LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 91, 11 January 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Five degrees of frost were registered in Masterton yesterday morning. This makes the sixth frost in succession. In the later hours of each day, however, the weivlher has been warm.

The receipts for the three days of the Auckland-Wellington cricket match totalled .£-109 7s. —a record for an interprovincial contest. The attendance yesterday totalled 2500. The work of renewing the tramway rails in Courtenay Place is being continued. The rails in Willis Street, Manners Street, and lower Lambton Quay are also to be renewed in due courses During the trip of the Capo Natal from San Francisco to Wellington, a number of seagulls, evidently attracted by tne prospect of food, visited the vessel. Officers of the Cape Natal, which arrived in port yesterday morning, told a reporter that the gulls were quifl tame, and allowed members of tho creiv to tie ribbon on their legs. The Minister of Lands (Hon. D. H. Guthrie) left for Auckland yesterday, in order to preside ar, a conference which is being held to fix the order of reference for a commission that will inquire into all matters concerning the kauri gum industry.

A conference of wool and meat producers will be held in Wellington on Friday. As has been previously indicated, an important, matter to be discussed by the meeting is the disposal of this country’s wool. Maud is the vainest of vain creatures. Not only inordinately vain, but lazy. There is only one redeeming feature about her—she is very i>roud of her children, and hex- great delight is to introduce them to all and sundry at afternoon Ida time, when she is sure they will come under general observation. She will allow the dew-y morn and tile torrid noon to pass without any such motherly, display, but when the crowd is thickest Maud produces her brood for general inspection. Maud, by the way, is a lioness in the Zoo (where she was bora), who a week ago gave birth Jo four cubs. These may be seen, any afternoon, when Maud partakes of her 3.30 p.m. meal of old horse flesh. It is an interesting sight. The collection at the Zoo has also been added to lately by the inclusion of two sloe-worms from Australia, small black, snake-like creatures, about! fourteen inches in length, which have been accommodated in one of the aquarium tanks, notv diw.

Tn connection with the recent strike at tho Ohutu timber mills. Mr. P. Hally, of the Board of Trade, stated yesterday that the workers employed at. the. mill, betwecn forty and fifty men, were on strike from about December 4. At the request of the Prime Minister he went to Ohutu, and after an interview with the men the proposition was made that, conditional upon the company reopening the factory the men should return to work a’.i once, and that there should be no discrimination in the selection of workers. Immediately upon the resumption or work both parties should appoint representatives to meet in conference to determine the pointe in dispute. The parties had met and had arrived at a settlement on all points except wages. This had been left to Mr. Hally to settle after he had made an investigation of conditions. For the purpose of making this investigation Mr. Hally left for Ohutu yesterday. There is a prospect that the cement shortage will not be so acute this year as it was in the closing months of 1920. The Orenahi works will, it is expected, be kept in operation continuously, producing 1500 tons weekly as compared with 700 tons which were produced in the latter half of last year. The Warkworth works are not expected to reopen immediately. Coal is still at the root of the problem. and while tho coal supplies are uncertain the cement market will be in a similar position. If the coal assured , for Warkworth these works could be reopened, and the position would then be materially improved, but it is not likely that the works will commence operations again until there is the prospect of a good uninterrupted run. The supplies of cement will bo about equal to what they were in June of last year before the time of greater scarcity commenced.

There was a. large attendance of old toys of -Christ’s College at a meeting held last night to consider arrangements, for a reception to the new headmaster, who will arrive by the Ruahine on January 18 or 19. The meeting was presided over by Air. L. O. 11. Tripp, and it. was unanimouslv decided to entertain Air. Crosse at a fflnner on the evening of his arrival. Aluch enthusiasm was shown, and there is likely to be a large attendance. Ifc is hoped that Air. IL S. AVilliams, M.P., a vice-president 01 the Old Boys’ Association, will nresi'de.

