LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18972, 25 March 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Rain caused considerable damage in Sydney and suburbs- Many houses were flooded and orchards in the suburbs ruined.

Jim Larkin was evpelled last week from the Irish Workers’ Union and has decided to form ft new Labour Party in Ireland. A Gisborne telegram says that during a heavy thunderstorm on Saturday evening, a team of eight horses, driven by a wagoner named Thomas Nicholls, near Tiniroto, took fright and plunged over a twenty-foot bank at a bridge approach- The body of Nicholls was discovered next afternoon in a hole in a papa bed of the creek. It was covered by the bodies of_three dead horses belonging to the team.

The Chinese Foreign Office, in a memorandum to Kara Khan points out that ho has been misunderstanding his part regarding the signing of the agreement, referring to the mandate issued on the 20 th, which Announced that Henceforth negotiations would be carried on by the Foreign Office. The memorandum adds that the Government is ready to resume negotiations with Khan, .-o that an early and satisfactory conclusion may L be reached

Statements controverting the impression that the drapery trade offered no inducements to young people setting out in life were made at the Drapers’ Conference. Mr. J. R. Rendell said modern developments in retail distribution provided excellent opportunities for the exercise and liberal .payment of real ability jn department stores and drapery businesses. The Apprentices Act seemed to be an honest attempt to place boys and girls where their capabilities could best be used, and the Drapers’ Federation should take advantage ot this. He suggested that it was advisable for the federation to take measures likely to induce a larger proportion of the boys and girls who, on leaving school, gave promise of having more than the average ability, to join the trade. These views met with the approval of the conference, and the matter was referred to the Advisory Board with power to act.

A letter was read at the meeting Of the Otago Education Board recently pointing out that according to the view of the department it was of opinion that no one should be accepted for educational work who was suffering from physical disability in the shape of injury to his or her limbs. The Hon. D. T. Fleming said that it was a very shortsighted policy for the department to adopt. The department ought to encourage young people to take up educational work, and not debar them from doing so. He stated that at the present time some of those who were recognised as leaders in imparting knowledge to the young laboured under the very disability the department referred to, and stressed the point that such disability might prove an inducement to teachers to throw themselves even more wholeheartedly into their work than they otherwise would. He moved that the board draw attention of the department to the attitude it had taken up in regard to its objection to employ educationally those suffering from injuries to their limbs, and protest against such an attitude. Further, that anyone so injured might be ideal for employment in connection with teaching in schools. —The motion was agreed to.

The popularity of the motor-car in America is proving a good thing for the clothing business, according to the secretary of the International Association of Garment Manufacturers. Even before a car is purchased, he says, the advertising'methods of the motor-car concerns promote “clothes consciousness.” No firm issues advertisements which.picture its cars as occupied by shabbily dressed persons. And actually no man or woman climbs into a shiny, new car wearing a threadbare suit of clothes or an out-of-date hat. Owners of cars, too, are accustomed to spend money on extra suits for motor travel. Before the automobile era the Sunday-go-to-meeting suit of the farmer lad used to smell of week-day moth-balls. Nowadays he dresses up in city fashion several evenings of the week when he takes the trip in to town to see the “movies.” The garages bring business to the clothier, for the mechanic must replace his working clothes more frequently than men engage"? in most other manual occupations. And greater wear and tear upon clothing is unavoidable for those motorists who drive their own cars and have occasionally to change their tyres or overhaul their machines.

It is stated that the Ratepayers’ Association intend to put forward a candidate for the vacant seat on the Borough Council.

Further honours have come to Wanganui. One well-known member of the Ratepayers' Association was at the railway picnic at Ohakune on Sunday, and distinguished himself by winning the “old buffers” race.

The Commonwealth Statistician reports that for 1923 there were 135,222 births in th e Commonwealth compared with 137,496 the previous year, and the deaths numbered 56,236 compared with 51,311 in 1922.

An eighteen inch outcrop of anthracite coal ha s been discovered in the Manning River district (N.S.W.). An analysis is highly encouraging, and it is anticipated that it will develop a workable seam at no great depth. It is important as the first anthracite found in New South Wales.

As the result of the recent organ recital given by Mr. Arthur Towsoy, St. Paul’s organ committee will be enabled to hand over to the local Radium Fund the sum of £6 10s. The collection was somewhat disappointing, considering the large attendance. but, by keeping expenses at a minimum, tl}e committee has been able to make a satisfactory contribution under the circumstances.

We understand, says the Hawera Star, that the Railway Department has begun operations in the direction of providing a new railway station for Hawera. Messrs G. A. Troup, engineer and officer in charge of the architectural branch of the railway, and M. Dennehy, land officer, have spent a few days in town, and have been making arrangements in connection with acquiring land for the railway workers’ cottages. It is the Goverment’s intention to go on with the work, which is regarded by the department as among the most necessary of the new works to be undertaken.

“The main point in connection with road making is that the people have to pay for it,” said Mr. Thomas W. Patterson, a representative of an American asphalt mixing machinery company, during the course of* an interview offered a Northern Arvocate reporter. Consequently, he added, the people should see that they get the best road for their money, but there was really more in having good roads than merely thc~-cost of building. In America the centralisation of schools was an outcome of the making off good roads, and the result was that money was now being used fr automobile fuel to carry the children to larger and better staffed schools, instead of being spent upon maintenance cost of low grade roads.

The New Zealand itinerary of the I Imperial navy squadron is announced. The Hood and the Repulse will visit Wellington, accompanied by H.M.A.S. Adelaide. H.M.S. Chatham will be in port at the time of arrival. Three light cruisers, the Delhi, Danae and Dragon, will proceed to Lyttelton. The admiral of the light cruiser squadron is on board the Delhi. The light cruisers Durfedin and Dauntless go to Dunedin. The Dauntless, after a stay of four days, proceeds to the Bluff, joining up with the Dunedin again and proceeding straight to Auckland. The battle cruisers Hood and Repulse will proceed to Gisborne, and the light cruisers to Napier. The whole squadron will assemble in Auckland, the Dauntless and Dunedin arriving on April 11, a day after the main body of the squadron.

The Mayor of Dunedin has written to the Education Board on the subject of the approaching military pageant which is to play an important part in raising funds for the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial, asking that facilities be given by the board for the school children’s attendance at the displays On the afternoons of the 12th and 16 th of April. There would be a nominal charge of 6d per head. The letter was considered at the meeting of the Education Board recently, when Mr. Wallace, the chairman of the board, remarked that in all these kinds of cases the first thing people did was to come along thinking about the children, in the schools. On the. motion of Mr. Wilkinson it was re-' solved that every facility be given the pupils of the schools to attend the display.