IN OTHER CENTRES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 167, 8 April 1908, Page 8

IN OTHER CENTRES.

(BY, TELIGRANI—SPECIAL COUIIEaroNDENTfI.) $

DUNEDIN. April 7. Tile Dtincdin Presbytery has nominated the Rev. James Cummihg, of Waikiwi, as Moderator of the Synod for 1909. Over 500 students are in attendance at the Technical School. A number of shopkeepers at Port Chalmers are asking the Minister for Labour to cancel the Gazette notice ordering that shops be closed at 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 9.30 p.m. on Saturdays. The petition was gazetted in the early part of last year, but was not put into operation until a few weeks ago. During those few weeks it lias been found that the early closing has resulted in loss of business to tlio shopkeepers and inconvenienco to their customers. CJIRISTCIIURCH. April 7. There is said to be little doubt that the municipal baths will be ready by Monday. Yesterday, tlio bath was filled for the first time. About six hours was necessary to fill the big cement pool, which holds something like 145,000 gallons o£ water, and tho samo time will be necessary to empty it. Tho water was very murky, duo entirely to tho fact that the first flow, through, the pipes carried with it a quantity of rust and sediment into the bath, in which there was also i goodly litter of foreign matter. Fifty-six dressing-rooms, each fitted to comfortably accommodate one person, are erected on both sides of tho main pool. The lighting arrangements in tho main bathroom will consist principally of arc lamps hung from the. beams over the water. A largo gallery circles the room, and should provido seating for at least five hundred persons, who will have an excellent view of any swimming in the main bath. Shooting Sea Birds. Miss B. E. Baughan, the well-known poet, who lives at Chorlton, on Banks's Peninsula, calls public attention in to-day's papers to a form pf cruelty, which, under, tlio ,usurped namo of sport, is' in frequent practice upon some of the vessels on the coast. "It is," she writes, "tho habit of certain passengers by those boats to shoot from the deck at tho sea birds passing near. Frequently the bird is hit. Sometimes it is killed outright, but in the enormous majority of cases it is only maimed, and while tho vessel passes on, there tlio poor victini lies piteously beating tho waier. .What justification there can possibly be for this wanton and thoughtless inhumanity," sho adds, "it is hard to conceive. Sport it is not,, for where is the adventure or tho risk?. Killing for utility it is not, sinco. tlio victims aro never regarded as worth oven tlio .picking up. Justifiable dealing with a nuisance it is not. ' I have never heard l it seriously urged that our sea birds aro in any reall degree a nuisance at all; but -if. they aro, then let properly organised expeditions bo m&de against them. Let them bo killed, not merely maimed; and, lastly, let, tho killing be recognised as a necessity, not as an amusement. I have indeed been told, in answer to remonstrances, that the birds make excellent flying targets, which, for purposes of practice, are cheaper than clay pigeons. I should havo thought them dearer, money being an infinitely less valuable possession to part with than manliness and mercy." t