MIRAMAR AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 41, 16 August 1918, Page 2

MIRAMAR AFFAIRS

MEETING OF BOROUGH

COUNCIL.

The Mayor (Mr. F. Townsend) presided over a meeting of the Miramar Borough Council last evening. There were also present Councillors M. Tracy, W. 11. Green, C. H. Chapman, and D. K. Robertshaw.

A letter was received from the Department of Internal - Affairs, stating that at a recent conference of fire brigades a motion had been passed classing oxygen and ammonia cylinders as dangerous goods, and that the position of such articles on premises should be made known to fire brigades. The •council was asked to take action. —The letter was received.

An application by Mr. A. H. Mitchell for permission to erect a building on the foreshore of Evans Bay was refused.

The Town Clerk of Napier wrote stating that on the Hth July three resolutions had been passed by his borough council, urging upon the Government the immediate need for taking drastic steps in relation to the internment of enemy aliens. Those resolutions had been submitted to the Government, but the reply received was not considered satisfactory. In view of this, the Napier Borough Council asked the support of the Miramar Council, -which was given. ' '

Here is an eloquent, tribute to the Maori by Mr. Elsdon Best in the American Geographical Review :—"Long centuries before Columbus and his timid crews crept fearfully across the Western Ocean, the Polynesian was making voyages of thousands of miles in rude vessels on seas unknown to Europeans. He did not waste time nor weaken his resolution by fearing unseen dangers, or by whining to his gods to keep him from falling over the edge of the world, for he firmly believed his gods to be on his 6ide and "ever upholding him. Gripping his long steering-oar and trimming his lofty sails, he threw the racing leagues astern and boldly sailed down into unknown seas in search of adventure or a new home. Ignorant of the compass and of charts, he held his prow on the heavenly bodies or followed the regular roll of the waves before the trade winds. From the far-flung Carolines to the lone outpost of Easter Island, from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south, across seven thousand miles of the ocean the Polynesian lifted the rolling watertrains of the Pacific. Ever yielding to the lure of Hine-moana, urged on by the spirit of adventure, he drove his long boat across many lines of longitude, through many degrees of the thermal lino."

Forestry is apparently receiving more attention in New South Wales than in New Zealand. The New South Wales Forestry Commission is publishing a quarterly journal. The Minister of Lands and Forests remarks in the first issue : "The Forestry Journal is not intended to be a technical publication, burdened with highly scholastic articles and bristling with the phraseology of 9cience, which is little understood by others than the scientists. On the con trary, it is intended to be understandable by all people; to be instructive to 'the man in the street' no less than informative and interesting to those for whom forestry is a profession and a business. Briefly, the idea is to put before the public periodical bulletins of notes and news which shall cause those who read to vocognise that forestry is worth while —that trees are deserving of attention, care, and respect." :