LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160795, 1 November 1920, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The London Sunday Times states that the Yice-Royalty of India is to be .offered to the Hon. Austen Chamberlain. A cable from Bombay states that Mr John McCormick, the tenor, broke a leg while playing deck games on board the Naldera. Admirals fupport a suggestion emanating from Portsmouth to Mire an unknown sailor in the Abbey beside the unknown soldier. As from November let the Auckland postal district will be subdivided, and a new district formed, to be known as the Hamilton Chief Post Office district, with Hamilton as the governing centre. The Victoria lias been awarded to the late Captain G. Stuart Henderson, of the Second Manchester?, who died fighting near Hillas, alter being twice caving tho situation. According to a telegram from Newport (United States) the concrete steamer Cape Fear was sunk in collision with the liner City of Atlanta. Nineteen of the crqw are missing The triennial election of members of County Councils in this district will take place on November 10th, nominations closing a week previously, on November 3rd. Lord Eawliuson will on Tuesday go tq Amieuc to hand over the British flag belonging to tho regiment which fought at the -rates of the town. The flag will be deposited in the Cathedral. A group of banks and bankers, beaded bv J. P. Morgan; have .arranged a loan oi: a hundred million dollars to finance the Cuban sugar crop. The money will be advanced to tho Government, which will lend it to the si gar interests. .Gisborne business men, dissatisfied with their present shipping service, propose to form a shipping company and to purchase two cargo vessels, one for ’the Wellington-Napier-Gisborne service, and the other for the Auckland-East Coast bays-Gieborne run. The proposal is receiving a great deal of support. The directors of’ the East Coast Fellmongery Company, Gisborne, have decided to launch out into the woollen manufacturing industry, and the floatation of a company with a capital of £IOO,OOO is to be proceeded with immediately. Lcid and Lady JelL’coe arrived at Auckland on Saturday afternoon. They received an enthusiastic welcome at the station and later -l iho I own Hall, where an nddivss was (.resented to bis Excellency. There use a largs gathering at a citizens' “At Home” in the evening. The Yokohama silk exchange closed on the 27th of October, when prices Chopped below the minimum fixed by a buying syndicate composed of a group of silk dealers .with tho consent of Government officials. The exchange is consulting with the Government regarding the situation. The general sion in the silk industry is continuing. There is in use in France an electric substitute for the barber’s scissors. It consists of a homb • arrying along one side of its row of teeth a platinum wire, through which flows an electric current. As tho comb passes through the looks to be shorn the heated wire instantly severs the hairs, leaving them of even length and sealing the cut ends, as in the ordinary process of singeing with a taper, A motor car collided with a train from Riverton to Invercargill at Wallacetown level crossing last evening. Tho car contained two men, who did not notice the approaching of the train until they were almost on the lihe. One of the occupants jumped out’ but the other—Hendy Warden, the driver—remained in the car and ‘was struck by the engine, sustaining a fracture of the skull. He was removed to the Southland hospital in a serious condition. Melba, who was to have sung at the Albert Hall, London, yesterday (Athur Mason playing the organ), has been staying in Christiania, where she gave a concert on behalf of the widows and orphans of Norwegian -ailors torpedoed in the war. The concert realised 34,000 kroner. The Queen of % Norway -uuex--5 ceded'y attended a rehearsal and ecoraled Melba with the Norwegian Order of Merit. After the Albert Hall season, Melba will tour the provinces and will then probably visit America. . / The French Government is liquidating the State ownership •■£ merchant vessels and las appointed a committee to sell, probably realising £LG per ton. The question of nationalisation is regarded as dead). The failure of the btate operation is mainly due to the political atmosphere wherein it was conducted. Many ships built in Japan, and America during war time are, leaky. The operations of the State largely consisted in laying up State ships and chartering foreign ships to do real work. It is understood that the allocation of £IOO,OOO set apart by the Government for relief for state supermini it ants has been decided upon, and that tho bonus, which is for one year only, is about to'be paid). The aim in deciding distribution has been to give vedief principally to widows and lower paid retired men. For example widows now lective a jeax, &nd they will receive an additional and £>'*.o for each child. Thus a widow with three children will receive £BS extra, and this will not interfere with the civil widow’s pension. On the new scale-for lower paid civil servants receiving £52 or so there will be grants of £4O, practically bringing superannuation up to £2 per weeje. A Lont&on cable states that MajorGeneral Townshend will be a candidate for' Parliament as ah Independent and ihe champion of unemployed ex-service-men. General,Townshend, in an article in the National News, narrates, that among his reasons for leaving the Army was the fact that forty officers, junior to. him as major-general, were promoted oyer his heaa. The bulk never held independent ■ command hi the field, or, like himself, were compelled to taka the offensive in addition with, inadequate forces against their judgment, particularly in the advance on Bagdad. Lord Kitchener recommended his promotion, as reward and encouragement during tho defence of Kut, but this was> ultimately refused. He quotes Generals Nixon’s aiifliLakes tributes to his services.

