LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 301, 14 September 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The annual conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand will be held in Wellington this month. The secretary (Mr. T. F. Martin), after consulting tho various local bodies, found that 'Wellington was the city most favoured for the gathering, and is issuing cwticos concerning 'the conference for September 28. The '"Wellington Presbytery last night 'carried the following resolution, which was proposed by the Rev.xn. Inglis: "Understanding that the report of the Racing Commission about to be presented' to Parliament proposes a material increase in the. number of permits in the interests of the racing community, this Presbytery expresses its emphatic disapproval of tho proposal, and urges that this be eliminated from tho report before it Is adopted. The alarming ptopprtions to which the vice of gambling has grown is inimical to the . highest interests of this Dominion, and it needs rr> be checked gather than encouraged." ""io Rev. J. A. M’Kcnzio seconded the 1 motion. The mover observed that he did not care whether he was called a "wowser” or not. In fact, lie said ho would esteem tho description an honour, coming from the class from which it would’ come.

Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., conducted an inquest yesterday morning into rth% cause of death of William Tompsitt 72 years of age, a retired farmer, who had resided nt Hobson Street, and who collapsed in Featherston Street at! 11 a.m. on Monday, and died a few minutes later Sergeant Sweeney appeared for the police, anti. Mr. F. J. B. Stevenson for the relatives of tl/fi deceased. Dr. Clay said that Tie 'had known deceased v’ery'well. About four years ago he performed an operation on him, and m his preliminary examination he discovered that he was suffering from fatty degeneration of the heart, so witness warned him to be very careful. From the circumstances of his death witness had no hesitation in saying that death was due to heart failure. The Coroner recorded a vorcTTct accordingly. i

The following notice of motion will bo discussed at to-night’s meeting of the Educational Institute:~(a) . That with regard to appointments • this branch oi the N.Z.E.I. protests against that feature of the Wellington Education Board’s scheme of appointments that deprives teachers from the right to apply for particular vacancies. (b) Requests tho Minister of Education to enforce on other education boards the same opendoor policy as is practised by; the Wellington and Hawke’s Bay boards, in giving outside teachers equal opportunities with their own in applying for positions.” ' i

A Press Association message from Dunedin states:—The officer in charge of the Milford Traik states that with the new launch 30 people will be able to go through the Sound to the open sea where formerly the Sound could only be negotiated by i in calm weather. _ A track has now been cut, so that a visitor can bring in focus of a camera all three arms of the falls. •dr Titian Wilkie entertained members of' the Springboks team at his production of "Macbeth” at the Grand Opera House last, evening.

Another instance of cargo pillaging by experts was brought under the notice of the Dunedin “Star” this week. When a number of cases consigned to Dunedin wore opened it was found that severaltins containing custard powder end other eatables had been cut. open t lie contents consumed, and tho tins retur.ned to the cases, which on arrival here showed no sign of having lieen tampered .with. Tho pillager:- hod evidently been having A good time, for -towed a wav in one of tho cases were two bottles'of Guinness stout. Presumably cases containing liquor had also been broached, and a. hearty weal 'enjoyed with a plentiful suplv of refreshments. Pillagers, especially' those engaged in the London docks, have their own particular fancies. A tasty meal with of British is not'hard to take; but it was rubbing it in as the owner of the stolen property remarked, to send tho empties out here

A fish of striking appearance was caught by Lyttelton fishermen on Friday. As it was new to them, it was the centre of some .interest, and they sent it to tho Canterbury Museum. It is a pipe fish. It has a thin, elongated snout, a- prehensile tail, and a slender sinuous body, covered, with brittle, glasslike encrustations, and coloured in a surprisingly beautiful way with crimson and pink, .■relieved along the length of tho bodv and tail by rings of light, yellow, 'which, in parts, alternate with crystalline rings. The specimen was caught by tha steam trawler Muriel thirty-five miles out from Lyttelton Heads in fifty fathoms. Pipe fish have been reported from Naw Zealand waters previously, but are rare here. They aro related to the sea-horses. —Lyttelton "Times.”

