CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 4, 29 September 1933, Page 13

CITY AND SUBURBAN

Happenings About the Town

INCIDENTS, OBSERVATIONS

A donation of £2/2/-.has been received by the Wellington Fire Brigade for its recreation fund, from Messrs. J. rT McKenzie Ltd. for services a* their recent warehouse fire.

A fine of £l, in default seven days’ Imprisonment, was imposed on John Joseph Poland, labourer, aged 68, for his third statutory offence of drunkenness by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday.

Fire broke out in the Albion Box Company’s building in Waterloo Quay shortly after 7 o’clock last evening. The fire had a good hold when the brigade arrived, but it was quickly suppressed. The outbreak was confined to the upper story of the building, a wood and iron structure.

Advice was received from the German Consul, Mr. W. Penseler, at last evening’s meeting of the Victoria College Council, that be would present a German book to the best student in that language at the college this year. It was decided to send a letter ,of thanks to Mr. Penseler in appreciation of his gift.

“We pay £6O a year for water in one. school in Invercargill,” said Mr. J. A. P. Walker, delegate for Southland at yesterday’s conference of school committees’ associations. This statement amazed other delegates. In Wellington there is a water allowance for every pupil. Over and above that allowance, which is ample, a charge is made, the supply being metered.

At the Schools’ Committees’ Conference yesterday, Mr. A. Roberts (Auckland) made the point that the Government could well employ hundreds of unemployed painters and carpenters by putting the schools in order. While many of the school buildings were being neglected, the Government had been offering thousands of pounds to private people under the No. 10 scheme.

According to the headmaster’s report read at the meeting of the Wellington College Board of Governors vesterday. a remission of fees in the case of children of registered relief workers is to be made this year for the intermediate and university entrance examinations. The remission will apply to pupils considered to have a reasonable chance of success.

The statement that the past season was one of the best ou record is contained in the report of the Kiwi Amateur Athletic Club to be presented at the annual meeting on Wednesday evening. There had been an increase in male members of the club, while the women’s section, established at tjie start of last season, had progressed favourably, and showed promise of development.

Community singing has a definite season in Wellington. There are to be only two more day sings—on Wednesday next and Wednesday week. The season will be brought to a close, with a grand night sing at the Town Hall on Thursday, October 19. At last Wednesday’s sing reference was made to the death of Mr. Robert Park, the popular member of the Petone Maori party, who hare assisted at several of the Wellington sings during the last two years.

Finality on jße much-debated issue respecting the five-year-olds in primary schools was reached by the school associations’ conference yesterday afternoon, when the following resolution was passed: “That the exclusion of the five-year-olds and the withdrawal of the kindergarten subsidy is detrimental to the education system; that the flve-vear-olds should be readmitted as from the beginning of the 1934 school year; and a suitable system of instruction.be provided for them; that the instruction of a kindergarten, department at primary schools would be in the best interest of education in New Zealand.

The question of meeting the cost of removing trees likely to damage transmission lines was under consideration at the Power Boards’ Conference yesterday. It was stated that the Public Works Act already gave boards authority to recover the cost from land owners who refused to do so after receiving notification. Mr. F. M. Martin, the board’s legal adviser, pointed out that the section applied only to trees overhanging the road. Mr. C. R. Smith (Otago) said the conference should consider farmers who planted trees for stock protection before the lines were laid. In such cases the Otago board bore the cost of removing the trees, a remit was carried in favour of amending the Act enabling boards to recover from owners the cost of removing trees planted after the construction of transmission lines.