LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16046, 10 February 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A conference of British, French, and Italian Premiers will I*. held in London on February 12th. A Ixmdon cable stales that Captain Mitchell has arrived at Khartoum in his flight to Capetown. IK- made two forced landings, owing to a Icakv waterjackct. Under the now Navigation Act, which comes into ojjcraLioii on March 2nd, no oversesae liners will Ixi permitted to carry passengers between Commonwealth ports. A threatened strike involves well over 20,000 mine workers on i.h<> Bund, besides -others. There is a considerable gulf to bo bridged between the parties during the coming week if a strike is to bo averted. Mr F, Black, Borough Curator, Palmerston North, has been invited by the Minister of Fxternal A flairs -to accompany the Parliamentary party to Samoa to report to the Governmont'on tropica! gardening in the islands visited. A New York cable state* that Mr Hoover, in a, statement, says: I have not sought and am not seeking tho Presidency. 1 am not. a, candidate, and no one is authorised to speak for mo politically. At a meeting of the War Memorial committee at Christchurch - to-day, it was decided that the Christchurch memorial should take the form of a ceivo'faph and Hall of Memories in Cathedral Square, the design to be sot tied by public competition, it was suggested that the memorial cost. £25,1)0(1. George Joseph Windsor, a prisoner undergoing reformative treatment, was charged at Invercargill with assaulting a warder by attacking him with a knife, causing several severe, cuts. Accused denied the assault, and said the warder . attacked him. The, Magistrate said accused had a bad record, ami sentenced him to 14 days on bread and water^ In pre-war clays the Broken Hitt mines used to pay good dividends with lead, their principal product, loss than £2O a ton, zinc less than £3O, and silvcjr less than 2s per ounce. Now lead is £4B pier ton. zinc ,£GO per ton, and silver 6s Gd per ounce. But tho iniucg, i still teeming with all these metak, are lying idle, and have been so for over six months, with no immediate prospect of re-staxting. A London cable states that a curious instance of the effect of the of Gorman currency in international competition occurred, in the Channel pilot service. A German cutter appeared at Dungcness without delay after the signature of peace, provided witK pilot-, at cut rates, which it wasxwell well aide lo do in view of thoMduf of foreign currencies. The first w.ss<* piloted was British. Many Amcrica-nL Japanese, and Norwegian vessels havß been piloted. English pilots are pflh titioning the Government and Trinity' House to remove (he Gorman cutter, f A. soldier who returned from servicerecently received an unusual welcomehome at Auckland in the shape of A summons, charging him with forgery in July, 1915. Charles Fred Hodgson was the name under which the count was preferred, though the chief said that the accused had responded u. his country’s call under another appellation, The cheque concerned was for £4 10s, aud had been uttered on July 20, 1915, at Wellington, while another offence incurring a sum of £lO is alleged to have taken place later aA Hamilton. The case was remanded. A complaint was made at the P.<s patriation Board's meeting in Ghrintchurch last week That recently, in four l or five cases, good jebs bad been found, for men, who had expressed tli-cir satisfaction with them, and then had newer; turned up to work at all. The opinion was expressed that the men had an obligation to their employers a.s well a3 the employers having an obligation te< the returned men. It was suggested that tho men who had defaulted should lx? “blade listed,” hut it was thought) that firs',, of all they should have tha op]>ortuniiy to explain their conduct. With such pressure on the building trade in the matter of providing; housing for tho people, the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council condemn 9 tho proposal to build largely for an industrial exhibition to be held in Christ* -v church. At a meeting of the Council the following resolution was carries],2 “That while the Trades and Labour! Council are not entirely opposed to t lie holding of an industrial exhibition, (lie council are of opinion that all the available building material will lie required for building dwellings for some time ho c(.mo. The present position of shoi lage will be intensified a.s time goes ort by tho influx of immigrants, and by the returned soldiers, who are setting* up homes of their own. The council are, of opinion that the material and aisq the labour could be used to better advantage in building houses, which arq tho first consideration.” Tho yearly toll exacted by the kes( throughout "Canterbury is estimated tq be. close upon 20,000 sheep. An iifcstance of the difficulty of dealing with, the kea pest was narrated by a prominent member of the Canterbury Shoopowners’ Union. Recently he shot a “killer,” and in the vicinity there wenj several sheep lying that had been killed by keas. Owing to the bush providing plentiful cover, he found it necessary to wait in hiding till this particular bird came down to start his nightly operations. The kea began on a mob of sheep on a spur about a quarter o£ a mile from his hiding place. When ho l.<ad worked his way towards the bird, and had shot it, he found that the kea had succeeded in attacking the sheep’n kidney. Last November his head shepherd killed three keas while each was in tire act of eating shoep. During the past season he estimated that he. lost 2000 as the result of the kea’s fondness for the fat in the vicinity of the kid* neys.

