LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17906, 28 June 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Allies have refused to allow Turkey any further extension of time for signing the Treaty. The Allies have sent a Note to Germany forbidding the construction of civil or military aircraft until three months after the destruction or delivery of existing materials.

According to a Melbourne cable, September has been fixed as the date for members of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches to vote on the question of organic union. Signor Giolitti, the Italian Premier, sneaking in the Chamber, saidthat Italy’s debt amounted to ninetyfive milliards of lire. He foreshadowed further taxation, and declared that he would seize all war profits. This evening at 8 o’clock at the Wanganui East Town Hall a public meeting, convened by Cr. A. Thompson, will be held to discuss the present very unsatisfactory state of educational facilities at Wanganui East. • Two boys named Cyril Bowen, aged 15, and Eric Clayton, aged 15. left Takapuna in a small open boat on Friday afternoon. Their prolonged absence caused anxiety, and a search was instituted by the water police. A later message states that the two L ,ys spent the night on Rangitoto and were brought to town by the dredge. The curren number of the “Monthly Abstract of Statistics” shows that the purchasing power, or relative worth, of the sovereign, as measured by the retail prices of. groceries, dairy produce and meat, was down as low as 118Jd in the March quarter of the present year, taking as the base, or 20/-, the average worth in relation to the same food groups, of the sovereign in the years 1909-13. There are 'still over 100 German guns accumulating rust in the old Te Aro railway yard in Wakefield Street. The late Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) called upon local bodies throughout New Zealand to make application for any German “ironmongery" they might require, but apparently there was no enthusiastic call for captured guns, and they [ lie huddled together in their faded camouflage, silent testimony to Germany’s downfall.

Melville E Storie, a well-known American journalist, who has passed man’s allotment of three score and ten, is wrtiing a history of his life for Collier’s Wekly. Referrin gto his acquaintance with Elbert Hubbard, he says: “Then, on May 1, 1915, as I was leaving the Lusitania, which was about to sail on her final fatal trip, ta the foot of the gang-plank I encountered Hubbard and his wife. We chatted for a moment. We spoke of the threatening advertisement in the morning papers, cautioning people aaginst taking passage on the ship. ‘Well, if they sink her,’ laughed Hubbard, ‘I shall have a chance some day to meet the Kaiser in hell.’ And with that we parted, at this c«,r second and last meeting. As is well known, Hubbard and his wife perished when the ship went down.”

Delegates from the main centres of New Zealand have been meeting in Wellington as representatives of insuranc officers. A guid (similar to that of the bank officers) has been formed. It has long been felt that the office staffs of insurance companies in New Zealand needed such an organisation as the guild bids fair to supply. The approximate number of members enrolled in the new guild is nine hundred. At the conference just concluded in Wellington a constitution of the guild was fully discussed and daopted, and a strong executive was set up. Among the principal objects of the guild is educational work among members directed to improvement of their status in their profession. Mr. H. Pr Mourant, general secretary of the New Zealand Bank Officers’ Guild, was appointed secretary of the new organisation, the title of which is the Insurance Officers Guild of New Zealand.-

Owing to slips on the Main Trunk, the express from Wellington, which was due in Auckland at 6.38 on Saturday morning, did not arrive until midnight. The express due al 3 o’clock in the afternoon came into Auckland at 1.20 o’clock yesterday morning. Owing to shortage of coal, it is staled, the Kaione was laid up for several days last week, but she has not been totally idle, for the opportunity was taken to take off the cutter and to get on the drag-head, and when further supplies ol coal are received, which is exjiected to be early this week, the Kaione will be used as a trailing suction dredge, and the modified drag-head will be tested. So successful has been the experiment o (supplying hot cocoa to scholars at Napier Street School, Auckland, at midday, that the Auckland City Schools Committee has decided to suggest to the Minister of Education that a permanent grant be established for school children’s refreshment on the lines carried out at Napier street among the young children. Representatives of no less than three generations of one family were in the air at Gisborne one day recently in the de Haviland aeroplane belonging to the New Zealand Flying Schoo). The passengers in question comprised Mrs Tucker, sen., a lady of 70 years of age; her daughter, Mrs Tucker, widow of the late Captain Tucker, and her son, Master Tucker. The last-named made his third flight iu the machine.

