over 22,000,000 acres are infested with prickly pear. Queensland has over 20,000,000 acres, and New South Wales 2,203,000 acres. By way of comparison it may be noted that the area under all kinds of crops in the Commonwealth in 1916-1917 was 18,520,000 acres. The area of Tasmania is 16,778,000 acres. The pear is said' to bo spreading at the rate of 1,000,000 acres annually, or a very great deal faster than the crops. Tho proposals put forward by the Commonwealth and accepted by Queensland, but not as yet by Now South Wales, provide for an expenditure of £BOOO a year on experiments with the hope of finding natural enemies wh,ioh_ will destroy tho pest or keep it well in chock. It is proposed to have one laboratory at Brisbane and one in New South Wales, in addition to the one at Dulacca (Q.) At the head of tho staff would he a scientific officer with a salary of £IOOO a year, and his two biological assistants would each receive £650 a year. There would also be a business manager at £SOO a year. For the first year £750 is set apart for work in North and South America, with £2OO for the same purpose in the subsequent years. It is suggested that as time goes on tho facilities provided might also bo used for other biological investigations. Of the £BOOO a year tho Commonwealth is to find £4OOO, and New South Wales and Queensland each £2OOO.

The Melbourne, Ltd., is still in a position to supply men’s all-wool colonial tweed boxed suits at 59s 6d and 69s 6d. Buyers should take note, however, that stock is running low and that further supplies cannot be obtained for several months, and only then at an advance of 10s per suit.* As impregnable as Verdun—Regal brands of boots and shoes. We sell direct from the manufacturers and save the middleman's profit. All goods branded “Regal” are manufactured in our own factory, and are guaranteed to give fair wear. Ladies’; box calf brogue shoes, just “it” for winter wear, 26s 6d; gents’ strong nailed shooters at 17s 6d, 19s 6d, 225.— Regal Shoe Store, next Everybody’s Picture Palace.*

People who wish to discover whether they will gain or lose by the change in the system of ratipg can do so by starting from the assumption that a rate of 5d on the unimproved value will produce the same sum as the present rates. All they have to do is to compare their present rating account, exelusive of rubbish removal, etc,, with the amount produced by the payment of 5d in the £ on the unimproved value of their property.

Practically 6,000,000 motor vehicles were in use in tho "United States by the first of the year, as revealed by the automobile registration in the various States. The actual total, according to the latest figures, was 5,945,442 vehicles. On January 1, 1918, statistics showed that the country had 4,941,276, so that the increase during the last year, despite tho war conditions, higher prices and the storage of many cars, was 1,004,176 vehicles. This, in itself, says a New York paper, is a remarkable indication of national economic strength under the many financial and personal war burdens. The anomalies existing between the salaries of primary and secondary school teachers were referred to by Mrs. R. L. Baume at the meeting of the Grammar School Board on "Wednesday. Mrs. Bimme stated that under , the present system primary school teachers were receiving a higher salary than teachers with degrees in the higher schools. She instanced the case of a secondary school teacher with an M.A. degree and five years’ experience, who was receiving less than £2OO, when loss qualified women wore paid more than that amount. It was a case of grave injustice, she said. Tho matter was referred to the chairman, Professor A. P .W. Thomas, for report. A conference of representatives to revise the scale of salaries was advocated in a letter from the Otago IJigh School Board. At the rating meeting in the Empire Theatre on Thursday evening it was stated, that £1,193,976 (the present unimproved value of the land in the borough will, if the system of rating on unimproved values is adopted, have to shoulder the taxation now raised on £836,984 of improvements, in addition to the share ot taxation which it already bears. It F was admitted thit somebody would have to pay extra to make up the etrxa amount to be raised on the unimproved value. One of the advocates of the proposed system proceeded to deal with individual cases, typical of certain classes of owners, in which the opponents _ of the change claim that the rates will be increased if the system is altered. In each case he said that the effect would be to reduce the rates, not increase them. It was then stated that nine men own something over £121,000 of the unimproved value of the borough (or about one-eightb of tbe value). These nine men, it was said, would have to pay £620 more in rates every' year. As it was shown that so many classes of ratepayers are not to have : their rates increased who are the unfortunate few outside the nine big owners who will pay tho other £2,700, of thereabouts, necessary to produce the present rates which total about £8,400 per annum.