LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17094, 25 February 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Returned soldiers and others are hoping that a public welcomo will be accorded to Brigadier-General G. S. Richardson, officer commanding the members of tho New Zealand Expeditionary Korco in England, upon his return /'to New Zealand. General Richardson is expected about the end of March, and it is thought that his port of arrival will bo Auckland. The Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gnnson, when the .proposal was suggested to him yesterday, said a welcome for an officer who had done so much for New Zealand soldiers would bo most fitting.

It is estimated that during last year 82,643 peoplo visited tho Auckland Museum. The register kept by the attendant shows that 20,842 people entered the building on Sundays, being an average of 453 for each Sunday. The greatest attendance ■ was 934 on July 7, and the smallest 75, on April 28, an exceedingly wet day. On the eight chief holidays of the year the total number of visitors was 6801, being a daily average of 850. The largest attendance on any single holiday was 1246 on Labour Day, closely followed by 1232 on King's Birthday, and 1145 on Easier Monday. On ordinary week days the visitors can bo counted only occasionally, but tho daily average is believed to be not less than 200, making a total of 55,000, after deducting tho days on which the museum was closed or. account of the epidemic.

The remarks made by the Mayor at the. last meeting of the City Council regarding the refusal of licenses as taxi-drivers to mon of undesirable character, wero discussed at a meeting of the committee of the Auckland Taxi-drivers' Association. The committee heartily endorsed the remarks of Mr. fiunson, and expressed gratification at the council's decision to keep the taxi rank clear of such persons.

An. interesting find of human bones was mado at Whangarei on Friday while excavations were being made in Water Street. Close to tho surfaco of tho ground tho segments of two skulls and some leg bones wero discovered with more fragments in sight. Mr. W. Eraser, C.E., states that the bones are those of a Maori woman and girl. That they were of some rank is shown by tho fact Ithat the bones were painted with the imperishable red ochro which tho natives used to preserve tho remains of persons of importance. The interment evidently dates back many years.

The Mannka did not sail for Sydney until one o'clock this morning, owing to the amount of cargo to be handled. She was delayed considerably by the heavy rain showers in the afternoon.

u Members are aware that during tho last session of Parliament tho institute submitted a petition praying for the. refund of a sum of £912, paid under protest as mortgago las, on the ground that tho income of tho institute, as a scientific body not carried on for private pecuniary profit, was not liable for taxation," stated fcho annual report read at the meeting of the Auckland Institute and Museum last evening. " The Petitions Committee upheld tho contention Of the institute, and recommended the petition to tho ' favourable consideration of the Government.' Notwithstanding this, Cabinet has decided that after careful consideration it was regretted that no action could be taken in the matter.'"

The proceedings in the Native Land Court with regard to the claim of the Arawa tribe to the title to the beds of Rotorua and tie adjoining lakes will not be resumed until after Easter—probably some time in May. Tho case was opened at Rotorua in October last, before Judge Wilson, and was brought to a standstill by tho death of the Judge, who was one of the victims of the influenza epidemic. Full shorthand notes of the address of the claimant's counsel and the evidence of witnesses are, however, on record, and it is understood that another Judge will resume tho hearing of the ease at tho point where Judge Wilson left it.

The New Zealand Dairy Association, Ltd., on February 21 distributed amongst its suppliers the sum of £126,760 2s lid. This' represented payment for 1,765, of butter-fat supplied during January.

14 1 find that, other centres have no shame, shall I say, in going to tho Government Treasury when they need assistance, and they secure it by their persistence," said Mr. C. J. Parr, MP., at the annual meeting o'f the Auckland Institute and Museum last evening. " Auckland has been too modest of recent years in asking for assistance. More claims should be made in the future."

"It has been said that the farmers are only concerned in keeping down wages and preventing strikes," said Mr. J. Boddie, president of the Provincial Executive of the Auckland Farmers' Union, at Whangarei last week. Ho thought he knew as much about the wishes of the farmers as most men, and he declared this not to be the case. As a result of long years of observation he found the farmers had greatly improved and had a different outlook. As a result of the war and the epidemic they had come through a feeling of brotherhood and sympathy with the " bottom "dog" had taken its place in the heart of the farmers to-day, and he was sure if it came to a settlement of wages they would meet the other side half-way.

" It is a remarkable fact," said Mr. Justice Chapman, while summing up in a motor collision case in the North Supremo Court, "that men who observe many things on tho road will fail to observe something else equally evident. Some time ago, when a number of young men were being trained as scouts, they were sent on a march and instructed to observe everything on their route. The officer who followed them was a proud man when he afterwards discovered that he alone had observed a certain cow with a variegated tail. He was somewhat disconcerted, however, when it transpired that although he remembered the cow and its exact position he had no recollection of a man who was looking for the animal and had actually spoken to him about it!"

"It seems to me," said .Mr. Justice Chapman, at tho Palmerston North Supreme Court recently, " that this district is a particularly prosperous and fortunate one. In several cases that have come before me this session evidence has been given tending to show that quito an ordinary rate of wages for working men is £1 per day."

In proposing tho toast, "The House of Representatives," Mr. J. S. Dent, Mayor of Whangarei, said at the recent farmers' reunion that in the very near future the mind of even-one would be exercised in an election. He had never known such a timo for members of Parliament. all of whom had been put in the humiliating position of being able to do nothing and yet had to put up with the abuse of electors. Members of Parliament had faults, but he held that they should be judged according to the position they been put in through the war. They were all men, and all of them had stuck to their guns and had supported their Ministers.

"If there was one thing that .struck me more than another in the Panama zone," said Mr. James Marchbariks, engineer to the Wellington Harbour Board, " it. was the intense loyalty of . the American soldiers to their Government. America is called the land of the free; but that freedom, as applied to speech, was distinctly limited in war time, whatever it might be at other times. No one was allowed to utter a word against the Government—if he did, it was a case of prompt arrest on a charge of sedition. 'I hcv stood no nonsense on the point—in effect if. was ' my country right or wrong,' while I lie -inv was n,. n't all events. They give the New Zealand soldiers a. great time coming through the Canal—at Colon, Cristohcl. and Oatun— as there are only, comparatively, a few of Iheni, the tax on their purses must be a heavy one."