LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 54, 4 March 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In connection with repairs to the Pacifio cable the General Post Office received a wireless at 10 o'clock this morning from repairing steamer Iris to the effect that the weather is still too bad to permit of repairs being effected, and is getting worse. Higher wages are to be paid to men employed on the Mangahao hydro-electric works. Tho new rates, tho Minister of Public Works (Sir William Fraser) stated yesterday, would be 13s a day for men paid at shift rates, while, if the men would-accept contract work, the rates for the contracts would be computed on a basis of a daily wage of 14s. At the inquest concerning the death of the master of the steamer Invercargill,. Charles Thompson, no new facts were revealed, states a Press Association telegram from Wangahui. The Coroner returned a verdict of death by drowning by falling into the river. A sale is reported of premises belonging to the National Bank of New Zealand at the corner of Queen and Wyndhain streets, Auckland, to the Bank of Australasia. The purchase price is £122,500. The present building is of brick, in three stories, and has a frontage of 133 feet to Queen-street and 103 feet to Wyndham-street. At the quarterly meeting of the Christchurch Licensing Committee yesterday, Mr. M'Carthy, S.M., chairman, stated that the committee had asked him to state that several hotels were not keeping to the hours laid down. He directed the attention of tho police to this. "After hours trade has been . going on pretty freely," added Mr. M'Carthy. The Fire Brigade received a call a few minutes before 5 o'clock last evening to No. 203, Seatoun-road, Kilbirnie, a sixroomed one-story building owned and occupied by Mr. Peter Murphy. It was found that a shed adjoining the premises was ablaze, as a result of the spontaneous ignition of some oily cotton waste. The shed was rather badly damaged. Of the twenty-eight members of the A.M.P. stall whose names are shown on the Roll of Honour unveiled yesterday eight made the supreme sacrifice—C. O. Can 1, H. L. Naughton, W. Langford, E. L. Kelly, L. Smith, G-. C. Jessop, C. R. Walker, and O. S. Scott. Among those present at the unveiling ' ceremony yesterday was Mr. A. Jorgensen, representing the society's solicitors. At the Magistrate's Court this morning Mr. I£. Page, S.M., was called upon to deal with eight inebriates, of whom six were first offenders. Two of the latter who failed to put in an appearance were fined the amount of bail, three were fined ss, in default twenty-four hours' imprisonment, and the remaining first offender, an old man, 76 years of age, was convicted and discharged. A local in Saturday night's Post stated that a large log, dangerous to shipping, had been sighted one mile east-south-east of Tory Channel by. Captain Sewell, of the Pateena, who had reported th« matter to tho harbourmaster at Picton. The Hinemoa, during her trip to the Cook Strait lighthouses on Monday, saw what was no doubt the same log, which had drifted north as far as The Brothers light. After a good deal of trouble the log was hoisted on board and brought to Wellington. It measured 34ft in length, and was about a foot in diameter. Honey crop prospects in the Wellington district are thus dealt with in the official report received by th« Horticultural Division of the Department of Agriculture:—"ln the districts where honey lias been secured, extracting is now in operation. The great variation in the climatic conditions over the North Island during the last few months has been responsible foi patchy crops. Poverty Bay records a dead failure, and Hawkes Bay is apparently very little better; Manawatu. very good so far; as is also the lowei Wairarapa; Taranaki, very fair. Honey is offering at the apiary at" prices approximately Is per Ib. Beeswax is scarce." While being arrested for drunkenness yesterday two persons—Joseph Keys and William Fieher—marie use of obscene ■language, and their action was brought under the notice of Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day. In regard to Joseph Keys, Sub-Inspector Emerson 6tated that it was not a bad case, and on the. charge of using obscene language a fine of £1 was imposed, in default three days' imprisonment. For drunkenness Keys wa6 fined Ss, with the usual alternative. While William Fisher could not deny the charge preferred against him, he stated, through Mr. P. W. Jackson, that he knew nothing of the occurrence. For use of the language he was fined £3, in default seven days' imprisonment, and for drunkenness he was ordered to pay 5s or go to gaol for' 24 hours. Mr., D. G. Sullivan, M.P., secretary of the Canterbury Members of Parliament Committee, has sent the following telegram to the Hon. J. G. Coates,.the new Minister of Public Works :—"The Canterbury Members of Parliament Committee congratulates you on your appointment as Minister of Public Works. We trust you will give Canterbury matters a just share of your attention. We specially commend to your notice, in the national as well as in tho ■provincial interest, tlie urgency there exists of completing tlie East and West Coast railways. This work Jias proceeded at too slow "a pace, and tlie Dominion is losing AJIGQO a week interest on money expended, which is not yet revenue-pro-ducinp- We look to you in accelerate the completion of the work." '

