LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9536, 7 May 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The price of potatoes during the past! few days has advanced to £4 per toa' f .o.b. at Oamaru. '. The Provisional Committee eet up at the meeting of Linwood residents, held on Friday, April 30, for the purpose establishing a library in the district met on Wednesday evening, to consider} ways and nieans. Mr G- W. Russell^ M.P., occupied the chair. The mattetj was given careful consideration, an*d ar report will be submitted to a publaa meeting to be held on Tuesday, Mayf 11, at 8 p.m;', in the Oddfellows' Hall/ Rolleston Street. The Hope of Christchurch Lodge, Norn 8, held its weekly session in thei Manchester Chambers on May 4, Bro-4 ther Sharp, P.CT., presiding. On«j brother was re-obligated and three candidates were proposed for membership* Greetings were received from the vari* ous Auckland lodges. The officers rotf the ensuing term were duly installed by the Lodge .Deputy, Sister Gunnell. The retiring officers gave their report* aiid a vote of thanks was passed to them for their services. - ' There are quit© a number of indignant ratepayers who are wondering why the local authorities are allowed to apparently waste their money in useless works. One man pointed out to a reEorter to-day ' that Manchester Street . ad just been nicely metalled and rolled, and that the portion in front of His Majesty's Theatre had been finished yesterday. This morning there was a . yawning abyss in front of the:-, theatre* and men were busily digging up all the new formation in a wid« strip for the laying of telephone cables. "The Woman Pays," presented bj Mr Edwin Geach's Dramatic Company, attracted a large audience to the Opera House last night. The. leading roles were well filled by Missea Ethel Buckley and Maud Appleton and Mr Robert Inman. The play won considerable applause' from the audience. The piece will be played for two more nights, and on Monday night "The Broken Home" will be presented. It is a drama that luw had con* siderable. success in Australia and ia said to present 6ome very impressive pictures. . ! "-It would be hard (says the "Saturday] Review") to value too highly the. offer by New Zealand of one, if needs be two, battleships; and we should be a decadent, worn-out country if we coulct not feel wide in this fine proof of colonial loyalty. The battleship itself) counts— after all a million pounds is something — arid the Government wisely hastened to accept it. Proportionately to population, if Great Britain were to do what New Zealand lias done, she, would provide for fifty Dreadnoughts f But the spirit that, prompted the offel is worth many ships. It is unmistak-< ably the spirit that makes and keeps nations great.- We dislike the styles called jingoism; which is top often lik» patriotism in its cups; but the ehthto eiasm which this act of NeV Zealajß has roused, we think, everywhere f| wholly good and genuine. Zymole Trokeys strengthen the. voice* preventing the ifrritatidh which fofl lows a long strain on the vocal cords* They are invaluable to public aepakers) and. singers, %

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A meeting to form a branch of the Navy League will be held in Ashburton jpoon. During April there were eleven births, two deaths and three marriages . at Temuka. At the Feilding Magistrate's Court : Yesterday. •Charles Mitchell, a bookmaker, pleaded guilty to a charge of betting with an infant. The facts were , fhat Mitchell made a bet with a lad ! tamed Hooker at the Feilding Easter aces, Hooker ,being only eighteen years Id. A fine of &10 was inflicted. The workers'- dwellings at Addington jue .nearingr. completion, and only the interior fitting aud fencing remain to pc donej A number of applications hnd inquiries for the houses nave already been received by the Labour Department. It is expected that the dwellings will be finished within a week ©r two. ■ ..King Edward Barracks were packed Svith children yesterday afternoon who fried with each other in singing " Tbe Red, White aiid Blue," and other'na.tional eongs. luquiry elicited the information that the children were practising for Empire Day. Th*e drill-shed was filled with bright children.,; and if the volume of sound was any criterion, the celebration of Empire Day will not lack enthusiasm. The meteorological records kept at Rhodes Convalescent Home show that during April the rainfall ,was 2in. There were fbree wet days, and the heaviest' |all ; was I.4in, on April 24. The highest .reading of the maximum thermometer was 76deg, the mean for the month being 61.66deg. The lowest record of the minimum, thermometer was 36deg, and the Xnean. was 48.13deg. ' At the mayoral installation at Ashburton on Wednesday evening, Mr H. Friedlander stated that if the SumnerOhristchurch canal were constructed farmers would have to pay 3s 6d iper ton for landing produce at the ship's side, while the cost at present at Lytr telton was only ls 6d per tori. He had always locked .upon the farmers as being an intelligent body of men, and there was no need to wonder why they had so strenuously opposed the canal scheme. At the Police Court at Dunedin yesterday a Press. Association telegram ptates that & man named James Stewart was charged with ' drunkenness and with procuring liquor during the currency of a prohibition order. StationSergeant King explained that the accused had a wife and five children, who had been practically supported by the Benevolent Trustees. It was one of the .worst cases in Dunedin, and the wife had a terrible time. On the first charge accused was convicted and discharged and on tho second was fined £5, , in jdefault two months' imprisonment. An application for time to. pay the fine was refused, A