LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Court of Appeal (first division) lias been further adjourned till Tuesday next. The tender of the Fletcher Construction Company (£105,000) has been accepted for the erection of the new Arts Building at Auckland University Collego.—Press Association. An Order-in-Council has been issued revoking the Orde,r-in-Council issued many years ago prohibiting the export of firearms, gunpowder, etc., to Samoa. In accordance with the decision' of the City Council, the price of the one-section, tram tickets will be reduced from Is 9d to Is 6d' for twelve rides as ftxnp Monday next. This week's Gazette contains Jtailway Department regulations governing admission to, duties, discipline, and promotion in tho Department, travelling and other allowances, hours of duty, standingtime, overtime, leave of absence, and sick a.nd accident pay, passes and privilege tickets, reductions of staff, oomplaints, appeals, etc. A suggestion that scout-masters should be paid for their services was made by a speaker at the Boy Scouts' meeting held at Auckland on Wednesday. He maintained that a scout-master trained his boys to be good citizens, and this made for good government, so why should not the Government support the movement more strongly than it had done in the past? To the mind of the speaker, the work of a scoutmaster was even more important than that of a military officer. The latter taught ths boys to shoot and trained them in discipline. The scoutmaster taught them these- things and many more, yet received no nay whatever for his services. Mr. D. "C. Grisby said that scout-masters did their work for the love of it, and he did not know one man who1 would Avish to be paid for Ins services. ' Tho Chairman (reports the Herald) supported this view, stating that once scout-masters were paid tho movement would be doomed.

The New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Association has decided to support the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and will nominate Professor Easterfield as the first president of the Institute. A Post Office regulation has just been issued providing that not more than one family may use the same private mail-bag, but correspondence addressed to and sent by guests of the hirer of a private mail-bag, his employees, and the families of the em- | ployees may be enclosed therein. By oversight, Saturday morning work was included in the union's claims for a forty-hour week in the engineering dispute before the Conciliation Council as reported in The Post yesterday. Iho forty-hour week consists, of course, iv five days of eight hours each, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday work is excluded altogether. - - A correspondent ("Karaka Bay") writes to protest "against the way' in which the Miramar 8.23 a.m. tram dodges the timetable." The correspondent adds:—"l and several others have complained to the Traffic Manager and his assistant on various occasions, and although we have been, courteously informed that the trouble would be remedied, the improvement has not lasted very long\ On a recent morning the car left the Miramar terminus at 8.21 a.m.. two minutes early, thereby causing several people to miss the tram. I hope the tramway authorities will insist on the cars being run to the timetable." The death is announced by a Press Association message of Mr. Peter Dig- ■ nan, ex-Mayor of Auckland, at the age of 75 years. Deceased was a son of the late Hon. P. Dignan, M.L.C., and was born at Auckland in 1847. After receiving a private education, he was articled to Judge O'Brien, Sheriff and Registrar of the Supreme Court and Judge of the Native Land Court. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1868, and established the firm of Dignan and Armstrong. After being a member of various local bodies for many years, ho was elected Mayor of Auckland, holding office for the period 1897-98. Interested in military matters, he took a prominent part in the old volunteer movement, rising to the; rank of lieu-tenant-colonel in the First Auckland Infantry Battalion. j Exemption from the provisions of the | | engineering award, for which proceedings are being taken by the parties under the I.C. and A. Act, was claimed oh behalf of several parties at the hearing in the Conciliation Council yesterday of the Wellington dispute. The Wellington Harbour Board applied for exemption from the general clauses, so long as it paid the wages awarded. Partial exemption was granted in regard to tramway rail welding, Mr. Leah, superintendent of carsheds and workshops, representing the City Council. Exemption was also claimed by the Wanganui Gas Company,.„ the Wanganui Borough Council, the Wanganui Meat Freezing Company, Ltd., and the Otaki Farmers' Meat and Produce Company, Ltd. Decision was reserved by the Commissioner.

The new railway regulations just issued provide that all appointments to classes 1 and 2 of subdivision 1. and to the special grades oi subdivision 2 t>f division 1 of the railway service, shall be made by the Governor-General. The appointments covered by this regulation include the General Manager, the Assistant General Manager, the Chief Mechanica' Engineer, the Chief Traffic Manager, the Chief Engineer, the Chief Accountant, the Comptroller of Stores, and the Signal Engineer. The effect of appointment by the Governor-General instead of by the Minister is to take the positions out of the range of tlt'e ordinary regulations and of the Appeal Boa-rd. The' Minister, in making his. recom-' meudations to the Governor-General, will not be bound--by rules of seniority or classification. There will be no right of appeal in respect to such appointments. The regulation will cover the members of the proposed Railway Board.

