LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A suggestion Sas been made that the two Union Jacks flown by H.M.S. New ZeaJand in her North Sea fights and now stowed away in the Dominion Museum, and perhaps the battleship's bell, should figure prominently during the Prince's visit to. Wellington. Many people do not jenow that the silk dags are in the Museum and very few have had an opportunity to see them. The children, it is remarked, especially would welcome such an opportunity. The ship's bell might be used as a signal bell when the children are massed in the Parliamentary grounds, and as children are given to hero worship it is certain that the sounding of the New Zealand's bell would impress them more than the blowing of a-ny amount of whistles.

The Postal authorities advise that the mails which left New Zealand on the 9th March arrived in London on the 12th instant.

A Levin poultry farmer claims to have made £39 for eggs.daring the past two weeks by selling in the Wellington market, where eggs reached to 46.

It is understood that the Central Progress- Lea.gue ■ have arranged to wait on the Prime Minister at an early date in connection with housing, the new railway station, the National Museum, the coal queue, and other matters.

A motion that steps- should be- taken to have the Wanganui River locked and dammed for-the.dual purpose of improving the navigation and providing hydroelectric energy, will be discussed by the Wanganui River Trust this week.

There^is an acute shortage of coal in Wanganui (states the Wanganui Chronicle). Supplies for domestic purposes are short, while the outlook, as far as industries is ■ concerned, is disquieting. Several of the dairy companies in the district are finding difficulty in getting sufficient fuel to carry on their work.

Tho "Victoria College Council will, at" its meetmg next Wednesday, deal with a mntionby Mr. R. M'Callum, M.P., to congratulate Otago University on., .its jubilee celebrations, and also to express the council's high appreciation of the great record of good work in the pioneering direction so ably performed by the early Otago settlers, including Sir Jamos Macandrew, Dr. Biimfi. Sir Robert Stout, and many others.

Keen interest is being displayed among members of the Wellington' Returned Soldieta' Association in the. forthcoming election of a chairman to succeed Mr.' J. D. Harper, who is-retiring. The rival candidates are Mr. A. B. Sievwright and Mr. W. -Perry, .and it is expected that both sides will muster their full strength, at the annual meeting on Thursday, the 29th inst.. at which the election will take place. >■

Mr. David Dingwall, of St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, R«muera, Auckland,) has had 51 years' unbroken service as a Sunday school teacher. For the past 42 years he has walked to church three times a da,y, his home being a mile away, and he has only been absent from communion twice during thai long period. It is proposed to obtain for ,him the Presbyterian General Assembly's long service, diploma.

One Melbourne man has discovered <i, way of getting a high price for his goods' ■without laying himself open to a charge of profiteering (says Sydney Bulletin). Having become possessed of a number of bricks that he had no immediate use for, he notified builders of a sale by auction. The goods cost him £3 5s a thousand, and builders are so hard-pressed that he sold the lot at from £4 to £5 12s 6d. It was fair trading. The buyers fixed their own prices.

During March there .was an increase of 129 in the membership of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. Dnring January and February the increase was 125, making a total increase of 254 for the first three months of the year. The Railway Review sees a stirring of the conscience among railway non-union-ists. "Big membership just now and complete solidarity," says the Review, "will prodvice results the benefit of which will not disappear while the present generation of railwaymen are on the job."

Since the beginning of the war bo tween 300 and 400 buildings in Waihi, mostly dwellings, have been sold for removal, the most recent sales being in many instances at prices in excess of the original cost of erection years, ago. Sound dwellings of from five te six rooms have lately bean selling at from £350 to €425, to buyers ;w ho will transfer them elsewhere, and more roomy kauri houses have sold up to £500, with a Still unsatisfied demand.

The president of the Hataitai Horticultural Society, when opening the Autumn Show«on Saturday, advised all to take up the hobby of gardening, as, by working in the open amongst the wonderful works of nature;, and tending the young growth, one could not help being improved morally and physically, and in citizenship. All parents, he said, should encourage their children to have little plots, and shoujd the love of flowers and gardening, thus creating a more healthy and beautiful atmosphere, not only in the garden, but in the home. .

Reconstruction of the policy of Victoria College Council in regard to the status and appointments of assistants to professors is the subject of a. motion to be brought before the next meeting by Mr. £. K. Lomas, \\vho proposes as a beginning that an' assistant shall be appointed to each of the professors in | chemistry, biology, and physics at a salary of- at least £400 a year. The qualifications suggested are that assistants should be graduates with teaching I experience in the schools, preferably secondary school teachers, able to assist I tho professors in the teaching work oi» the University. If finance permits, the 1 same policy should be introduced with regard to professors', assistants in such j subjects as are generally taught in the schools. Mi. Lomas will also move: "That Mr. J. S. Tennant, M.A., B.Sc., Lecturer in Education, be given" the-title and status of Professor of Education, in view of the increasing importance and scope of his work, and that the council ' increase his emolument so that his total' salary be equivalent to that of a professor, viz., £800 rising to £900, this amount to ■ include his salary as v head of the Training College."

The story of how a man defrauded the Farmers' Union Trading Company of

"•6 10s by means of valueless cheques was related in the Auckland Police Court last week. Two charges of false pretence* were preferred against Robert John Watkins, who had eight aliases. Evidence wvs given that the accused, saying he was a, farmer near Baetihi, called at the company's office in, August last, and ordered a milking machine plant and other farm machinery,' of a total value of

Att. Ha. wrote but a, cheque for £100 on a batik at Tauiuarunui, aiid requested that £68 10s be deducted as deposit on his purchases. He was given £31 10s change. The cheque was,« returned marked "not sufficient funds." The company recovered possession of the machinery from the Railway Department, through which it had been consigned to Raetihi. The same 'lay that he "purchased" the machinery the accused invested £5 ia the stock ■ ot the company. He tendered a cheque for £10 to pay for the shares, and was given £6 change. The accused pleaded guilty to^ both oharge», and w»& committed to th« Supreme Court for wnteace.