LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17731, 3 December 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

General Meldrum will address the Rangitikei electors at Okoia to-night (Wednesday) at 8 o'clock.' The mails despatched from New Zealand on 18th October arrived in London on 29th November The Kakariki Freezing Works commenced killing operations on Monday, and everything points to a highly-s.ccessful season's operations. Mr? Lewis Mcllvride, the official Labour candidate, is advertised to speak in the Opera House on Saturday evening, December 6th, at 7.45. The Queen Alexandra Band, under Bandmaster Shepley, .will submit a fine programme of appropriate music at 3 o'clock next Sunday afternoon at Wanganui East. Among the selections will be some of the test music for the forthcoming contest at Dunedin in March. • w

A consignment of fifty tons of sugar which was intended for despatch to New Plymouth from Onehupga by the steamer Rimu on Monday was not placed ou board, the watersiders refusing to handle it on account of the fact that it is stated that there is a shortage of sugar in Onehunga, with the result that in some cases it was impossible to obtain supplies during the week-end.

Shearing is general throughout the Taihape district, and the clip promises to be well up to the average of previous years. An indication of progress is to be found in the fact that the bulk of this season's wool is being brought to the railway by means of motor lorries. It is not many years, sincej a good many local clips had to be taken out by means of pack horses, which were superseded by the familiar wool waggons 6f recent years. These waggons have in turn been superseded by motor; lorries, which now do the bulk of the carting. ,

Not only does it appear that the world is shorter of food for the mouths to fill than it has ever been, but there is likewise a great shortage of clothing material. The simple sooloo or loin cloth of the Malay may yet perforce become the mode in warm weather. The opinion in the wholesale trade appeared. to be that after the war prices would be on a higher-level for a little while, but the manufacturers would soon overtake the market with a corresponding moderation of prices. The prospetts are all to the contrary (states the Post.) The following cablegram, dated November 20, received by a New Zealand house from its London office1 will show why:— "Conditions of purchasing and delivering considerably worse,, since last cablegram (November 1.) Pyjama and shirtings greatly advanced, whilst prices still advancing. Print prices advancing. Delay in delivery before May or June practically certain. Have insuperable difficulties in getting any cotton goods for spring and summer. Hosiery houses fairly rushed with ordeTs. Manufacturers in all classes goods snowed under with business, prices consequently strong." The spring and summer goods referred to ara for the New Zealand trade of 1920-21, Which begins in August so far as the wholesale trade is concerned, and in September for the1 retail trade. Relief from Japan is not expected, as Japanese prices are raised in! sympathy with the world's market. Ex-treme-prices, it is reported, are now being fixed for Japanese silks, and cotton goods of all descriptions. American goods of like description are in the same category.

With the next few months there is likely to be a "glut" of girl clerks all over Australia, states the Mel-, bourne Argus. During the war the banks and many business houses trained girls in considerable nuiiibers to take the places of -employl ees who had gone to the war, but in the banks and in the great majority of other firms this process was undertaken on the distinct understanding that the places of soldier employees should be made available for them on their return* and as men clerks who joined the A.I.F. are now returning to their former positions the girls who "carried on" in their absence are being retired. Fortunately, the displacing of the girls is proceeding gradually; and there are not likely to be wholesale dismissals, resulting in the placing of hundreds of girls in the labour market at one time. Returned men are not being hurried back to their desks, and most of them take several weeks' leave, even after any hospital treatment they need has expired; and it is probable that a small, proportion of the girls who have proved themselves most efficient will be retained in their new sphere to take the places of those men who will never return. It is estimated that in Victoria alone fully 500 girl clerks Lave been employed by the banks—3oo or so in Melbourne, and the remainder in the suburbs and in the country. towns. So far not one of these girls have been displaced, and they are not likely to lose their employment for some little time, because in nearly all the banks the men who were left behind during the war were unable to take any leave, and it will be a few months before this accumulated leave has been given. Several of the banks, however, are now beginning to find their staffs unduly large, and before long the dismissal of large numbers of girl clerks will become inevitable. The outlook for these girls in the commercial world is not bright at the present time, for it is generally reported that the supply of girl clerks exceeds the demand. In New South Wales and one or two of the other States the banks have already given their girl clerks a month's notice.

