NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 296, 8 September 1908, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

(nr TELEGRAPH —ntESS ASSOCIATION.) CHARGE AGAINST A SCHOOLMASTER. Auckland, September 7. Considerable interest was manifested in the caso opened before Mr. Northcroft, S.M., at Onehunga to-day, in which William Nepcan M'lntosh, tho headmaster at tho Onehunga Public School, was charged on the information of the father of a twelve-year-old boy, a pupil at the school, with unlawfully beating tho child, known at John Cuthbert Leatheart, by striking him on the thigh and wrist -with a cane. After considerable evidence, tho case was adjourned. RAILWAY SHUNTERS' GRIEVANCE. Auckland, Seutember 7. A meeting of railway shunters was held yesterday to endeavour to obtain amelioration of the conditions of that branch of tho service. Complaints wero made regarding overtime aud the employment of acting shunters. It was stated that the Classification Act provided a minimum wage of Bs. Gd. per day, but that the officers had been made third grade, and that of nineteen men shunting on the Auckland lines only one was classed as a shunter. It was resolved to hold a further meeting to draw up a statement, to be forwarded to the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, for presentation to Parliament. < TRADES COUNCIL AND ARBITRATION. Invercargill, September 7.. The Southland Trades and Labour Council cannot see its way to endorse tho request from the Canterbury Trades Council for the removal of Mr. Justice Sim, president of the Arbitration Court, but congratulates Mr. M'Cullough on having issued an outspoken minority report. LABOUR AND LIQUOR. Invercargill, September 7. The Southland Trades and Labour Council unanimously passed a motion urging the workers to vote No-License, with a view to bring "the trade" under State control. . ALLEGED DUMPING OF CONSUMPTIVES. Auckland, September 7. At the meeting of the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board to-day it was decided to ask the district health officer to furnish a return giving the number of people who havo been treated at the Auckland Hospital and the Cambridgo Sanatorium for consumption since the formation, of the Health Department, and also to give information at to the percentage of people suffering from consumption who are Now Zealanders by birth in order to discover whether New Zealand has become a dumping ground for consumptives. Several members stated that they knew of cases in which assisted immigrants suffering from consumption had been admitted into the Dominion, and had immediately become a charge on tho local Charitable Aid Board.

NEW ZEALAND ATHLETIC UNION, Dunedin, September 7. The Otago centre of tho New. Zealand Athletic Union to-riight decided to" offer the next New Zealand Athletic Union championships to the Otago Caledonian Society. In the ovent of the latter body declining the offer the Oamaru Caledonian Society will be given the opportunity of controlling the gathering. AUCKLAND HARBOUR" COLLISION ' ' CASE. Auckland, September 7. ' In the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Edivarda and a special .jury took, evidence in. a claim for £1946 damages, brought by the Northern Coal Company against, the Union Steam Ship Company in connection with the-collision in Auckland Harbour on March 10 between the steamer Wairuna and ketch; Moonab. The statement of claim alleged that the Wairuna was negligently and improperly navigated, and collided 1 with the ketch while the latter was sailing up the harbour. Tho defence is a denial of tho allegation in respect of the navigation of the steamer, and tho assertion that the collision was caused by tho negligence and-improper' navigation of the plaintiff's servants in having' failed to observe the collision regulations of tho Shipping and Seamen Act, 1903. FIRE AT TIMARU. Timaru, September 7. A fire at the Catholic Church early this morning resulted in the destruction of the sacristy and the vestments kept there. The fire brigado prevented the fire spreading beyond tho sacristy. The damage is estimated at £250, which is covered by insurance, in the New Zealand office. WORKERS' DWELLINGS. Napier, September 7. A meeting of workers held in the Trades Hall to-night was addressed by Mr. A. L. D. Fraser, M.P., on the subject of tho Workers' Dwellings Act and the' Advances to Workers Act. A resolution was passed to the effect that the Government be requested to, establish workers' dwellings on Government land on the Main Road between Napier and Awatoto.

VOLUNTEERING. Napier, September 7. Major Halpin, in announcing at the volunteer parade to-night his intention to resign from the battaliou, said tliero was not the unity among tho officers of the battalion that there should bo, and that tho companies were not as efficient as they might be. INQUIRY INTO A FIRE. ' Nelton, September 7. An inquiry was held at Murchison by the officers of the Education Board on Friday into the cause of the lire which destroyed the Matiri School last week. It was found that the firo originated through a defective chimney. STRIKES DISAPPROVED OF. Ci sborne, September 7. At a meeting of the Gisbornc Typographical Union an appeal was received from the Wellington Trades and Labour Council for support to the bakers on strike. - Members expressed themselves ill strong disapproval of strikes, and tho following motion. was unanimously carried:—"That this union, being desirous of upholding the principle as embodied in tho Arbitration Act, does not seo its way. to give any encouragement to strikes, and therefore declines to give the Wellington bakers on strike any assistance." GISBORNE ITEMS. Cisborne, September 7. The Gisborne Harbour Board to-day discussed Mr. Leslie Reynolds's report oil an outer harbour for this port, ana appointed a committee of the whole board to investigate tho financial aspect of the proposals now before that body. The proprietors of the Gisborne "Times" havo been served with a writ on behalf of Joseph Burke,' hotelkeeper, who sues for £250 for alleged libel said to have been contained in a paragraph concerning a reported caso of "lambing down." OBITUARY. Cambridge, September 7. The death occurred yesterday of Mr. Hugh Fitzgerald, a well-known . resident for ovei thirty years, clerk to the Pukekura Road Board, aged eighty years.