LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18257, 16 August 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Oranges are selling cheaper in the wholesale market at Auckland at the present time than they have been doing for several years past. The Daily Mail’s correspondent writes: An Englishman visiting Germany feels admiration, mingled with anxiety, over the way the Germans are pushing the rehabilitation of trade. Official figures show that there are only 440,000 unemployed, and these may be reduced to three hundred thousand shortly. The workers are well fed and better dressed than the English. Many new factor, ies are being built, and capitalists have provided sixty thousand million marks for new industries and extensions. Most trades are booming, some working three eight.hour shifts dally.

The Whangarei Harbour Board has decided io negotiate in Australia for a loan of £lOO,OOO at 7 per cent. A coastal property in the Warea district (Taranaki), comprising 470 acres, was sold at auction last week at £3O per acre. Dr. E. H. Wilkins, Director of Sclidol Hygiene, will lecture at the ' Technical College Assembly Hall at i 2.1 b this afternoon. 11 In response to a suggestion by the Post and Telegraph Department that responsible officers of the Department should join Chambers of Commerce, ' the Wellington Chamber has decided to offer membership to the Chief , Postmaster for one year. . . When the Tofua, now at Auckland, left Tonga there had been a hundred ! cases of influenza and two deaths ■ among the natives. The Tofua brought from Samoa six Chinese to undergo imprisonment, four for life, and two lor seven years for attempted murder yf a Chtnaman. The authors of two successful French plays have learned that they were being played withoot authorisation in other parts of the world, including Egypt and Greece. As the text of the plays has never been pub- . dished 1 , it is supposed that they were , stolen by means of a full shorthand note having been taken during performances in Paris. The Huntly Press tells a grim story of an estimable citizen of that town who, in an endeavour to relieve the housing shortage, let the local morgue to a family in the belief that the building was his own. The excited residents quickly disabused his mind of this impression, and have shifted the morgue elsewhere. A strange incident at a Leeds barracks came to light at the inquest on Horace Smith, a member of the Defence Corps. Smith was having soup in the messroom when he swallowed a small mutton bone, which became lodged in his throat. Efforts to remove it proved unavailing, so his comrades pushed it down his throat. Medical evidence showed that death was due to an abscess in the throat arising from the bone. Some little time ago a member of the Rev. W. Gray Dixon’s congregation on making his will made provision for the payment of £5O to the esteemed minister of Roslyn (Dunedin) Presbyterian Church. When it was known that Mr Dixon was relinquishing the pastorate the member preferred to decide to pay the amount over during his and at Mr Dixon's valedictory ser. vice he quietly handed Mr Dixon a cheque for £5O. A few weeks ago, in St. Thomas’s Church, Shepherd’s Bush, a tablet was unveiled to the memory of members of the Middlesex Yoemanry who fell in the war. Hanging in the church close to the memorial is the framed carbon copy of a field message, ending with the immortal words: “I am holding on until relieved.” It was the last message of Major A. M. Lafone, V.C., who, with a handful of men, held to the last what proved to be the key position to the whole of Lord Allenby’s glorious advance in Palestine. Speaking of the standard of living in an address at Auckland, Ma-jor-General Sir Andrew Russel said the only standard of living that a country deserved and what it got was what it dug out of the ground. “I do not believe in the bogey,” he said, ‘‘that the Eastern nations will lower the Western standard of living because they can live on the smell of an oil rag.’ We are not going to be submerged by the East, because we are superior in those qualifications which go toward the building up of a nation. "The following story about an ab-sent-minded bishop is being whispered around in ecclesiastical circles,” says the Morning Post. “At the end of a very tiring day he was conducting a confirmation service, at which there was a large number of candidates. The last candidate to come up was an old man with a perfectly bald head. The bishop placed his hands upon his head in the usual manner, but in the most unusual manner was heard to exclaim as he did so, "I declare this stone to be well and truly laid.’” Mr Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England, is taking a cheerful view of the recovery of Europe from post-war troubles. At the annual dinner of the British Bankers’ Association, at Fishmongers Hall, he expressed in his speech his belief in the improvement in every direction of conditions which a year ago looked black enough. “I am more of an optimist to-day, in