LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15128, 24 January 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

More than 27,000 soldiers helped to gather in 'England’s harvest this year .At last night’s meeting of the Wanganui Borough Council it was decided to forward a letter of sympathy to the widov and family of James Grogan, who was accidently killed at the Council’s quarry. The briefest letter communication ever written to a local body was, in all probability, that received by the Greymouth Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at its meeting recently. Pius signature, it read; “I am leaving, my■ occupation as porter.” v The .reports presented ait the meeting of 'two banks ,at Sydney yesterdayshowed highly satisfactory results for the past -half-year. The outlook, is stated to, be good, but warnings are issued against extravagance in view of the increasing demands in financing tne war. •» There are been some trouble and much delay in obtaining certain material from En gland for the Wanganui Tramways. As the result of with the authorities, however, the difficulty has been overcome, and the Hon. A. M. Myers, was' thanked by the Borough Coii nil evening! for his action in the matter . , The Taranaki executive of the, Farmers’ Union has carried a resolution: calling on the Dominion Conference to make the question of farrners’-owned ships the leading one. to be discussed.)! t Thp proposal is that ,£5,000,000 be .raieed, arid a producers’ shipping company formed. A suggestion has been offered by the Marlborough Farmers’ Union that Sir James Wilson be asked to,call a conference, *df delegates from each- provincial executive in New Zealand.

It is etated that th© amount of wool in Napier at th© ppe?ent ''tiine is well over 35,000 bales. The cost to New Zealand up to Decejnher 31st, of the military occupation of Samoa,totalled £397,5i.9, of wmch. ,£143, 874 was pay for soldiers. - The latest development in connection with the threatened increase in the price of meat in Auckland is that the (Jovernment has arranged-to take over, the' business of a retailer who has two shopsone in the city and one in a suburb, j The shops will start on Thursday ' next receiving supplies from the freeing works and retailing it at existing prices. The Reserves Committee of the Borough Council has inspected the site selected by the Telegraph Engineer for a new Telegraph Exchange Building in Wanganui near the Gasworks, and the Committee has recommended the Council to agree to lease the land provided that th boundary is set back 30 feet from the line of Nixon Place. The annual-rental to be fixed at £25 per annum, for the first period of 21 years. The Bishop of London, preaching in the City of London, said: “You great heads of city firms have discovered something in this war, and that, is the marvellous manhood and courage of your young clerks. None of you knew three years ago that you were dealing with a race of heroes. It is in the midst of these prosaic offices, among hundreds of very ordinary-looking men, that we have discovered the manhood and hero, ism for which we thank God.”, The Buda Post correspondent of the Morning Post states that curious scenes were enacted at the burial of the Emperor Francis Joseph at th© Capucian Monastery. When the coffin reached the barred gate the master of ceremonies knocked with a golden wand, and the friar within asked, “Who is there?” The answer caipe, “His Majesty Francis Joseph,” and .the friar replied in Latin, “I do not know him,” On a second summons the same question was asked and similarly answered, but on, the third knock the master of ceremonies replied, “It’s a poor sinner—our brother Francis Joseph,” whereupon the door flew open. Wanganui, being the fifth city in the Dominion, has come in for ■ congratulatory references. Speaking at the Council meeting last night, the Mayor (Mr C. E. Mackay) said that while he was in Wellington recently he received congratulations from the Ministry, members of ParliiThient, and others on Wanganui becoming the fifth city. It was interesting to note that the North Island held three of the biggest towns in New Zealand—Auckland, Wellington, and Wanganui. To encourage them by deed as .well as word, I will present to any British-born master of a British-owned merchant ship for each and every German submarine up to the total number of fifty that can be satisfactorily proved to have been sunk between now and May 31 (my birthday), the £2OOO bonus to be divided amongst the master and the crew in proportions satisfactory to me. All decisions and awards to be subject to the arbitrament of Lloyd’s Committee. Thus Mr R. P. Houston, M.P., in a letter to the Times. A little - Christmas anecdote which would have amused Bob Cratclrit is quietly going the rounds of Gisborne. In anticipation of a promised gift of a turkey for Christmas, a local cleric made no other special provision for his Christmas dinner. But the turkey never arrived, and thereby hangs\ another tale. Like Bob Cratehit, a near, neighbour of the clergyman was delighted beyond all bounds to find that an unknown friend had left at his house a handsome turkey of rare proportions. He dined himself well on the unexpected gift, while only a few yards away all the disappointed cleric had to dine on was Grace and plum pudding. With reference to the defeat sustained by German torpedb boats when they made their recent raid at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland under cover of fog, the Russian Naval General Staff issues the following bulletin: — “Comparing the number of explosions heard in the fog with the reports of Russian ships, it is possible to affirm that the Germans lost from six to nine torpedo boats. This suppositions is confirmed also by an analysis of the debris and floating articles recovered up to the. present. The German torpedo boats which we destroyed belonged to the most modern and largest types of ships of this class.” • Constable Sathedey made a smart ar-' rest at Waikanae on Monday,, when, ho took into custody a deserter named Henry Carlson. It appears the man escaped from the Trentham Military Camp in October, went to Palmerston, where it is said he threw his uniform into the Manawatu River, visited Otaki, and then found his way to Waikanae, whets ho sought safety by working in the swamp lands carrying flax, . Although the description given was meagre, the constable quickly recognised the man and brought him to Otaki. He was handed over to the military police, and in due course will be dealt with by the authorities. When the New Zealand delegates were /in England recently, says the Eltham Argus, they were shown some huge ships nearly ready for. launching. There was a good,deal of secrecy observed in connection with these marine monsters bu'i it was understood that they would carry larger guns than, any ship had ever carried before, and that their speed would probably be about 40 knots. A letter received in New .Zealand from a young New Zealander at present in Europe, in describing one of .a group of the new super Dreadnoughts, states that she did 38 knots on her speed trials. This tallies pretty closely with th© information imparted to the delegates as regards speed. Cape weedvtvas by Mr H. Y. Hammond at a recent meeting of the Borough Council. He stated that the- weed in the Harbour Board’s paddocks was being spread to pastoral areas by travelling stock. In connection with the matter the Inspector ofNoxious Weeds has written to the Sorough Council stating that Cape weed was in the third schedule only, and had not been declared by any public body. It did not spread on pastoral an datable land to any extent. It was decided to refer the matter to the Harbour Board arid its tenants with the view of having Gape weed declared in.... the noxious variety if action is not taken. An exchange says;—lt is with a mod deal of satisfaction we learn that tiw Defence Authorities are taking-all the fit men from the permanent military staff and the base records offices and placing them under canvas, with instructions to get ready for service abroad. Their places are being filled by returned soldiers and the medically unfit. t>e have known, of cases.of fine, hefty young men volunteering for service in the home departments and being accepted, thereby escaping their plain duty to their country;' Soipe of these fine fellows ’will no doubt receive their marching orders with pained surprise, hut the Defence Department will be supported by the whole community on their decision.

