LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18231, 16 July 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Building operations in Wanganui promise to be brisk. The Borough Council has this week received four house plans for approval. Mr. L. M. Isitt, M.P., anticipates that as a result of the campaign in the north there will be an addition of 10,000 boys to the ranks of the Boy Scout movement in the Dominion. Last year the industrial department of the Jubilee Blind Institute at Auckland sold baskets, nets, mats, etc., made by the blind students, to the amount of £1374. Nine students left to start work for themselves. The Hawke’s Bay Hospital ’Board has decided that in the cases of all alcoholic and mental cases, the actual cost of maintenance is to be charged, plus all extra rates and expenses involved. It was mentioned at Monday’s meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce that a suggestion had been thrown out that the chief postmasters should be members of chambers of commerce. Their advice would be valuable where postal matters were under discussion. The idea was considered to be a good one. “The amount of good food that finds its way into the refuse bins of many public institutions is amazing.” said Professor Helen Rawson, of Dunedin, in giving evidence before the Hospitals Commission, “It is due in the first instance to lack of skill in supervising stores and in calculating the amount of food required, but it is also true that care is required to prepare palatable and digestible made-over dishes, and rather than take the extra trouble, the inefficient cook will discard the food unless the waste is being carefully watched. The waste of food through wrong methods of cobking and the dissatisfaction throughout’ the institution when the food is badly cooked are a challenge to the authorities in charge.” She had seen instances where the waste of foodstuffs had been shown to equal the salary of a .skilled food supervisor.

The “ruling passion” manifests itself in unexpected quarters and in all sorts of circumstances, as was i exemplified in the case of the chairman of a concert entertainment in Christchurch recently who, after announcing the last singer, remarked: “And then we will sing the Grand National!” It was not till the burst , of laughter that followed hot on his remark that he recognised that he had made a slip of the tongue.— “Press.” It is an open secret that the South African footballers did not relish the match they played In Sydney. They found the game there very rough and foul play there was painfully in evidence. When in Wanganui one of the South Africans expressed the opinion that on account of the level it had fallen to the Rugby Union game in Sydney would die a natural death in a couple of years. From what he saw and experienced of it . he was not surprised at the majority of players and public preferring other athletic attractions. A young woman was before the Court yesterday for the second time this week. She was charged with drunkenness, and also with being an idle and disorderly person not having sufficient means of support, .find the breach of a prohibition order. The history of her case, as outlined by Senior-Sergeant Bourke, was very sad. The Sergeant asked the Bench to impose a sentence of sufficient duration to bring accused to her senses. Rekftions at Feilding were willing to look after her, but she refused to go there. A sentence pf one month’s imprisonment was imposed. That more stringent action should be taken to deal with disloyalists is to be urged by several provincial unions at the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, to be held on July 26th. Remits on the matter have been drafted by Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay, and Poverty Bay. The Taranaki union is in favour of deporting to the lands of their nativity those persons who incite the public to acts of disloyalty and violence, and desires that the law should be amended so as to prevent seditious or disloyal persons from sitting in Parliament. The spirit of goodwill towards a new settler in their midst, received ■ practical demonstration on Thursday I morning at the instigation of the neighbours along the Coal-pit Road, Menzies Ferry and near about (says the Wyndham Farmer). The recent arrival is Mr. Robert Davis, returned soldier, who was the successful applicant at the ballot for the property until recently held by Mr. William Aberdeen. No less than 17 teams—--15 with ploughs and two with discs —paraded at the appointed hour. _ajid soon got to it with skill and will. At the close of the day’s workwell on to 40 acres of land had been turned over, and also a good portion of it disced. Anuother gift by Sir Benjamin Fuller to the cause of education—a further £5OO0 —was recently recorded in the Sydney newspapers. The donor states that he would prefer the amount to be allotted to the es- [ tablishment of a university students' loan fund, out of which advances without interest, might be made to really deserving ptor students to complete a university course. Cases have been brought under his notice of students who have been compelled to abandon their university course through unforeseen financial difficulties overtaking them, and it is to remedy such a condition that he advocates the creation of this loan fund. The