spite of passing troubles, than I have been for years,” was his pronouncement. Something of the same sort seems to possess other people, too, who are emulating the policeman in his most impressive attitude and saying with some show of authority, "Pass along!” to troubles of all kinds. Another fish story, this time vouched for by a police constable, has been added to the already long list, states the Post. A letter received from Constable A. M’Leod by the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society stated that workmen employed on the Tauherenikau bridge in July noticed a dead trout in the stream. They retrieved it, and in an endeavour to find out what had caused its death cut it open. Inside were found five threepenny pieces and a sixpence. "It is no doubt strange," added the constable, "how the money got into the fish, but to me it is stranger that the men still have the coins considering they were working only a few yards from the hotel." Our correspondent writes that the party of mountaineering holiday-mak-ers who recently set out for a “ski- , lark” all arrived safely at the Whakakapa cottage, Tongariro National Park, on Saturday week last, and were fortunate in getting in dry between the snowstorms. Heavy snow fell on the , Sunday and Monday, with the result , that when the weather cleared the , party, had a great time in ski-ing, ski jumping, and tobogganing. Mr Newt; ham, the “ movie” man, has secured some excellent moving pictures of the sports and surrounding mountains, especially some fine sunrise and sunset effects. Tama lakes were visited. The larger one is frozen over, but owing to , bad weather no attempt was made to try skating. When our correspondent wrote on Saturday last, it was hoped to climb Mts. Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro, and secure moving pictures of the, summit, peaks, craters, crater lakes, and blow holes. The partywill return to Wanganui next Saturday morning.

The criminal session of the Supreme Court will commence at Wanganui to-day week. There are two criminal cases set down to date. The assault case against Spiro Bardebes is set down for hearing on Thursday. Leonard Reginald Gray, who is still an inmate of the Hospital, had not sufficiently recovered to give evidence yesterday morning. Norman McFarlane Fulton, a farmer, was committed for trial on a charge of manslaughter by running into Eugene Doherty with his motor car, causing injuries from which Doherty died. Replying to a very large deputation from the Auckland Hydro-Elec-tric League, the Hon. C. J. Coates said the Arapuni scheme must be a commercial undertaking and once started it must be carried to completion. He would not start, until he saw that the financial position was clear. As to the probable date he could not say, pending the return of Mr Massey. The Acting-Prime Minister, Sir Francis Bell, has made it clear that the Government cannot do more than it is doing to relieve unemployment in the Dominion. In the course of a telegram to local bady which applied for assistance, Sir Francis Bell said; The Government is already employing as many men as funds per. mit, and has strained its finances to the utmost. Local authorities must meet the position by using local funds to find work for local unemployed. A peculiar loss befell the Nightcaps bootmaker (says the Otautau Standard) On opening his shop on Monday a dog bounded out and disappeared. The contents of the shoo were scattered about, and a number' of pairs of boots chewed up beyond I repair. Evidently the animal had i been sleeping in a corner when the; ] shop was closed on the Saturday } I night; and, to appease its hunger, | j had turned its attention to the boots. I Mr Strange estimates his loss at about £lO. Objection to children “going about town street collecting” was made by Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme Court at Wellington on Friday, during the hearing of a case in which the Crown alleged indecent assault on a little girl by a man to whose l shop she had gone collecting in aid of church fusds. ‘‘lt is simply - temptation to men of a certais tyx j to interfere with these children” said ! His Honour. ‘‘l do not think that} the practice should be allowed—certainly it should not be encouraged.”' The child's mother was in court. "If you take my advice," she was told by the Judge, ‘‘you will not allow your little girl to go out collecting money.” “Does one swallow maike a sum. mer? Does one transaction make a money-lender?” asked Mr Justice Adams of counsel during a criminal trial in the Auckland Supreme Court recently. A witness had stated he ' was to receive £25 for the loan of ' £2OO for three months and Mr Leary pointing out that this was equival- 1 ent to 50 per cent, per annum, ask- ' ed the witness if he was a registered ; moneylender. In reply to his Hon- ! our’s question, counsel said a man * was not a moneylender because of ‘” one transaction, but a charge of over ' 10 per cent, interest by a money- ’ lender was liable to review. Mr