LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18438, 23 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The prize-money for the band contest held at Masterton in the year 1903 totalled £265. For this year’s contest it is proposed to give £350. “The people spend one day every three years electing a Parliament, and the remainuer of the time they spend in throwing stones at it,” said Mr. R. W. Smith, on Friday evening, at the A and P. Association’s smoke concert at Taumarunui.

A case came Jbefore a court involving the. ownership of an eightday clock. After listening to both sides the judge turned to the plaintiff. “You get the clock,” he said gravely. “And what do I get?” complained the defendant. “You get the eight-days," replied the judge. It is officially announced, says a Sydney cable, that the Smelting Works and Sulphide Corporation at Cockle Creek is closing down at the end of April, throwing 400 men idle, in consequence of the decreased output of lead concentrates at Broken Hill.

The North Canterbury Hospital Board passed a resolution inviting Hospital Boards in New Zealand to urge the .Government to appoint a commission to inquire into the prevalence of venereal disease in New Zealand and suggest the best means of combatting the disease. The Minister for Public Works at Alexander turned on the water in the Manuherikia irrigation race. He stated that the Otago Central Irrigation scheme had cost £163,000 to date, and the total cost would be over £lBO,OOO. The scheme would irrigate 11,000 acres of land. '

The “Wairarapa Age’s travelling reporter states that a buyer secured 4000 fat sheep in the Lower Valley on Monday and just about cleaned the district out. Shrewd dealers predict that prices will harden during the next couple of months, that the rickety market experienced of late will assume some stability. The Borough Engineer was instructed by the Borough Council last evening to prepare a report with estimates on the requiremtns of every street in the Borough. This will take about a month to get ready, and will then be considered by a special meeting of the Council. A meeting of the St. John’s Ratepayers’ Association was held last evening, Mr. Lloyd Jones presiding over about twenty-five Members, to discuss the question of lighting the suburbs by electricity. All present with one exception, signed a petition declaring their willingness to instal electric light when the Borough Council can supply it. The general financial stringency and the falling off of the gold revenue consequent upon the closing down of the Grand Junction battery, has considerably affected the position of the Wahi School of Mines, resulting in the amalgamation of the Waihi and’ Waikino schools as a temporary expedient. The Minister of Mines has intimated that he would not see the school in difficulties, and public bodies are now being actively canvassed in order to obtain immediate assistance.

A pile of hay four feet high and six feet across I According to a letter which the Wanganui Education Board has received, this surprising amount of material was carried by birds and deposited between the ceiling and the roof of a country school in a snug spot near the chimney. The teacher who made the investigation of the upper regions of his school building emphasised the danger of fire where birds had access. Incidentally, he mentioned that when the hay accumulation was located it proved to be the happy home of a cat and a litter of kittens.

Court officials are invariably rigid in their enforcement of due and proper decorum, and seldom is a man allowed to place his hat upon his head without immediately bringing down the wrath of some official upon him. It happened (states the Gisborne Times) during the sitting of the Supreme Court that the zeal of the court crier overreached itself, for, after sternly ordering someone in the rear of the court to “Take off that hat,” he discovered that the subject of his recriminations was a Maori wahine.

The recent business slump was very sore on the boot trade in New Zealand, employers harassed with all kinds of perplexities, workmen scratching on with half-time or a little better, many out altogether (states the Dunedin Star). By slow stages the position has improved, at any rate as far as Dunedin is concerned. Very few boots and shoes are being imported, orders for winter goods are being freely sent in to the factories, and there are not many hands now unemployed. One manufacturer said the other day that he haid plenty of work to keep his staff going for three or four months. An effort is to be made to institute the practice of community singing in Wellington. A committee of those interested has already been founded, and it is to wait upon the finance Committee of the City Council on Monday next with the object of obtaining the use of the Concert Chamber for an hour—between 12.30 P.m. and 1.30 p.m.—on certain days in order to stimulate' community singing. The idea, which originated in England, has taken a firm grip on the American public, and has also been very successful in Melbourne. In referring to the idea the Mayor (Mr R. A. Wright) said it was a capital idea and one which, if successful, would benefit the people psychologically, as it is said to have been the case elsewhere. He wished the effort every success.

Another serious motor-cycle and motor car collision occured yesterday morning, as the result of which a young man named Claude Wilkie, an employee of Messrs McGruer and Co’s, and a son of Mr W. A. Wilkie, sustained a fractured thigh and other injuries necessitating his removal to the Hospital. Wilkie was riding along Guyton Street on his way to work at about 8.?0 o’clock, and when passing the intersection of St. Hill Street a motor car crashed into his motor cycle. The machine was damaged and young Wilkie was dragged some twenty yards along the roadway, the car eventually being brought to a standstill by a lamp-post. .The injured man’s pain was accentuated by a tyre of the ambulance being punctured. He also had to wait some time before the fracture could be set, doctors being busy at other hospitals. Wilkie was very brave, and refused an anaesthetic, saying the pain could not be worse than it then was.

Former agents (in Melbourne) of the German-Australian Line have been approached by the Line to accept the agency again, but have declined, stating they could not forget the misery Germany brought upon the world.

The Welfare League has sent the following telegram to Mr Gunson, Mayor of Auckland: “The New Zealand Welfare League expresses its emphatic disapproval of the antiBritish and seditious speech delivered by Bishop Liston at Auckland, and endorses your action in the matter. Such a speech can only tend- to engender bitterness and strife among our people, and encourage those whose efforts are directed at the destruction of the Empire.”