LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160737, 25 August 1920, Page 11

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Customs revenue at Auckland yesterday totalled .£31,802, irrespective of a few minor returns—a record for the Dominion. The Mexican Government has notified the American Embassy in Mexico City that urgent steps have been taken to secure the release of several American citizens and other foreigners kidnapped by the bandit Zamora. The employers’ representative, giving evidence before the Broken Hill Tribunal stated that the abolition of the contract system would mean the end of mining at Broken Hill, as it would be impossible to obtain sufficient supervision to work the mines on wages. There appears to be, at present, a slump in farm hands. The supply ex coeds the demand as far as iiawkes Bay is concerned. A number of other men are looking for work, but do not appear very keen about the railway l works. This is at present about the only opening for manual labour, states the Hawke’s Bay Herald. .. As an illustration of the greatly increased cost of iron tanks, invoices received by the mail show that the Lon don price to-day for a 400-gallon tank Is .£ls 16s. Merchants used to pay about £2 10s a tank prior to the war. The present prices for tanks are quite out of reason, and merchants will have to take steps to obtain wooden cases in which to pack certain perishable articles which were formerly packed in tanks. In reply to a correspondent who wrote inquiring what was the largest boat to cross the bar and what was its tonnage, we have to state that the Union Company’s steamer Karori, approximately 2400 tons gross, was the largest. The Ngakuta, about 2000 tons, has visited hero several times. The largest sailers were the Narwhal, about 900 tons, the Golden Shore 700, and the White Pine, approximately the same tonnage. A Wellington telegram states that on reference to the Postal authorities it has been ascretained that there is no truth in the rumour that official inquiries in Wanganui and other parts of the Dominion may be held as a result of the recent prosecution of a store-keeper-postmaster for failing to account for bureau communications. Tlx© Department states it is not a fact that the practice of obtaining free corpmunicatmns has been in existence, nor are other portions) of the Dominion in any way involved. Occasionally individual employees have err ad in the past, and no doubt some will in the future, but the precautions taken to guard against any repetitions are adequate. There has been a welcome decline in prices all round, say the. London Daily Mail of July 10th. Even foodstuffs are cheaper. In a large measure this welcome state of affairs is duo to the attitude of the public, who, finding it impossible to make ends meet on the old basis, have wisely been refraining from purchasing any of those things which they found themselves able to contrive to do without. Retailors everyhero before the July sales complained that there was a marked falling off in theif takings. People had fonud that with prices on the new scale they could not do all the things they were formerly accustomed to do, and had reorganised their scale of living accordingly. Hence the slump in prices. Bather unusual features in connection with a bankrupt estate came to Lght at the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon, when a native-, bankrupt ap 1 plied for a discharge.. His liabilities were stated to be £1350 and his assets nill. Tire bankruptcy dated from 1913. In answer to- his Honor’s query counsel for the bankrupt explained tliaS the debts in the schedule were not con traded by bankrupt, but by Ms father, the son, on the former’s death, assuming Ike responsibility for the payment of the amount. The assumed responsibility was evidently too much for tlni son, who was subsequently adjudged bankrupt. Ho had served throughout the war and now desired to make a fresh start. His Honor, however, thought it was advisable, in view of the bankrupt’s circumstances, to mis' pend the discharge for three years. A member of a firm of manufacturers’ agents in Birmingham has written, to the firm’s New Zealand agents on conations in Germany as follows: “I had an opportunity of going over to the Continent, including Germany, with one of my most important South African customers. It was a very short trip, but I saw quit© enough to draw the conclusion that aa far as Germany is concerned she is not going to be anything like so competitive for the next ten years as she was in 1914. Labour conditions there are twenty tarries worse than they are in England, and the rates that are being paid for labour are enormous. The average skilled workman gets a minimum of ten marks per hour, and it must be remembered that a mark in Germany is still as much a mark as a shilling is a shilling in England.” Decently the price of eggs was advanced in Wanganui to 2s 9d per dozen, but owing to a more plentiful supply, they are again being sold at 2s 6d The retail price of onions has now advanced to 3d per lb, owing to shortage of supply, while an advance of 2d per lb has also taken place in honey owing to the same reason. Plenty of Ceylon tea is now available in > ackets at 2s fid per lb. Indications point to Christmas fruits carrying a substantial rise. Of late local grocers have been called upon to explain to customers on more than one occasion why a rise in jam followed so speedily in the wake of the increase in the price of sugar. Of course, the grocer can no more understand the reason why the increase was permitted than the customer, for the reason that probably not a single tin bearing the increased charge was manufactured subsequent to the increased price of sugar. During an action for recovery of a tenement at the Court yesterday, the plaintiff, a married woman, living apart from her husband, stated that she owned two houses. From the one defendant was living in she received 13s per week rent, and the other returned her 17s. Out of this she had to pay the rates, etc., and as she only received 4s per week allowance from her husband, her revenue was not very 1 large,. and she could not afford to board. She had been served with notice to quit the house she was living in as the owner desired to rebuild. The premises leaked badly, and had impaired her health. In addition, the front window was so near the street, that one day when a drunken man sat down to rest he fell through the window and landed in her front room. As defendant was a married man with a family, and as no one would take him in because he had children, the Magistrate gave the parties an opportunity to confer, in order to see, whether defendant would agree to pay 22s _6d per week, or allow plaintiff to live in one room. The conference, however, was a failure, and defendant would not agree to pay the increased rent. The Magistrate then intimated that he had no alternative but to order the premises to be vacated within 21 days. -