Mere- J dith said it appeared that the wit- 1 ness had no prospect of getting back * his principal, let alone the Interest. Roderick McLean, who attempted j to shoot Queen Victoria, on March , 2nd, 1 882, and was subsequently In- ( carcerated as a dangerous lunatic, . has just died at Broadmoor Asylum. ! The attempted murder of the Queen . occurred at Windsor, following the ‘ arrival of the royal train convey- ~ ing the Queen, Princess Beatrice, ‘ and the Court from London.. Queen , Victoria had just walked across the rt platform at Windsor station to a car- j ria.ge in waiting, when McLean, de- f scribed at the time as “a miserable I looking man,” who was standing at " the entrance of the station yard j among a number of spectators, deliberately fired a revolver at Her t Majesty. Fortunately the shot miss. “ ed. Tried at Berks Assizes for high ' treason, McLean was found not 1 guilty on the ground of insanity, ami " was certified a dangerous lunatic. He 6 has survived Queen Victoria by twenty years. v

“God Bless the Trees,” is the title of a special feature in this month's Quick March by Mr Claude Jewell, who makes a stirring plea for commonsense kindness to man’s friend, the tree. “In New Zealand,’ Mr Jewell remarks, “there is not yet a real public opinion unfavourable to the devastation of incredibly magnificent forests. One might perhaps touch the heart of someone with a picture of a procession of the millions who have passed under the famous English tree, ‘Maud’s Elm,’ out into the world and—out of the world—each inevitably at last cloth, ed in wood and returning to the earth from whence he and the tree sprang. Someone some day, with a voice and with a vision that calls more loudly and can see further than myself, may begin a noble religion in this beautiful land which will include a reverence for trees and the adherents of which shall include in their prayers this heartfelt cry: "God bless the trees.’!” A correspondent, signing himself “Disgusted,”’writes to the “Taihane Tinies” as follows: —“ I noticed some time ago a complaint re gossips and scandalmongers at Utiku, and would like io state that in my opinion the evil is far worse in Taihape. 1 have resided here for twenty years, but never in all that time have I encountered such gossips and scandalmongers as we have amongst us at pit sent. Some of them seem to take a vicious delight in probing into the affairs of other people and endeavouring to get information about thing? which would not concern them in any way if they u ere as decent-mind-ed as they should be. 1 would like to refer particularly to one lady whose thirst for information is such that she does not hesitate to send her daughters out scouting to find out who is with who and where they are going, etc. The reports of the scouts are acted upon, as the lady in question uses them as a foundation to build upon, to the detriment of more people than one. 1 do not believe that any reference to the matter will stop the practice, and am only drawing attention to it by way of protest.”

The Waitotara County Council la - supporting the petition which the ? Harbour Board is presenting to Pari iiament asking that the Board shall have control of the wharf foreshore. > Florence Turner, a cinema star, 1 who is visiting London, was found , bound and gaged at Hampstead. Tm . robbed of £1 000 in jewels ; H j mpney.—lxindon cables. f With characteristic generosity, the . Swankers’ Club has decided to inaut gurate an appeal for the Stewart , Karitane Children’s Hospital, which . is in need of funds. The appeal will j take the form of a “Stewart Karitane: Day,” and a strong committee has been formed to carry It out. The date set down for same is Wednesday, 14th September. , “Our sympathy Is with this man," . sadi the chairman of the Waitotara County Council yesterday when a , letter was received from a returned ; soldier who had taken up a Government section and then had had to ’surrender it. He asked the Council to go easy in regard to demanding the rates from him. Several coun- , cillors knew of the circumstances of , the case and one stated that the Government had represented the ’ section as having 30 acres of flat 1 land whereas it had only ifi acres - The Council decided to make a claim 1 on the Government for tho rates. Some countrymen have their - doubts about the future of Wanganui as a port. At the meeting of the Waitotara County Council yesterday the chairman (Cr Morrison who is also a member of the Harbour Board), was asked straight out by Cr. D. Ross: “Whether he was 1 satisfied that the harbour was going Itobe a ‘harbour’ ” Cr. Morrison ■ gave the councillors a resume of Mr >, Blair Mason's latest report, setting ■ out present conditions and outlining ■ the prospects. Cr. c. g. Russell I also a member of the Board, endorsL'ed what the chairman had said. Cr. } ■ j Ross said he was very pleased to , I hear that things looked so bright I for the harbour. The Post’s Auckland correspond-, ent telegraphs: The Eastern Pacific t Islands fruit trade has