TELEGRAMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1908, Page 2

TELEGRAMS.

KAIKORAI BAND IN TROUBLE.

RECENT DECISION CAUSES SORENESS. [Bt Telegbafh. — Special to Thb Poex.3 DUNEDIN, This Day. The No-Dieense party and the Council of Churches are very ■ sore with the Kaikorai Band. The *Rev. Hay, president of the Council of Churches, in a letter, to the Times 'this morning, expresses their view. Ho says : "Tho money that has been collected in some of the churches for sending the Kaikorai Band to the Ballarat competition will be withdrawn, and will be returned to the donors who gave to show that they were in sympathy with the object for which it was being raised, but who cannot help feeling now that the band is definitely opposed to the highest and best interest* of the community. If it were not, why did it not accept the offer of the NoLicense party, which would have secured for it all the money it professed to require ? By giving Saturday night concerts, it would have helped in doing good work in providing a counter attraction to less commendable ways of spending the evening, especially to publichouses. It has now associated itself with the liquor panty And the publichouse, tlirough associating itself with the agent of the Licensed Victuallers' Association. Whether anything is said about drink or not, everybody knows the position, of Mr. Thomson, and association with that position is association with that which he represents. Was there ever a greater incongruity — ' Divine' service on Sunday evening, and fighting hard for the retention of drinking bars that are the ruin to many of the young men all tho rest of the week ? I am sorry for the band, which, on account of its ability, is worthy of support, but which will ' alienate by its latest decisiou the sympathy of those whose sympathy is most worth having." NOTES FROM DUNEDIN. A TEACHER'S CRIME. [By Telegraph. — Special to The Post.] DUNEDIN, This Day. Some 812 entries have been received for the Dunedin competitions next month, as against 751 last year. There is an increase in the elocutionary department, and_ a slight falling off in ithe mupic section. In the Arbitration Court to-day, the secretary of the Taratu Coal Company submitted a statement showing, the amount of wages a certain miner would have earned had he been paid the rates now offered by the company. The daily" aver<age was 13s 6d for) a period of 88 days. The rates how asked by "the men would increase that man's earnings from 13s 6d to 20s a day. ' In sentencing Melhop, the Mornington schoolteacher, to two years' imprisonment with hard lab6ur, for having indecently assaulted- four of his pupils, Mr. Justice Williams said :—"1: — "1 have some difficulty in dealing with this case. There is no doubt that 'the acts to which accused has pleaded guilty caused no physical injury to these girls, and they were committed under circumstances which made it impossible that accused could then have had any intention of doing anything more than he actually did. That of course has to be taken into consideration in passing sentence. So also it is just to take into consideration the fact that he has pleaded guilty, because by so doing the necessity of calling these children, and further corrupting their mind 6hy compelling them to give evidence in this conrt, has been avoided. The accused was, however, in the highly honourable and responsible position of a teacher. If a teacher cannot be trusted, who can be trusted?" TpBESS ASSOCIATION.] . HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT. HAWERA, 18th August. A conference of delegates representing the New Plymouth, Stratford, and Hawera Hospital Boards met at Hawera to-day. Dr. Valintine and the medical superintendents interested attended. Their recommendations included one that patients able to pay ordinary cost of medical and surgical attendance shall not be admitted to hospitals on the same terms as ordinary patients. — Adopted, with the provision that the board fix the maximum charge which may be imposed. A doctor's request to be allowed the privilege to charge full fees for attendance to patients in hospital able to pay full medical fees, was rejected. Resolutions were passed — That having in view the fact that every member of the community contributes directly or indirectly, or both, to the erection and maintenance of public hospitals, this conference affirms that any person is entitled to claim admission to such hospitals for treatment as a matter of right, and not privilege or charity ; that patients from one hospital district desirous of being treated in the hospital of another district shall be admitted to such hospital on the recommendation of the board of such hospital district ; that as far as possible patients should be treated in hospitals in their separate districts ; that a new scale of charges be 6s per diem for local patients, and 7s for those from outside districts. ARBITRATION COURT. DUNEDIN, 18th August. At the Arbitration Court to-day- the dispute between the Taratu Coal Company and the miners was heard. A conference was held a few months ago, when most of the clauses in the dispute were settled, the remainder being brought before the court. The clauses unsettled were shift wage^, weighing coal, tonnage rate, stentons, pillars, cross-cut headings, coal trucking and truckers' wages. Evidence was heard, and the court will make its award later. The Allandale dispute will bo heard to-morrow. AUSTRALIAN SCULLING CHAM, PIONSHIP. WANGANUI, 18th August. Whelch, the Akaroa sculler, telegraphs that he does not intend to acmii Thoroughgood's challenge to row for • championship of Australia. THE OVERDUE SAN FRANCISCO STEAMER. AUCKLAND, 18th August. The steamer Aeon is now some twenty days overdue on the passage from San Francisco to Auckland, and no • tidings of her whereabouts have been received. When the Aeon iwas last at Auckland she was in charge of Captain E. A. Downie, who was accompanied by his wife. The deck officers were — Chief, Mr. D. Thomas; second, Mr. 'A. S. Leek; third, Mr. JL Lancaster. The engine department was in charge -of Mr. J. Mirrott, with Messrs. H. Irving, W. A. Thornton, and M. Hastie. Tho vessel carries a Chinese crew, including sailors, firemen, stewards and servants, numbering about thirty. GRAIN AND PRODUCE. CHRISTCHURCH, 18th August. There is a little enquiry for wheat, but no business is reported, as buyers are not prepared to givo the prices. A fair amount of business is doing in seed oats and barley, and apparently the area sown .this spring will bo fairly large. Chaff is not very brisk of sale, a little business still being done with Australia. There is not much demand for potatoes, and until tho Auckland market requires further supplies there is not much prospect of im£roveinent t