LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 98, 19 January 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal authorities have received advice that the mails which left Wellington on December 'B, per R.M.S. Marama, via San Francisco, arrived in London on January 8.

The Postal authorities advise that the s.s Ta.rawora .railed from Sydney at noon on January 15 for Bluff. She carries 57 bags of mails for Wellington and Auckland. The s.s. Somerset sailed from .Melbourne at noon on January 15 for Wellington, with 76 bags of mails, including two bags from Africa

AVhat the Prime Minister hopes to see in tho event of another war he told the audience at tho civic reception to M. Henri Segaert, Consul-General in Australasia for Belgium, yesterday morning. “If ever war comes again,” he said, “ami) none of us want to see it—l do hope that France, Britain, and Belgium wfil stand 1 together for their common defence. 1 do not say that there should not ba other allies. There are others I should like to see with them, but after what has taken place during tho last five or six years, the British Empire has become so closely connected with France and Belgium that I hope we Shull be. able to stand together for all time.” The popularity enjoyed by the public tennis courts at Day’s Bay this summer is attested by the fact that since the bcnmiing of the present season the City Council has received in fees for the use of lhe courts £5O more than it received during the corresponding period of the previous season. The charge is sixpence a game, but season tickets are issued. Formerly the charge for season tickets was £l. Tho council decided to increase' the price to 305., so that the number of tickets sold should be reduced’. This year, however, more tickets have been sold at 30s. than were formerly sold at £l. The AVellington Patriotic Society's band will play at Newtown Park nt 8 o’clock thw evening.

The latest arrival at the Newtown Zoo is a baby lemur, of the ring-tailed Madagascar variety. It was a week old yesterday, and is the first of its kind ever born at the Zoo. Not: many lemurs arc reared in captivity, but the Zoo superintendent (Mr. Langridge) anticipates that the infant specimen at Newtown will do well. It is a quaint little animal, and no doubt will greatly interest children and l visitors generally.

For some time past the local repatriation officers have not found it a very easy matter to place all the men who inquire for employment. Speaking to a Dominion reporter on the subject, one of the officers said yesterday that he attributed the difficulty to mere forgetfulness on the part of employea’s. He liojjixl that employers in need of men would revive the habit of inquiring in the first place whether’ the repatriation office could supply their wants. Par-tially-disabledl men made up the great majority of those whose names were on the books of the office. Such men could not do heavy work, but they could fill clerical positions or take up such employment as lift driving, caretaking, and light store work. It is understood that Messrs. A. D. M'Leod, M.P. (AVairarapa) and AV. Downie Stewart, M.P. (Dunedin) will represent the House of Representatives on the commission that is about to bo set up to report on the hospital system of the Dominion.

Despite tho dryness of the present season, the rangers of the AA’ellington City Corporation have so far been entirely successful in preventing damage by fire to the city reserves Fires here and there have tlliireatjeued to do iserious harm, but they have all been suppressed in time. Attempts at wanton destruction are not unknown. It is understood that the police have in hand the prosecution of a man who is alleged io hare alighted from a cart in the Kaiwarra Gorge and cteliberately started' a fire in a property adjoining a valuable piece of native bush owned by the City Corporation. The members of the New South AVales tennis team, at present touring New Zealand, are due in Wellington from Christchurch to-iuorrow, and will sail bythe Manuka for Sydney. It is unct.rtain whether they will have time to play any matches here. The Hutt County Council yesterday decided ’to take a fortnight’s tally of the traffic on the main east road to vTfe AA’airdrapa, for the purpose of assisting tub commission set up to allocate tho cost of renewing the Fakuratahi mid Stokes Valley bridges among the various local bodies interested.

The annual picnics of the Railway De* partment and the Coal Control Department will be held at Day’s Bay today. In the event of weather conditions proving unfavourable a flag will be flown from the Head Office f>f the Railway Department, signifying the picnic has been postponed.

A statement prepared by the city valuer on the rateable value for the Greater Auckland area at the present time shows another substantial increase in values for the past year, the figures having jumped from £1,252,618 to £1,388,758 in twelve months. This is exclusive of the Grey Lynn area, the rateable value of which now stands at £100,510, bringing the total valuations for Greater Auckland to £1,489,268.— Press Assn.

Mr. E. Vine has decided to he a candidate at the next municipal elections for a scat on the City Council. There has been an exodus of female employees from the hotels in Palmerston North during the last couple of days, and at present there are some 40 vacancies for positions as housemaids, waitresses, etc. Practically every hotel is suffering from a shortage of domestic help, but some are affected more seriously than others; in one or two instances the staffs have been reduced to skeleton proportions. There is no apparent trouble over wages or conditions, the sheaf of '‘notices” that have been handed in being merely an unfortunate coincidence.— "Standard.”

The Hutt County Council at its meeting yesterday, decided on Saturday as ihe t(<y of the statutory weekly halfholid%, in place of Wednesday, which has hitherto been observed

Tho shortage of men for street works was commented upon by ths New Plymouth borough engineer (Mr. W. H. Cook) in a report to a meeting of the council recently. He recommended that owing to the dearth of labour any applications from property-owners for work to be done be held in abeyance until the iflarriug (work was well Iforward. At present he had only enough men to do the tar work, and the gang had only been collected through closing down other works. "Recently (the report stated) ten men were advertised for, and up io date not a single application has been made. Possibly, after harvesting operations are over, the jxisition may improve.