latterly shown a marked decline, the reason, it it - stated, being that the prices asked by the natives are now considered 1 by merchants to be prohibitive. The t natives in the Eastern Pacific Group, ‘ like many other people, secured high I prices lor their produce during he ; 1 war period, and are now unab’ A jappreciate that values have fa a, I' With the result that the prices asked ; on the local market are too high The - steamer Flora, which arrived from Raratong.i last week, brought only t three thousand cases of oranges inl stead of the customary eight thou. ■ sand. : On Saturday last the first passengers came through the Otira Tunnel to Arthur s Pass by the courtesy of the. Public Works Department. Ow—- , ing to snow on the road, the coaches were unable to run. and passengers from Hokitika were apparently , stranded. On approaching the oilicI ers of the Public Works Department. Who were arranging for the carrying of the mails through. the tunnel tern, porarily, the request of the passengers was granted, and they were allowed to travel in the trucks leaving the Otira end of the tunnel and arriving at Arthur’s Puss in about one hour. Mr MalfroyTof the State Forest Service, who has just returned from an official visit to Canterbury and the West Coast was one of the passengers on the occasion. “It's an infernal swindle,” said Cr J. H. Burnet yesterday when the business methods of the Banks were under discussion at the Waitotara County Council.. His reason for expressing himself so forcibly lay in the way a local body, running several accounts in the same bank, is charged interest on the overdraft on any- account and is given no interest on any credit balance. He contended that one account should be set oft against another. Cr. Burnet sail that in no other country was a local : body treated in such a manner. He said the banks had tried to do it in Australia and the result was a State Bank. Councillors thought there would be no remedy to prevent banking procedure until the Govern ment stepped in. At the same time the Council quite endorsed some overtures on the subject made by th. Ashburton Council. A brief contribution to the contro regarding the numbers oi deaths among women from puerperal causes was given on Wednr d.ay night in Wellington, by Dr. W. 1* Herbert, who delivered an add rf on “Prevention of Disease.” He qZ-' cussed a table showing the causes 01 deaths between the different ages He held that the presentation of th* figures in the form shown by him rather tended to emphasise the re. grettable position of puerpera causes and tuberculosis for it would appear that if a woman escapee death from tuberculosis she was most likely- to die from some puerperal cause. As “puerperal causes* were very largely confined to mar ried women, and tuberculosis re spected no class, it showed that tht incidence of that cause of death waone of the highest on the list. "It my opinion,’ said Dr. Herbert, “tor much prominence cannot be given t< the many aspects of this question, and we all look forward to a considerable increase in our knowledge of the facts of the case at the com pletion of the inquiry now pending.* During a discussion on returned soldiers’ farms, at the Waitotara County Council meeting yesterday, tne case of one soldier who had ha his farm taken from him was in stanced. This man had been un lucky in securing a small area of fla land and much hillside growing muc gorse. The soldier had given his a tention to the flat land in the hop of getting revenue therefrom and i this respect the practical membei of the Council said he was quit right, as he did not have a big ban account—but the Governmei thought he should have grubbed a the hillsides, and therefore took tl farm away from him. Some of tl councillors thought that if the Go ernment gave the farm to a man < condition that he grubbed out t 1 gorse tt would be a rersonble off< but other councillors dissented fro the view that this weuld be a gobusiness deal for anyone. In the ca of another farm, it was stated th the land was begging at £3 an ac less than the Government bought for. I V

The Bluff Harbour Board has decinded to adopt the suggestion of the Southland League and print a map of Southland on its official correspondence. . The Hydro Power Board petition v has been readily signed in Wanganui. Some 331 per cent, of the ratepayers have appended their signatures. The required number was 25 per cent. The postal authorities have received advice from Vancouver that the R. Madura, which left Vancouver on August 6 for Auckland, has 544 bags of mails for New Zealand. The Kakaramea Post Office had a narrow escape from going up in emoke last week owing to a nearby boxthorn Are. At it was, some of the joists underneath the building caught alight and it was only by the strenuous efforts of a few willing workers that the building was saved. The Chicago Tribune of May 20th last, criticised the following paragraph, which illustrates the rather remarkable ignorance of Americans concerning New Zealand:—Tales of