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Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 48, 25 February 1914, Page 4

Tfae following is Mr D. C. Batee' weather forecaEt for 24 honns from 9 a.<m. this day: , — "The indica.tiooe are for moderaite to strong westerly -winds, veering by W. to S. Boon. The "weafthex ■will probaMy ibe cool and changeaible, with passing , showers. The barometer hae a rising tendency. Tides good. Sea moderate." At the last meeting of the Mount Eden School Committee the circular from the BoaTd of Education regarding the proposal to alter the school hours during the summer weather received consideration. The members whilst- considering the present hours very suitable for the district, decided to send a circular to all the parents to ascertain if they deem it desirable to begin school at lan earlier bour. In the meantime the headmasters of the Mount Eden and Maungawha-u schools have been authorised to close the schools half an hour earlier during February and March, on any days they deem it necessary.

A slight brush occurred between the chairman of Dhe Harfcour 'Board ((Mr. J. H. Guneon) and Mr. E. SW. Alison alt the foifcnigbtly meeting yesterday afternoon. The latter roee to remark that he conld not concur with a arecommenda'tion made 'by (the Board in committee •to the €ffedt (that the Borough Oonncfl be informed in reply to a complaint .that the accommodation in the Ferry Buildings for the sale of tickets was quite inadequate, and that the question of regulating the traffic was one for the Devonport Ferry Co. to deal with: The chairman replied that the accommodation was quite adequate for the present and for the requirements of at leaet rbhe near future. As long as the ferry service was run by a private company the latter should most decidedly regulate the 'traffic. If the service were to become vested in the Board, then the latter would see to the regulation of the traffic. Mr. Alison rose to make a personal explanation, ■but the chairman ruled that he had already made a speech, and had m> right ito reply. Mr. Alison persisted, but resumed his 6eat at the forcefullyspoken request of the chairman. As a means of checking the prevalence of reckless driving by motorists the Epsom Road Board suggests that the penalties imposed be substantially increased. The matter was discussed at the Board meeting last evening. It was stated by the clerk that the speeding up of cars along the Manukau Road constituted a grave menace to the public safety, and he suggested a rigid enforcement of the bylaws dealing with motor traffic. A statement was made by Mr. VV. R. Bloomfield to the effect that the excessive speed was usually indulged in under cover of the darkness, when the detection of the number of the car was difficult, even if it was not deliberately concealed. Mr. E. Clay suggested a heavier penalty in cases of conviction, and a motion to this effect was adopted. The matter of the removal of the Auckland dock wae revived at the meeting of the Harbour Board yestcrrdav, wihen Mr. J. H. Bradncy, M.P., moved, according to notice, that the engineer be instructed to report on the advisability of removing the etone work and plant for rebuilding on another site. The mover expressed the opinion that if the dock -wtae filled up a great waste of masonry would occur. Thie dock had proved itself to be one of the most useful in the Southern Hemisphere, and he thought that by careful removal of the stone work a substitute dock could be built elsewhere. The motion was seconded by 'Mr. E. IW. Alison, but it was lost on the voices after the cfhairman had pointed out that a committee had sat from May to August considering suggestions for (1) the removal of the dock. (2) the provision of a floating dnck. or (3) the provision of slipways. Ultimately it had been decided after mature thought and consideration to build the roe-w slipway now under way, and it was absolutely futile to go into •the matter again. The difficulty that looms ahead to keep up the world's beef supply is already causing attention to be paid to new countries suited to oattle raising. Several experts have reported recently upon Southern Rhodesia as adapted for graziers. An area of 10,000,000 acres of land suited to the growing of cattle is reported as being practically uninhabited. To other areas mentioned are 3,000,000 and 3,500,000 acres. These have been reported upon by Texan ranch owners, and also by Professor Wallace, of the faculty of Agriculture, Edinburgh University. Two accidents are reported by our Tort Albert correspondent. On Thursday Mr. E. Curel, hU wife and three young children were driving from Wellsford to Port Albert in a sulky. The sulky and Port Albert coach met where the road is a side-cutting, and