LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18442, 28 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Good progress is being made with the foudation of the permanent power house at Mangahao. The site is right in the bed of the stream, which has been turned. A large quantity of concrete work has already been done. A witness, when asked what he paid for a house, during the hearing in Auckland, of an application for possession of a tenement replied, “About £1000.” “Are you not adding the legal costs to the price?” was the next question, and the prompt answer; “No, the lawyers did that” caused a smile to pass round the court.

An application for a land agent's license made by the wife of a farmer land agent, now bankrupt, was refused by Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court, on the ground ehat the applicant lacked the knowledge and ability required. The application was opposed by the Christchurch Land Agents’ Association. As evidence of the large number of girls out of work at Auckland at. the present time, the recent experienc of the Lyric Theatre management in advertising for three ushers is worth citing. The total applications were in the vicinity of 300, quite a number being from wives whose Jiusbands were out of work. Good table tomatoes from Christchurch were sold in Dunedin by auction on Monday last at twopence per pound. At the meeting of tht Borough Council on Tuesday night last, one or two councillors requested that the Borough engineer be asked to supply “comprehensive reports” on certain matters. “What I want to know is, with all these comprehensive reports to be Supplied when the engineer is going to get on to detail work. I was going to suggest that Arnst meet Hadfield in a sculling race in SJiort Street on account of the big flow of water which has been in that street lately, but I don’t want a comprehensive reports upon it.”

“The very horizon of sea and sky does not recede too quickly to be overtaken by the Y.M.C.A.” A tribute to the enterprise of that organisation by Mr Louis Cohen yesterday. The Canterbury Rugby Union has spent £4OO on a night-training ground for football teams, and has decided to open the season on April 22.

Some idea of the heavy losses which are suffered by large city shopkeepers through shoplifting was given by the evidence at the Central Police Court, Sydney, of a shop detective from Mark Foy’s, Limited. He stated that his firm found it necessary to make an allowance of £2OOO annually for such losses. The verdict at the inquest on the death of Eva Simes was that death was due to general peritonitis following on septic premature labour. It was reported on Saturday that a young woman named Eva Simes died at the Wellington Hospital. It is understood that the deceased belongs to Canterbury, but went to Wellington recently from the Wanganui district.

Stating that his interest had been aroused by a similarity of name, Mr George Bodley of Hamilton, New Zealand has given £5,0'00 to the Bodleian the famous Oxford, library, where a collection of old English MSS. is housed. When Mr. Bodley sent his gift, he explained that although he could not claim any direct relationship with the founder of the library. Sir Thomas Bodley, his family had a tradition that they were connected. Mr. George Bodley, says the Daily Mail, went to New Zealand as a boy of 11 and make a fortune.

Local deerstalkers are looking forward to tihe opening of the season for fallow deer in this district on April Ist, but good heads are not too numerous this year, although one of two twelvepointers have been seen in the Tokomaru and Parikino districts. Several deer have been seen up as far as Kakatahi. That acclimatisation society notifies that 4 0 licenses will be issued, but no licensee shall take or kill more than two bucks and no buck shall be killed carrying antlers with less than four points. No hind or fawn shall be shot under any pretext whatever. A conjuror was travelling in a railway train. Into the carriage entered three of the “boys,” and one of them promptly tried to annex some of the conjurer’s spare cash by the agency of the pea-and-walnut-shell swindle, offering to bet a sovereign that he could not find the pea. The conjurer pretended to be reluctant to cover the wager, but eventually agreed; lifted up one of the three shells, and there underneath it was the pea. The “boys” looked at each other, the one who was working the swindle in a deprecating way; the -others mystified, and not a little disgusted. However, they made up their mind to have another go for it, with the result that the conjurer again found the pea, and won another sovereign. Then the sharper said: "Here, guv’nor, give us a chance. I’ve had the pea in my hand all the time.”

Recently there appeared in the Southland News an article contributed in the Daily Mail by Harry Dykes, a well-known violin expert, entitled “Fortune in Fiddles,” in the course of which instances were given of old violins picked up at auction for a trifle realising in later years large sums. Incidentally the writer stated: "The famous Bett’s Stradivarius was purchased one hundreds years since from a gentleman’s servant for £l. It is a beautiful vio-

