LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13890, 16 October 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Be .joyous: there is but ono life to live, and to miss having had any gratification out of it is a calamity. Further donations tothe "Red Cross Our Day Fund," making a total of €19.243', nre acknowledged in this issue.

A thunderstorm passed over Hamilton early this morning. Heavy ra.n 10l lowed.

Owing t„ intiuenzi the Government i.s nut ? Mowing troops ashore from transports calling at ports en route to Australia from Europe. The public are reminded of the meeting to discuss the important subject of Educational Reform, to lie held in the Town Hall on Friday sext. All interested in education should make a point of being present. A shipload of Australian wheat, consisting of about .10,001) sacks, lias been kmded at Auckland. Upwards of 301X1 sacks have been rejected by the millers on account of the grain being riddled with weevils. The St. Paul's Methodist Home Mission will he held this evening at London street Church. .Mr M. Kiddle wdl take tli»- chair. Hey. S. I.awry, of Christchurch, will speak. There will he a special meeting of the Circuit Quarter Board at the conclusion.

The following officers were elected at the conference of the Baptist Union: —President, Mr M. P. Lascelles. '1 iinai U ; vice-president, Rev. H. He reus, Hamilton; secretary, Rev. R. S. Cray; financial secretary. Rev. Alfred North; treasurer, Mr \Y. Lambourne. Before Mr Rawson, S.M., at Hamilton, yesterday, J. J. Mcl'.ee, driver, of Kakahi, who was adjudicated bankrupt a year ago was, on the application of the principal creditor, subjected to a public examination. Mr Hunt appeared for the creditor, and Mr B-ll for bankrupt. The following is an extract from an officer's letter from Alexandria:"There is a Jewish battalion here, recruited mainly in the East End of Condon. Numbers of them speak Yiddish, and no English at all. Their nickname is 'The Jordan Highlanders,' and their mottor, 'No advance without security.' "F thought I lived in a prosperous country, but to hear the talk at n Farmers' Union meeting you would think the country was on the point of bankruptcy. You make more noise Mian enough about what you should pa- and what you shouldn't pay."Remark by a farmer at a Farmers' i'nion meeting at Palmerston North, at which the amount of the annual subscription was being discussed.

The executive of the School Committees' Association of New Zealand has decided to convene a Dominion conference of representatives to school committees, which will Ih- held ill Wellington about the first week- in November, during the currency of the session, so that matters discussed by the conference may be placed immediately before members of the Government and Parliament. Regulations just gazetted forbid the sale or purchase of New Zealand wool except: (a! Any wool which is, or has been, the property of the Crown; (h) any sale of woo] to the Crown; (c) any purchase, sale, agreement, or offer to which the controller of the Department ol Imperial Corvonment Supplies has "iven his previous consent in writing, on being satisfied that the wool to which the purchase sale, agreement, or offer !'ela!e S j s not required for the use of His .Majesty. During the annual conference held in Wellington the national executive ■»l the Freezing Works Rmployees' In! at, representing all men in freezing and allied trades from Whangarci t'i Willi', Massed the following mo. (.ions:—"That in the opinion of the national executive workers should not I c sent into camp and their places taken by Australians; ihat this executive is confident that, in view of the limited storage snace available, thore ale ample men available to ca-rv on the '•' o ■'■ without bringing men from Australia."

FAcessiv" mortality amongsi dairy slock fruiii tin- hard winter is report - i'il from the Stratford district. Sonic farmers have lost a quarter of tiieu hcrils, ami Hie survivors art' incapable of filling the milk buckets. The of, feci mi the output is and will he -,vrv marked. Farmers hope it is the n,sl season under war conditions, for it is certainly going to he the hardest for Taranuki. „, ■

'So far ns taxation was concerned," said Mr ('. A. Wilkinson. M.l'., during a political address at New Plymouth" "the New Zen land worker had not had any undue burden placed upon him as tlie result oj, tlie war. Very little had heen added to thp Customs. For instance, against a tax of 3d on tea in New Zealand there was one of Is in Great Britain. In England there was a heavy tax on sugar, there was no increased lax in New Zer.land. On tobacco then 1 was a tax in England of 8s 2d against 3s 'id in New Zealand. Men whose incomes amounted to £l3O at Home paid income tax .whereas in New Zealand a man was exempt unless he was receiving over £3OO,

The tendency amongst farmers to think that they were entitled to a certain degree of exemption because they were working upon the land was touched up on at a Military Service Hoard siting in a southern township. According to the chairman a man was not given exemption because he was a farmer, but because lie was essential to carry on production. It was the duty of every farmer to make his farm as productive as possible. The farmer who was not producing what the country needed had no claim to have his interests protected more than other men called no.

Corrugated iron is one of tlie scarcest commodities in hardware in New Zealand at the nresent time. A member of one of the largest plumbing firms in Wellington stated that they were at their wits' end for a supply.

"Wo cannot got n shoot of iron ;it prosont —not oven enough now 'corrugated' to repair :i tank with. There :iro shipments to arrive shortly from America, but 1 don't suppose there luis ever been snob a shortage before in the history of New Zealand." The prioo ho said, when there was any iron at all, was mi a £95 basis—it ranged up to between £l2O and £l3O per ton for heavy guage iron. It will appeal more to householders when it is stated that the ordinary baok.yard rubbish tins, which before the war oost 8s fid are now retailed at 21s fid in Wellington.

Speaking to a reporter in Wellington Sir Joseph Ward said: "I had the opnortunity of meeting .Marshal Foch in France, and 1 was greatly impressed by his personality. It is needless to fiav that if he had not possessed extraordinary qualifications lie would not have been invested with the powers he now holds as Generalissimo of the Allied Armies. Alertness, ability, and insight are written on his face. He has remarkable eyes, the windows of th" soul, and the tremendous force and concentrated energy of the man cannot fail to impress those with whom he comes into contact. All the great soldiers 1 have met say that .Marshal Foch is a genius in matters of war. The results of the offensive ho has directed in recent months prove the correctness of the verdict of those experienced men."

'When the Allies march into Berlin President Wilson will dictate peace terms on German soil, and no American will be satisfied with less," was the statement of Mr J. B. Clarkson a a welcome home ''social" at Wellington. The speaker said that America was into the war with both hands and both feet, and would not stop until Germany has had a full measure of the horrors of war that had been inflicted upon Belgium and France. People in high positions, competent to express an opinion, could not forsoe an earlv peace, but they agreed that victory was now assured for the Allies. The days when German Kasierism and m: i tarv force could seek to rule Europe wore numbered, and. America was just as anxious as England and France thai the people of Germany should be made free by this great war for the liberty of the peoples of Europe.

Specimens of New Zealand dyes, made from several speeies of coprosma (grandifolia, arcalata, foetidissima and lurid;') by .Air li. C. Aston, elieniist to the Department of Agriculture, are shown in the current issue of the Journal of Science. The colours range from yellow and brown and red through intermediary tints, to black. Wool treated with these dyes was exposed during the whole of a winter month to rain, wind and sunshine, and only one colour (the yellow of foetidissima) faded. These dyes ran he made easily by any household, and thus thev can have a use in home industries. The value, in the commercial sense, remains to lie seen. It is possible that the experiment!! with coprosma mny reveal a dye compound not previously discovered, hut when the chemical analysis of the new compound becomes known it might be necessary to use constituents of coal tar for manufacture of the new dye on a larue seal". .Mr Alton's work is being watched with interest by a number of scientists and others.