PLUNKET MEDAL FOR ORATORY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 58, 6 September 1909, Page 8

PLUNKET MEDAL FOR ORATORY.

On Saturday evening next, at 8 o'clock, j in the Concert Chamber, Town Hall, the competition for the Plunket Medal, an award by his Excellency tho Governor for oratory, open to members of the Victoria College Debating Society, will be held. Mr. J. Mason will act as chairman. Mr. Justice Cooper is expected to make the award. The competitors are as follow, their subjects being in parentheses : — Messrs. R. Boucher (Nelson), M. H. Oram (Lincoln), J. M. Hogben (Toussaint l'Overture), J. Ross (Gordon), W. J. M'Eldowney (Cromwell), R. Kennedy (Drake), G. Morice (Livingsone), and J. Ogg (Napoleon). It is understood thai the Police Commission will sit in Wellington next Mon- ! day. The Cornwall, which arrived at Wellington from Liverpool, via Auckland, to-day, brought eleven assisted passengers for this port and Lyttelton. Twelve assisted passengers wi»re landedat Auckland. On the question of the establishment of a Chair of Domestic Economics at the Otago University, the Otago Daily Times states that the opponents of the new departure have made out a strong case in the correspondence published by that journal, though the suggestion that the establishment of a Chair of , Domestic Science will impair the already straitened finances of the university has been unduly laboured. The writer states that support of the chair is definitely made for only a few years, and then " the future is all darkness. It is hardly consonant with the dignity of a university that it should embark upon an experiment which it may conceivably have to abandon at the end of three years." Another objection that has been made is ttat it will have the effect of "cheapening " university degrees ; and yet another is that the course prescribed for the student is forbiddingly severe. These two objections may fittingly be regarded as mutually destructive. It- can certainly not be objected against the syllabus that it is of a quality which, is not consistent with the requirements of a university course. It is a more valid objection that the syllabus is not at all likely to attract students." Fifteen boats, employing 40 men, are constantly engaged in the Kaipara estuary, which affords salt water fishing over many square miles of abnormally rich grounds. A steam trawler is being fitted out to the fleet. The Dargaville correspondent of the Auckland Herald states that New Zealand mullet is finding its way into the English market. Three years ago an 'Aberdeen visitor to New Zealand stated that there were 150 firms ready to buy all available and possible stocks. A. farmer at Haiuner Springs had the misfortune recently to lose a considerable sum of money under remarkable circumstances. He is the possessor (says the Lyttelton Times) of a horse which includes paper, amongst other things, in his dietary list. This animal can be easily caught at any time if he is approached with a piece of paper, which he will devour on sight without even the preliminary sniff. His owner dropped a pocket-book at his own gate, and on searching for it next morning found thatr his horse had been there before him. The pocket-book was chewed to an almost unrecognisable pulp, the only thing intact being the silver monogram plate. The horse had managed to extract the contents, not a vestige of which could be found. They included a cheque, a money-order, and several notes. The- farmer may recover the value of the cheque and the money-order, but he looks upon the notes as a dead loss The only business at the quarterly sitting of the Hutt Licensing Committee to-day was the transfer of the license of the Provincial Hotel, Upper Hutt, from Mr. C. H. Williams, now of Barrett's Hotel, to Mr. Alex. Armstrong, late chief gaoler at Wellington. Tenders are invited' by the Westport Harbour Board for the supply of ironbavk timber jmd pita*