LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15978, 21 November 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Boston Amateur Athletic Fnion has decided to send a team to Antwerp for tho Olympic games. A special meeting of the St. John Ambulance Division will be held at the 1 .M.C. A. at 8 o'clock this evening to meet Colonel G. Barclay, Knight of Grace of the Order of Si. John of Jerusalem, who will present vouchers and certificates recently won by members of the local brigade. The Taihapc Chamlrer of Commerce is anxious to secure for the Main Trunk centre direct telephonic communication with Wanganui, ft has made representations to the Chief Postmaster at Wanganui on this matter and has secured tho promise that the request would receive consideration when material was available.

American newspapers comment favourably upon the Prince of Wales, and point out that Americans fully rceiproceate bis evident liking for America, The New York Times says; “No better wish can be made for our visitor than that he may equal his grandfather s contribution to Die welfare of his* country and the world.” In the New South Wales Assembly a Bill was introduced to control necessary commodities and prevent profiteering. This repeals the Necessary Commodities Control Act of 1914. A commission of three will be appointed to fix prices. Severe penalties and imprisonment arc provided for transgression.

Tire immigration and emigration returns for the month of October show that the arrivals in Die Dominion nurnbored 2662, as against 1257 in October, 3918, and Die departures were 1943. as compared with 1094. The arrivals during last month exceeded Die departures by 719, and in October last year the excess was 163.

Tho Commercial Travellers’ Association of Wellington raided in all ,£6719 for life mercantile marine fund, of which ,!§5719 was sent to England and distributed by Die High Commissioner. The remaining .£IOOO has been handed to tire War Funds Council, and will be. administered by a committee appointed by the Association, 'lire amount will be spent during the next twelve months.

This week's Gazette contains a formal notice that Major-General Sir Alexander J. Gcfdley has Relinquished the appointment of General Officer Commanding th« New Zealand Expeditionary Force, from November 1, 1919. It would * interesting to know whether this office; has been "drawing his salary from New Zealand during the five years as well a* his pay from England as a commander on the’ Western Front.—Feilding Star. The Southland electric power district, the first under the Hydro-Elec-tric Power Hoards Act, lias been gazetted. The Act was promoted by tho Soutliland Progress League in connection with the Lake Monowai scheme. The Board will be elected on December 20th. and immediately the ratepayers of the district will vote on a proposal to raise a loan of a million to carry out the electrification of tho whole province with part of Southern Otago.

An cvho of the last sittings of the Supreme Court in Wanganui was heard this morning at the local Police Court, when a remand till Monday was granted in a case brought by Edmund S. Taylor (Mr Cunningham) against Lottie A. Taylor ( Mr Slipper) concerning a boy under fourteen years of age. 'The Supreme Court granted a separation order between the parties, and gave the husband custody of tho child, who it is alleged was taken away by tho mother. Accused was arrested in Auckland and remanded to Wanga-

Betoctive Hollis, while cn the vigilante for Show “sharpers” yesterday a]>prehendtd a man in the act of picparing to play a forbidden game. He was setting out his gear for the purpose -of playing the well-known game of “Crown aiid Anchor,” and fortunately for himself had not started. Ho had laid out his dice-cloth and dice when the arm of the law came along and confiscated the playing material, which consisted of a. Crown and Anchor cloth, which by its appearance had been much in use. and also four very neatly-made ivory dice, which also had the ap]K'aranco of having had considerable use. An unfinished telegraph chess match between Wanganui and South Wellington has been adjudicated and with the result that Wanganui was given the decision. The scores were as follows, Wanganui players being mentioned first- Baric ( v." Purchas .1; 0. C. Pleasants v v. Anderson 1; H- Jessup J v. Wcl ton Battle 0 v. W. J. Harper 1- Walpole I v. S. Faulkner 0; Jlirop i/ Y -\v Berry I; McWilliams ov. J. Mulvev ’] : Brodic 1 v. Rev. Braddoek 0; Salt I v. a. Oreig 1; Red ward it v W. Bno 1: Williamson Iv. V\ A. Fisher 0: and Clark 1 v. W• J- Bobbins 0. Totals- Wanganui (>}. South Wellington 3). Wanganui recently defeated Masterlon by H to o, and it has thus scored a good double this season.

In further roplv to a letter suggesting tl,o establishment of a correspondence school of apiculture for discharged so.diers. the Prime .Minister has written to Mr W Pinches, of Auckland, that, in the opinion of experts of the Agricultural Department, uo good purpose would lie served by the Government or anyone ‘i else establishing such a school. The 1 only way to become a practical mariner is to leani by practical experience. Any soldier settled on the land who has not an expert officer immediately , available, with whom he can discuss personally any difficulties he is meeting with, has only to write to the Department of Agriculture, and all possible information will be given him.