The functions of the Court cf Arbitration w-ere discussed at the last meeting of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council, when the following resolution was passed, and has since been forwarded to the Minister of Latour (Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey):—"That this council records its disappointment at the utter failure of the Court of Arbitration fo have carried out tlie duties for which it was instituted. fftiAt it is extremely regrettable that the action of the President of the Court in the matter of the cost of living bonus should have been so indicative of bias as to have alienated the sympathies of all the workers other than those of the most credulous.” In transmitting the resolution to the I/inister, the secretary qf the council (Mr. J. AL Campbell) remarked: “By way of comment on the above, resolution, the council freely confessed that the more virile unions who ceased fo submit their fffsputes to the Court had a clearer vision and a sounder judgment than those evidenced by the J.iembers of the council who clung to the Arbitration Court until its President convinced them of its utter futility.”

Returns from the gold mines of the Auckland district during the year just closed shew a decrease upon those of 1919 (states the Auckland “Star”). The value- of the total output as recorded by the Waihi Company, the Waihi Grand Junction Company, the Talisman Consolidated Company, and the Golden Belt Company is .£384,813, as compared with £414,767 for the preceding twelve months. For the major portion of this output the Waihi Company’s mine has been the source. Tonnage of ore handled by it exceeded 159,300, and th? actual gold recovered was valued at* £296,872. This company has already to its credit during its long record of operation an output of gold valued at no less a sum than £12,943,045. It has paid £5,771,442 in dividends. Sale of the bullion in London, which has yet to take place, will probably increase the value of the output for the past year, the figures included in the above total being estimated at lower than probable London values. Following two informal conferences of representatives of the Wellington City Council, Lower Hutt Borough Council, Petone Borough Council, Upper Hutt Town Board, and Eastbourne Borough Council, the Government is to be asked no set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the matter of the reerection of two condemned bridges on the' main Wairarapa Road. The bridges, winch are about fifteen miles from Wellington, are the Pakuratahi and' Stokes Valley bridges. It was recenfly estimated that the expenditure arising from the re-erec-lion would be in the vicinity of £530(1, and the commission is to be asked to determine the liability among the local bodies cited. Can you Invent a time-saving device? Perhaps you have an idea that will develop into a money-making invention. If you have, protect it by patent right. Consult Henry Hughes, Limited Patent Attorneys, 157 Featherston Street, Wellington. Write or call for free booklet, "Advice to Invented."— Advt.

It is interesting to note that the Dr. Clune, who has been conducting the peace negotiations between the Sinn Fciu party in Ireland and the British Goveminent, and whose sincere work has been so heartily praised by the Prime Minister (Mr. Lloyd George) and others, was formerly a priest of the Redemptorist Order in Wellington. It was Father Clune (now Archbishop of Perth), Western Australia, who established the Order’ in New Zealand, and through whose efforts the Church of St. Gerard was erected at the top of Hawker Street some fifteen years ago. Dr. Clune, who is a County Clare man, was in Sydney before coming to Wellington, and after remaining in Wellington for six years, he was transferred to Perth, where he was subsequently elevated to the Archbishopric ol that city. Dr. Clune is well remembered by many of Wellington’s Roman Catholic citizens as a zealous and scholarly Churchman, with a wide outlook and a humane disposition.

A second preliminary meeting of the commission set up to advise the Government on the questions whether there should be a x-edistribution of totalisator permits, and whether there should be an increase in the number of permits issued, will probably be held in Wellington to-day. The sittings of the commission will not be open to the Press. On ■Wednesday the commission will com--11 ence. its investigations by visiting Feai'herston, Carterton, and Masterton; on Thursday it will visit Ilukanui, Pahiatua. Woodville, and Dannevirke; on Friday, AVaipukurau and Porangahau; on Saturday, Waipawa, Hastings, and Napier; on Monday, January 17, Ashhurst and Palmerston North; on Tuesday, January 18, Feilding and Foxton; on Wednesday, January. 19, Horowhen.ua and Otaki. The commission will return to Wellington to make inspections of 'liwithani racecourse while the 'Wellington races and the Wellington trots are fn progress. In the following week it will leave for the South Island, and commencing its southern sessions at Pieton, will work down the East Coast!, visit Central Otago, turn back to Christchurch, go over to the West Coast, and work up to Nelson, returning thence to Wellingtton. Such is the itinerary for a great part, at any rate, of _ the commission’s work.

