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Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1923, Page 4

When an order was asked for against a debtor at the Magistrate's Court this morning, Mr. ,T. K. Wilson, S.M.. after hearing evidence. said: -With seven children to keep and one-fourth of the man's wages going for rent it is impossible for him to pay anything. , ' Consequently no order was made. The Auckland tramway employees' agreement expired at the beginning of this month, and they are moving for a fresh agreement. Their demands were forwarded to the City Council, and the first conference was' held with representatives of the employees last week. The tramway officers' agreement will expire next month, and a meethic of the .-Noiutiv,- will be held shortly to draw up terms for a further period. A report submitted to the Fruitgrowers" Conference at Wellington last week showed that the apples in cool store in the Dominion amounted to 383,500 cases, and that there were GO.OUO cases of pears. It was. estimated that in ordinary stores there were IIW.oOO eases of apples and 92,000 cases of pears, maicing a total of 540,000 cases of apples and 152,000 eases of pears. The conference discussed the position, which was considered to be urgent, and decided <o endeavour to arrange a scheme of atlvprItising with a view to clearing the stocks. The recognised value of apples as a healtk-giver -was stressed.

; One of the meanest types of the peuty thief is the person who steals silverware from restaurants. The proprietor of a first-class Queen Street restaurant informed a "Star - ' representative that ! during tho past month there had been I stolen from his establishment no less j than thirty pieces of silver. These included spoons, knives and forks, salt shakers and such larger table pieces as sugar basins and small coffee pots. The loss he estimates at approximately £10. It is difficult to detect the thieves, buc the police have been informed, and prompt i action will be taken in the event of aiiyI body being caught. Northcote is probably the only borough around Auckland whose occupants of the ■ Mayoral chair have never been raim- ! bursed a sixpence of their out-of-pocket expenses from the borough exchequer. J n future, the position is to carry an honorarium, the Council having made a modest beginning last night by voting tho present Ma3*or an annual allowance of £40. Mr. W. E. Richardson thanked the Council, not only for himself, but for future Mayors, who lip said should s-eeuro some liquidation of their expenses. This notion of the Council would open the position to many eligible men who may be willing to accept oflice but for financial reasons and was an advantage to ratepayers. The Harbour Board yester<ia.y considered a letter from the X.Z. Shipping Company drawing attention to delay alleged to have been caused to the s.s. Australind by berthing her at Western Wharf, and asking the hoard to allow oil-carryinjr vcseels with general merchandise to be berthed at one of the town wharves in future. This, the company pointed out, was a very serious matter, involving the reputation of the port for quick handling of cargo. The traflie manager reported to the hoard there had been delay in discharging the Australind, partly owing to the shed being congested. The chairman an nounced that the board intended to shift the shed from the liobson .Street wharf, to the Western wharf, and this would receive all the cargo likely to be di»I charged there. The rule had been fixed, and the harbourmaster insisted on it. that ships should not discharge oil at, the same wharves as they disoharged general cargo; otherwise in the event of a fire 'breaking out. there might be damage to the extent of £100,000 before it could be subdued. Anzacs will be stirred by the announcement that two captains who were prominently concerned in the Gallipoli campaign have befn awarded pensions of £100 a year each for good and meritorious services (says the "Star's" London correspondent)". Captain Cyril S. Townsond, C.8., Commodore of Portsmouth Barracks, was beachmaster at "\V" lioach during the landing, being commended for services in action, as ho also was at Jutland a year later, when he commanded the light cruiser Constance. Captain Cecil M. Stavcley, C.M.G., late in rammand of the battleship Valiant, was awarded the C.M.G. for services during the evacuation of Gallipoli. and during the period of General Monro's command. These good service pensions granted under articles 1022-26 of the ' King's Regulations, may not lie. held in addition to any other pensions except those conferred for wounds or injuries received in the service, and are relinquished on promotion to flag rank. Two accidents that occurred on the liner Arawa during her voyage across the Pacific cast rather a gloom over the ship for the last three weeks of her passage from London. On June 2 a seaman named John Cooper was lost overboard, during boat drill, in a choppy sea, and although the life buoys were thrown overboard and the ship was immediately put about and an emergency boat launched, nothing more was seen of him. It is stated that a shark followed