LOCAL & GENERAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 31 December 1927, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL.

The ‘Masterton Municipal Band will play in. QuCcn' Street to-night, commencing at 10. MO o’clock. The second day’s play in the croquet tests between England and New South Wales, states a Press Association message from Sydney, resulted: —Singles, Wemvss (England) beat Mrs Tayles, 26/2-1; Miss Steele (England), beat Mrs Moore 26/6; 26/15; Colonel Dupre (England) beat Tayles, 26/M. A record run from Home to Wellington was made by the Ruahinc , which arrived at Wellington yesterday morning. She left Southampton on November 25 and the long voyage to Wellington was completed in MM days 21 hours, or, allowing for summer time, MM days 20 hours. This time includes stops at Panama Canal and Pitcairn Island and establishes a new record time for the trip. Fine weather a\as experienced throughout. Puny and irritable children are often afflicted with worms. The safest and most pleasant remedy mis WADE’S WORM FIGS. Absolutely effective. *

Nineteen drivers’ licenses were issued by the Masterton Borough Council in December, making the total for the current year 14M4.

The vital statistics for Masterton in December were: Births IS, deaths 6, marriages 11. The figures for the year are: Births 291, deaths 102, marriages 99. .

Eight teams will compete in the ambulance competitions to be held at the Caledonian sports, at Masterton next Monday. The teams are: Auckland, three; Wellington Harbour Board, two; and Pctone, W anganui and Masterton, one each. A Timaru Press Association telegram states that the final of the Qrbell polo cup competition played yesterday resulted in a win for Pareora A, which defeated every team in the competition. The cup was previously held by C-hristchureh A. No bankruptcies were recorded in the Wairarapa in December, but the number for the year was 19, as compared with 14 the previous year. This year’s bankruptcies included three farmers, two storekeepers, two sharemilkers, two contractors, two labourers, and a carrier, hotelkeeper, builder, commercial traveller, shepherd, mail contractor, woolbuycr and driver. The total liabilities of the various estates amounted to. £11,102, the assets realised were £1522 17s 2d, and the dividends paid were £I4BO 18s Md.

Electing to travel without paying his fare, Joseph Given, thirty-five, of Newcastle, climbed on to the buffers between two carriages of the “Flying Scotsman’’ express, and stayed in this perilous position for over twenty miles. Then he was seen by a signalman at Stamford, near Alnwick, who telephoned up the line to have the train stopped. When Given was brought before the Alnwick Bench, the Magistrate said it was a wonder they were not holding an inquest on him. Given, who said he had been drinking, was fined 30s.

Fires in (England alone cause dcstruc; tion and damage amounting yearly to about twelve million pounds. This was revealed by Mr 'Charles Hendry in his presidential address to the Insurance Institute in London. The fire and accident business of the twenty-five leading insurance companies during ten years amounted, he said, to about 635 million pounds, and on this total the aggregate net profit for the ten years, after deducting taxation, was less than It per cent. Eliminating three years which were abnormal, the net profit was Ml per cent. “1 am taking my life because I am so lonely,” was a passage in a letter found near the body of the beautiful Baroness Apollona Markwart,’ a wealthy visitor to Naples from Berlin, in a room at a hotel there. The baroness was thirty-eight years of age, and a feature of the tragedy is that the hotel officials entering the room after her absence had been commented on found her dressed in a most fashionable evening gown. She died from the combined effects of two drugs. The letter contained her will, which ended: “Let me be buried in a snow-white coffin.”

A curious position has arisen in the “battle” between Mrs Dixon, the owner and occupier of Woodlea, Ballards Lane, Church End, Finchley, No., and the local council, following the granting by the Highgatc Bench to the council of an order to enter the house to execute repairs to the drains. Mr E. 11. Lister, clerk of the council, said recently that the order did not give power for forcible entry, and added: Such a power, I believe, cannot be granted. The Englishman’s home is still his castle. Consequently, we shall take no action until the matter has been reported to the council. We shall if necessary, go to the High Court and get an order, and if that is not obeyed, it will be possible for Mrs Dixon to be committed to prison for contempt of Court.

“There is not an hotelkeeper in New Zealand who could not be convicted every week under the present licensing laws,” said a Dunedin licensee during a chat with an Otago Times reporter. ‘‘ We are hemmed in by so many regulations and limits that in practice it becomes impossible to avoid breaking the law. I must say, however, that the police read the law relating to hotels generously, and I have always found that they are prepared to give a square deal to the man who is trying to play the game. If the regulations were interpreted strictly and to the last letter, conditions would be intolerable for us.” He added that hotelkeepers throughout the country had been passing through a lean period in 1927. At the present time, if licensees were holding their own and making ends meet, they were doing well. The first-born child of a family is the most liable to disease. This fact emerged from a lecture by Dr. G. F. Still, professor of children’s diseases, King’s College Hospital, London. Dr. Still reviewed the evidence of a great many eases, and found that in cases of mental deficiency the proportion of first-born —41.7 per cent. —is so great as to suggest “a special liability of the first-born to mental defect of developmental origin.” The figures given also “suggest that there is some special liability of the first-born to epilepsy.” In summing up, Dr. Still says: “It is no small thing if we can give comfort and hope to the mother and father who are faced with disaster in. their first-born in the shape of some congenital abnormality of mind or body. They are apt to imagine that it is due to some fault or failing which will mar the rest of theii married life by likelihood of repetition if they have further children.” He adds, however, that experience shows that the repetition of congenital anomalies in a family, though by no means unknown, is very exceptional.