precocious small boy_ can usually be relied on to "raise the wind,” when times are hard. Recently, at Christchurch, two small boys, aged 10 and 12, were noticed “spearing” the Avon with long sticks Asked what the game was the elder boy explained that they were bottle gathering, and he proudly showed -his catch between the Armagh St. and Victoria Street bridges. It con. tained five bottles and he anticipated they would receive 9d—3d each tpr tw'O beer bottles and Id each for the ginger baer and pickle jars. The bottles were salvaged by means of the long sticks, the pointed ends of which were stuck into the necks of the bottles, and so the catch was grassed, just as an angler gaffs his trout. A new popularity (says the Daily Mail) has descended on the popular Island of Jersey which is the taxpayers’ ideal of Paradise. It has no income tax. One fugitive thither reckons that he lived there for a whole year for nothing. That is to say, the sum he would have paid in income tax more than sufficed for his whole expenses during the twelve months. So many people in like case have discovered the merits of the ' Island in question that it is a question of whether the day-boys can any longer be accommodated at the better schools. But it is not only the permanent resident that hankers ■ after this paradlsal quality in the 1 constitution of the island. Men on ' furlough from especially from India, come under the tax col- • lector’s notice if they stay In Engi land more than six months. This tax , may be evaded within the permisi sion of the law by a visit to Jersey i during all that period of the furlough which exceeds six months. I A correspondent, “Bereaved I Father,” writes as follows to the > Wellington Post: “I am one of those ■ fathers who has suffered severely as a result of the Great War. One of my soldier sons is ill, and quite unfitted for work. Another lies on . Gallipoli; and one died recently at L Trentham Military Hospital. In company -with my daughter I at once ’ left Auckland to attend the funeral, j The sad journey was -made all the " more depressing by the fear of t meeting with a cold official reception at Wellington. In our disfc-ess we felt that official coldness was the t only thing required to complete our E misfortune. I desire to publicly tender my thanks to the Defence offiE cers for the unexpectedly kind and ! sympathetic manner in which all our s expressed wishes were met.. I was • surprised that the funeral should be ’ attended by members of Parliament, • the Mayor of the city, and many ’ leading citizens. The kindness of " those who were present helped to “ lighten the blow. Nothing which ' could be done was left undone, and 1 I ask you to publish this letter, ber cause it may lighten the anxiety pf 1 others to know of the kindly treat- - ment which is received from the De- ' fence Department by those in trouble.”

The Makura brought 65 Chinese immigrants from Sydney to Auck- : land this week. A library containing three hundred volumes has been established in con. nection with the Masterton Fire Brigade. The official opening of the Springvale Golf Club will take place at 2 p.m. to-day. Afternoon tea is to be provided in the pavilion. “The Bulletin” refers to the AllAustralian Trades Union conference as “a mongrel variety of Labourism run mostly by imported adventurers and fed on imparted Prussian phil. osophy.” A Coronial inquiry was held in connection with the death of Mr. J. J. Freeman under tragic circumstances at his residence in Pitt St. on Thursday morning. A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned. The appointments of the following members of the Legislative Council expired on Thursday: Hons. Aitken, Carson, Collins, Fisher, McGregor, Mac Gibbon, Samuel, Simpson, and Moore. The following have been reappointed:—Hons. Collins, McGregor, Samuel and Moore, A shipment of fruit brought to Auckland from Sydney by the Ulimaroa on Monday was the best received there for some years. It comprised 2000 cases, apd included oranges, mandarins, passion fruit, and pineapples. The fruit arrived in excellent condition, and all was passed by the Government inspector. During the examination at the bankruptcy meeting yesterday, one of the counsel present was endeav- i oring to ascertain how the stock in [ the estate had been valued. "Oh, replied one of the creditors, “each side had a representative and I also assisted.” “I see,” saftl the counsel, "the valuing then was done by arbitration.” “Oh, no," casually remarked the creditor, “ ——just produced a bottle of whisky and matters proceeded most amicably.” “Many of the motorists agree to pay a tyre tax.” said a member of the Wellington Central .Chamber ot Commerce. "They want to know how much, and they are prepared to dump it down, for they believe that as they are wearing out the roads they should pay for them. But I think the other j way about. I hold that the ratepayers’ money is being wrongfully used in bad construction, and as it is poor I construction that causes pot-holes, I which wear out a car, the car-own-ers should be compensated rather j than taxed by the local body.” f A. few days ago we published a statement by the manager of the Chu Chin Chow Company, that owing to the Wanganui Opera House being engaged for pictures on Saturday night the big spectacular production could not be seen in