May a solicitor who appears in Court to conduct a case on his own behalf claim witness's expenses if 'he has entered the box to lay facts before theJudge? The Chief Justice, Sir Robert -Stoutj has decided in a Wanganui action between two Native land owners and George Hutchison, solicitor, that he has not that right. "In my opinion," said his Honour, "this case must be decided on the principle laid down in the case of Howes v. Barber, where it is said by a Full Court as follows:—'The simple fact of their being examined-as witnesses must by no means' be .considered sufficient to establish a claim for their expenses as witnesses, and if it appears that their atendance was unnecessary, or, that they attended to superintend the conduct of the case, the claim ought to be rejected.' There is no doubt that the defendant attended to superintend the conduct of his own case and he received fees according to schedule. This being so, he is not entitled to his expenses as a witness." The importance of the working of the brain in relation to general health was stressed by Dr. Duncan Stout, in his lecture to Senior Cadets on "Diseases of Adolescence," at the Community Club this week. In command of the whole nervous system, he said, there was that marvellous telephone exchange, the brain, by which every call, every action of the body, was controlled. "The brain," he proceeded, "is undoubtedly the marvel of marvels in the body, and it is because of that, that I wish to point out the extreme importance of its health. In regard to its most important work, that of the mind : This, as you will readily understand, is the highest function of all, as the working of the mind has a far-reaching effect on the whole body. All the systems work in unison, and any defect in one will influence the others, but the mind has the greatest effect of any. That must show you the enormous importance of controlling and guiding your thoughts, your reasoning, and your reading. Tho healthy-minded persons in the community are not any more numerous than the healthy persons physically, and the bad effects of disease of thought and of reasoning are by no means less' serious than those of phyiscal disease."

A meeting of the central committee in control o? the Poppy Day funds collected in the Wellington district by the R.S.A., held at Palmerston North last night, unanimously affirmed the principle that the money is only for wages for actual work to be of a public character, and only done through those local bodies and other institutions willing to subsidise at the rate of pound for pound; ajs.o that the standard rates of wages be paid. Grants were made to local returned soldiers' associations as follow :—Wellington £1212 19s 2d; Dannevirke £62 4s 6d; Eketahuna £19 6s 8d; Feilding £73 17s 8d; Hastings £124 4s 8d; Hawera £106 13s 6d; Levin £61; Masterton £159 4s lid; Martorv £45 2s 8d ; Napier £219 0s 4d j Now Plymouth £169 9s 4d; \Palmerston North £283 8s 2d ; Stratford £112 10s 6d: Taihapi) £62 12s; Taumarunui £40 16s lOd; Woodvillo £25 2s 8d; Waipawa £55 8s; Waipiikurau £29 15?; Waitara■■ £32 0s 8d ; Waverley £32 10s; Wairoa £36 12s 8d; Wanganui £225 10s Bd. This leaves still a fund for contingencies in any local area, and for administration expenses. The allocations are to be sent to the local associations with definite instructions directing the committee, which must be complied with. The total funds available for the whole district, including Hawke's Bay and Taranaki, arc in tU» vicinity of £3300. • '■ ■

