LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16817, 8 June 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Sunshine League benefited to the extent of £44 12s 9d as the result of its enterprise at the Waikalo Winter Show, this amount being contributed to by several side-shows proprietors.

A petition from residents of Puketeraki has been forwarded to the Hon. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, protesting strongly against the proposed erection of a branch of the Seacliff Mental Hospital at that seaside resort.

At 5 o'clock on Sunday evening Miss Bell, of Dunedin. got into communication witli England by wireless, and for two hours she conversed over the air. She had a long talk witli Iter brother, Mr F. D. Bell, but she disparaged any suggestion of it being a feat. The Hamilton Shakespeare Club will give a public reading of "The Dover Road," by A. A. Milne, on Thursday night. The cast is:—Dominic, Mr E. Wilson; Mr Latimer, Mr E. Bouillon; Leonard, Mr W. L. Banstcad; Anne, Miss K. M. Gordon; Eustasia, Mrs Kaber Harrison; Nicholas, Mr W. C. S. Leys Regarding the running of trains on Sunday, the Prime Minister advised the Council of Christian Congregations in response to the council's protest, that the Railway Department was under the necessity of meeting the demands of the public. No railway servant was compelled to work on Sunday against his religious scruples.

Dame Nellie Mclba has cabled to the. Prime Minister of Australia, Mr S. M. Bruce: "May 1 have Hie honour of singing at the inauguration of Canberra?" The Prime Minister, in acknowledging the cablegram, informed the diva that her kind offer would be considered when the details of the ceremony were being arranged. No start has yet been made at New Plymouth, with unloading the American schooner Margaret F. Sterling, which arrived on May 28, with a cargo of timber for New Plymouth and Wonganul, though the captain and agents expect any moment to receive credits from the American owners to enable them to pay wages. Dr. Thos. J. Hughes, Medical Officer of Health for the Central Auckland district, as well as the South Auckland district, has supplied the following return of infectious cases in the month under fpvicw: South Auckland Health Districts-Scarlet fever 9, diphtheria 10, enteric fever 4, tuberculosis 0, puerperal septicaemia 1, pneumonia 1, erysipelas 1, trachoma 1, eclampsia 1. Total of 37 cases.

A family party of gipsies, who arrived at Auckland from Sydney yesterday as third-class passengers on the Aorangi, have been refused permission to land in New Zealand, pending instructions from the Comptroller of Customs at Wellington and possibly also from the Attorney-General. The party, consisting of Ave men, six women and nine children, have been detained aboard the vessel for the present.

The case of married men who have to enter carnp for eight days, where they arc paid 4s a day, was recently brought to the notice of the Minister of Defence by Mr W. ,T. Jordan, M.P. for Manukau. Mr Jordan considered it a hardship that these men should, during the training period, forfeit their ordinary wages and receive only 32s as camp pay. In reply, the Hon. F. J. Rollcslon slates that the class of married men is a small one, numbering under 200. A number of these are paid wages by their employers while in camp, so" that it is not considered necessary to make any special provision to reimburse the, small remainder. If there is any genuine case of hardship application can be made for exemption. Such applications would not he opposed by the Defence Department, which had, in fact, advised married trainees to take advantage of the provisions for exemption when hardship would be caused by attendance at camps.