Featherston gardener recently had hn unexpected windfall of £100. He decided to celebrate his good fortune by going to the Wellington races, and in the case of fire in his absence ? he put jwhftt was left of the money m a tin box and buried it in the garden, placing a roll of barbed wire over it for safety. When he returned from the races and went to dig his little "plant" iip, he found that someone had been there before him and had secured the money. A few shillings in change was, left, but the discoverer pf the hiding-place had taken the 'main sum, about £65, chiefly in five-pound notes. At the Police Court at Dunedin Jresterday, Mr Widdowson, S.M., gave judgment in . the case against iVValter Bull, fruiterer and florist, fcharged with haying failed to close his shop on .the statutory halfholiday. The Magistrate 'said that the Question was whether defendant was exclusively carrying •on business as a fruiterer and exclusively that of a florist, and evidence for the defence was to the effect that tbe articles complained of were commonly stocked aiid sold by florists of the dominion, and the Magistrate held that in the absence of evidence to the contrary he was bound to believe it true. In the circumstances he must dismiss the present case. Mr C. N. Orhell, chairman of the (Levels County Council, stated at a Tecent meeting of the Council, as a rather astonishing fact, that according^ to figures taken from official publications, the population in the counties and road districts of South Canterbury had decreased during the past ten years. He mentioned that in reply to a suggestion that the increase of population was primarily responsible for the increased i cost of hospital and charitable aid re- ' quirements. * Mr Orbell eaid that while the population in the country had decreased, that in the towne had just Hbout doubled during the period, and be quoted th© following figures : — Population in the South Canterbury hospital 'district, in the boroughs and town districts, in 1898, 6601; in .1908, 12,185. (Population in counties and road disiricts, 1898"; 21,513, in 1908, 20,060. A reporter who called' upon a number of bakers yesterday to inquire as to the working of the coupon system which was inaugurated on April 1, found that the general opinion was that the scheme was working in a very satisfactory' manner. The nse in price had been generally received with indifference and it was to many of the bakers a boon to get their money in purely.. The actual price had not been raised more than a halfpenny and it ,was much, more satisfactory that all should pay that price than that some 6hould get bread tor nothing. It was ©asier for the housewife to buy and give out coupons than for her to keep a list of the number of loaves that had been received. The general feeling was that the adoption of the system had been in the direction of good and that it would be continued co long as ii was workable oh present principles. "I gathered quite a nice little case "bf butterflies and beetles while in Japan on one occasion," remarked Lieutenant Shackleton in an after-din-ner speech in Sydney. *>* When landing In. America," he continued, " a Customhouse officer came up to me and said, ' Say, friend, how much will you take lor that bug outfit of yours?' Now, I Was rather taken back to have my fine entomological collection referred to as - a ' bug outfit,' but — well, that doesn't matter. That collection will be the nucleus of a still larger collection, as the result of our recent trip down under. We discovered only two fleas •down there," he went on, amid laughter, "and these were resident on penguins. We caught lots of penguins, and searched them very carefully, turning the feathers back this way and that, but we found only two fleaSj which will be duly described later on by those people who are particularly interested in such specimens." Several conferences have been helc lately in Dunedin between the Tailors 3 and Tailoresses' Unions and representatives of the employers, in consequence of the expiration of the awards in relation to those two branches ol •the trade, and with a view to new awards being made without an industrial dispute arising. The. "Otagc Daily Times" states that the best o) feeling prevails, and that many pointe have, peen agreed upon, and there is accordingly every possibility of- 1 amicable settlements being arrived at. Ii this is brought about, in addition tc the settlement effected in conference at Wellington recently in regard tc tailoresses and clothing trade workers employed in wholesale places of business it will mean industrial quietnes* in regard to the tailoring and clothing trades, wholesale and otherwise, foi some time to come, and that Bhoj tailors and tailoresses in Otago anc factory tailoresses over New Zealand; excepting Auckland,, will have new awards, without recourse to argumenl and evidence before the Arbitrator 'Court.

> DEATHS. . MERRIE.— On May 6th, at her mother'e reL sidence, 76, Cashel Street, City. Katherint Pavey Merrie (Kate). After a short illness L ROSS.— May 6th, at Christchuroh Hospital j Robert Ross; aged seventy-one years. WATSON.— On May sth, 1909, at the residence of her son, William, Cromwell, Eliza. > beth, relict of the late William Watson, Brookside; aged eighty years. "Sweet real ; WINCHESTER.— Oh 6th May, 1900, at SI [ Asaph Street, Linwood,. Amy Elizabeth, dearly loved and only daughter, of H- Jand. E. Winchester; in her twonty-flrst year. 1 IN MEMOSIAM. PARKER.— In loving memory of Edith Elsl peth (Daisy) Parker, who departed this life i May 7th, 1908. i So calmly sho 'sleeps in God's holy acre, l Released from all sorrow, from toil and from pain; For ever at rest in the arms of her Maker, And humbly we pray wo may. meet her * again. Inserted by her loving mother.