lin, and I know it well, its present valjje being £5000.” In this connection it is interesting to note that an Invercargill resident has had in his possession for twenty years an old violin on the inside of which are printed the words “Antonius Stradivarius Cremoneufis. Faciebat Anno, 1736.’’ This would seem tq..indicate that the instrument in 186 years old, in which case it would be hard to estimate its value if it is a genuine Stradivarius as seems probable. Complaints of the unsatisfactory Government grading of New Zealand flax are not confined to overseas buyers (states the Dunedin “Star”). New Zealand rope and twine manufacturers have also been up in arms against what they declare has developed into an impossible state of things. Investigation of their grievances has disclosed so many injustices that the Department of Agriculture has agreed that a conference shall be called early in May, the parties represented being the flaxmillers, the graders and the manufacturers. One of the main contentions of the last named is that too often the scutching of the fibre is so unsatisfactory that the deduction of points for this under the system of grading must exclude the fibre from the class in which too often the graders place it Another objection is that regrading is often granted when a dissatisfied flax-miller demands it, but never when a dissatisfied buyer does so. Of optimists and pessimists, the newest illustrative anecdote is of two men who were staying at the same small inn in the same small town (relates “K” in the Christchurch Press). One day they came down very late, and saw the unappetising remains of breakfast on the solitary table which the one room contained. The pessimist said, “I wonder if there is any milk left in that jug.” The optimist said, “Pass the cream.” No smaller the difference between the Opposition critic’s daily gloom and lamentation and Mr. Massey’s cheerful address in South Canterbury. But what of the Hon. G. Fowlds? Where shall we place him? His vision of an earth plunging into an abyss of Bolshevism entitles him to a seat on the pessimist platform. But as an optimist I claim him as one of us. For he believes that the earth dm be saved by giving it proportional representation. It is difficult to picture India throwing Ghandi into the Ganges and settling down the moment it is provided with ballot papers which must be marked

1,2, and 3. Nor has it seemed quite certain that it is P.R. that Ireland has been aching for these 700 years. Men will rise up, as Stevenson said, to do battle for an egg, or die for an idea. But die for a decimal point? Facts- —which “get in the way so,” as “Svonarola” Brown complained—facts suggest to us that they will not.

At tlie Magistrate's Court at Wellington yesterday, a Chinaman, named Ah Lye was fined £lO for smoking opium and £25 for being in possession of the drug. Concluding his address to the Employers ■ Federation last evening. Mr Shailer Weston remarked: "I don’t think I can tell you any more of interest.” “Yes, tell us more about interest," came like a flash from one of the audience.

The W.C.T.U. Convention at Hamilton decided to recommend that every union try to secure the election to School Committees and Education Boards of candidates favourable to the Nelson system ,of Bible teaching in schools.

A young man entered a Chinese fruiterer’s shop and asked for cigarettes, but was told they were not for sale. A disturbance followed, concerning which reports are conflicting, but its a result a man named Grahame had his hand severely cut by a knife, said to have been weilded by a Chinaman. The little finger was almost severed. Grahame has been removed to the hospital. At the Police Court at Auckland yesterday, Charles Philpott was charged with betting tote odds and fined £6O on three offences. Sidney Clyde Hanton was committed for trial on ar charge of bookmaking. In the case of Philpott the police found on him books of credit and debit slips showing a credits of £685.

An Auckland wire says that two men were caught in the act of burglary at Nook Bros.’ store, Paparoa, at 2 a.m. yesterday. They were caught by the proprietors and held until taken into custody by a constable from Waipu. They gave their names as Frank Wood and Bert. Moore. After being locked up “at Waipu both men escaped, but were recaptured a short distance away.

The aftermath of the war boom in farms is now being experienced (notes the Dannevirke News). Several cases have come under our notice recently of farmers who sold their holdings during the boom and came to Dannevirljp to live, who have had to resume possession or shortly will do. In one case in which a former owner is faced with this possibility the farm has changed hands five times since he quitted it, the purchase price on the last occasion having almost doubled the figure at which he sold. Some 6500 red poppies, replicas of the flowers growing on the battlefields of historic Flanders, have arrived in Wanganui. In common with other centres in the Dominion, a "Poppy Day” sale will be held here on April 24th, when it is hoped to raise £350 to be devoted partly to assist the French children and partly to provide relief for local unemployed Returned Soldiers. A representative Wanganui Committee is to be formed to undertake the sale, and the local R.S.A. invite any who are interested to meet at the R.S.A. Club on Friday next, March 31st at 4 p.m. Here is story from Vienna illustrative of the quaint conduct of the krone recently.—At Frau Sacher’s famous restaurant the other day an American was having an opulent luncheon. He paid his bill—one dollar- —to the head waiter, who gave him 2,000 kronen change. After settling the bill the American ordered some more coffee, and having drunk it asked for a new bill. The waiter, without handing him a bill, immediately put 500 kronen in front of him. The American was surprised, “What’s this,” he said, ”1 want to pay for my coffee.” “That’s al right, sir,” said the waiter. “The dollar exchange has gone up by 1,000 points since you paid your first bill.”

A correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph” interestingly suggests the formation of a League of Boy Farmers on lines of the Boy Soouts as a means of imparting agricultural interest and knowledge in the prospective juvenile emigrants to the Dominions. The secretary of the Overseas Settlement Committee comments that provision for suitable training is the keynote to the whole problem of Empire settlement. Nearly half a million boys and girls leave British schools yearly searching for occupation. Sir R. S. Baden Powell commends the scheme, but states that the danger is that unless the Interest of the boys is really aroused and a taste for farming formed they drift to the city. A new motor-car was wrecked near Wellington last Monday. When returning from a visist to the Hutt, Mr S. George Nathan stopped at an oil store at Kaiwarra, on his way to town, and parked his car as close as possible to the deep sidechannel. He had not been inside the store more than a few minutes when he heard a loud crash outside. On hurrying outside, he discovered his machine to be practically a complete ruin. It seemed that every thing that could be broken had been smashed, even to essential engine parts, axles, sideboards, windscreen, and tyres. A flve-ton lorry going to town had, it is stated, crashed into the standing car. Curiously enough, the lorry was towing into Wellington a motor lorry that was concerned in an accident on the Hutt Road on the previous glay.