A Brisbalo cable announdfcs that a statement lias been issued by the general manager of the Mount Morgan Company that all active operations at the mine will cease at the end of the year. All mining and ore-breaking has already ceased.

John Harvey, the Englishman whose sentence of imprisonment for desertion from the French Foreign Legion was recently remitted by the French Government, was formally released from the Legion on Thursday. He had been excused from serving the remainder of his term of enlistment in the Legion. Harvey left at once for Cardiff, his home town.

During June last SOS men—totalling with their wives and families ISS0 — took up free grants of Canadian laud, an increase of 104 on the corresponding month last year. They included 90 American, So persons from the United Kingdom, 53 Norwegians, 49 Austrians, 49 Russians, and 42 Poles. These homesteads consist of 1(50 acres, and are given to British subjects or those who will adopt British nationality, on payment of a registration fee of £2. When certain requirements in the way of residence and cultivation over a period of three years have been fultilled the homestead becomes the absolute property of the settler. During June 335 people received such title in respect of 45,056 acres. News has reached Bombay of the formation of a new film company in India, started on the initiative of Prince Sliar Singh, a cousin of the Maharajah of Kashmir. The Prince desires to incorporate American ideas in Indian studios. He is reported (says the Indian News Service) to have stated that six Indian Maharajahs are backing him in this undertaking and that'if necessary millions will be available to make it a success. The American contribution has been furnished by Mrs E. O. T. Filler, a wealthy Cleveland (Ohio) woman, who is the vice-president of the new concern. German technical experts have been secured, but the rest of the personnel is purely Indian. Greta Nisscn has been offered a contract for ono of the principal stories to be depicted on the screen, which will centre round the Taj Mahal.

Ice concrete is the name of a new, porous, astonishingly light building material invented in Finland. Like ordinary concrete (says the “Architects’ Journal”) it is composed of cement and sand. Crushed ice or snow is used during the process of mixing. Heat evaporates the water of the melting ice, and the result is a block or brick, uniformly honeycombed with minute pores. The number of pores varies directly with the quantity of ice or snow mixed with the cement and sand. Building blocks thus made arc exceedingly light and durable. In a house or office building of ice concrete there is a saving of weigh varying from 20 to 50 per cent. Because they arc cellular in structure, the blocks act as insulators to keep out heat in summer and cold in winter. If ice concrete is made without sand the resultant product is a tough compound that can be sawn, nailed, screwed, chiselled, and cut as readily as if it were wood.

Abraham Max Flatto, an importer of silk goods, London, appeared at the Mansion House to answer nine summonses for being knowingly concerned in fraudulently evading the duty on silk and artificial silk garments imported at the Croydon Aerodrome. The treble value of duty concerned amounted to £1782 . Mr Gibson, prosecuting, said that when a Customs officer made inquiries at Flatto’s premises with regard to goods imported from Brussels he found that all the things, which came from a man named Finkelstcin had two invoices, one in francs and the other in sterling. The lower invoice was produced for the Customs to evade the duty. Mr Myers, defending, said it was evident that Finkelstein had carried on a system of fraud on the Customs not only in this but also in other cases, but Flatto did not know anything was wrong until the visit of the Customs official. Mr Aiderman Greenaway said he could not believe that Flatto kne\y nothing of the frauds and Flatto would be lined £270 and £lO 10s costs.

Lettuces for sale. Krit car for sale. Business woman wants board. Young lady wanted for office. Dance to-night, Central Arcade Hall, commencing 8.30. Advertiser wants to exchange almost new bungalow for new or second-hand car. At Wangaehu on Sunday afternoon Bev. Win. Beckett will conduct Divine Worship. The Annual Covenant Service will be held at Wesley Church on Sunday evening. Messrs G. 11. Ferry and Co. premises will be open for supply of fertilisers and seeds on Tuesday next. Special New Year’s Day Services will be held in the Methodist churches to-morrow. The Rev. Wm. Beckett will preach morning and evening at Wesley Church. There will be appropriate music by the choir and friends. The Wairarapa Caledonian Society advises members of the Mastcrton Park tennis, bowling and croquet clubs that they must show their membership tickets.to the gatekeeper on Monday, otherwise they will require to pay. The end of the year does not seem the end of savings, for now the W.F.C.A. is offering a special range of frocks at half-price that will prove exceptional bargains to the thrifty folk who get in early. Why not make up your mind to benefit and pay a visit of inspection? sou’ll be well rewarded. With New Year many men will find it necessary to overhaul their stock of wearables, and probably make some ourchases. To those seeking shirts that are smart, long wearing and good fittii»ig, we would remind them that .1. L. Murray, Ltd., are now making a special showing, the prices of which indicate that they .are carrying out their New Year resolution to give even better value than ever before.

Writing to Mr A. P. Melville, of Fordell, an cx-Xew Zealander living in England, complained that New Zealand butter was most irregular in its appearance on the market - at Home. Several times he had been informed by retailers that not only were they out of stock, but that they could not ‘ obtain the Dominion article from any of the distributing agents. It seemed to be a matter which the Dairy Control might investigate.