Colonel Bersey’s libel action against Miss Pennat has opened, says a London cable. It arises out of allegations that he connived at immorality°in cou(f nection with the Women’s Air Force, ~ Miss Pennant denies publication, or alxernatively pleads privilege. 1 The Pacific Cable Board, for the year ending March, 1919, shows net traffic receipts £554,0i1. leaving a bailee of £-580 to be applied to the reliction of the outstanding balance of capital advanced. The year’s transmission totalled 8.300.444 paving words and international traffic of 200,000 free words. A difficulty has arisen through the postponement of the re-opening of secondary schools in connection with the return tickets held by boarders at various schools. In reply to written requests, Mr R. McVilly, General Manager of Railways, has "agreed to allow the tickets to be extended until the schools re-open. The Government extended the order of reference of the Railway Inquiry Board to enable the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to bring forward a request that employees who have served forty years, or are sixty years of age, who can retire on superannuation of at least £250, should be compulsorily retired. Students released from army service are flocking to tie universities, some of them as freshmen, and others to resume he studies interrupted by the war. The number of medical students seeking admission is particularly large, and in some cases the accommodation for them is heavily overtaxed. In Edinburgh 300 students will have to wait for admission until this spring.—Home paper. In the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” of January 23 last appeared this news hem; “The new retail rates for Australian manufactured tobacco came into force yesterday. Neither oigqrs. cigarettes, nor imported manufactured tobcco are increased in price.” This fact makes interesting reading for New Zealand smokers, who are now paying an extra three halfpence an ounce for tobacco. It was alleged in the course of a slander action in the Supreme Court recently that a well-known South Taranaki farmer was in the habit of watching through field glasses to see if his men were working properly. A former employee deposed that in the whare there was a photograph of the bos? nearing this inscription: “Beware of R with the glasses, and beware of Jim the Crawler.” The speed of a motor-ear, often the subject of much controversy in Court cases, is (says tho Lyttelton Times’) conceded to be difficult to gauge, and the Automobile Association, with a view to y resting its members on the matter, has decided, to hold a timing competition on March 29 on the Sawyers’ Arms Road. A mile will he measured off, and competitors will be asked to drive the distance at a given speed. Their speedometers and clocks will be scaled, and they will be timed by an observer. The competition will be divided into two classes, for men and women. At a special meeting of the Dominion Council of the Royal Life Saving Society, held at Christchurch to consider a protest from the Hawke’s Bay Centre, referring to the Nelson Shield competition at Auckland, it was decided that live Nelson Shield Dominion Surf Championship be proceeded with and the dullest latitude he allowed to officials as 5* the methods used—whether old or reused—also that, owing to misunderstandings, entries are extended to the evening of the 14th, with the secretary for the Auckland Centre. Officials were appointed as follows; —Referee, A. E. D. Bishop; judges, Simmouds (Hawke’s Bay! and Christianson (North Taranaki). American Federation of Labour has issued a proclamation calling upon members to organise a groat movement to defeat all aspirants for office who have refused to meet Labour’s demands. Ihe proclamation asserts that d every effort made to secure remedial and constructive legislation has been strangled by Labour's enemies, wiio (ppread vicious propaganda against the efforts of the toilers to better themselves. and have endeavoured to enact legislation providing for compulsory labour. Efforts have been made to suppress free association, free speech and free press. Organised Labour owes alleigiance to no political party. A rumour, which is often being repeated, hangs persistently round the Waterfront at Dunedin in respect to the Mokoia’s projected trip to Samoa, and the substance of it is that the steamer will experier.ee great difficulty in getting away from New Zealand. ’ Tlfe Mokoia is at present being fitted for the trip at Port Chalmers. The rumoured “hold up” does not seem to be applicable to the workmen who have bce.-i carrying out the work required to be done on board, despite the fact that a number of influenza cases have had to be removed from her. It was reported yesterday' that further cases of influenza had developed among the crew. The Kai.ipoi arrived at Port Chalmers on Sunday evening from Westport and berthed alongside that vessel yesterday morning. Coaling operations did not go on. as the waterside workers declined to go on board the Mokoia, because influenza Vases arc still developing on her. Iho Kaiapoi was hauled to another berth to discharge into hulks.