To November 13th ,£1,204,323 has been ■paid out in the way of gratuities to former members of 'the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The annual meetings of County Councils for the purpose of electing chairmen for the ensuing period will be held next Wednesday. The Telegraph Department advises _ that the Pacific Gable Board notifies; Working well . homewards, clear of United Kingdom, traffic. A special report dealing with, a mishap at the power-house which occurred at the end of last week was submitted xo the Borough Council last night by the Tramways Engineer. He reported that on Friday last the crown bricks of the gas producer collapsed. Arrangements were at once made for running on town gas, and the transfer was made without any dislocation or curtailment of the service. Everything possible was done to expedite repairs, and as the fire bricks were on hand, in view of such an emergency, the work of repairing is now well under way, and the engineer anticipates that they will be finished on Saturday, the 22nd. The opportunity is being \aken, while the gas plant is closed down, to effect, as far as possible, other repairs to the plant. The engineer estimated that the loss in fuel costs alone arising from the mishap are £2O per day, this amount being the excess cost of town gas over producer gas. “This incident shows the very narrow margin of safety under which we are working, and emphasises the fact that no effort should: be spared to push on with the installation of additional power plant said Mr Talboys in conclusion. At a meeting of the Wellington Builders’ Federation, the annual report, after referring to the action taken by the executive in bringing the continual raising of timber prices under the notice of the Government, and the appointment.of two representatives of the master builders on the Advisory Committee to act in conjunction with the Board of Trade, says: The only result to date of the work of the committee and the Board is that it has been agreed by the Dominion Federated Sawmillers’ Association, with the Board of Trade, that the price of timber ruling at November Ist, 1918, will not be increased by the sawmillers without the consent of the Board, and that the restrictions as to the export of various timbers should be enforced. It is understood the special discounts, which vary in several districts, may be allowed to timber merchants. Efforts were made to arrive at standard prices to be charged hy timber merchants throughout the Dominion, but this was found impossible ■ owing to the differences in cost of delivery to the merchants. With a view to assisting the Board of Trade and Timber Committee in their deliberations, information as to the prices of different classes of timbers ruling just prior to the war and during 1918 was sought and obtained from various centres, and after tabulation was submitted to the Board. The New South Wales wheat acreage has this year dwindled to 2,996,000 acres, as compared with the maximum of 5,122,000 acres four years ago. These figures (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) make a staggering contrast, and one that no producing country can look upou with equanimity. A worse feature is that there is no compensating increase of production in any other direction. An even more disconcerting comparison is tiie decrease in the number of wheat-growers. In 1915 there were 22,453, this year there- are 16,277. The question is why have over six thousand of our farmers gene cut of wheat-grow-ing in the past four years? The obvious answer is because they eooid not afford"

to go on producing at a less. Adverse seasons and inadequate prices have bdriven them off the land or into other * lines of production The present disastrous season is going to make it impossible for many others, who have this year ploughed and sown' in vain, to go further, even though the Government has come forward with the helping hand and more liberal advances. It is fairly safe to assume, however, that, with a favourable planting season i ext year, the slump in acreage will be arrested. The market outlook offers inducements to that end. Nevertheless, the replacement of those six thousand lost wheatgrowers must, in any case, be a matter of years, and it occupies a foremost place in the problems of increasing production that has' to be faced by the country and the Government. The raising of money for the purpose or building municipal dwellings was discussed at some length last night by the Borough Council when a motion authorising the making of a special order lo raise a special loan of £25.000 for this purpose was considered. The principle around which the discussion centred was whether it was right to raise the money required without consulting the ratepayers. CVs. Green, Burnett. Williams. Liffiton. and Richardson contended that such a lame sum should not be raised by special order without consulting the ratepayers. and they favoured an amendment deferring the proposal for further consideration to another special meeting a fortnight hence. The Mayor said that the question of building houses was an urgent matter, authority had been given by the Housing Act of last session to fnunicipalitics to raise money for workers’ dwellings without consulting the ratepayers. Crs. Donaldson. Sharpe, Luxford. and Aitken signed on the lines that it was an urgent matter and should be dealt with promptly. The amendment was lost by sto 6 votes. A motion was passed setting aside an area of about two acres between Carlton Avenue and the racecourse, and another area of two acres on the frontage of Glpucestcr, Parson’s, and London Streets for the purpose of erecting workers’ dwellings. The special loan will he secured by a special rate of 3d in the £. It is proposed to erect about 30 houses.