Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 4, 5 July 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL,

The Postal authorities advise that the s.s Moana, which left Sydney on aSturday, is bringing an Australian mail. She is due to arrive here to-morrow morning. The Powelka Petition Committee denies that any person had been engaged to canvass for signatures. The work was being done voluntarily. Members of the finance committee wonld be responsible, adds the committee, for all money received. The petition, it was stated, was meeting with success in outlying districts. Owing to the up-country rainfall there was a very large volume of water in the Hult River yesterday. At the Lower Hutt the guage-board registered a fresh of 4ft. There were nineteen rainy days in Otaki last month, the heaviest fall being on the 9th, when .89in was recordpd. The total for the month was 5.42 in, as compared with 5.02 foi; the month of June last year. When the Municipal Conference delegates were_ discussing the callousness of tho State in not paying rates for land taken and- used by it for workers' dwellings and other purposas, thus restricting progressive b jroughs in their honest endeavours to keep pace with the times, one delegate told how the Government had erected cottages for railway men and charged them rent, but paid no rates. He sat down; but rose quickly — he had remembered the silver lining — and told his brother delegates, in almost gleeful tones, "But we charge it a good, stiff price for the water, though." And the delegates rejoiced. '"This gives the association some liope, but not much" was the presidential comment on a letter received from the Mm- | ister of Internal Affairs, acknowledging receipt of copi63 of thirteen Bills prepared by the secretary to the Municipal Association, embodying resolutions passed at previous conferences, and asking for legislative effect to be given them. The Minister stated that the suggestions were being considered in connection with the Government's new Municipal Corporations Bill. The amendments suggested to other Acts would be considered when Bills to amend tho3© Acts were being dealt with. Merchants and shippers should find the new publication, '•Shipping and Commerce," a most useful work to have at hand. It contains export statistics for 1909-10 of wool, meat, dairy produce, cereals, hemp, tallow, hideß and skins ; also statistics relating to imports, and a list of shipping on the New Zealand registry. Well written articles, fully illustrated, on such interesting subjects as shipbuilding, engineering, agriculture, wool-growing, and stock-raising in New Zealand find a place in the publication. A description of the chief ports will be found most interesting by navigators and others concerned. Illustrated articles on the chief cities and towns of the Dominion will perhaps have a wider interest than the references made to the ports. A list of coastal lighthouses is also given. The whole work should become the shipper and merchants vade mecum, for it appears to contain almost all that they may wish to know about the trade, ports, cities, and towns, shipping and industries of the country. The work is published by the Now Zealand Shipping Gazette Printing and Publishing Co. Recommendation of the title of "AldeTman" for each civic chairman of committees in cities and! boroughs having a population of not less than 30,000, was sought at th© Municipal Conference yesterday. This did not meet with- the approval of tne representatives of the smaller towns, and the pertinent query, why restrict the limit to 30,000 was put. Why not 10,000 was asked, followed by a voice demanding why not 6000? An amendment to reduce the limit to 10,000 was put and lost, and then a storm of "noes" killed 1 the original motion. One part of the Governor's Speech likely to give much satisfaction, especially in the remote and newly-settled parts of the Dominion, is the promise of assistance to families in maternity cases. For years there has been not only suffering and hardship, but occasionally loss of life owing to the difficulty of securing competent nursing in the back-blacks. Mr. Hogg, M.P., says that when he visited Whangamomona some time ago he was waited upon by a number of workers, who represented that they were in a serious dilemma. In one or two instances their wives were nsaring their confinement, and no certificated nurse or medical man was to be found nearer than Stratford, between thirty and forty miles distant. "What are we to do?" they asked. "If we employ an uncertificated nurse, we are breaking the law, and if we get a nurse and doctor from Stratford, or send our wives there to be nursed, the cost is between £30 and £40. That is an expense we are quite unable to meet." Between Whangamomona and Ongarue, all along the Ohura Mainroad, there were settlements with families placed in a similar position. Nearer Wellington, in the Eketahuna and Pahiatua district, a similar state of things has long prevailed. Not a few lives have been lost owing to the difficulty of securing prompt medical aid in cases of sickness, or tlie reluctance of settlers to incur an expense that was almost ruinous. In maternity cases particularly the position of families has often been truly deplorable, added Mr. Hogg, and the assistance promised from the State will be widely welcomed. The greatest sympathy is felt for Mrs. Baume, whose visit to Europe has had such an untimely conclusion {writes our London correspondent). As will j already be known 'in New Zealand, Mr. F. E. Baume passed away at Bad Nauheim in Germany on Saturday, 14th May, and although he had been unwell, and, in fact, had 'eft New Zealand for a complete rest, yet the end came with startling suddenness. On Friday, 13th May, Mr. Baumc was particularly cheerful, and a fatal termination to his illness was not for a minute contemplated. The end came with dramatic suddenness. At a quarter to 5 on Saturday morning Mrs. Baume asked her husband how he was feeling. He replied : "I am feeling much better." Something in the tone of tho voice probably attracted the attention of the nurse, who was in the room. She came to the bedside at once and discovered that life had passed away. The many friends of the deceased gentleman will be relieved to hear that the, end was so peaceful. Fortunately for Mrs. Baume, the German authorities were most kind, and the body was conveyed to London, whence it will be sent to New Zealand for interment at Auckland. Mrs. Baume had to make all necessary arrangements, and has been for the last fortnight in London, where she has been greatly cheered by the many messages of condolence and sympathy received from New Zealanders. Sir Joseph Ward sent a cajale message expressing his deep sorrow, and the University of New Zealand and the New Zealand Law Society also cabled, while among New Zealanders in London Mrs. Baume's bereavement has called forth universal sympathy. Mrs. Baume leaves for New Zealand to-day by the s.s. Tainui. To-morrow being tho first Wednesday in the month, there will be the usual clearance of remnants. Practically halfprice. — Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd. — AdvU