the emergency boat during the hour or so that it hovered around the scene of the accident, and this may have accounted for the fate of the unfortunate seamen. A week later a sad accident befell the fourth engineer, Mr. George Craighead, who, it is alleged, was attacked with an iron bar by a fireman, and his head badly broken. He was removed to the ship's hospital, where he remained until arrival. A third saloon passenger, named Mrs. A. Warner, bound for Wellington, was also very ill during the voyage, and her condition at times gave considerable cause for alarm. A correspondent of the Christchurch "Sun" refers to the excessive cost of school books, combined with the fact that parents have to pay very dearly for the fads of inspectors and teachers. His own case, he says, is typical. His four boys entered a secondary school in Canterbery and acquired a full battery of books for tho various grades. Removal to Wellington and becoming pupils at Wellington College entailed the scrapping of every single book purchased in Canterbury. Some time later, his family shifted to another part of the Wellington province, where the District High School demanded another complete set of books. Shortly afterwards the District High School was disestablished, owing to the erection of a real high school in the same town, and the secondary pupils automatically were drafted to the new school, where they found that only five per cent of their* books were usable. Arriving in Christchurch recently, he was confronted with the necessity of purchasing from 10 to 15 new books, all fairly high in price. Only two or three of nearly 70 secondary school books purchased for other schools' were in use at the local Boys' High School. "Probably it will astound you. sir. to learn that of this total of 70 useless books, -'.i are Latin text-books, accumulated at four different schools. They are to be added to by the two books now used at the High School." The request of the Tamaki West Road Board for the erection of a windscreen to the height of the railing along hoth sides of St. Helier"s W.harf has been gone into 'by the engineer of the Auckland Harbour Board, who reported yesterday afternoon that the work would cost *£;)80. The matter will be considered when the whole question of the boarcl'e policy in regard to the ferry wharves is reported on by the Works Committee. Consideration was also deferred of a request from the Tukapuna Tramways and Ferry Company to the board to assist the company in the cost of providing accommodation at Baysivater by extending fche reclamation on the eastern side of the wharf. The engineer of the board reported that the work it was suggested the hoard should do would cost about £20.000. Shortly after five o'clock last evening the City Fire Brigade was summoned to the corner of Hobson Street and Cook Street, where it ws found that the top of a telegraph pole was smouldering. A ; couple of buckets of water extinguished ' the incipient outbreak. As some linesmen were working on the pole repairing wire connections during the afternoon it is thought that a spark from a blow lamp ignited the dry wood. The Auckland Co-operative Terminatt£«t flmi? S -^ iety notifies members that £9600 will be allocated by ballot J and sale at St. James' Hall, on WednesnYri'ATl J' a ? d should be made not later than Monday, 25tli inst I I here ia also the usual reference to the importance of keeping s]lare3 financial

The '"Dominion"' reports that there are at present between thirty and forty cases of diphtheria in the Wellington Hospital, and there is unfortunately only too much evidence of the fact that this disease is mildly epidemic in Wellington at the present time. Owing to a number of cases among the scholars the Kilbirnie Convent was closed as from Monday morning, and it is understood that many cases are occurring among the children attending some of the State schools of the city. Diphtheria is always with us, and the present is the usual time it manifests iteelf in the children, so that parents should be on the look-out when sore throats are mentioned by the young people, and see that such throats are swabbed for the detection of the disease. An increase in the number of cases of notifiable infectious diseases in the Wellington health district is recorded for the week ended at noon on Monday, chiefly owing to diphtheria. Residents on the western side of the railway station at Otahuhu recently met and passed a resolution objecting to be called upon to contribute towards the construction of a subway. Mr. S. W. House said they should not I>e called upon to pay for a subway to provide an entrance from the western side to the station. It was resolved to ibring the matter under the notice of the Minister of Railways on his next visit to Aiiekland. ' / The New Zealand Railway Department has intimated to the Auckland Harbour Board that it cannot agree to bear the cost of supplying and laying rails for the new Onehunga wharf, but will pay the cost of sidings off the wharf and alterations on the present timber wharf. The matter will be considered by the board in committee, which, will probably make further representations