LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16734, 16 May 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

» — ftIEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR Every line of war news printed in the “ New York Times” from start to finish of tlie conflict has been clipped, mounted on reel- bordered sheets, submitted to a three-ton pressure to extract moisture, and bound in a consecutive history of more than 200 volumes and 81,242 pages, at a cost of £4OOO. The war news is preserved in as permanent a form as skill can compass; and what is probably the most com pleto scrap book ever made is now in the. library of the Princeton University, LT.S.A. > Our Courts are sometimes very kind jto offenders, states the Auckland 1 “Star.” A young man was convicted at the Police Court of the theft of a wallet containing £o 10s- He was placed on probation for twelve months. A condition of his release was that lie should make restitution of the £o 10s within six months, and on this understanding bo was allowed to retain for his present use the sum of 30s, the money that was found in his possession when ho was arrested, and which was the unspent balance of the proceeds of his robbery! | Valuable deposits of brown coal and j lignite are found in various parts of j the world, and a great deal of scientific ! attention is being given to the pjrobi iem of utilising them to the best advantage. in no other country have ' the problems of economical fuel con- ! sumption been more successfully studied i than in Great Britain; and it is only | natural that .British engineering firms ! should have recently devised special boilers and furnaces for the efficient burning of brown coal. A trial installation in which the usual arrangements for burning ordinary coal were ingeniously modified, was set up recently in a British factory and exhaustively tested with very promising results. The object of the apparatus hi to improve or raise the grade of the coal before it is actually fed on to the grate. The fuel passes through a special apparatus for a period of forty-five minutes, during which it is exposed to hot gases which drive off the greater part of the moisture and the carbon dioxide. The result is n fuel of much greater steam-producing value than the original coal. Dunedin merchants. states the “ Otago Daily Times,” are determined to take drastic steps in an endeavour to alter the present position under which many Home steamers unload their cargoes at Port Chalmers instead of coming up the Victoria Channel to unload at Dunedin. The latest vessel to cause dissatisfaction in this respect amongst Dunedin importers is the Huntingdon It could not be said that this vessel was drawing too much water for the Victoria Channel, as she was not drawing twenty feet either forward or aft. Tho reason assigned for her being unloaded at Port Chalmers was on another point—that she was too long to be navigated up tho Victoria Channel. It is admitted that no other vessel of her length, 515 ft. had ever come up to Dunedin, but it is claimed that she could nevertheless have been safely brought up tlie channel, and berthed at the Victoria wharf. Captain Bone, marine superintendent of the New Zealand Shipping Company.is at present in Dunedin, and a. deputation is to wait on him to discuss matters in connection with certain of his company's vessels not coming to Dunedin. As a matter of fact a number of Importers have already been considering the disinclination of the companies trading here to bring the vessels up to the Dunedin wharf, and the advisability of approaching the Australian Government regarding sending its steamers direct to Dunedin i.s being spoken or. A sturdy old boy of the old school appealed to the members of tho Relief Committee to use their influence to get his pension back, states the Auckland *• Star.” He had never committed a real crime in his life, and he thought that it was red hot that a disguised policeman should oome to his whare and pitch such a tale to him that in the goodness of his heart he sold him something to olieer him up. If the policeman had “played the trick” on a young man it might have been different. but to take advantage of a goodnatured old man of nearly seventy years of age was no joke. He had lost his pension through coming under the penalties of the law for doing a good turn to a man who said lie was a bushman, and that, his tongue was hanging out for a drop. Such an action taught a man to be hard, and no man would ever impose on his good nature again. The same trick might be played on members of the board, and lie warned them to be careful. He would be happy if he got his pension hack, and as he had lived an exemplary life for the past year, it was agreed to try and help him as much a.s possible. Members agreed that it seemed a little incongruous that . the Government should stop the pension and the man he thrown back on to the goodwill of the members of the board:, which meant that tho local rates footed the billSome time ago the North Canterbury Hospital Board wrote to the Otago Hospital Board on the subject of housing of cases of senile dementia, and the medical superintendent at Dunedin now reports as follows to the Hospital Committee of the Otago Board:—“Senile dementia is one of the five forms of mental deficiency provided for under the Mental Defectives Act. Tlie presumption is that a separate institution would be available tor each type of mental deficiency. It appeal's to me, however, that great difficulty would Tie experienced by tlie Mental Hospitals Department in carrying this out. Such an arrangement necessitates similar provision being made in each centre, and I am very doubtful whether tho expense involved would be justified at present. It appears to me further that ‘such provision for senile dementia is iyst an immediate urgent need Tn New Zealand, compared with the provision of (a) reception wards at tho lour mam hospitals foi observation of doubtful mental patients, pending a decision ns to certification, and (b) homes at each centre for the treatment of incipient and borderland mental cases as voluntary patients, both of which requirements have been previouslv advised by me in the case of Dunedin. The Canterbury Board should be informed of the notion taken by the Otago Hospital Board in bringing up this subject for discussion by the local branch of the British Medical Association, and recommended to take tho same action in regard to their own proposals in order to have the subject fully discussed in all its bearings.” A photograph to send each of your friends is the best way to solve tho gift problem I*et Steffano Webb take it. Petersen’s Buildings, High Street. Telephone 1989. 1513 There’s no period of life in which tho changes are so rapid, the stages so interesting, or tho memory so well worth keeping an the period of childhood. Keep the record in a photograph. Begin with a portrait to-day. Wriggleaworth and Birins, 7.48 Colombo Street. ’Phono 1 XD