Both the Poles and Soviet Russia hay# ratified the Peace Treaty at Riga. All the male prisoners have been re* moved from the prison at Point Hale* j well, which has been converted into a , reformatory for female prisoners. After V J this no female prisoners will be acoom- flj modated in the Terrace Gaol at Wei- i liagton. » J Another important industry is going M to be established in Suva in the erection aM of large mills to treat copra and seed. The building is already well way, facing tho new wharves. date machinery has been ordered fron> America, which should handle- close on 4000 tons of copra per annum. Seventy-seven divorce cases have been set down for hearing at the Auckland Supreme Court sessions which commenced to-day. Thirteen of the actions will be defended. There were 88 divorces set down for the sittings just concluding, but only a proportion of these were heard. Two representatives of an English publishing house were recently in Trinidad and Grenada for the purpose of making inquiries as to the possibility of manufacturing paper from bamboo cane. Tho proprietors of this house started to plant bamboos on an extensive scale in Trinidad in 1913. They have established a plantation of 1000 acres in one district, and it is stated that very shortly a plant for the production of paper will be established there. The beet sugar industry is believed by the Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce to be one that can be of great commercial value to New Zealand. The council of the Chamber has induced the Government to instruct the Department of Industries and Commerce to convene a conference of local bodies, representative of the Government, Chambers of Commerce, Farmers’ Union, industrial associations, and labour unions, to discuss the matter. It is expected that tho conference will take place after Parliament rises. One of the occupants of the motor car which met with a mishap on the Brunswick Hill on Friday evening last writes us indignantly repudiating the suggestion that either he or the two other male occupants had the slightest taste of alcohol/on the night in question. He states that but for the presence of mind of. the driver (Mr Penn), the accident would doubtless have resulted more seriously. The speed of the car, he adds, was but nine miles an hour, and had i£ been travelling at a faster pace it wohld have been impossible to pull up in so small a space. The net profits of the Dunedin Corporation tramways for the half-year ended September 30th, was £3356. The revenue this year shows an increase on the six months of last year of £5782, but the other hand, the working expenses have increased by £8492. The chairman of the Tramways Committee said it was gratifying to record that there had been no increase in fares, especially in view of tho fact that increases had been made in all the other New Zealand services. The Dunedin service was probably one of the very few in Australia or New Zealand that was still running at a penny fare. , “Tho singular absence of the community spirit” amongst the citizens of Wellington was commented on by Mr A. L. Hunt, president of the Central ChamlplT of Commerce at Wellington. It was apparent to any observer, ho remarked, A % large proportion of city people, including many of those who were heads of large businesses, were content to wrap themselves up in their own affairs, and evidently cither did not see or ignored their obligation to give at least a portion of their time and. ability to public matters. What a different community could be made if all did their fair share of welfare work! Local residents should be put on their guard concerning a nocturnal visitor, who, in the early hours of the morning, arouses householders from their slumber* and solicits whisky, brandy, or some other spirit for an alleged sick husband. The rat-tat of a doorknocker, or the persistent ringing of a bell at two o’clock in the morning has occasioned timid females not a little alarm, while the sterner sex do not relish having to answer calls at unearthly hours. The visitor ia sometimes seen in slippers, without any stockings, and with an ulster, and tho glib manner in which she deceives the' unwary has resulted in more than one innocent householder parting with a flask in his kindly desire to help a neighbour in distress. As many as half-a-dozen calls are evidently paid in the one morning, and whether the sick husband monopolises the garnered spirits is a xnattog for conjecture. The Leichhardt (Sydney) police had reported- to them on the 14th ult. a case in which a man was so amused at the present high price J compared with thos» ruling a few years bock that he bursA into laughter, And kent it up till i*affected his heart, and ho died. The man (reports the Sydney Sun) was Mr Arthur Cobcroft, a well-known trainer of coursing dogs, who lived in Loftus Street, near Foster Street, Leichhardt. He was 56 years of age. He was looking over a Sun of 1915. and began to read some of the advertisements. "Sheeting Is lid a yard.” he read., “That sounds pretty cheap.” "Yes, that's five years ago,” said his wife. “You can't get decent sheeting now for less than 8s fid a yard.” Then Mr Cobcroft turned to curtains. "Eight shillings and sixpence and 10s fid for curtains,” he said. “I suppose they’re about 2ls now.” They were the last words he spoke. Immediately ho burst into laughter, and all efforts of his wife and little, child to stop him were futile. Eventually he sank down and died. Dr. Nixon subsequently announced that death was due to heart failure, following on the strain of excessive laughter. “The clergy don’t aim at' becoming wealthy,” remarked tho Yen. Archdeacon ,P. B. Haggitt at the Synod at Christchurch on Thursday night. “What they do desire, and what I think we have a right to expect, is ,a living wage.” After indicating what a living wage should cover, including saving a little for the future. Archdeacon Haggitt said that he believe there was a clergyman in the diocese, including those connected with the Cathedral, whp hai a wife and family, who was receiving a wage that enabled him oo save more than a very little. The Yen, Archdeacon J. A. Jacob remarked that during the four years h© had been in the Wellington diocese and the nine years he had been in the Christchurch diocese he had been the best-paid priest in each diocese, yet, though he had no children, and though his a scod5 cod manager, he would in ebt but for certain small priyawdseana —£6o per annum—he possessed. In tho thirteen years he had saved £2OO. Mr H. M Banuear trusted that Archdeacon. Haggitt’s statement would pot go unchallenged; as they should be careful not to alienate the sympathy of church people who were not getting big wages.