FIRES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18, 23 January 1911, Page 2

FIRES.

NINE-BOOMED HOUSE DESTROYED. [BY TELEGRAPH — PRESS ASSOCIATION .1 CHRISTCHURCH, 22nd Tan.' By a fire which occurred shortly before 11 o'clock last night, a nine-roomed house on Idris road, Fendalton, was totally destroyed. The property belonged to Mr. Crater, who is understood to be residing at Queenstown. It is not known how the fire originated, iixd the insurances, if any, are not available. A FATALITY. TAUPO, 22nd January. On Saturday morning the mail driver from Taupo, when passing Cookson's stables, about sixteen miles away, discovered the remains of a whare occupied by the ostler, named Gordon, smouldering. On close investigation he found a portion of Gordon's body, charred to a cinder. It is supposed that Gordon, whilo feeding his horses in the early morning, noticed his whare on fire, and, making in to save his effects, was overcome by the smoke and perished. "' The deceased, it is believed, belonga to Wanganui. Surmount, an aged bay 'gelding by Conqueror— Waiwhera, and owned by! Mr. H. D. Vavasour, Blenheim, was burnt to death in his box at the Provincial Stables at Upper Hutt on Saturday. Another inmate, Zealand, who proved a winner at • Trentham during the afternoon, was fortunately absent, at the time of the conflagration. Surmount was brought to Wellington to compete in the Disposal Stakes and tha belling Plate at the summer meeting. VOICE OF LABOUR. — «. __ PROBLEMS IN INDUSTRY. MR. HODGE ON SOCIAL REFORM. Under the auspices of the Wellington -trades and Labour Council, Mr. J. Hodge, Labour M.P. for the Gorton Division of Lancashire, addressed a large audience in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last evening. Mr. E. J. Caray, president of the Labour Council, occupied the chair. Mr. Hodge, who met with a very cordial welcome, in a lucid speech, described the growth of trades unionism and the Labour movement in England in its political aspect. It was the tyranny oi' capital and .he selfishness of the ruling classes that had given rise to the Labour movement out of trades unionism, and the political representation of Labour in Parliament. The Taffvale judgment had hardened up the working classes. In 1906 the Labour party increased its representation, and by the last election had forty- three members in the House o£ Commons. What the party wanted was adult suffrage j then they would make things "hum." The franchise sought by Mrs. Pankhurst and the suffragettes was limited, and Labour wanted the whole or nothing. The aims and objects of the Labour parly might be summed up in one phase, "work tor the workless and help for the helpless." To do real work the party wanted 430 instead of 43 in the House. The unemployed problem became worse and worse. They had scientific production, but not scientific distribution. It was because of the rotten system which had been built up by peoplo who lived upon the back of labour. \i\Wey could 'be found in millious to fight the evils of swine fever, in millions to destroy life in South Africa, in millions for State pageantry ; but a paltry £200,000 was all that could be spared to solve the unemployment problem. So far as the German working men were concerned, they had no more desire to murder and steal than the English working men. To combat, the ex parte statements of the Daily Mail and Daily Express, the Labour party had sent working men to tha industrial towns of Germany to make it known to the workers there that 'they looked eye to eye, and were working hand and heart in the same cause ; to let them know ,hat the evils they suifered from were the evils the voritcvs in England suffered from ; and 'to say that wars were never -made by peoples, but by politicians. (Applause). Mr. Hodgo was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address. MEN'S BROTHERHOOD. On Sunday afternoon Mr. Hodge addressed a gathering of the Wellington Men's Brotherhood at the Druids 1 Hall, on the aims and objects of the Brotherhood, and the relations of the Church with Labour. The Rev. E. O. Blamires presided. Mr. Hodge, taking his text, from the Book of Numbers, declared it was bad for individuals, as for nations, to get things done too easily for them, and that in striving for the attainment of high ideals men themselves became stronger. The Brotherhood movement had arisen from the fact that people regarded it as bringing back to the churches a lost ideal. The churches had uot been taking all the interest it behoved them to do in the eveiyday affairs of mankind. So the Brotherhood in the Old Country dealt 'with drink, unemployment, sickness, and other social 'questions, and djd a great deal of good. The uprising of the Labour party had been the mentor of the churches, and it should be remembered that Christ, in His mission on earth, attended to the human as well as to the spiritual side of the affairs of his followers. On the motion of Mr. Kershaw tho speaker was accorded a hearty vole of thanks. CENTRAL MISSION. There was a large attendance at the King's Theatre last evening, when the Rev. E. O. Biamires, Central Mie-sicw. gave a most interesting address on tha reformation of a London plumber, ns told by Harold Begbie. Quoting the writer Mr, Blamires showed how religion was the one great hope of regeneration, the one single guarantee, as the whole of Tolstoy's work taught cf a noble posterity. Music.il selections were given by Miss Jones (Masterlon) and Mr. P. C.' Newton.