cannibals and head-hunters o’, strange lands—will be brought back to Chicago to-day by W. D. Boyce, president of the W. D. Boyce Publishing Company, who will arrive at 9 o’clock from San Francisco. Mt Boyce who will return with his son, Ben S. Boyce, left Chicago about eight months ago at the head of the west by soutb-west expedition He visited the interior of New Zealand and many other parts of. the world never before visited by newspaper men and photographers. , There was only a limited number of buyers at the Waverley Town Hill on Saturday afternoon when 5 lots including 4 dairy farms belonging to the estate of the late Edward Jollie were Offered for sale. By some mischance the sale was advertised to take place at 2.30 p.m. in th newspapers and 2 p.m. on the sale bills the sale actually taking place at about 2.10 p.pi. As a consequence a number of intending purchasers who wended their way to the Town Hall shortly before 2.30 found to their amazment that the sale was over the various lots being disposed of as under:—Lot 1. No bid; Lot 2. Homestead of 108 acres. Passed in at £55 per acre; Lot 3. 51 acres purchased by Mr. S. Mcßae at £lO5 per acre; Lot 4. 57 acres passed in at £BO per acre; Lot 5. 55 aeres purchased by Mr. R. Bremer at £ll5 per acre. A native youth at Taradale, Hawkes Bay, who is in standard 4 at school, was asked by his teacher to write a composition on the subject. ••What I would do if I were rich.” This Is what he produced. “If I was rich I will buy a big house with a lot of furnitures and a motor car called the pacard, .and I’ll go to England and marry a beautiful Princess and wines to drink and get ; tunned every night and to the races with one thousand dollars and the next day I win £1,000,000. Then I buy an aeroplane and go to America, buy a ranch out with the cowpunchers and learn itow to ride a bucking horse and I will buy all the horses and land and cattle and saloon's and let all my workmen get beer any time tney want it. I will come back to New Zealand and buy all the trains and boats and will get a castle tor my beautiful and charming wifes. I will have 6 wives and 60 servants, and I will cut the King and the Government out and I will rule the world. That is my Golden Dream.” Casting up possibilities for the coming season is a favourite preoccupation with many Ashburton farmers at present. It has not been reported that spiritualistic mediums have been called in to assist with forecasts, but holders of high office in the mercantile world are often credited with equal powers of seeing into the future —of markets, at any rate. So, after communion with some of these experts on the inspiring fields of Riccarton an Ashburton farmer comes home from seeing the Grand National run with a cheering account of the future demand for some of the Dominion’s Given a sufficient rainfail, wheat and dairy products are, according to this report, to yield handsomely, and for lamb also there is still a good inquiry in London at payable prices. A drop in freights for the coming season, reported as not unlikely, would materially improve the position in this respect. It costs about 19/4 to land a 60 ewe carcase and. slightly less for lamb, in Smithfield,' London and this must be paid before anything comes to the producer; so much may be hoped from a lowering of charges under the general heading of freights. The farmer brought back less cheering reports as to wool and mutton. —“Guardian." The other morning (says the “Poverty Bay Herald”) Mr. J. S. Barton, S. detailed a most amusing interlude, one which so often brlghtfens up the sittings of the Magistrate’s Court held in the small townships of the East Coast At Waipiro Bay the magistrate was called on to decide an action brougnt for assault. The case concerned a well-kjrown Japanese billiard saloon proprietor, of Te Araroa, and his landlord, <. white man. Evidently, said Mr. Barton, there was a good deal of bad blood between the two men. The landlord went to the shop of the Japanese to inquire into a small hole that was in the wall, and an altercation resulted. The sallow-faced man, known as ’’Jimmy,” was asked if he used im= suiting language to the white man. The language alleged to have been Used was written down, and shown to "Jimmy,” who replied, “No, no, no, me no say that.” Spelling the word out he said, “No, me no, I no say anyt’ing like that; that naughty word not in our dictionary; no, no, me no say that.” He was then placed in the witness box, his counsel remarking, “No, your Worship; I’m sure he never said than he does not know those words.” “All right, we’ll see,’ replied the “Jimmy, now tell me just what happened.” “I cut a man’s hair in my shop,” he re- « plied, “when he came in and say, ‘You make that hole in wall.’ I say ‘No, no.’ He then say, ‘You liar.’ I then say, 'You and I hit him over chops. That’s all.” The • whole Court, magistrate, counsel, and public laughed heartily at the unexpected development, Jimmy also joining in, thinking that his case was as successful as it was hilarious.

