LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 30, 4 August 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Cabinet lias approved a grant for a special school for the soldier settlement at Otawhao, near Takapau.

The Hutt River Board; at last eveft ing's meeting, struck its rates for 1921----22. It was decided not to increase the general rate, except that; the rate is to be made uniform all over the district. This will mean a slight increase in some districts. A rate was struck to meet the interest on the recent £9090 loan of 9-80 th of a penny in the £1 on Class A, 5-80 th of a penny on Class B, and 2-80ths of a penny on Class C.

With a view, tp inaugurating the Nelson System of\r?ligipus and moral instruction in the Island Bay School, clengy of the district asked leave to circularise householders^ —through the school—at the. last, monthly meeting of the Island Bay School Committee. After a full dispussiqn it was resolved by the committee: "That this committee has no objection to the local clergy taking a referendum of the householders- on .the question of inaugurating, in^ the Island Bay School, the Nelson System." Considerable . was expressed that for many years no application had. been received from a-ny of the local clergy asking for tho use of the buildings for the purpose of giving religious instruction, either before or'after'school hours, i "' '

Until recently the Belgian Government did not allow'frozen meat into its country, unless the internal organs were included in the carcaaes. Certain South American firms, however, were exempted from this restriction,, having provedl, to the^ satisfaction of "the Belgian authorities, that the killing ajid freezing were carried on under strict sanitary conditions. On his recent visit, to 'Belgium. (says The Post's London correspondent) Mr. A.- Crabb, Now Zealand produce officer in London, brought the matter of New Zealand meat before' the Belgian Government officials, and they were willing to allow it to enter the country without the harassing restriction, if jt could be shown that the conditions of freezing in the Dominion were in 'accordance with their requirements. Satisfactory information was available; and the Belgian Government have now j made known their decision .to allow New iZealand niea-t. to enter the country without internal organs. The importance of this arrangem-.-rf. may be felt at'a later date.

Some time, ago (the London correspondent of The Post writes) an amount of money was subscribed by certain people and organisations in New Zealand for the benefit of children, crippled or injured ,in' the air 1 raids in Great Britain. Of these funds there is atill £606' undistributed. 'The High Commissioner has been making inquiries, and finds that there is one home at Chailey, Sussex, where children,' still suffering from the effects of the airraids, are being cared ' for. He paid'a visit to tln3 home, and saw the work that 'is being done there. Although a sad experience,., it was an interesting one, and lie ' was thoroughly satisfied that the money still available could not be devoted to any worthier object than the assistance of these crippled children,- Many of them were cripples before the actual raids, but owing to their • condition • they were unable to be rescued by their parents at - the crucial moment, and.have suffered serious shock to their, constitutions. Among pleasant surroundings, ,the' boys and ;|h'ls :*:e being gradually restored to comparative health and strength.

In giving informal judgment upon the points of law raised for the d-efence in the case for John Swinson, advertising ■contractor, who was ijharged afe the Supreme Court yesterday with having manufactured a photographic negative capable of reproducing a resemblance of a £5 Bank of New Zealand note^ his Honour. Air. Justice Reed held that there was not, as had been submitted, lawful excuse for the making of the plate, though the Crown did not suggest that in making the negative or the prints, which were used solely for the purpose of advertising the tour.of the South Africans, gwinson'had acted with any dishonest intent. It was to be considered, however, tfesA though a person might act in.' thorough good: faith in making such a negative or plate, his action might become the means whereby some unscrupulous person would be enabled to commit the greater offence. In. view of all the circumstanices .of Swinson's action, and its obvious bopa fides, however, he thought that the case might very well be dealt with under Section 18 (1) of the Offenders' Frobation Act, which section gave the Court power to discharge, within its discretion, an 'accused 1 person at any stage of liis trial,' either before or after a verdict was given, the discharge to have the full effect of an acquittal! Swinson then left the dock.

Inebriates formed the chief constituent* of the charge-sheet at the Magistrate's Court this morning. Timothy Driscoll was ordered to forfeit the amount of his bail, £1, and Alexander JM'lntyra was fined 10s, in default 48 hours' detention. One first- offender, who dad not put in an appearance, had his bail, 10s, estreated,; two others were fined ss, in default 24 hours' imprisonment; and another, was remanded for a week's medical treatment, in order to recover from the "glrid" feeling.