The Pacific Cable Board notifies: "Heavy traffic congesting cables, and estimated delay homewards 36 to 48 hours. Outward from. United Kingdom between 3 and 4 days." Sir A. Russell" will visit Wanganui in a fortnights time to distribute the prizes at the breaking-up ceremony at the Collegiate School. A civic reception will be tendered to him. The activity of the building trade in Wanganui is reflected by the. fact that the Borough Council has not been able to get anybody to tender for proposed alterations to the Opera House. At the meeting of the Bororgh Council last night the danger rf motor cars passing stationary tram cars to the danger of passengers getting on .or off was referred to; It was decided to ask the police ttf act in cases of breaches of. this particular by-law, also to advertise the by-law for the .benefit of motorists. At the meeting of the Borough Council last night the letting of the Opera House for December 16 —the night before the election—was discussed. The Mayor said the fairest course wuld be to let it to the three political candidates, as it would be a big draw. A Councillor: "And give them the gloves, too." On the book being referred to, it was ascertained that the Open,. House, was booked on the 16th for Mr Cuttle. The Mayor: "That settles 4it, then." t .. A correspondent writes:—To decide an argument, kindly answer the following questions in your answers to correspondents column, and oblige: (1) If Prohibition is carried, can a person go to the chemist and get, a weekly supply to take home (2) Pay down his sixpence and have his drink? (3) Or can he only procure it on a certificate from a doctor, to take as medicine? The answers to questions Nos. 1 and 2 are No, and to No. 3, Yes. The Sisters of St. Mary's Convent, Ingestre Street, will hold a garden fete in their beautiful grounds, known as the Alexander property, on Saturday, December 6th. The object of the fete is to enable the nuns to furnish the Convent stall of the bazaar to be held in February next, and also to forward the interests of the Convent queen, Miss Alice Cullinane. There will be much to give pleasure to visitors. The pupils of the Convent School will take a leading part, giving <different performances. A special feature of the fete will be the sale of homemade swsets, bread, etc. There "will be no charge for admission. "Have you any children?" enquired the landlord of ' a woman who was seeking tenancy of his house. Snappily the woman replied: "I don't see w^at that has to do with you," and then, in a rathern mournful tone, "but if you particularly want to know,l have four-^-in the cemetery." The deal was at once concluded. Then the woman retrieved four children from the cemetery where she had left them to read about the virtues of dead landlords pending the result of her negotiations with a live one. The distressed man consulted his solicitor, but was not given much hope of getting an order of ejectment, and the woman, it is understood, defends her finesse, holding that everything is. fair in love and .war —and in-house-hunting nowadays. Such is the story told us, but we have not been able to verify it, for our cautious informant will not even tell us the street in Hawera in which; the house is, situated.—Star. '■ In reply to the fact that the Reform Government in its three years before the war bililt 422 workers' homes as against only 209 built in 6J, years by the Liberals, the Liberals can only say that anyway there is still a house shortage. And that is all that our friends can say, except that they declare that "if the Reform Party had been honest," it would have repealed the laws which the Liberals said they would. And so the Reform Pafty would have done if it had been the Party that the Liberals declared it to be. It is surely a little unreasonable to blame the Reform Party for making the Liberals look exceedingly foolish. Nobody asked the Liberals to paint a picture of Reform with horns and a tail: That was quite a voluntary effort on their part. And apparently they have learned nothing from their unhappy exposure, for they are actually endeavouring to do the same thing again! The people are at any rate*;being furnish- i ed with an abundance of entertain-! ment by the Liberal apologists.— | Press. Mr L. Birks, electrical engineer to the Public Works Department, visited Rongotea on Saturday and addressed the members of the Rongotea Town Board and the directors of the Rongotea Co-operative Dairy Company at a special meeting called for the * occasion. Speaking, of elocU'ic development, Mr Birks said that any expenditure undertaken by local enterprise in the erection of poles and lines for reticulation\ would hold good when the hydro-electric power from Mangahao comes through. He referred to the work done by the Tai Tapu Co-operative Dairy Company at Christchurch in distributing light and power under the Lake Coleridge hydro-ejectric scheme.-' The company started with a plant, for supplying about thirteen houses, and now dis.■■tribut.es over a radius of five miles. Tbt scheme was undertaken primarily for the convenience of suppliers in prov'tion of all the benefits of light and power afforded by el^tricity, and it has proved so successful that fresh supplies have been drawn to the district, thus considerably augmenting the main business of the company.