WTien the Prince of Wales was in San Diego, California, he addressed a large audience in the open air with the aid of an instrumest known as the magna vox. Some New Zealanders have purchased two of these, and it is understood that one of them is to be used in the open for the first tjme in New Zealand at New Zealand-Springboks test match to be played in Wellington. ' A contrast. The “Southland Times’' (Invercargill) says: “When the present Borough Council took office it set out with the idea of keeping the corporation s expenditure down to the lowest possible without the diminution of efficiency. and the statement presented last evening covering the position of the various departments under the Council’s control during the first four months of the financial year is decidedly encouraging. The revenue and expenditure of four months, of course, do not afford an infallible guide to the operations of the remaining eight, but the figures can be accepted as a rough indication of what the future may hold. Considered in the light of the difficulties facing all public bodies at the present moment the announcement of a surplus of £1079 over all the departments is distinctly encouraging and reflects credit on tile administration.” Of Caruso anecdotes there is no ending, but one may be quoted which displays the gifted Neapolitan as a pretty shsewd judge of the value of applause. When lie was staying in Naples he was almost idolised on account of his bonhomie He would enter a little restaurant and sing in the most glorious manner, between the courses, songs for which in opera he would be paid hundreds oi pounds. The cook used to come from the kitchen, the padrone from his office, and all the women folk of the place from their various occupa. tions, and would stand around enraptured. and sometimes with moist eyes, listening to the wonderful notes. After the applause one day, Caruso turned to a friend, saying, “That is the praise I prize. If I can draw tears from the eyes of the man who cooks my macaroni then I am sure I am in voice. Womfen will weep because it is Caruso who sings, but the cook will only do so if his heart is really touched.” “What New Zealand wants is a Motor Traffic Act, the same as they have in New South Wales, England, and other countries. Until there exists such statutory backing there will always be a weakness in local body by-laws dealing with motor traffic.” This is the firm opinion of Mr. L. S. Drake, chief motor inspector to the Wellington City Council, who holds that such a measure should even come before an Act dealing with taxation- for road maintenance purposes. He exhibited to a reporter a handy pocket-book copy of the New South Wales Motor Traffic Act, which is issued to every driver with his annual license, and which he must always carry with him when in charge of a motor vehicle. It gives his name, number, date, and place of registration, etc, on the front page. Following that is the Act itself, and a neat schedule setting out what a motor vehicle driver must and must not do. So equipped, there is no excuse for any driver not knowing the law, and the administration of the Act becomes a comparatively simple i matter.

There has been a mild commotion in the Prince of Wales’s entourage over the mysterious disappearance of his Royal Highness’s private dairy (writes the London correspondent of the Dunedin "Star”). The Prince calls it his "rag diary,” and the name sufficiently indicates its character. Its contents are certainly not intended either for present or future publication. On the contrary, it consists of what is generail a very piquant commentary on the places the Prince visits and the public men whom he meets. One has only to recall Mrs Asquith’s recent book ol reminiscences to appreciate how racy these personal impressions may be. But the indiscretions permitted of an ex-Premier’s wife could not be committed by the heir to the throne, and the disappearance of the book occasions a considerable searching of heart. Horrible visions were conjured up of its having fallen into wrong hands, and of it being sold and published by some enterprising editor. Had any such thing happened, it would have set the world agog, for some of the passages had to do with his Royal Highness’s overseas tours, and especially with his visits to Canada and the United States. A rigorous search was made, therefore, when the loss of the dairy was reported. After some delay, during which everybody was on tenterhooks, the missing volume was found hidden away in a drawer. So all’s well that ends well!