A ballot for the election of officers of the Wellington Working ' Men's Club^was held yesterday. Following are the results:—President, Mr. A... E. Ballard (unopposed); vice-president, Air. F. J. Menardj trustee, Mr. J. G. Bruce; treasurer, Mr. T. Pressley (unopposed); committee, Messrs. J. K. Leys, T. Holt, A. Craig, F. Curtice, J. Kent, Q. Jones, G. goward, L. Hennessey ; auditors, Messrs, 1^ J. "Barnes and H. Douglas. The returning officers were Messrs. George GirUng-Buteher and F. Cook. . ' . _

A packed and enthusiastic meeting was'held at Dunedin. last night, when an address was delivered by Professor Pringle, of the Otago ■University, who read the following cable from Lord Robert Cecil:—"The support of world public is the league's greatest need. 1 welcome the formation of a New Zealand League of Nations' Union." At the close of an eloquent and ppwei-fully convincing address, the meeting heartily agreed to form a branch of" the League of Nations' Union, and set up a strong representative. cpmmittee to give effect to the resolution.

The. bread most commonly used in Dunedin was somewhat severely criticised by Professor Strong in the course of the lecture that she gave to the Otago Women Citizens' Association on "The Art of Spending. ■' She declared that it is wet and soggy, and' not- sufficiently baked to c]ry the moisture out of it. "You have a law," she said, "requiring the bread to. be up to. a certain standard weight, and the weight is made up with water." She explained why when the bread, is maisj;' it is much riip,re difficult to digest than when' it crumbles as it should. H« reference to thp extreme difficulty of getting brown bread in Dunedin was somewhat discounted by the testimony' of a lady later on, who said that she had constantly used it for many years, and that her baker assured her brown bread^as always to be hadi for' the asking,,^ N

To that wildly enthusiastic person who talks football, reads football, thinks football and dreams football, there is nothing much else worth really serious consideration just now. To him who dislikes the very sound of. the word footr ball, anything but football is preferable as a food for thought. They are both wrong. A polite little Auckland girl takes the same view of the importance of Bugby tests, for she judges tliem in relation to other quite important fixtures, and so has written to t.he man? ager of the Springboks : "Will you please put off'th e big Auckland-match till the next Saturday, for my tenth birthday comes on the 27th August. I do not want to disappoint the little girls I! have invited to the party, and I'd© want to see ypu play." Not a veiy big thing, to . ask, after all, but possibly % will, be well for the small girl to postpone her party. . .

"We should not mind if the'noise were intelligent," says an editorial ■in the magazine of the Victoria University College Students' Association, in discussing interruptions at University gatherings.' "Universities exist for the cultivation of intelligence, and manifestations of»it at public meetings • would be at least encouraging. Besides, a. person who comes tp_ hear a speaker or musician does not mind being entertained equally well by someone else. Yet—the statement cannot be refuted'—the interjections during tho last few years have not betrayed the slightest modienni of intelligence. We believe that this is, due to the fact that students with any intelligence have more self-respect than to interrupt. There has been nothing more than a confused babble of tongues—student shouting to his'neighbour with an entire disregard! for all his other neighbours, interspersed at times with a senseless and incoherent concerted movement."/

A mysterious power of communication over long distances is possessed by the Central African natives, but white men have not yet learned the secret. In referring to this at Auckland in a lecture on his big game hunting, Mr. H. H. Ostler stated that on one occasion his mate had left the line of march to hunt, he remaining with the baggage porters. Five rifle shots were,heard from a distance of about two miles,, and within half a minute one of the porters communicated through another, who had a smattering of English, that two antelopes of a particular kind had been killed. This proved to- be the truth. It was quite impossible for a voice to carry over the distance, and it could only be surmised that the natives had some power of telepathy. Other instances of the same kind were encountered on the trip. ■ . '

How an African native purchased a wife for the leg of a hippopotamus was related by Mr. H. H. Ostler in a •lecture' at Auckland. This native bore the name.of Andrew, and was a splendid copk> haying been taught the art at a mission station, where ho also learned that to have more than one wife would debar him from belonging to the Christian Church. On the journey a hippopotamus was short, and according to custom the meat was divided among, the bearers. Andrew demanded a whole leg. When asked why he wanted so much, he said he was'^hungry, although he had received several hundredweight of meat already. He was given the whole leg; and soon after'had procured a second wife, who ran.away within a month, .but later returned to the husband, who received some knowledge of "The Taming of the Shrew" from the hunter, and eventually was received with open arms by the original wife.

The; duties of school teachers in regard to' certain skin diseases among children were referred to at a meeting of the Auckland Education- Board on Tuesday, when it ' was reported that a teacher in the North Auckland district had refused to take the responsibility of examining the children in his school and excluding any who might, be suffering from any of the diseases mentioned. The secretary of the board, Mr. E. C. Purdie, said that under the regulations gazetted the Department threw on the teachers the responsibility of excluding any children affected with diseases such as scabies. The opinion was expressed by members that if a teacher were to attempt to exclude certain children he was simply ' "looking for trouble." It was unreasonable that the teacher in question—a young man—should be placed in the position of a medical practitioner and expected to diagnose diseases of which he might have no experience. It was decided to ask that one of the medical officers of the Department should visit the school, and failing that, that arrangements be made with, a local doctor to do so.