to the Department, as it is considered that the cost of supplying and laying the rails should 'be borne by the Department. Tiie Auckland Taxi Cab Owners' Association aeked the Harbour Board to revise the conditions under which taxidrivers and carriers work on the wharves on the arrival of vessels. The burden of the complaint was that the taximen were placed at a disadvantage in not being allowed to enter the sheds and seek fares among passengers, whereas, it was alleged, porters were co allowed and canvassed for the carriers. The board decided to inveetigate the matter thoroughly. Since the visit of the Hospital Board members to Xorthcote to inspect the board's reserve there, many queries have been made as to what the members intend to do with the area when the leases fall in now that rating on tlie unimproved value is the system of rating in the borough. It was explained last night that a competent valuer is assessing the actual value of the property in anticipation of future developments. .Some of the lessees have already expressed the opinion that on account of the new system of rating the land will have to be used for some other purpose than cultivation pursuits, and that close subdivision will be sary and the land used for building dwelling-houses. King's College Old Boys' Association is shortly holding the gathering connected with its annual reunion. The annual meeting takes place on June 2jJ, at the Chamber of Commerce, theatre party on Friday, football match and annual dinner on the Saturday, and the usual visit to the old school on the Sunday. According to the report the finances of the association are in a satisfactory position, and though there lias been a slight decline in the membership there has been none in the interest taken by the old scholars in their college and its welfare. Mention is made in the report of the work of building the College Memorial Chapel, the fund for which is still short of the amount required, and old boys are asked to send along contributions. The Auckland District Law Society has had made a memorial tablet to commemorate the sacrifice of ten of its fraternity who gave their lives in the war. It is in bronze, and the names or the dead are embossed in the centre. On either side there is a short sword of ancient design partly sheathed in Roman fasces. The tablet is being erected in the vestibule of the Supreme Court. The inscription on the tablet is ""Juris jeriti pro justitia mortui." The names on the tablet are: Wm. Alexander, Julian C. Brook. C. Raymond Brown, Charles Darling, Athol Thos. Hart, Magnus J. Larnach. Hdmund J. Mahoney, William K. Moore, H. C. Northcroft, George M. Stewart. A plan has been prepared at the instruction of the Hospital Board which shows that th.ere have been large encroachments on the Crown grant originally granted for a public hospital, where the main buildings are situated, and at last night's meeting a letter was read from the board's solicitors, Messrs. Hesketh, Richmond and Clayton, that the board had the right under the provisions of the Crown grant, to fence the creek boundary, which was the line within which the board's property ivas. A suggestion was made that those whose fences were not on the proper line be interviewed at once so that the right boundary line might be fenced. Misunderstandings on the part of tram conductors respecting their instructions have been responsible for several letters of complaint from correspondents. The complaint is that concession cards on lines where through routing is in operation are in some instances being punched twice in the same ride, and that next time the card is presented the conductor refuses to accept the card ride immediately following, on the ground, apparently, that two rides have been made on the preceding ride-fare. This mistake by the conductors has arisen through the necessity for an altered form of card, due to the change of services. Owing to a number of the old type of concession cards being in circulation, conductors were instructed that when one of these was presented, say for a trip in which the passenger travelled from the Mounts Albert to the. Reniuera line, he should punch the ticket on the last section over which the passenger was entitled to ride, and also punch the word " out " at the top of the column. The new concession cards have all the sections numbered in both the '"in"' and the "out" columns, and the method of cancelling the ride is to punch out the number of the last section over which the passenger is entitled to travel, in the " in" or the " out '" run, as the case may be. As the conductors and the public become better acquainted with the change i rendered necessary by the introduction of the through-routing system these little annoyances will disappear. The enormous consumption of water at the Costley Home, chiefly through the laundry requirements, for 50,000 articles pass through it every month, which includes the washing from the Public Hospital, the recent reduction which the One-tree Hill Road Board made of 3d per Ml"" gallons means a saving to the Hospital Bosird. l.afeci on the consumption of last year, of about £70 per annum.