the horse in the sulky backed sufficiently to send sulky and horse down the embankment. They were brought up by a wire fence. Mr. and Mrs. Curel sustained some slight injuries, but the children escaped almost unhurt. On Saturday Mr. Ray Gubb, of Kaipara Flats, was driving his wife and three young • children down a steep hill near Wellsford Cemetery when the breeching harness broke. The horee kicked and overturned the sulky. Mr Gubb's three-year-old child was badly cut on the back of the head. Mr. Gubb received slight injury to his nose, but his wife and other children escaped with a shaking. The sulky -was considerably damaged. * The poultry-keepeis of Auckland, who are many, are taking a lesson from the frnrtgrowera, and an effort is being made to establish a club or association, which will look after the interests of this growing industry. Apart from the Show Club there is no body of poultry men in Auckland to take united action, and it is considered that the time is ripe for such a movement as that which is to be inaugurated at a meeting at the Trades Hall on Friday evening. It is estimated that the value of the poultry products of the Dominion are over £2,500,000 per annum, a very much greater sum than the value of the fruit product, and there is a demand for export much greater than the supply. Unlike the fruit farm which takes several yeais before it comes to the producing stage, the poultry farms get to work right away, and require but very little capital for a start. The objects of such an association would be to obtain improved conditions of marketing, and a little more assistance from the Government in the way of instruction. Eggs shipped to Vancouver last season sold there for as much as '/I per dozen, while the value locally was about 1/3. In reference to the number of Hindus •m Auckland, and their limited knowledge of the English language, the Collector of Customs at Wellington told a reporter that he believed the majority of the Hindus in Wellington came from Auckland. Those -who had entered New Zealand through the port of Wellington were required to copy from a printed form an application for admission to the Dominion, ac the necessary education test. The handwriting, shown to the re•porter, representing the effort of one of the Indians, was iiarge, irregular, and very ecrsrading. On the 21st inst. the New Zealand Dairy Association, Ltd., distributed amongst its snppliers the sum of £60,436 7/2. This payment covered butter-fat supplied during the month of January. The corresponding payment last year was £54,795 18/11; thne the increase for the month as compared with last veir is £5640 8/3. Mr. R. R. Ho-llieter, who ie saturnineto America from the mission fields of carina, and Japan, where he has been labouring under the auspices of the International Bible Students' Association, will address a public meeting in the Town Hail on Monday evening next Mr. Hollietoer β-peake very encouragingly about hie -work in those foreign pants Besides the Orient, he ha\i vieited the principal cities of India and Ceylon and lectured also extensively thxou"hout Great Britain, * "

Negotiations are still proceeding between the Mayor and the manager of the Tramway Co. concerning the proposed extension of the tram service up Queen Street to Karangaliape Road, and down Shelly Beach Road to Point Erin Park. The Company has hitherto taken up the position that the leaees should run for 33 years—the period specified in the original deed of delegation 13 years ago. The Mayor maintains that the period of the Jease of any new extension should be for 20 years only. Negotiations are now in progress for a compromise. The Mayor declares that ac £2,700 has just been spent in re-making Shelly Beach Road, there is no great anxiety to have the thoroughfare torn up again for the laying of tram rails. The extension up Queen Street, past the Town Hall, is, however, regarded by the Mayor as a matter of urgency. It is hoped that as a result of the negotiations now in progress something definite will be agreed upon. The periodic appearance on the beach adjacent to the Shelly Beach bathing sheds of an opossum appears to occasion various starts and alarms amongst the female bathers there. This was explained 'to Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., thie morning, •by Chief Detective 'JlcMahon, when a girl of 15 was charged with the theft of a bathing cap. Mr. MeMahon said that the girl was perfectly respectable, and explained that she was among the bathers when the 'possum popped out on the ■beach, and in the ensuing scramble she gathered up her bathing suit hurriedly, and went aT,vay. She subsequently found that a strange bathing cap had got rolled up with her costume, but she had made the mistake of not taking it back to the ■beach, and endeavouring to find the proper owner. The explanation was deemed sufficient to justify no conviction being recorded. A correspondent writes to an English paper starting fhat he has followed the occupation of a journeyman butcher for over twenty years, aud a precious hard one it is, judging by his experience, which ie a pretty general one. "Few people realise Uio numher -of hours we have to work," he says. "On Mondays we start at S a.m., and ■work till 2 p.m. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays our Tioutb are from 8 a.m. till 10.30 p.m. On Fridays from S a.m. till 11 pjn.; on Saturdays from S am. till 1 a.m.: and on Sundays from 8 a-m. till 2 p.m. A fairly full time-table. These axe the hours in the cheap cutting districts." And the average wage is 35/ for a 00-4] our week. Ex-Detective John O'Sullivan died recently a-t his home, Paddington (Sydney). He retired from the police service in March, 1.009, after a distinguished career expending over 32 yeare. He joined the X.S.W. force in 1877, after having served in the New Zealand police for five yeaTS. In Sydney 20 yeare ago, when lawlessness was rampant, O'Sullivan, who was generally referred to as "John L.," wae well known the crooks of the day. In the short period of five weeke he had no less than 27 ruffians under arrest Jot garroting, while in the space of another. Jtwo moniths he gaoled no fewer than 22 men for terms extending from two to five years for various offences. One of the citizens summoned to serve upon the new jury panel at the Supreme j Court, Wellington, when his name wae called by the registrar, appeared with a ' little iboy in hie arms. "There is only one juryman called," observed his Honor the Chief Justice, as the man walked across the court to seek relief from attendance. He explained that hie ■wife was away on a. visit,, leaving the boy in his care. There was no one at berme to help him in this respect and he had to keep the lad by him when at work. "The iboy and I are bacihing at the 6hop," he explained. The choice being between having them both and letting the man off, his Honor took the latter course, observing: "I don't think it is necessary to have the boy in the jury-box." The sagacity and homing instinct of dogs has frequently been noted, and in this connection the feat of a canine owned by a farmer in the Manawatu district is well worth recording. Last Friday -week, while at Porangahau, Hawke's Bay, he lost his dog when out working, and as it had not turned up next morning, he returned home. On Saturday morning, much to the owner's surprise, the dog arrived at the farm, footsore and weary, after its long tramp from Porangahau to Palmerston, a distance of over 100 miles. The intelligence and sagacity of the dog in making its way home i 3 all the more remarkable when it is staged that it was taken up by train to where it -was lost. Events that occur in the privacy of the home, and subsequently become subjects for public mention in the Magistrate's Court as' evidence in maintenance cases, make the most puzzling sort of evidence that a Magistrate has to sift. Beside some of the problems that are thus presented to the local Magistrate, the scriptural maternity case "decided by Soloman of old is a mere nothing. Yesterday the complainant in • a maintenance case, alleging to Mr. Frazer, 8.M., that her husband was <nultv of cruelty, stated as a specific instance "that he dug his fingers into her arms lea vine cruel bruises, with the result that shi left her home, and went to her sisters place. The sister testified to seein-r the bruises, and both witnesses gave their testimony with a quiet restraint that seemed to indicate a sincere desire to avoid exaggeration. Then the husband went into the box, and, in an equally quiet convincing style, explained that his wife attacked him with a hatpin " each hand, winch necessitating liis graspmg her tightly by each .upper arm, and holding her off till she recognised that it was useless for her to struggle further to harm him. N o other dfrect evidence being available, his Worship had to form his judgment from evidence, as to the subsequent action of the parties. for^WiH 00 ' 000 tOnS ° f 6u P er Ph«phates for fertilising purposes have been imported into Wellington from AustralTa durmg the past few months, the hwt shipment arriving some days a»o It is play during fche afternoon. The ™ t w the gates i n aid of the fund P The need for proper fir e protection in the Epsom and neighbouring district, £ apparent, and a joint arrangement bl run nae ibeen euffirpxtnH ti. t. . " CB mentioned and a satisfactory re ™ is anticipated. J "oreement Lt? e^Jt B nH ke f to ! l ' UerC ' <*»• F °«-WS, i.ta victoria Arcade »i.-, *i ' clothes come from.-(id. J the eood