There is a great scarcity in many sorts of goods—in linens, cil’pets. and linoleumns especially (said a Dunedin draper to a representative of the Evening Star). Carpets are being doled out by the makers as though they were diamonds, and the retail price of one make has gone up, by comparison with 1913, from 8/11 to 32/6 per yard. There was a 10 per cent, advance by the manufacturers of linoleum ,in January last, this affecting goods yet to arrive in New Zealand, since the deliveries are all very much behindhand, and a further rise of 10 per cent is advised by cable from this week. So far as we can make out, our people continue to readily buydrapery and the general wares of a draper’s shop, even at the enhanced vlues, but on the purchasing the retailers note that quantities are usually cut down to immediate reouirements.

We understand (says the Dunedin Star) that some of the active grain I merchants of Dunedin, and also some of the moving spirits amongst the farmers, are endeavouring to have the evil of the forward selling of “paper oats” taken up by the various branches of the Farmers’ Union throughout Otago, Southland, and Canterbury. It is said that 164,000 sacks of these “paper oats” were gambled with last season; so the operations of the Auckland speculators are on a considerable scale. The evil has grown to sucn proportions that millers and shippers find it hazardous to collect stocks so as the pernicious methods of the gamblers are allowed to continue, and unless something is done to check is gambling there is a possibility that the established firms will operate only- for hand-to-mouth requlre- , ments, thus paving the way for wild speculation and chaos—a state of affairs that would certainly not be in the interests of bona fide producers. Despatches from Glen Campbell I (Pennsylvania) state that husbands of that community in the future will be rated under a “moral pedigree.” Intended husbands also will come under the same classification.' At least, so say 36 of Glen Campbell's leading women, who have formed a secret organisation. the object of which will be to “know a man morally.” The new organisation was formed to clean up the morals of the community, particularly the morals of husbands. The women are establishing a sort of "moral credit bureau,” which proposes to gather all the requisite facts regarding a husband's conduct, keep it on a file at headquarters, and submit a confidential report to any woman who suspects her mate and asks "for his rating. “There should be a society like the one we have organised in every community,” says one member. “We are convinced that if women ever attept to ‘get away’ with what the average man pulls off, the divorce calendar would be as crowded as the old-time bar room. We; are going to change this. Before we I finish this we will have the ‘moral pedigree’ of every husband and in-i tended husband in this communily.” I In an interview recently with officials of the Welfare League, the correspond- I ent of a southern contemporary gather- I ed that it is enlarging the scope of its i j work and influence. At present the League is concentrating on bringing ' about a national industrial conference, I as the best means to secure co-operation [ I betwe-i the workers and employers' or- 1 I ganisations. The proposal has met with | i a great deal of support, but. as announc- ; led, th-.’ Employers’ does not: favour the idea Tile League finds that ■ | a considerable difference of opinion ex- | [ ists on this-question Opponents express I the view that such a conference would produce no result of value. The Welfare League, and those who support the proposal, argue that there are three or four broad general principles which could be discussed and settled by a meeting of the leading organisations on both sides, such, for instance, as whether the present method of settling disputes is satisfactory, and if not, what method shall take its place. Ou the other hand, many of the general public feel that such a conference )vould at least be an attempt to obtain industrial peace, and is at any rate better than doing nothing ' in that direction. In Wellington the I League has done, and is daily doing, a [ great deal of quiet and useful work in I the way of smoothing over difficulties | and misunderstandings between work-j ers and employers, being now recognised as an impartial organisation, and one entirely free of any sectional interest. People on both sides find that a discussion of the various difficulties with the League's officers is very useful, and the League’s hand can be recognised in more than one recent industrial settle-[ ment. The public interest, say the officials, is the keynote of the League’s [ propaganda. This was especially noticeable when it fearlessly criticised both the shipowners and watersiders over [ their conference in camera, to settle matters in which the public were vitally interested. It argued that the consumer who has to pay the ultimate price, should be represented at such conferences.

