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Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1903, Page 4

At yesterday's meeting of the Harbour Board it-was agreed to adopt the proposal of Superintendent Wool ley, of the City Fire Brigade, for prevention of fires on the wharves. There is to be a station in the railway station yard, and two men will be on duty day and night. Every facility will be afforded the men for extinguishing fires amongst the shipping.

Building operations have been commenced on Mason's Estate, Ponsonby. Four villas are now underway, and tenders are out for others. We hear that a good demand has set in for sections in this locality.

Messrs W. and G. Winstone wrote to the Harbour Board yesterday asking to be released of the allotments 143 and 144, Quay-street, which they took up anticipating that they would be able to get a railway crossing across Railwaystreet. They also asked for a return of the deposit of £49 10/. The matter was, on the motion of the chairman, referred to the Finance and Legal Committee to report.

Speaking at a public meeting in eon* nection with the annual Council meeting of the Methodist Local Preachers' Mutual Aid Association of New Zealand, Mr Holdsworth, of Auckland, said he thought local prfeachers had a fair claim on the sympathy of ministers and congregations. They ought not to be laid hands on suddenly to take appointments when the need was known beforehand. People were ofton more critical than helpful.

To-morrow morning Mdlle. Dolores, the famous soprano, arrives from the South, and in the evening is to open Mr «7. P. Bennett's new music room in His Majesty's Arcade, Queen-street. Friday she leaves by the mail steamer, and gives concerts in America, Vienna, Germany, and Russia, and after resting is to sing in London. By a strange coincidence Mdlle. Dolores opened her present tour in Sydney on April 10, 1901. and closed it April 10, 190:?, at Dunedin.

Our Wellington correspondent wires that within the next ten days the Minister for Public Works will stare oil his long-promised visit to the North. Mr Hull-Jones has arranged to go over the North Island Main Trunk route, but has not made up his mind whether he will go as far as Mokau, and strike inland to the Trunk railway line, or whether he will start from Auckland and work his wav down over the route.

In connection with the approaching municipal election at Onehunga, the names of several new aspirants for municipal honours are mentioned, and on Friday, nomination day, Messrs Jame3, Glanfield, D. A. Gray, H. W. Edwards, W. Tole and G. Moody are expected to be in the running. Six of the present members, it is understood, will seek re-elec> tion, and for the Mayoralty Mr D. A. Sutherland will have a walk over.

The adjourned meeting of the Onohunga Borough Council takes place tonight.

A car passing along the Karangahape road about five minutes to 11 this morning ran into a wood-cart it was overtaking just at the Pitt-stret turning. The car was approaching at a. swinging pace, and evidently the driver had calculated on the cart's getting out of his way. It didn't, however, and the car bumped it on the side, and sent

spinning across the road. The cart capsized on top of the horse, and the driver went on top of the lot, sustaining no great damage, however. The cart was considerably knocked about, but the ear, which had simply jostled the cart out of its way, was unhurt.

With an officer in charge of the district who had been tiiv<nigh the Boer war it was only to be expected that the volunteers who were ancainped at Castor Oil Bay, near Lake Takapuna,, should during their stay under canvas be taught some of those lessons which were so forcibly brought home to us during the South African campaign. Modern warfare, at least in new countries like New Zealand, would be a very different thing from our accepted ideas of war. The British square would be at a discount, and the individual unit would bo the all in all. Standing on those barren ridges beyond the Lake, with rifles pepping all round, with not a sign of a soldier anywhere, one could realise what a very puzzling game is modern warfare. Col. Davies gave the troops the full benefit of what he learned on the veldt, and there is no doubt they will all benefit by their four days under canvas. Owing to the distance of the battlefield from Auckland, there was not a very large attendance of the public at the sham fight, but £he "Graphic" secured a capital set of spirited views of one of the most useful field days the troops have had in this district.

Tii c brass tablet -to the memory of the Eev. R. O'C. Biggg, the late incumbent, was unveiled in St, Peter's Church, Hamilton, on Easter Monday,