When moving the adoption of the annual report of the Wanganui Employers’ Federation last evening, tpe President, Mr A. IG. Bignell, said he thought that the corner of the depression had been turned, despite the continued unrest of Labour, which militated against stable conditions, but this was only one aspect In the gettng back flrom war to peace conditions. The burdens fell on both the wages and the business man, but all should help one another. The primary producers had suffered most, and had to bear the heaviest of the burden of the time. In Wanganui the employers were trying to do their best to improve conditions. There was certainly now a better feeling among all classes than prevailed some months ago. There was no Heaven-sent way by which wages could be' kept to a high standard any more than prices could be kept up. While the farmer had as yet no money to spend, there was little doubt but that they were getting round the corner. The winter would show some difficulty, but every employer should employ every man possible. If all did that the trouble would be greatly eased.

It is estimated that in the Christchurch tramway, service, which will be begin on Ayril'lst. v ill bring about a saving of "about £2uoo ta year. ▼ jP A sitting of the Assessment Court * was to have been held at the Courthouse yesterday afternoon, but owing to the indisposition of the Magistrate the Court was adjourned .sine die.

In the opinion of Mr Shailer Weston, the Government’s policy of taxing the interest on mortgages will not last Anig. because it is having a very harmful effect in putting up the rate of interest. thus retarding industry. At Palmerston North yesterday, a conference of the four district HydroElectric Power Boards decided to approach the Government to raise and guarantee a combined loan for the purpose of each Board. The steamer Dorest arrived at Auckland from Liverpool on Sunday with 262 Immigrants. They ar® all tn good noalth. The immigrants include 37 domestic, and 18 weavers for,the Kaiapoi, Rosyln, and Mosgiel mill’s. During the voyage a man named, James Carter, died and was buried at sea.

The Duplex fire alarm system has now liocn installed in the borough, and last evening its working was demonstrated Iwlore members of the Fire Board. From a call at the alarm box near the Opera House, the brigade got to tj»- scene in 1} minutes. Details of the system will be published in a following issue.

All coalmines are not goldmines, as some people think. Mr Shailer Ws*. ton last evening told of one mine in which he was interested No dividend had ever been paid, and was never likely to lx*. The shareholders were never likely to get their money back, and the first debenture holders would be lucky if they saw 13s 4d in the £ again. In the bupreme Court at Masteiton on Saturday, Ernest Robert Ward, carrier, of Masterton, was sentenced without hard labour for failure to keep proper account books during the three years prior to his bankruptcy, and for contracting debts knowing at the time he had no reasonable prospect of paying them together with other debts.

Delegates representing the Rangitikei - Wanganui, Manawatu - Arou«, Horowhenua, Dannevirke, and Tararua Power Boards met in conference at Palmerston North yesterday, when it wao decided that the chairmen of the different boards wait upon the Government and ask that the boards be allowed to raise a joint loan, with a Government guarantee, as was done in the case of the Southland Power Board. “I thftik the erection of flats in the town is one of the greatest evils we have in a community," remarked Mr. M. Schofield at a meeting of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. The introduction of flats, added the speaker, would have a very detrimental effect on the future generation, as people who lived in flats began to degenerate, and they never wanted to live in houses again. -The science of housekeeping was killed by residence in flats, which were also one of the chief causes of rac« suicide.

The Secretary of the Wanganui Employers’ Federation came in fot a fair amount of laudation at the hands of several members at* the meeting last evening. The remarks by the local president, Mr Bignell. concerning Mr Weekes’ services, were capped by the New Zealand President. Mr F. Shailer Weston, who. in praising the strength and self-reli-ance of the local Association, said that in Mr Weekes it had a secretary who was as keen as the best in New Zealand, and that the Federation could always expect prompt and efficient help from this quarter. An ex-resident of Christchurch, now stationed at Batavia, writes to a member of the Press staff. “Things are very bad in Java just now, and business is particularly dull. Many firms are tottering, and there have been many collapses among big Chinese firms. We are hoping for better times soon, but the average cost of living doesn’t come down. Such things as bread, rice, sugar, etc., are lower,, but rents and general living expenses are still on the upward track. Taxation is awful and on March Ist all import duties will rise another ten per cent. People won’t be able to live here soon.” By the death of Mr. Thomae Sparks, who passed away on Wednesday last, Wanganui loses a very old and well-known citizen. He was a native of London, and was 68 years of age at the time of his death. He came to this district with Mrs Sparks about 45 years ago, setting up for himself in a well conducted and successful business, and being much esteemed for his unassuming and kindly nature. He was a wellknown member of the Foresters’ Order, having been c-nnected with the looal Lodge for many years. He is survived by a widow and adult family of four daughters and one son, to whom much sympathy will be extended in their bereavement.