As the architect for’ the Sargeant Art Gallery, Mr E. Ansombe-, has proposed certain alterations to the building and has also made certain suggestions in regard to planning out Cooks’ Gardens it > was; decided at last night’s meeting of 1 the Council to meet Mr Auscombe at 7.30 p.m, on February 5 with a view to discussing his proposals The Sargeant Art Gallery Building Committee and the Beautifying' Association have been asked to attend. Everything appears to point to the approaching necessity to organise labour iu New Zealand. Captain Walker, the military representative at the sittings .of the Military Service Board, remarked 'recently that the time had arrived when a large number of men should be sworn in as soldiers and drafted on to farms to do work. There was evidence every day that men who should be assisting the farmers and the country were loitering about doing nothing, and would not take work when it was offered them. ' Tomatoes promise to bq usually scarce in Gisborne this season owing to the extensive ravages of the blight in the local crops. A prominent retailer informed a pressman that under ordinary circumstances plenty of cheap tomatoes should be available by now. The supply of Island tomatoes ended about last November, and the local supply generally started about the beginning of January, but so far very few had been available owing' to the weather and the blight. Some of the growers reported'that they had been successful in saving a portion of their crops by spraying. Wholesalers were at present paying Is to Is 3d per Ik (mostly imported), whereas last year they were buying at from 4d to 6d, and even as low as 2d and 3d per lb for large quantities. The invasion of the boot industry by the Defence Department has raised a curious question, says a Wellington paper- The department intends to execute its own repairs apparently, and some men have been engaged for the purpose, Th© employers, however, point, out that after the industrial agreement operating in the industry there is preference to unionists on -oth sides; that is to say, that not only do the employers give preference to unionists, but they Ore to receive preference in return from the workers. So far the local employers have not decided on any course of action, but the matter will be brought up at the meeting of the New Zealand Boot Manufacturers’ Federation,' to be held in Christchurch next week. Complaints have been made that men summoned for examination to the Military Medical Boards are sometimes kept waiting for lengthy periods .and compelled to lost much time from their employment. The Medical Boards,, at the suggestion of the Defines authorities, have done their best to avoid waste of time, and the usual practice is to 1 summon reservists for fixed hours during the day, so that they may be dealt with as they arrive. But the authorities point out that no man has any ' right to complain even if the examination keeps him from his work for a whole day. Th© examination is really an instalment of military service, and each reservist receives a full day’s pay at military rates after he has paeshd through the hands of the doctors. An Auckland Star reporter states that a recently returned artilleryman, who had received a splinter of shell in his back had, when interviewed, something to say about the big guns, and the manner in which they are located by aircraft. In one instance five taubes flew over his, section. An hour later German shells commenced to arrive. • Thev ! had the range to a nicety and made, no 1 mistake about it. The inevitable query as , to what hapened brought the smiling , reply: “Oh, we shifted the guns as soon as we saw the taubes, and when the shells commenced to drop we were somehere else.” The speaker stated that so far as aircraft were concerned we had an absolute superiority over the Germane, and flew over their lines continually—a fact which helped us very materially, and which was an indication of the striking progress w© had made in this particular branch of warfare since the opening of the war, A letter recently appeared in the London Times suggesting that, since the High Commissioner for Australia and his staff are shortly moving into Australia House, the name of Melbourne Place should be changed to Anzao .Place out of compliment to the 1 Australasians “who' helped to add lustre to the history, of the British Empire at Gallipoli.” Other correspondents, including Professor . Jenks, one-time Dean of the Faculty of Law in the University of Melbourne, immediately protested on behalf of New Zealand, pointing out that the Dominion had no possible interest in Australia House, and very much interest in th© terin Anzac, a fact which is, of- course,, undeniable, company with most Australians,” says the British Australasian, “w© have always deprecated the slipshod way in which this term has come to be used almost exclusively for men of the A.1.F., without regard to their'eomrades from the Dominion who are designated under it.”