LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In a return tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday to the order of Mr. W. A. Veitch (Wanganui), particulars were given of the agreement with Mr. Evan Parry to act as adviser to the New Zealand Government upon hydroelectrical questions. Mr. Parry was retained at a fee of £105 per annum to advise _ the New Zealand Government from time to time upon (Questions connected with the country's power schemes. As his company was interested in th« Otira' tunnel electrification contract he was not consulted on that question, and he was advised that the retaining fee would not be paid while that contract was in progress.

Statements have been made recently by the secretary of the Fishermen's Association as to the difference between'the prices obtained by fishermen for their catches and the retail prices charged to the general public. In the House of Representatives Mr. G. Mitchell (Wei-, lington South) has given notice to ask the Minister of Industries and Commerce if he will investigate the statements, and if necessary take steps to protect the public.

Having regard to the fact that red deer are, by eating out all undergrowth and ring-barking the tTees, threatening to destroy much- of the reserved forest throughout the Dominion, Mr. W. H. Field (Otaki) is asking if the Government will provide every facility for the killing of these animals when they are found to be committing such carnage and destruction. *

An instance of the .wid* difference which sometimes exkte between the rateable and market values of pi-opes.y was given at a recent meeting of the One Tree Hall Road Board. The chairman stated that a certain property in the •district, which was valued at £1260 for rating purposes, had just been sold for £300. Yet some people, he added, complained! about the valuation being too high. "Woodman, spare that tree," would be an appropriate motto for the moment in Masterton, judging by an episode which has occurred in connection with the provision of a war memorial. A tree stands on the proposed site, and there has been much discussion as to its right to remain. A meeting was* held a few months ago, when the matter was put to the vote. A show of hands was taken, and aliout thirty! people voted for'the cutting down of the tree. The "Noes' 1 easily established a ten-to-one majority

An appeal has been made by the Lord Mayor of London to the High Commissioner for New Zealand for monetary assistance from the Dominion for the London hospitals, in view of their stringent financial position, which has "been mainly caused' by the heavy strain of the late war. The Mayor (Mr. B. A. Wright) announces that the Government has requested him to open a fund in Wellington, and all contributions will be sent Home without charge. The Mayor states that he will be glad to receive donations for this very worthy object. •

An emphatic protest against the use of floating fendera on ships at the wharves, in connection with the plague precautions, was mad« a few dftye ago by the* Auckland Harbour Board, and it was, decided to interview the Minister of Hlalth on the matter at the first opportunity. A claim for damage done to wharves by log fenders had been made by the board against the Department of Health, which refused, to adroit any liability, and the board's solicitors stated no claim could be established against the Government. The board expressed its regret at the Department's decision not to meet the claim.

. The Dorset is to load meat from the Hicks \Bay freezing works, shortly,. states the "Gisborne Times." She will be the first overseas steamer to lift produce from Hicks Bay since the Kumava paid a visit to the bay early in last season. The difficulties attending the Kutnara's loading were such that it was determined that the works would do no further killing until the proposed new wharf was completed. The first section of the new wharf has been finished, and the opportunity is being taken to clear the works, the shipping conditions having been restored to a' level with those which obtained when the Kumara loaded. There has been no change in the decision regarding the resumption of killing at the works.

The key to a remarkable event of the war—the timely ordering out of the British fleet to meet the Germans off Jutland—was given the other night during the discussion of Captain Hooper's paper on wireless direction finding, read before the Philosophical Society. Mr. A. Gibbs, Assistant Telegraph Engineer, stated rthat the Admiralty had found that one type of apparatus gave directions within two degrees of accuracy from aircraft, and within quarter'of a" degree on the land, and with no perceptible error within a radius iof fifteen miles. He weiit on to say that Admiral Sir H. B. Jackson had stated before the Society of Electrical Engineers that the apparatus had played a most important part in the Battle of Jutland. One of the German ships, utilised as the wireless transmitting station, had been very carefully observed by British radio operators, and one day she was found to have changed her position by a degree and a half. This implied that the High Seas Fleet was on the move, and the British fleet was promptly ordered out.

A paragraph which appeared in "The Post on Monday, reprinted from an exchange, is criticised in a tetter from the secretary of the Wairarapa Patriotic Association. The report stated that at a meeting of the Mauriceville County Council, Councillor A. H. Colquhoun said that the funds of the association were wit on mortgage at 4 per cent. "I wish to give this assertion a flat contradiction, as no portion of the funds are so invesled. The association has on mortgage a sum of £23,00Q, bearing ■ interest- at .7 per cent, per annum, and £9582 at 5 per cent., the latter being on mortgage to the trustees of the soldiers' farms at Ahikouka, Greytown. Early in 1916, the Minister of Internal Affairs called on the association to invest its funds to the best, advantage to make them revenue producing, and this accounts for the sum above stated being out on mortgage. With regard to Councillor Colquhoun's query as to what has become of the association's funds, I wish to say that £64,497 has been advanced to soldiers, of which £38,120 is now outstanding, and a sum of £12,586 has been paid out in cash grants to soldiers and their dependents,"

A further proposal to establish salt works in the estuary at New Brighton was approved by the Lyttelton Harbour Board or> Wednesday. It is proposed •to increase the 200 acres leased to 300 acres. The salt is to be manufactured from sea water by means of natural evaporation. The people of Opotiki are agitating for the creation of a separate hospital district comprising the Opotiki borough and county, instead of the present one which embraces Whakatane. A Press Association message states that three delegates are leaving Opotiki to-day to give 'evidence before a Parliamentary Committee in support of a petition asking for the change. A Tauranga member of the Auckland Railway League states that he has been assured by the Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Public Works, that the construction of the Waihi to Katikati section of the East Coast Main Trunk railway line will be pushed on speedily, and completed by the end of December, 1923. The Secretary of the General Post Office reported to-day that a .railway! wagon, containing second-class mail matter, received at Auckland by the Makura,, was left behind by the express last night, owing to the breaking of coupling-gear. The express could not be delayed till thd mail was transferred. The packets wera subsequently sent on the 8.5 p.m. train from Auckland. Eecognising the necessity of, impressing upon the rising generation the lessons of the war. and in furtherance of the ■ ideal of universal peace, the Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union has decided to approach the Auckland Education Board with a request that it shall ■• grant facilities for the teaching of the ideals for which the union stands. Such teaching, it is,proposed, could be included in the history lessons and, as the union is receiving everywhere the support of teachers, it is believed their co-operation would be assured in any action the board might take. Special lectures to teachers on the subject are suggested, and the steps taken in this direction by various English and Welsh educational authorities are quoted in .support of the suggestion.

In summing up at the Supreme Court at New Plymouth in an action for alleged misrepresentation in the sale of a farm, Mr. Justice Chapman referred to the action as belonging to a peculiar class (reports the Taranaki Daily News). "I call it a peculiar .class of action," he said, "because until the lass. year or or two we have not had for many years actions foi fraudulent misrepresentation in the sale of land. I can go back to my practice in New Zealand—possibly before some of the jury were born—and can recall land boom .purchases and juries being empanelled to hear cases arising out of theni. In those days it was not farm land, but town land. These oases mainly arise when great fluctuations in land values, due to the optimistic feeling that seizeg upon the whole population, is followed by the inevitable consequences of running land up to too high a value. The fact cannot be ignored that there are innumerable advertisements now appearing under the hand of the registrar for sales on behalf of mortgagees. In this province the trouble mainly arose out of the unduly optimistic feeling regarding land values arising ouf of th« high prices for dairy produce."