The “Hawke's Bay Tribune” reports that an act of vandalism was committed in Hastings during the holidays, where every shop window in various business establishments has been disfigured by sweeping sears, cut. into the plate-glass wi*h a diamond, leaving eccentric scratches in curves, circles, and lines, which utterly destroy .the appearance of the fronts.

Discussing the . letter-writing proclivities of ilie world’s people, Australia, with 130 letters per year per head of population was placed first, states an exchange. Thus a writer in the "British Australasian,” who asked where New Zealand came in: “New Zealand, 1 am told, by a correspondent, does not beat Australia at) letter-writing, its average per head for 1918 being 112. as against Australia’s 130. My correspondent, a lady, and a New Zealander, is generous in giving me these figures to disabuse my mind of the idea I had that, her country beat Australia in the epistolatory line, but she adds to her note, 'if post-cards, newspapers, and parcels ,be included, this 112 is brought up to 154 per head of mean population for that year (1918), and this latter total has been exceeded. As far back as 1912 New Zealand’s total in this regard was 157 per head, and in 1914 and 1915 actually exceeded 160 per. head.’ Perhaps tlhe post-card explains it. Many New Zealaiiflers are of Scotch descent, and ‘though on letter-writing bent, they have a frugal mind.’ ” The upper part of Egmont Road, leading to the North J Egmont Mountain House, is in a very bad way at present, states the “Taranaki Herald,” the dry weather and the heavy amount of motor traffic, having loosened the stones, making the road in places more like a riverbed than a public highway. This is a road that should be liar-sealed if it is to be 'preserved, and very likely the Government, which now subsidises the road, would be prepared to help further if n permanent job were made of it. as the traffic warrants.

The continued spell of dry weather i« giving Taranaki farmers some concern, as if it lasts much loncer it. will affect tho milk supply, which up- to the present nas been a record. The dry v'eathciq however, has been very suitable for haymaking, and some excellent crops are reported. Some have averaged up to feur tons to the acre, or practically double the average of last year. „The dry weather has also assisted the turnip and carrot crops, though rain now would be welcome. A good soaking rain this -week would mean thousands of pounds to the province.

A careful examination of the statements -made recently regarding the present or coming slump in prices of manufactured goods leads to the conclusion any reduction of prices can be only of a temporary character (states the London “Alorning Post”). Before prices reach a permanent lower level there is every indication that most of the commodities which 'have fallen wil] again rise considerably in price, though no necessarily higher th ( nn they have been. The sporadic “outbreaks” of cheaper goods which have been taking place lately have been due not so much to a change in the relationship between cost of production and selling price, but to a far more serious matter for the country at larve, the shortage of capital. Many manufacturers are carrying huge stocks which they have the utmost difficulty in selling At the same time they are badly in need of money to enable them to carry on. The cheap lines that, have recently been put on the market have been made possible by the fact that, in order to raise ready money manufacturers haio been letting their stocks go below cost price. Retailers are ordering as little *as they can to meet their future requirements, for they can get verv little below the highest that have been prevailing. These prices tMy a,e reluetont to pay The result.is: the■ elos Tn a little while whether the.v will all be able to get the will to suddenly thrown on the f ac t°J’ after a period of slackness. In aiy the 'mods thus ordered will not be cheap. birth because the pigment of the c contained between the first and second of the three coats composing the eye doe not make itself visible until some time after birth. Blue is the first, the colour at birth; the permanent colour develops later.