Coal and gas stocks are getting low at the Wanganui gasworks, and it is with much difficulty that sufficient coal is being obtained to carry the service on. The pressure of gas was reduced oer the, week. By borrowing from varD ous sources of supply barely sufficient coal has been obtained for present requirements. The Joan Craig is due at Wanganui to-day or Thursday with about 7IX) tons aboard, and it is hoped to be able to carry on until then without any further inconvenience to consumers.

Acting on the recommendation of the Lahti Purchase Board, the Government has purchased, for soldier settlement, two proi>erties from Mr. E. Short. Guo of these properties is the Almadalq farm, on the Orouu River, behind I’arorangi homestead', of 187 acres. This propcity comprises rich river deposit land), and it is provided with all the necessary buildings and improvements. It will make ideal dairy farms. The other property is a 472-acre farm on the Colyton Road, good sheep country, highly improved. It is understood (says the Feilding “Star”) that in botli casas Mr. Short offered the properties io the Government at a price substantially below- the present market value.

Harry Allison, aged 23 years, a married man, employed as storeman by E. T. Taylor and Co., ' Courtenay Place, fractured his left leg yesterday afternoon. The. injured man, who resides al. 142 Willis Street, was admitted to tho hospital at 4.30 p.m. "When will Denmark be back to normal in the matter of supplying butter to the London market?” was the query put to a native of that country by a representative of the Auckland ‘Star. I he reply was one that points to New Zealand farmers being sure of good prices for butter for the next couple of years at least, as he said his latest advice was that there was still a shortage of 250,000 cows in Denmark. It was explained that during the war the herds were depleted on account of the. impossibility of importing fodder, and it will take some time to get back to tho old number and standard of butter-fat producers in that country. The Governor-General, Lord Jellicoe, sailed his third race of the season at Auckland on Saturday in his 14ft. oucdosign boat. Iron Duke, taking part in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s race for that class. The race brought out six competitors. Iron Duke got the best of the start and led until reaching the Resolution uuoy, where she. was overhauled by Betty. Iron Duke, however, again assumed tho lead after rounding the buoy, but before the Sandspit beacon was reached had to give place to lioth Betty and Idler. Lois also passed her at the completion of tho first half of the’ course, but on the second round she overhauled Lais and finished third. The Betty was the winner, with Idler second. 1

An accident occurred during the progress of the North Shore v, Ponsonby cricket match on Saturday, in which N. C. Snedden, who captained the Auckland representative team in the recent southern tour, sustained a painful injury to his right eye. He was bowling at the time, when the batsman, L. G. Hemue, who had run down the pilch, drove the ball very hard, and Snedden, who had followed up his delivery, and was therefore very close to the batsman, failed to get his hands up in time to protect his face, the ball striking him almost full on the right eye. He was immediately motored to a doctor tor medical attention, several stitches being put in the wounds above and below the eye. AVlien Hemus was making the stroke the end of Ins bat scraped the ground, otherwise the ball would have been lifted well over the bowler’s head. The New South Wales shipping strike is seriously affecting the leading hotels in Auckland which cater largely for tourists. Since the. Sydney-Auckland service became interrupted there has been a considerable falling off in the business done by these hotels, owing to the fact that many Australians who intended touring the Dominion and had booked accommodation in Auckland, have been compelled to cancel their arrangements. The laving up of the Niagara, Maheno, and Makura has also interfered with traffic between Auckland and Vancouver, and this will cause a large dropout hotel bookings in the city.—" Star.” Ou Tuesday of last week, when the thermometer stood at over 100 in the sun, the bush on both sides of the railway line between Tawanui and Puketiro was ablaze (says the "Clutha Free Press”), and the down train to Tahakopa had to dash through a barrage of smoke and flame that "singed the whiskers” of the engine staff. One settler, Mr. Arthur Ombler, of Puketiro, who has been established there for the last twelve years, had the misfortune to witness the loss of his homestead, which was completely destroyed within a few minutes. It caught fire from without, and it was found impossible io salvage any of the contents. A cowshed containing hay was also destroyed. On the train that had to run the "gauntlet of the fire the engine staff swathed their heads in wet towels, and made a dash for it through the smoke and fire. On arrival at Puketiro, where the trains cross, four trucks were found to be on fire, and had to Ixj removed and hosed. On the up trip of the train in the afternoon the fire had spread further afield, and the train men experienced inconvenience. It was at one time thought that the station buildings ami timber yards at Houipapa would catch fire, but they fortunately escaped.

A firm believer in immigration of .the right kind is Mr. AV. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia. At a recent conference of employers and workers he remarked: “The Government believes that immigration is the only salvation for labour; the more the people, the more the wealth. So far as the procuring of expert workmen goes, the Government will do everything in its power to help.’.’

A terse reply to complaints about cost of living was made recently by Mr. AV. Al. Hughes (Australian Federal Prime Minister). “The difficult times ahead?’ ho said at a conference, “can be met because Australia is singularly fortunate and favoured by Providence. AVc live in a country where there is an abundance of food. People in this country do not know how- well off they are, and this applies to the rich man as well as' to the worker. The rich man who complains about taxation has not begun to know what taxation is by comparison with -the Englishman, and if the worker who. complains about cost of living were to go to England he would very quickly abandon all those other prayers on which he is in the habit of spending hours and repeat one short jind fervent petition to the Almighty to bring him back to Australia.” Tho sals has been effected: by Messrs. Fergus, O’Sullivan and Co., of 176 Feaherston Street, of the home of the late James M'Lellan, in Abel Smith Street, comprising two commodious residences, which are to be transformed by the purchaser, Mrs. H. M'Clelkind, into Modern residential suites, for which the property and its picturesque grounds are udaptod. The sale constitutes one of the largest transactions in residential properties in AVellington of late years, ‘he purchase price running into five figures.