LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15678, 2 December 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There are 4153 women in the Public Service in a permanent or temporary capacity, compared with 1826 before the war. The Commissioner# speak highly of their work. A cargo of peanuts saved a ship from sinking recently when submarined off the Atlantic coast of America. The peanuts swelled, filled the bomb holes, and kept the vessel afloat. At the request of a number of electors, Councillor J. Castle has-decided to become a candidate for the Wellington South seat in Parliament, vacant through the death of Mr A. H. Hindmarsh.

Throughout New Zealand the influenza epidemic has caused the death of fourteen police constables and one senior sergeant. As there are about 700 men in the police force, the mortality so far works out at about 2 per cent.

Of 36 habitual criminals released on probation during the past year, eight left New Zealand with the Beinforcements, four were returned to prison for fresh offences or breaches of their licenses, one died, one absconded, and two left the Dominion for their former domiciles.

'Sir James Allen hopes that Trentham and Featherston will be retained as territorial camps when demobilisation was completed. He hopes also that the 400 acres of farming land now under fui! cultivation at Foatherston will be used for training returned soldiers for agricultural work.

Wanganui and district names appearing in a recent list of war honours awards were as follows; —Military Medal; 24-1732 Lance-Sergeant Mclntyre Charles E., Ohakane; 12-1576 Sergeant Cameron, Kelvin 8., Wanganui;' 12-3075 Leigh, Thomas J., Mangaweka; 25280 Corporal McMahon, Percy R,; 23-.59S Sergeant Sinclair, Robert J’., Taihape; 69745 Lance-Corporal Ball, Claude ,i., Eltham; 64113 Nielsen, Rasmus W. E., Kaitieke.

The weird and magnificent spectacle of a large oil tanker on fire was witnessed by the personnel of the hospital ship which recently arrived in New Zealand. A German submarine had apparently boarded the vessel and placed bombs in the holds. When these exploded, the ship burst into a mass of flames which was visible for a considerable time from the hospital ship, though the occurrence had taken place may hours previously. A New Plymouth resident received a letter from a friend in Auckland, who is a member of the Health Committee there, stating that some of the cases there have been very pitiful. A little boy went to a butcher’s for a piece of steak, and when he got it he asked the butcher how to cook it. The butcher said: “Why, your mother will cook that, for you!” The ehield replied; “My mother and father have been asleep for two days.” The butcher went home with the child, and found both parents dead in bed.

The report that horses in Hawke’s Bay are contracting influenza as not surpi’lsing to those who remember the first epidemic in 1890. In the Taranaki district especially, horses suffered severely from the trouble, and many young animals died through it. The poor beasts wore a most pathetic appearance, and staggered about in a iiopolcss fashion, as if trying to get away from the torment of the attack. It seemed to affect their eyes very bad- ' ly, and' some of those who finally got well never seemed to get thoroughly over the eye trouble, which could always bo noticed when they were working hard or got fatigued. An interesting and thrilling incident in the life of the veteran engineer, the late Mr David Robertson, of Wellington, is recalled by his death. Mr Robertson was chief engineer of the s.s. Star of the Evening, wljich was wrecked off the Mahia Peninsula. Of the ship’s crew there is left now but one survivor, Mr Charles Phillpot, who was the cabin boy, and with Mr Robertson slung for three days and three nights to the mast of the submerged steamer, and finally was taken by the Hauhaus, from whom he was rescued. He was a colonist of fifty-six years’ standing, having arrived, in Dunedin on December 31st, 1862, and after his experience on the Star of the Evening he renounced the sea altogether, confining himself to work ashore.

Supplies of liquor for medicinal purposes iu country districts where there aro no chemists’ shops and no bottle stores under mayoral direction are lifficult to obtain. In the House of -Representatives Mr George Hunter asked the Minister of Public Health whether he would favourably consider the question of making some provision to meet the difficulty that had arisen in connection with [this matter in the country district?—the dispensing of liquor under doetdrs’ orders. In some eases liquor had not been obtainable. The Minister said that instructions had been sent to the hospital boards to make the necessary arrangements. In order that there might be no doubt about it, instructions would be sent to the hospital hoards to establish depots at the branch post offices, which were usually in stores, where alcohol for medicinal purposes might bo obtained.

Reference to the condition of banknotes in circulation is made by a correspondent of a Wellington newspaper. He denies a statement by a banker that dirty bank-notes received at hanks are not issued again, but are cancelled and destroyed. “As cashier of a large public institution,” the correspondent writes, “it is my duty to receive direct from our leading bank for payiug-out purposes notes to the value of ,£IO,OOO or £12,000 a month. The great majority of these notes are absolutely filthy, and if time permitted should really be handled with tongs. The main topic of conversation with my customers is the dirty state of the notes I am obliged to give them. In many cases I am asked to pick out clean ones for .them. The rank outsiders I am obliged to send back to the bank far small change, ns no one with a conscience could tender them as money,”

In Ixia eagerness to discount the condemnation of electric power by the Auckland Gas Company’s engineer, Mr Payne (Grey Lynn), an Auckland member, remarked in the House yesterday that it would be absurd to “take any notice of the opinion of a person in a little hole-and-corner place like Auckland.”

