LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 181, 27 April 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

At the last municipal elections a number of voters were misled by persons outside the polling booths, who informed them, incorrectly, that , their names were not on the roll. Tc is suggested that to-day all voters who hAvo any doubts on this subject should insist on speaking to tho deputy-returning officer in the booth rather than accept the assurance of anyone outside.

A young and promising New Zealand song writer, Rose Edwina Bush, will leave to-day with her mother for America by the Marama. They will make Los Angeles their headquarters for the continuance of this young girl’s work. At t'hq early ago of fifteen she had a series of her songs accepted in America and set to music by leading composers there. She goes to that country under the most favourable circumstances for the development of her gift, and will carry Vi th her tho good wishes of her many friends here. She was educated at lona College, Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay, and up to the present her home has been in Gisborne. Representatives of the settlers in the Akatarawa valley, between Upper Hutt and Waikanae, interviewed the Minister of Lands (Mr. Guthrie) yesterday regarding a matter of some local importance. They were introduced -by Mr. W. H. Field, M.P. A strip of land two chains wide running right through the valley was set apart many years ago as a road and railway reserve, half for tho road and half for the railway. The road was formed for the greater part of its length, and the contractor for the road deviated from the survey lifto in some places. Sawmillers and settlers along the valley believed that the road was in its proper position and they erected buildings and made other improvements in good faith on land that has since been discovered to be within the road and railway reserve. Application has now been made bv the Hutt County Council to have vested in it the whole of the two-chain reserve. The settlors are asking to be protected in possession of their improvements, and they are also protesting that a reserve one chain wide is ample for road purposes, and thnt a wider reserve would be merely a breeding-place tor noxious weod«. The Minister'undertook to have inquiries made. There was a shortage of power from tho Tramways' Fower Station yesterday. At certain times of the day, the cars, found the grades a little difficult to manage, and there was not sufficient current to enable the electric elevators to function. A poor quality of coal is said to have been the cause of the drop in steam pressure at the power-house. When the Labour Department’s housing work at Miramar was last mentioned in the local columns of The Dominion there was something of a hold-up due to a shortage of plasterers. Plasterers were obtained last week, however, and at present the work is progressing excellently. On Saturday last the erection of fences was commenced. This' had been delaved by a cement shortage, which is no longer troubling the Department as supplies are fairly plentiful. The Deputy-Housing Superintendent (Mr. H. Mostou) sated yesterday that he had heard from tenants of the completed houses many eulogies of the Department’s work.

"If matters are like this at the end of April, I don’t care to think what they’ll be like by the end of June,” said tho assistant secretary of the Wellington Hotel, Club, and Restaurant Workers’ Union (Mr. J. •M'Kenzie) as ho informed a reporter that during yesterday he had had at least forty male callers in search of work, and had been, unable to offer them anything. "I should judge from the number of callers here,” Mr. M'Kenzio added, "that there must be between 200 and 300 men idle in the ci'-y. The trouble seems to bo extending to the women. About eight or nine weeks ago we could not find enough girls to satisfy the demand for waitresses, but to-day something like a dozen* girls havo been in to inquire about .employment, and there as nothing on 'the books for them." Mr. M'Kenzie estimated that 50 per cent, of the male inquirers were married men.

At the meeting of the Technical College Board last night a sample of work (writing) was submitted to the inspection of members. It was a sample of caligraphy executed by an ex-soldier who had lest both arms and had undergone training in the vocational classes. The man, who had been fitted with artificial arms and hands, had used a stylographic pen, with which he had turned out a balance-sheet. Not only was tho writing particularly neat, but the balance-sheet was correct. Mr. 11. Bolton commented enthusiastically on the work, which was unbelievably good. "Can you say what the Board of Trade considers a fair price for tobacco?" writes a correspondent. “Before the war I paid 9d? per plug for Derby, but the price has gradually risen, and today I had to pay Is. Id. for a plug.” The Board of Trade has investigated tobacco prices recently, and it. has decided that the Increase mentioned by the correspondent is justified. Tobacco prices increased all over the world during the war, and though there are very heavy stocks'of tobacco in some countries, the manufacturers’ prices appear to havo been maintained.

One of the National Bank of New Zealand pound notes, a number of which were stolen some months ago, was passed to ft Palmerston North tradesman last week. The notes when appropriated were unsigned. The signature on the one in question was a clumsy one and had it .not been rush time when the money was accepted, would probably have been detected. The executive of tho Christchurch'Returned Soldiers’ Association has decided to call upon the Government to amend the Altaic Day Holiday Act by making the day a compulsory holiday throughout the Dominion.—Press Assn.

The British Army Council has granted the Salvation Army £25,000 to be devoted to assisting poor relatives to visit the war graves of Flanders. An extended trip to the north has just been completed by a flying boat from the New Zealand Flying School at Kohimarama, which left Auckland on Friday, April 15, and returned on Sunday (states the "New Zealand Herald” of Monday’s date). With Dr. 11. W. Cleary, Roman Catholic Bishop, as t. passenger, tho machine left Kohimarama and flew to Whangarei, thence to Russell and Whangaroa, where it was weatherbound until Friday. Engine trouble was experienced, and the bishop made the last part of the return by boat, arriving on Saturday. Tho machine, which flew frqtn Whangarei to Auckland in Ihr. 7min., arrived shortly after’ noon on Sunday.

A Press Association message from Dunedin states that a woman named Annabella M'Keohnie, single, aged 28, died in the hospital yesterday. Evidence showed that she had been very depressed lately, and that a half-empty bottle of irritant disinfectant was found in her room after her removal to the hospital. The inquest was adjourned for a postmortem examination of the body. Efforts are to be made by'the Commonwealth Ministry to obtain a further reduction of nt least 5 per cant, in the price charged by shipping companies for passages for immigrants from the Ujii-cd Kingdom to Australia (the “Age ’ states). At present it will cost intending immigrants £2B a head to reach Australia, the Government finding £l2 of the £4O required by the shipping companies. Strong 'hopes are entertained that,-with an increasing flow of immigrants, as a result of the commencement of the Federal scheme, it will shortly be possible to arrange passages at a considerably cheaper rate, though a return to the pre-war rates, when the fares were less than £2O, is not expected.