LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15189, 9 April 1917, Page 7

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

For supplying a school boy under 15 years of age with cigarettes, a Chinese fruiterer at Stratford was fined ill and costs -ss. Magistrate remarked, “When I was that boy’s age I preferred a clay pipe.” It will surprise most people to learn (says the Wall Street Journal) that the cargo of the Deutschland is still undisposed of in the United States. It consisted, for the most part, of dyes and medicine, and the people who ipre handling dyestuffs find that America is progressing in her independence as respects German dyes. 'One of the great losses to Germany will he discovered after the war in that the world ca.n get along reasonably well without, her potash and her dyes, and in many lines where she before the war held industrial supremacy. Instancing the advantage of technical education, Air W. S. La Trobe, in an address to the Wellington School Committee’s Association, said he had ro contly been in conversation with an en gineer of a large ocean liner, who detailed how the technical instruction he had received in his boyhood days had stood him in good, stead some weeks before. The liner he was aboard had broken a blade of one of its propellers, and, although it had been able to proceed on its journey, the vibration caused to the vessel through the mishap created considerable alarm for the safety of the tail-shaft. The engineer had repaired to his cabin and with his technical knowledge was able to calculate at how many revolutions per minute the propeller could go without causing vibration. The speed was adjusted accordingly, and the vessel was able to proceed safely cn its journev. Mir B. J. O’Regan has issued a writ for ,22000 damages against the Palmerston North Borough Council on behalf of Christine Forbes aud Eva Forbes, aged eight aud six years respectively, the children of William Forbes, who was killed by accident at Palmerston North on the night of Friday, November 3rd last. Air Forbes, who was an insurance agent- and resided in AVcllington, was driving along Fiteller her t Street, and be failed to notice that a gate placed by the council across the street had been opened, with the result that the car was precipitated over an embankment into the Manawatu River, killing Forbes and seriously injuring two other occupants of the car. It is alleged that the street had been closed by reason of the encroachment of the river, and that the gate in question had been left open °bv reason of the negligence of the defendant borough. Mir O’Began is also issuing writs on bebal- of Miss Sullivan and Miss Catherine Sullivan, of Waimate, South Canterbury, who were injured by the same accident. The cases will he heard at the if ay sittings of the Supreme Court at Palmerston North.