BENEVOLENT TRUSTEES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 8

BENEVOLENT TRUSTEES.

• The last meeting of the present' Board of Trustees for the Benevolent Institution was held this afternoon. The election for the new board will take place on Monday next. The chairman (Rev. W. A, Bvans), speaking at the meeting to-day, said that during his eleven years' experience of the institution tho present board was the best he had worked with, and he hoped to see every member seeking reelection returned to the board. Messrs. London and Smith acknowledged the indebtedness of the board to the chairman. On the motion of the former the secretary (Mr. A. H. True- i bridge) and the matron were accorded a vote of thanks for then- admirable' management of the Ohiro Home. A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Drs. Fell and Hislop for their gratuitous services to the institute. It was decided to make an appeal for contributions in cash and kind for the Christmas entertainment of the inmates of the- Ohiro Home.

The output of fruit of all descriptions from the Roxburgh district this year will, in the opinion of Mr. A. Moritz&on, who has just returned from a- visit to the locality, be equal to from fifty to sixty thousand cases. This will include such fruits as peaches, apricots, plums, peare, and apples. This is a very large quantity to handle while, the season lasts (says the Otago Daily Times), and it will be readily seen what a boon to the growers it would be were the Lawrence-Rox-burgh Tailway completed. In the course of an interview at Gisborne, Mr. D. M'Laren, general secretary of tha New Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation, made a statement regarding the strong l-emarks of the judge of the Arbitration Court at Napier as to tho manner in which thelocal wharf labourer's case was produced. Mr. M'Lafen, who bad' charge of the case, slated to tho interviewer that he had candidly admitted to the judge that a number of tho men were careless in tho matter of keeping their time, although ho and other officers had repeatedly urged them to exercise- care, but ho contended that all that, wtia proven in the court by tho employers was that their statement of wages had | •been compiled by their servants, and not that the sources from which tho compilation had been made wero reliable, as that in his judgment could 'not be demonstrated by any ex parte evidence, and should always in such oases stand tho test 01 an independent audit. With reference to evidence on the cost of living he refrained from duplicating such evidence ; this was solely to s>avt) j the time of the court, and because tho employers had already admitted th.it the cost of living had increased in Napier. Tho union was given a day to gel. tho case through, and then, because, it did not enlarge on evidence almdy jKJLyajU the jgdgQ £fi£U&in#L , TvT v