Wanganui, the Saturday night in question being the only night that would have fitted into the company’s tour. The manager of the Paramount Pictures states that this cannot be the real reason, as Mr. Bert Royle telegraphed as follows on June 27th.: “Please cancel July 13th and 14th., stage manager advises impossible produce Chu Chin Chow your theatre. Very sorry.” It is understood that several big blocks of land in the Karioi district, on the Main Trunk line, are to be placed on the market in the near future. One of 40,000 acres is largely composed of first-class land, on which there are big crops of flax growing. At present this area is held on lease, but, if the advances now being made to the Government to have the land subdivided are successful. a large number of very good buildings will be available for settlement. Another block near Waioru, of 80,000 acres is also to be cut up into good-sized farms. Both are suitable for, returned soldiers and others with a little capital who desire to go on the land. W. R. Robertson writes to the "Post”.—The opening game of the South African football’s tour took place on an anniversary which will long be remembered in the annals of Dominion football. Fourteen years ago yesterday a New Zealand team attracted an attendance of 52,000 ! people to the Sydney Cricket Ground a record which stood till last year. I On that occasion F. Mitchinson played the dummy, and scored a try for New Zealand. Yesterday, J. Tiiyard, an ex-colleague, imitated this performance, and the result was a try | in favour of Wanganui. Hugh Good, the fourteen-stone three.quarter, who played for Taranaki in the Wellington match in 1895 has been compared with Van Heerden, of the Springboks. In the historic match of this year at Newtown Park, J. G. Roache prevented, by splendid tackling, the progress of this burly three-quarter. The match ended in a draw, after a Taranaki man had been ordered off the field for deliberately throwing the. ball forward after being warned by the referee, Mr. J. P. Firth. -The Poneke Club, on that occasion, were represented by Davidson, Galloway. W. Roberts, J. Pudney, F. Young. Poland and J. J. Kelly. An article published in the “Age” of June 20th alleges that in Melbourne justice is being defeated by the bribery of juries, Intimidating witnesses, and other evil practices. The article says: It is well known to the public as well as to the police ■ that in Melbourne there exists a notorious gang of criminals, headed by one or two clever and unscrupulous men, who for a long time have successfully defied all efforts to bring them to justice. The leaders of the gang are reputed to be wealthy men. They have at their command men who are experts in the art of corrupting juries, and, what . is equally bad, intimidating witnesses. On several occasions, within the last few months the police have made arrests in connection with serious crimes in the city and suburbs, and although they obtained information that dispelled all ■ doubt as to the guilt of the men ar- ■ rested, they were unable to prove their case in court, because their ~ witnesses were intimidated by threats that evil would befall them if they ■ gave the convicting evidence. The , information received by the detec- . tlves is sufficient to satisfy them beyond all doubt that witnesses have been threatened and intimidated, but ■ so cleverly has the criminal gang , carried out its schemes that without more stringent laws to assist them the police are powerless to check the . intimidating operations. It is urged ’ that the Government should hold an . enquiry into the whole position relating to the bribing of juries, inL timidating of witnesses, and other practices adopted by criminals to evade justice.

The King has sent a message of sympathy to Mrs Hawker. A cable from London yesterday stated that the New Zealand loan was quoted yesterday at one and three-quarters per cent, premium. At Masterton yesterday, Willian. Moore, a dairy farmer, was fined J £2O at the Court for selling ■* milk adulterated with water. A Dannevirke telegram says that Edward Bloor, a farmer at Matatera, aged 60, was found hanging to a rafter in the shed on his farm. He had been suffering fom tits of depression, and recently came out of a mental hospital. A case presenting unusual circumstances was called at the Court yesterday morning before Ipcal Justices of the Peace. A young married man was arrested in the Te Kuiti district and brought to Wanganui and charged with tailing to make provision on June 22, at Waverley, for the maintenance of his wife and two children. Mr. Hussey, for defendant, said he could see no reason why the warrant had been issued, and considered that the defendant had suffered an injustice. His wife had left him in June last without any reason, and left the two children with him, and he had looked alter them since. Mr. Hussey contended that the wife, having left of her own accord, the defendant was not bound to maintain her, except she had reasonable cause fo* leaving him. A summons would have reached defendant, and thers was no valid reason why he should have suffered the indignity of arrest and at the same time be dragged from his employment. As the case l could not be dealt -with before justices, a remand was granted until Monday next, accused being allowed bail on his own security of £2O.