• [ "Pussyfoot” insurance is the i term which has been applied to a - rale of 10/- per £lOO sterling now I [being offered in the London market I to cover ihe risk of the passing <f > an Ait of Parliament within twelve • months prohibiting the sale of alcoiholic liquor in England. , I 1 here has been received bv the ehairs I man of the Harbour Board from 1 horn,. i I son and Company, a large engine -rin-; a .firm in Victoria, blue print plans and an ” | estimate of cost <>| certain improvements 1i to the Kaione. When be «;,s n-ccutlv ■> ; in Australia Mr Bignell asked for thia I m.o lai.tiun. in case it might be fou.nl I > necessary to improve the Kaione ■ [ pumping power. - [ While a wedding ceremanv was in -'progress in a Chrisntchurch churtj - | last week the bridegroom sudden - 1 fel, over backwards in a fit. Reston. 1 [fives were immediately applied, but - it was ten minutens before the man -[could be restored to his full senses. -[After he had rested the cerenionv t[was resumed, and the couple even - | tually drove away in the best of [spirits, amidst the cheers of their i friends. a , y [ A suggestion was made by the v; Auckland Prices Tribunal recently '.[that prices should be marked on ail [[goods offered for sale, and costing ;1 more than £l. A committee of the. [Wellington Central Chamber of Conir [merce has. through the Associated s 'Chambers of Commerce. expressed iapproval of this proposal, with the i u f rther condition that where goods .[of any value are marked for sale at i a fixed price, the seller should be re-

quired to sell the particular goods [at that price. It was suggested also that the opinion of the soil good* retail trade should be obtained by the Associated Chambers. A discussion took place recently [in Christchurch on the extent of the habit of cigarette smoking amongst nurses. The Nursing Mirror, the official organ of the English nurses denies that the cigarette habit is [more general among nurses than in any other class of women workers. [The Mirror says: "That the younger nurses, like other modern women, [frequently smoke in their leisure off-duty hours with the friends, we admit; and, though we are old-fash-l ioned enough to regret it, we recoginise that their lives are their own. and that a nurse is' not a nun. But [it it is ridiculous to state that the habit of ’smoking is becoming more general among the nursing profession than among any other class of

womgn workers.’ Who is the person I who is able to consort with all [classes of women workers at the I 'same time, and so is capable of mak ing such an assertion with justice? ' The Otago Daily Times London [correspondent writes that "New Zealand in Peace and War” is the title [chosen by Mr Herbert Garrison, F.R.G.S., the well-known lecturer, for a series of “talks” which he is going to give in various parts of England, with the object of raising funds for the proposed Chapel of St. George, which is part of the proposed scheme in connection with the new Cathedral in Wellington. Mr Garrison described New Zealand as the brightest jewel on the background of the whole crown of England; as more British than Britain: ans more Itaialn than Italy. Many soldiers from that beautiful land had, in the years just passed, been living on this side of the world, and • it was a great, and wonderful thing that they left behind, wherever they went, nothing but pleansant and [grateful memories, with not the dim- [ mest reflection on the New Zealand escutcheon. (Loud applause.) “1 have never heard a single word of reproach against the New Zealanders as a body of men. They were gentlemen all the way through, and they made New Zealand stand forth more brilliantly than ever before. They were regarded with the greatest admiration here, and they left with the best wishes of the whole of the people of the United Kingdom.” (Applause.) At the meetin got the council of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, held last evening, the question of the enormous amount of pillage of cargo which is taking place all over the world came up for discussion. Mr. W. E. Reynolds said that his firm had just received advice that Lloyd’s were now insuring only up to 75 per cent, of the value against pillage, because of the heavy losses sustained recently. He said it was always a difficult thing to know where the responsibility of the shipping companies began and ended. It had to be [proved that the shipping compiaA I was not responsible before the injp. ‘ [surance company came in. Un [certain conditions the ships companies did pay claims for loss by pillage but, as he had said, it was generally 'a difficult thin gto prove that the [goods had been stolen while they 'were in the hands of a shipping com[pany. He suggested that some extra [percentage on the freight charges [might be imposed. This percentage [could be paid into a fund which could be used to meet losses by pillage. Mr. H. C. Campbell pointed out that the Collector of Customs iff Dunedin had informed him that unless goods were shown to have been nillaged before they left the wharf, the Customs dues could not be remitted. It was decided to refer the matters under discussion to the Ini: port Committee for further consider- ’ ation.