LOCAL & GENERAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 3 January 1928, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL.

According to a Sydney cablegram, Charlton, the swimmer, announces that he will not compete at the national games to be held this month. A first offender for drunkenness was convicted and discharged in the Masterton Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Mr Eli .Smith J.P. was on the bench. A disgraceful feature in connection with the New Year’s Eve celebrations in the streets in Wellington were the number of girls and women seen under the influence of liquor. The old year passed with more than usual liveliness in Masterton. The Masterton band played a number of selections and a large crowd suitably farewelled 1927 and welcomed 1928.

The rainfall at Mauriceville for the year ended 31st December, 1927, was (31 inches 19 points.

A wireless message from Tulagai, in the Solomon Islands, states, according to a Sydney cablegram, that the punitive force has returned to Tulagai with forty additional prisoners. The total is now two hundred prisoners and twenty-five killed. A five-seater car, owned by Dr Archer Ilosking, and standing outside his residence in Church Street, Masterton, by some means caught on fire just after ten o’clock yesterday morning. The Masterton Fire Brigade was summoned, and quickly suppressed the outbreak with a chemical extinguisher. The fire apparently originated under the bonnet. The body of the vehicle escaped damage. The car was insured. Mr J. Boys, 27 years of age, of Masterton, was admitted to the Masterton Hospital on Sunday night suffering from a broken leg, sustained in a motor accident about nine miles from Masterton, on the Wangaehu Road. Mr Boys was riding a motor cycle and a collision occurred between his machine and a motor car driven by Mr S. Allen, of Pine Street, Masterton. Dr. Archer Ilosking attended to the injured man, who was later conveyed to hospital. The household of James Anderson, a dairy farmer, of Waihi Plains, hud a thrilling experience during a heavy thunderstorm the other day. Harvesting operations had been temporarily suspended, and the family and their helpers had assembled indoors when ,the house was struck by lightning. It burst through the room with a deafening report, thoroughly alarming all present. Two holes were torn near the roof. The lightning had struck a telephone post some distance from the house, and split the wooden crosspiece, and ran along the wire and entered the building.

A eorresjmndent sends us the following extract from a letter received from America, says the Christchurch Press, in which the writer, an American citizen, says: “We are frequently told that the English business man is slow, but if this is so, I am sure it does not apply to the electrical business. I never found a keener lot of men in my life. They are out to get the business, and in my opinion know how to go about it. I obtained more valuable information in London than I expected to get on my whole trip. It is uns fortunate that New Zealand engineers think they have to go to the U.S.A. only for information. The London engineers are well posted on the electrical work of U.S.A. and also the Continent. ’ ’

The steamer Clan McWilliam, of 6000 tons, berthed at Vavau, Tonga, on December 24, reports a Press Association message, caught on fire. Strenuous efforts were ’made to suppress the outbreak, but the fire got out of control, and the port authorities ordered Captain Thompson, who was in charge of the .ijpesse], to take it into the stream. He appealed to the white officers and the Lascar crew to man the ship, but they refused. The captain thereupon took the wheel, and the chief engineer, whose name was ’believed to be Jackson, single-handed, manned the engines. When the vessel had gone some distance her back broke and she sank in a few minutes, taking the two brave men with her. Neither was seen again.

Commenting editorially on the growth of crime in New South Wales, and particularly in Sydney, the “Sydney Morning Heraldstates: —Two facts in connection with the recent crime records of the State stand out in most unhappy prominence. They are, first, the increase in the number of capital crimes committed; second, the decrease in the proportion of convictions recorded. Both of these matters are of the gravest significance, and both of them must be very seriously considered. Speaking generally, the crimes of violence which have disgraced our recent annals may be divided into two main categories—the crimes induced by sexual passions, such as jealousy, or by post or ante marital infidelities; and the crimes for which the motive is something more subtle but equally compelling, such as pecuniary troubles, revenge for injuries inflicted, or the desire to remove an obstacle standing between the murderer and his aims. There has also, it is true, been recently recorded a number of crimes which have been caused by the rivalries existing between certain sections of the underworld.

The crew of the schooner Doris Crane, which was burned at sea 350 miles north of Hawaii on December 20, were rescued by the Niagara which arrived at Auckland yesterday from Vancouver. The fire took place when the Doris Crane, an auxiliary schooner, was ten days out from Fanning Island to San Francisco. It was caused by the overturning of a tin of benzine in the engine room early in the morning on December 19. Her crew of 15—five Americans and ten Gilbert Island natives —fought the flames throughout almost one day. One of the islanders on duty in the engine-room at the time of the outbreak was severely burned before he could be rescued, and he died from his injuries later in the day. Another was seriously burned. The ship was finally abandoned early on December 20. Early that morning the reflection of the burning wreck was seen from the bridge of the Niagara, which altered her course to go to the rescue. When she arrived, she found that the crew had put off in two boats. The last seen of the schooner was a burning derelict, the masts having fallen and the vessel being burned to the water’s edge. Ladies’ sport shoes —rubber soles, with strap and lace, in white, brown and champagne, now showing at Carpenter and Evans.

A cable states that the London Stock Exchange wound up the year with quite a boom in British funds, and there has been a revival of talk of an early reduction of the bank rate and cheaper money.

A motor collision occurred at the cross-roads at the ißongokokako school on Friday, between a ear driven by Mr Les Sigvertscn, with whom was his grandfather, Mr Jens Sigvertscn, of Mauriceville. Both cars were considerably knocked about and Mr J. Sigvertsen sustained a broken collarbone.

A case of a splendid effort being made by a boy to pay a hospital account was quoted at a meeting of the Tauranga Hospital Board. The sccrctary reported that a boy of 16 years, who owed an account of £l3, had not missed a week since he started to pay weekly instalments in March last. The Board decided to write off the remainder of the boy's account and to compliment him on his integrity.

It took two Maori girls to teach an impudent Gisborne youth a lesson the other day (says the Poverty Bay Herald). The two girls were swimming in the Haiti basin and were annoyed by offensive remarks and the throwing of small pebbles by the youth on the bank. The girls were determined to put an end to this molestation, and while the youth was directing his attention to one of the swimmers, the other, scrambling out of the water unseen by the tormentor, came along behind him, and, lifting him bodily, let him fall into the water below. As he was unable to swim, the youth found some difficulty in struggling out, but he eventually regained the bank none the worse but a little wiser for his experience. It was a sorry looking figure that left the scene, with the derisive laughter of the swimmers ringing in his ears. a Cherry plums for sale. Purse, lost in South road. R. S. Gerrand is a buyer of fat stock. / One front room, with fireplace, advertised to let. Dr. Simpson, of Wellington, will visit Masterton to-morrow (Wednesday).