An announcement is made in this week's Gazette that chickenpox, or varicella, has been remeved from the list of infectious diseases notifiable under the Health Act, 1920. Tlie Government Statistician reports for the month of May the following returns of birth and deaths in the four chief centres of the Dominion: Auckland urban area (per 1000 of population), births 1.76, deaths 0.93; Wellington urban area, 2.08, 0.60; Christchurch urban area, 1.84, 0.90; Dunedin urban area, 1.58, 0.76..' The last stage in widening the roadway on the eastern side of Willis-street has now been entered upon. A 10f4 strip is being taken off the footpatli between the Duke of Edinburgh corner and Old Customhouse-street, thus bringing that portion of the thoroughfare Into alignment with the other part of the street which was set back some years ago. The work will take about a mouth to complete. The term " Bush " is still applied to the Pahiatua district, but it has long since been an absolute misnomer (says the Pahiatua Herald). Many years ago, when there was a, thick forest from Mauriceyille to Woodville, the title "Bush" was in order. Nowadays, there is no bush, but there are on some farms plenty of logs and stumps, but, nevertheless, firewood is extremely dear. When the question of a name was being considered for the new Cricket Association the other night, an Eketahuna- delegate disapproved of it being styled " Bush," and consequently the association was christened with the name of something immovable and unchangeable—the Tararua Mountains. Fish appear to be very plentiful along the coast at the present time, and good hauls have been secured by several parties of late (reports the Dunedin Star). There appears to be an abundance of blue cod. A big catch was secured by the crew of the coastal steamer Kotare while the vessel was on her way to Dunedin from the South. The Kotare was stopped when off Vfaipapapapa Point, and, every member of the crew being provided with a line, they fished for several hours. As a result of their efforts over scwt of exc^l- ' lent blue cod were caught. On the ship's arrival the- catch was immediately sent along to the fish market, and no doubt met with a ready sale. That there are no miraculous methods of curing disease was emphasised by Dr. Duncan Stout in his lecture on "Diseases, of Adolescence" to Senior Cadets at the Community Club tliis week. "There are," he "said, "special methods of dealing with the many different diseases apart from the simple rules. These have been gradually learnt by mankind during . all . the centuries. This knowledge can only be safely applied by men and women trained thoroughly for the work by years of strenuous study and experience. There are no miraculous methods of combating disease; there are no instantaneous cures. Youi own body has to fight disease; your own mind has to conquer aary mentally-produced derangement of the body. You muet gain knowledge of the workings of the body, and especially of the highest part of your body, the brain. This knowledge will protect you. from jeopardising your health by resorting to quacks of all kind.?, from ignorant, maybe, well-meaning people who have little knowledge of the beautiful Gcd:-given mechanism that our body is, and who claim to be able to. cure all disease instantaneously by appealing, to the mind to believe the body is sound. Disease is pot ? miraculous, thit is, unknown thing, and the cure of disease is not to be sought after by miraculous means. It is brought about by fcha steady accumulation of wisdom by the world."

Commenting oil the necessity of making New Zealand's resources and attractions more widely known, the-Rotorua Chronicle says:—" American tourists and some, influential journalists of the States have made journeys through tho country, and none has ever failed to express utter astonishment that -such beauties of climate and scenery, such magnificent fishing and shooting, are so little advertised. It is fortunate that at last the Government has recognised this, and is making sytematiscd efforts to remedy the omissions of the past. Dr. Herbert's book on New Zealand spas is one of those means of advertisement that may well bo availed of, and encouragement of tho publication of attractive readable literature that is something above the dreary advertisement catalogue that is fed to travellers should be given. The need is for something that, while compelling interest, is also accurately informative, and which can be disseminated abroad without incurring the contempt of its readers. The ghastly stodge that formed the bulk of reading matter of some past guide books would empty a country and keep it empty. Miv-H. T. B. Drew, the accredited appointee, of the Government in the matter of publicity, and who is liow visiting the thermal regions, is giving his time to this work, and in the interest of the public it is hoped that a really attractive presentation of New Zealand, its people, ite beauties and resources will be available for the education of those abroad who have as yet had no opportunity of visiting this magnificent gem of the British Empire."

TliS; stai* of Ireland was referred to by Mr. Hall Skelton, one of the New, Zealand delegates to tho Irish Race Conference, 'in a speech in the Town Hall, Auckland, last week. Mr. Skelton declared that it was not possible in New Zealand to gather anything like a correct idea of affairs in Ireland. The very large majority of the people in Ireland, he said, were at peace, and working hard, helping to make the country one of the most prosperous in the world. The leaders of the Free State were 'men of great intellectual capacity and high ideals. From meeting them he was convinced that far from being advocates of viol.ence and bloodshed, they were sincerely desirous of peace and good-feeling. His belief was that with the exception of a small percentage of the people of Ulster, the Irish people of all classes and creeds were advocates of a united Ireland under the leadership of the Free' State Party. The difference between this section and Mr. de Valera, he said, was but small, and was now just about overcome. "Reports to the contrary he described as the propaganda of the Ulster irreconcilables. The Paris Conference, Mr. Hall Skelton declared, was a wonderful gathering of Irishmen from all quarters of the globe. It was a most businesslike conference, at which an immense amount of information for the guidance of the Irish Free Stata was gathered. There was no talk of. violence, no hint of dissension, at it. Differences of opinion were discussed in the most amicable fashion.