For the purpose of repatriating a number of German Methodist missionaries and ; missionary sisters working at New Britain, the Methodist conference at Auckland yesterday approved, without discussion, of the inclusion of £1500 in the year's financial estimates. Mr. F. Meadowcroft presided at a meeting of the Society fox 1 the prevention of Cruelty to Animals, tKis week. The inspector's report dealt with nine cases of cruelty, three of which, it was stated, were serious enough to warrantprosecutions. Subscriptions received amounted to £8 0s 6d. Tim Hutt River Board has had several enlargements made of a photograph talc en by. Mr. Allen, of the Hutt River in flood in May, 19i3. One of these has been presented to the Borough Council, to be hung in the library, another is to b© presented to the chairman (Mr. Baldwin), and the third is to be hung in the office of the board. The photo, which was taken from the neighbouring hills, shows Melling Bridge, and the surrounding country under water. A largely attended meeting of orchardists was held at Tasman yesterday (reports the Press Association) to consider what should be done in view of the cancellation by the Fruitgrowers' Federation of the intended apple' shipment by the Port Caroline. The orchardists in the Nelson district had contributed 6500 cases towards the shipment. .It was <tecided to sell this fruit in New. Zealand, and to endeavour to send a double shipment by the Athenic on 27th March. At the Methodist Conference (sitting at Auckland) a motion that New Zealand contribute £10,750 towards the funds of the Australasian mission was carried unanimously. The need for more workers was emphasised in the report of the Foreign Missions Committee, which stated that no minister had been sent out by the Methodist Conference for missionary work during the year. There were many indications that the chief difficulty in connection with the foreign field would not be finance, but workers. There was a pleasant function at the Mental Hospital, Porirua, , on Friday last, on the occasion of the retirement of the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Hassell, after 32/ years of service with the Department. In the presence of a large attendance of administrative and nursing staff, Dr. Prins, the senior* medical officer, presented Dr. Hassell . with a handsome travelling rug and a case of pipes, Mrs. Hassell with a Buskin jar, and Mis» Davies with a hunting crop. Dr. Hassell made a feeling reply. "It is only very young constables who ever arrest drunks after midnight, because they know that they will have to turn out of bed next morning to appear in the Court against them," said Mr. Wilford at Petone this week, and then proceeded to tell the story of a constable who -found a "drunk" in a recess near the end of liis beat on a Wellington street, and quietly moved him round the comer into a similar recess in his mate's •beat. To his surprise, however, he found on his next round that the "drunk was back in his original place, because his mate was struck with the same happy solution of the difficulty. It is seldom that motorists are successful in defending cases taken by the Lower Hutt Borough Council against offenders of the speed limit by law., but at the local Court yesterday Mr. Perry, on behalf of Percival M'Leod, succeeded in convincing the Magistrate that there was an element of doubt as to the right car being located, and the case was dismissed. Mr. Page, S.M., refused to allow costs against the council, as it was a public body performing a valuable public service. Mr. E. P. Bunny protested at the Lower Hutt Court yesterday, because of the non^service of several summonses. It was contended that ample time had been. given for the service, and that in two j cases the defendants were to be easily found. In ,one case Mr. Bunny asked that the case should be struck out, and reopened at the Wellington Court, as his client could not wait, and another case was adjourned till the May sitting of the Court. The Magistrate, Mr. E. Page, requested the Clerk of the Court to obtain an explanation from the officer responsible. The old-time belief that everything must make way for His Majesty's mails has no longer any significance, at any rate in New Zealand (says the Dunedin Star). The announcement that "the ferry steamer connected with the first express" might naturally be taken as an assurance that North Island correspondence would reach Dunedin by that train. This, however, is far from being the case, for it has become a common practice for passengers and their lubguge (heavy or light) to make a.comfortable transfer while the mails are left behind, and sent on in leisurely fashion by the next train. It is difficult to understand why this should be so, especially when it means not only an annoying delay in the delivery of business correspondence, but unnecessary overtime work by a large number of post office officials at this end. In addition to this, mails for the south are held up in Dunedin for the night, thus causing still further inconvenience to Southern business men. It would be interesting fo know where the fault really lies, and whether it would not be possible to eradicate the go-slow policy which must be in vogue somewhere. A remit that the Government be requested to give effect to certain resolutions passed at the conference held in October, 1918, was carried at the conference of Chambers of Commerce yesterday. The resolutions : (1) Urged the Government to amend the Finance Act, with a view to applying to all incomes (without restriction as to amount or return) derived from capital invested in registered undertakings a like measure of graduation in taxation,as is already permissible in the case of income drawn from similar undertakings not so registered; (2) recommended the Government to appoint a Royal Commission or arrange for a conference to inquire into the proper principles and incidence of all taxation in New Zealand; (3) suggested amendments to the land and Income Tax Act, 1916; (4) urged that all profitearning departments of the State and local authorities should be made liable for taxation; "The question of accommodation loomed largely throughout the tour of the New South Wales State Orchestra as an outstanding difficulty, and in this connection I am forced to the conclusion that the Government should take some action with regard to the licensing of what are known as private boardinghouses or private hotels," said Mr. Gladstone Hill, at a meeting of the Central Committee yesterday. "I am not making this statement merely as the result of the recent tour, but as one who has travelled extensively throughout the Dominion for the last twenty years. We have in New Zealand private boardinghouses and hotels that are the equal of any licensed house in the country, but, unfortunately, we have a large number that are on a very different basis, and I have in my mind some which should not be idlowed to be used for accommodation in their present'unsatisfactory and oftentimes insanitary state."