Reference to the campaign for raising funds to purchase radium for use in cancer cases at tho Auckland Hospital was made (says an exchange) at the Orphans’ Club gathering on Saturday evening by the chairman, Professor H. S. Dettman. He said the project bad been initiated in the club by Mr. W Wallace, chairnian of th« Hospital Board, who had been supported by Dr. C. E. Maguire, the medical superintendent of that institution. It was hoped that a worthy sum would be raised ns a Government subsidy would be forthcoming on the amount collected for this laudable object.

“I think we are too much alarmed at the present unrest in the world—especially the unrest among the adolescent, remarked Mr. E. C. Purdie, secretary of tho Auckland Education Board,addressing the Primary Schools’ Committees' Association on Saturday e-ven-in". "Tho apparent looseness is due to a tremendous transition of outlook going on in the world to-day-an adjustment of the relations of one set of piople with another. The great wastevident in society is not tho slinking of work, nor the ravages of war, but tho tremendous loss of power in the people, because they are not cultivating their ehiildren bodily, auenWly, ami spiritually. Some institutions-say the Church-nave lost tho grip on tho people they had formerly. Unless the teachers, who alone can ' lift the nation, take charge of the situation future of the ra’ce is not assured."

In connection- with next shooting season in the Auckland province, the Acclimatisation Society is recommending the Minister of Internal Affairs to. declare an open season for imported game, and a two months’ season for native game. An effort is also to be made by the society to indues the Government to provide for licenses being issued ioi shooting both imported and native game. At a meeting of the council held last week it was stated that the; society derived no revenue from native game, and yet it had to bear the cost of ranging and otherwise protecting' this game in the province.

'The danger io the public from a taxidriver being given to excessive drinking was remarked upon in the Auckland Police Court a few days ago, by Mr. J. W. Poynton? S.M. His remarks were occasioned by an application for a prohibition order V> Be issued against a driver. The Magistrate stated that tho man’s’ habits were being investigated, and would probably be the subject of another case.

There are now about 1,000,000 trout ova and fry in L lO Government hatchcry at Fairy 'Springs, Rotorua. The ova this vear has proved exceptionally B H° n B fertile. It is .intended to send 500,000 fry to Auckland, 100,000 to ■ Opotiki, 100,000 to M-aimarino. 126,000 to t J of 4he Tourist Department, and 20,000 to TaurangaA

Mr. E. C. Shepherd, who. has had an experience of farming ?h' tho M extending over half a century,, told an Auckland reporter that he has new seen the pastures looking worse at tin* particular season of the year. The cows camo in early vfith a great flush but then th» drv spell cam*. and. the feed was soon eaten down. The cOwa, especially after they had just calved needed strengthening^food and plenty o it but till rain cqme this could not be got, and the serious effect of it all would be seen later on. Tho great need of tM whole countryside was a spell of long drenching rain, and it was not too lat for the pastures to recover themselves w the rain came scon. Mr. Shepherd adde that the rivers in the Waikato have no reached to within four or five feet of the height they reached at . vear. The conditions in the Central Waikato appear to bo worse than m any other‘«l>art. v

Writing from New York to, a friend in Wellington, Mr. George Highland, Lie well-known theatrical producer, that the market was being flooded-with German goods, which were J/aing sold at prices the American manufacturer could not look at. Trade had been bad/enough in all conscience owing to tho vanished export trade,-but America ’’as now being made to feel the pinch of her favourable rate of exchange by Hooded with stuff from the countrj which boasted the most unfavourable rate of exchange. The situation wn Gilbertian, and if American trade was not to be slaughtered by the P ost -' Tar knife of the Hun, something veiy drastic would have to b\done. A poll is* to be taken \in Christchurch at an early date on a proposal to erect a Town Hall, which will include a largo concert hall.