LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5606, 1 May 1919, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A special meeting of returned soldiers will be held.in their office, Haszard Street, on Friday evening at 8 o'clock. The Post Office advises that from midnight on 30th April censorship on all press messages, cable or inland, is to cease. In another column Messrs J. Cochrane and H. B. Dale respectively roturn thanks to the electors for electing them members of the Borough Council. A meeting of lady members of the Golf Club will be held at the club ' rooms on Friday at 8 p.m. The business is important. Private Clair Carter, a son of Mr Harry Carter, returned to Waihi last night. Private Carter arrived iu fi'ew Zealand by the transport Bhamo. The police hate k«en advised that [ Gilbert Langdon was arrested to-day at Te Puke by Constable Garvey on a charge ot carnally knowing a girl under the age of 16 years. He was brought before the Court and admitted to bail in two sureties of £2OO each (himself in one), and remanded for ei[; ,i days. The official scrutiny of the rolls and recount check is taking place to-day, and the official declarations of the polls wi!l probably be made to-morrow by the returning officer. It is probable that as a result of the recount some slight alterations will be made in,the figures, but they cannot affect the respective positions of the candidates. The Hon. T. M. Wilford explained at Welliugton that the increases of police pay recently announced applied only to constables and sergeants. A scale of increases to apply to all ranks, including detectives, was being prepared. All the increases, both those already announced and those yet to be made, would date from April Ist, 1919. The steam whaler Hananui 11, which arrived at Auckland on Monday evening, has just completed an extensive cruise in the .Northern minefields sweeping . for mines. Sbe sailed for the North on February 2i. On her arrival at the northern minefields she commenced to . sweep for stray mines, and every part of the northern coast on which a mine was likely to be was swept over, but she did not locate a single mine. Lovers of musical comedy should be pleased at the forthcoming visit of " The Dandies." The company will appear at the Waihi Miners' Union Hall on Tuesday, May 6th, and Wednesday, May 7th. . "The Dandies" are under the control of Mr Edward Branscombe, a sufficient guarantee that the entertainment is of the highest order. Our exchanges write glowingly of the performance given by ' The Dandies," and we are certain that their season in Waihi will be most successful. The box plan will be opened at Walters' on Saturday. % Territorial parades will be resumed in the Drill Hall this (Thursdaj) evening at the usual hour. On Saturday, 10th iust, a whnle-day parade of Territorials i will be held at the Mataura raiiKO. This 3 parade is compulsory, and all men at--3 lending will be paid the regulation allowance and receive-ration allowance. , Musketry, company drill, rifle exercises, and general field work will be under--3 taken. Territorials will make their own s arrangements "with their employer s rea garding leave of absence for the day.

A Gore resident had a miraculous escape from either death or serious injury by the journey home by the evening ixpresstrain recently. About a couple of miles ou the south side of Milton, with the train going at full speed, the passenger referred to was jolted off the tram through one of the doDrs which Had been left open. After travelling about a mile the train was pulled up, and the first passenger to reach the spot where the man had fallen off found him unharmed, sitting on the side of tbe line apparently waiting for the next train. Commenting on the laxity of building operations in Auckland a city paper states :— " In the first place, the cost of all building materials has to be considered. Bricks are dearer than timber, and timber is 35 per cent, dearer than before the war. To build an up-to-date six-roomed house involves an expenditure of about £B6O, aud then the ground has to be bought at anything from £l5O to £250 for an ordinary section. There has been comparatively little house-building of late, and no speculative house-building at all. It is only the man with plenty of capital and an abounding faith who has been building in the last few years. As a result, the number of dwellings going up has been a mere trifle, compared to pre-war days. The cost of timber and other building materials and theincreaed wages in the trade have brought about such a position that it does not answer people's purposes to build cottages to let." A Christchurch gunner, who returned to JNew Zealand by the Hororatu, holds the distinction of having tired the last shell into the German lines from the New Zealand Field Artillery, before the armistice came into force. He was in the Ist Battery at the time, and he states that on Sunday, .November 10, they had been following up the Germans all day «nd went into action in some boggy ground, alongside a hedge. They were all " dog tired," and soon after fixing up a rough " bivvy" they went to sleep, with the exception of a few men on duty. Shortly after midnight, however, an order was sent down for " six rounds gun fire," in order to quieten an enemy machine jjun which had been making things lively. The detatehrpent got to work ind soon fired off the rounds, not knowing that that was to be their last lime in fiction. Later in the day the orderly officer informed the gunner' that they /.ere the last battery to bo in action, and i hat as the Australian artillery were out of action the gunner v[as the last man to fire a shell against the Germans.