Local and General.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3368, 7 November 1911, Page 4

Local and General.

A meeting of members of the Gisborne Fire Brigade was held last evening. A cheque for two guineas was received from Messrs Clayton Bros. Mr Cruiekshank was elected a member of the Brigade in the place of Fireman Weston who has left the district. Hydrant and ladder practice was indulged in by the Brigade.

Mr Wm, Graham, junr., Bakauroa, announces that he will receive orders for red birch posts, house strainers blocks, etc., and will deliver on trucks at Otoko if desired. A start is to be made to-day with tho erection of the machinery in connection with the wool-treating works at Matawhero, and it is expected that the plant will be in full swing in about a fortnight’s time.

Staff Sergeant Major Bishop last evening delivered the first of a series of five lectures to non-commissioned officers of the Mounted Rifles, a number of whom are to be examined on Saturday by Captain Morrison, who arrives in Gisborne on that day. The lectures are being delivered as a revisionary course, following on a course of coaching, which has been done for the most part by Sergeant Major Bishop.

It is some considerable time since Gisborne was visited' by such an excellent vaudeville company as that now touring the Dominion under the management of Mr. Harry Rickards, and iti is> anticipated that they will attract record houses during their short, stay here. The company open on Saturday, the 18th inst., and close their season on Tuesday, 21st.

Tn another column the Registrar of nlmS ha“ bSS Sted from the’main roll. Tim box plan fer subscriberss in , conJ& with the Orchestra) . concert will be open at Millers at 1U a-m. to-moirow. _ . , In connection with the Aow Zealand TJmvciS examinations,, to commence ;n Gi-bome to-day, it is now stated * I, "-Wonts will sit in Chilton s *W, is bring "eitcTiith satisfaction among thoon ' «.p“ wher e you’re looking!” is a popular" injunctmn ou Often wh heaHl d in t m Sint Itoa .yesterday would^ho^ obtain Iraperv eataUishment whole Jnuceu, -o that he came into col\vas the Native who happened to Usion wit., - oa d a t that time, and StHe fi^flvto tho groond. The W ve escaped \vith sbght bruises but when the smth regained his feet he f ™„ a d n •& houml up', and he was.led away to he attended to by a chernis ■ Mr W. Lissant Clayton, J-"-, PJy' H ided at yesterday’s sitting of the Police Court. A man named Martin Henry McLaughlin appeared on a charge or drunkenness, was convicted, and 10s, with costs 2s, in default 48 hours imprisonment. A further charg procuring liquor during the currency of a prohibition order against him was preferred, and on the application of the police the hearing of this charge was adjourned until the 10th mst, bail being allowed in one surety of ~0. The feeling against local Xothose who formerly supported it is not only due to its .shortcomings as a remedial measure, oi the folly of substituting sly and wholesale drinking for open and retail consumption, but most right-thinking people are beginning to realise that local J\olicense means merely reduction, ano starves out some hotelkeepers for the benefit of others. The No-license people are quick to recognise tilts public feeling, and are talking less Xo-ucense and more Dominion prohibition. As an instance of local No-license take the Wallaeetown Junction Hotel, which has been owned by the Ott family ior many years past, and is just over tne border line from Invercargill. Before No-li-cense was carried in Invercargill the Junction Hotel was let at £3 a week, whereas now Mr W. A. Ott (Mayor of Invercargill) as trustee, collects £l6 a .week from it as rent, and a threeyears’ lease sold for about £4OOO, which brings its rental value to over £4O a week instead of £3. The enormously increased value is due to the steady stream of thirsty Invercargill folk who make for Wallaeetown Junction, and it is curious to note that before No-license was carried cyclists were allowed to use the footpath to Wallaeetown, but this is now prohibited, whether on account of the large increase in the pedestrian traffic or the unsteadiness of the returning cyclists is not stated, but it is certain that the flowing bowls consumed by Invercargill at Wallaeetown are not debited to the “dry’’ area in the prohibitionists "drink bill” for Nolicense areas.***

The weather conditions were against taking the U.S.S. Co.’s tender Tuatea on to the slip yesterday morning, and she was consequently not taken out of the water until early in the afternoon. When the carriage, was hauled up with the vessel resting on it, the discovery was made that it had been derailed, and was being ‘kept in position by one set of wheels only. In order that the vessel may be lowered into the water when the necessary repairs are effected, the whole.of the carriage and its burden will have to lie jacked up and replaced on the rails. No anxiety is felt as to the possibility of the Tuatea being detained on the slip, and it is expected that she will be refloated this evening.

What about our boys? That is a favorite stock question of the prohibition orator, who makes up for weakness of his arguments by the vigor of his brutai assault on our emotions. Well, what about our boys? Under things as they are no youth uuder twenty-one can be served in a hotel and liquor is strictly excluded from our volunteer and territorial camps. The only place in which they can secure liquor' is in their own homes, and any temptation to indulge outside is withheld until they reach twenty-one. But what about our bo vs in No-license areas? Invercargill has become notorious for the youthful ke<Tsprees which have so disgraced that borough that a by-law was recently passed prohibiting liquor in the Borough reserves. A local business man in Gisborne was telling recently of' a vouiw brother, a mere youth, who went to a rso-license district a sober and steady fir , 10 . had never touched liquor. After he had been there a few months tlm sergeant of police wrote to the boy s father urging him to get the bov iiome as he was being ruined, physically mentally and morally, bv keg-parties and secret drinking Tile'parents who liayc their boys welfare at heart will strike out- the bottom line on both patl?p S 4 nd t , l ? €m from horroreof slv- £ ro?X^C and the *>*>»!• the

Attention is drawn to the fact that the meeting of the Gisborne C-o-otira tive Building Society, called e\ ening, lias been altered to Thursdiv evemng next. ult>u - hiederick James Parsons, laborer of blXiot "t S |, y ß at f day “diofSrf’ a x •L • he fii st- meeting of credideputvofficinT tate - ' vill , be held in the on Tues - H Sr Mr^fl^v. 11 f - the Masonic an inte!-e S w\Sd^ s C]a ;r\ O^ Ut + ', After 1 / on , Death and It'S 6 p d »>’: the address Mr Victor ,I,™ 01 “a afcin rSiicli' Mr'i'l'i" 1 ' 1 f"' to ! 16 °f Voice, Sssfnl Vlctor 15 Particularly sud

Sli Sheer and 'l"'; 611 "«h the seem- -- Mi. E. C Sehvyn Hamlin l-i«+ evening, and the total* readied mUt 1* wry encouraging to.those whr have worked up the function, There nr ' dottblc t!,cfl f ,ms for The committee: wish to notify country ex nbitoi-s that exhibits sent in by train ivdl be received by one, of their netftirm df for «»n----l W b mi at H lO hall o e.oek noon on Thursday.