A doctor who recently returned to Dunedin from FeAtherston stated that of 6000 soldiers in camp there at the outbreak of the epidemic oyer 4000 went dcwn with it, a large number of them contracting pneumonia. So effectively was the situation tackled, however, that there were less thtn 200 deaths, and at the time the doctor in question was released and left for homo only some 160 men were in hospital. He considers the trouble has now been stamped out it Featherston.

The possibilities of manufacturing vinegar from apples were discussed at a recent meeting of Nelson fruitgrowers. It was stated that from 800,000 to 1,000,000 gallons of vinegar arc consumed annually,in the Dominion, the great bulk of it being a mixture of wood acetic and malt extract. It was contended that if the existing law were so administered that ony the brewed article could be labelled “pure vinegar,” from 3Cu,000 to 400,000 bushels of applea could be used annually in the production of vinegar. The meeting decided to ask the Fruitgrawere’ Federation to take action in the matter.

As it is understood that a number of children have been left destitute,, through the death of their parents during the epidemic, the Education Department, by direction of the Minister of Education, has, through its Infant Life Protection Branch, circularised the mayors of the larger towns in tho Dominion in order to ascertain as near as possible the number of children who would require guardianship other than that of relatives. As soon as the information is available, an endeavour u will be made to provide in a compre- 9 hensfvc and systematic manner for all argent cases.

The question of tb« likelihood of efforts being made to obtain a remission of the sentences passed on those reservists who refused to perform military service when called upon, and on persons convicted of sedition during the war period, was considered by the executive of the Returned Soldiers’ Association last week. Resolutions were carried emphasising the opiniqp that there should be no remission of such sentences, and that the Government should use every means at its disposal to bring to trial all men who have been called in the ballot, and who have failed to parade, also all men who may have deserted after being attested. The resolutions have been forwarded to the Minister for Defence.

The fiuo work accomplished by Order of St. John in lighting the infki enza epidemic will in all probability r»* ceive substantia] recognition as soon a* normal conditions have been re-estat lished in the city (says the Auckland Heraldb Mr J. H, Gnnson (Mayor), president of the Order, which for tno la*st two years has been associated with the Red Cross. Society as a joint committee in war work, stated the other day that the work of the Order in connection with the epidemic had been so good, particularly in regard to nursing and visiting, that he felt sure some form of recognition of such fine, selfsacrificing efforts would be generally approved. Mr Gnnson added that it would be impossible to publicly recognise all the organisations that had worked so faithfully in the cause of humanity during the prevalence of the epidemic, blithe Order of St. John was universal in character, and its work was of out- \ standing merit. *

Speaking to a Press reporter on the slum question, Colonel Wylie, who has had charge of the Christchurch Hospital for the past fortnight, said that the mere building of nice house for workers would not entirely solve what might be called the slum question. He knew that there was a certain class of people who, given a new and up-to-date house, would reproduce slum conditions in it in six months.

It was not always a matter of lack of money either . He knew of a country district where ho had worked of houses on farms where slum conditions could be found. The houses might, and probably did, contain a phonograph,'and a piano or pianola, hut there would bo no bathroom in it or decent conveniences, and its surroundings would be filthy, though there was a modern ipotor-car in the shod outside. The people would have to bo educated to appreciate and work for healthy living conditions as well as given the chance to get them.

Evidence as to deplorable conditions resulting from the over-crowding' of dwellings was given by a number of witnesses at the sittings in Sydney recently of the Inter-State Commission which is inquiring into housing problems. Mr DWt, secretary of the Real Estate Agents’ Association, said that he could show the commission places in Sjdney which would disgrace the overcrowded cities of the South American republics. He had seen seven stretchers iu one garret and in, other cases had seen stretchers in bathrooms, on landings and in kitchens. It was a common thing for ill a week to be paid for a balcony room. In one day he had interviewed 81 applicants for houses. Many of them liv<7u iu the outer suburbs, but desired to move nearer to the city owing • to the increased railway charges. There was a great deal of profiteering going on in the sub-letting of houses. He knew one tenant making ‘.£3 a week over his rental through sub-letting rooms. The conditions of child life in Darlinghurst, Surrey Hills, and Paddington were most deplorable.

Piecework is the dominant note in th* November issue of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation industrial bulletin, “There have recently been many indications that in Australia, Groat Britain, and in our own country, it is becoming more generally realised that the rational and most satisfactory method of making payment for labour power is by a system of payment by results,” the journal remarks. It quotes Mi' Boeby, Minister for Labour in New South Wales, as stating that “piecework is, of course,

only applicable to a limited number of occupations, but systems of bonus distribution and profit-sharing are capable of more general application, and if the confidence of the workmen can bo ob-

tained, will materially assist in increasing production.” The Bulletin also re. fers to Messrs Paterson, Lang and Bruce’s profit-sharing scheme, in which this well-known firm’s soft goods employees, numbering 1000, are participants. Other Australian firms have fol. lowed on profit-sharing lines. Recent labour dispute decisions in New Zealand \ are quoted at length.