LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 128, 27 November 1923, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

R.M.S. Tahiti, which left San Francisco on the 23rd instant for Wellington, has on board for New Zealand 1161 bags of mail (including 845 from the United Kingdom) and 421 baits of parcels.

"Ward Government means bad Government," was a statement made by Mr. 11. Luckie at the sitting of a- Commission at Upper Hutt yesterday. Sir Joseph Ward, who was present", joined in the laughter occasioned by the unconscious humour of the remark, which, had reference to the system of dividing boroughs into wards for the purpose ot local government, and not the merits of a leader of a Parliamentary party.

The Building Committee of the Wellington Technical College reports that it has approved the recommendations oi the Advisory Committee with reference to workshop requirements in connection with the new college, and has asked the architects to prepare rough sketch plans on the lines of the memorandum submitted by the director, tho memorandum and plans subsequently to be placed before the Assistant Director of Education or the Superintendent of Technical Education.

According to a Press Association message, the Gisborne Harbour Board yesterday rejected' a proposal to divert tho Waimata River through Kaiti, and approved the carrying out o£ the inner section of the harbour works recently approved. This means that the. river will t-tr diverted near its mouth on the Waikanae side, and that a new harbour will be developed, fifteen feet deep at low water, along the Kaiti side of the present harbour. No new outer breakwater is included in this scheme. The cost is estimated at £500,000.

■ One of the many cases which illustrate the burden which the State has to shoulder came before Mr. H. Y. Widdowson, S.M., at a sitting of the Juvenile Court at Christchurch yesterday, says a Press Association message. A child who has not yet passed a year under proper control, and an application in the world was charged with not being was granted for his admission into the Christchurch Receiving Home. The father admitted that he was the father of ten children, nine of whom were already being ca-ed for bj the State.

Senor Humberto Bidone, Consul-Gen-eral for Argentina, is advised that his Government is organising an international dairying exhibition, to be held on sth May, 1924, at Buenos Aires. The exhibition will be in four sections, including all dairying machinery and appliances, food stuffs, refrigerating niachinery (as applied to dairy produce), and dairying literature, graphs, charts, and tables. Space will be free to exhibitors, but they must bear the cost of their fillings. AH machinery, appliances and general merchandise for exhibition will be admitted duty free

Is it competent for an employer to make a deduction from the wages of an engineer apprentice for absence while attending compulsory . military training camps? This question^ which arose under the engineers' award, was the subject of an opinion filed by the Court of Arbitration yesterday. "The award is silent on the matter of time lost through absence from work-due to compulsory attendance at military training camps," said the Court. "Such absence from work cannot come under the heading of sickness, default, or voluntary absence, and an employer is permitted to make deductions for time lost by an apprentice only when his absence is due to one of the causes specified. ..''.' . An em-. ployev is, in our opinion, bound' to pay the wages of an apprentice whose absence from work is caused bj* his compulsory 'attendance at a military'training camp."

The return of classes for the period ending 27th October, 1923, at the Wellington Technical College shows that the total number of students on the roll is 1864. The average attendance in 1923 was 1665, and in 1922, 1397. The number of individual students enrolled to date is-.—Technical High School, 603 (1922, 465); evening school and day art classes, 1437 (1922, 1259)-; total "2C45 (1922, 1724). "No dcubt the numbers in the Technical High School will continue to increase, but it will -not be a matter of surprise if, during the transition period, while the evening classes are being transferred to the new college, numbers in this department show a •temporary decline," states the monthly report of the director. "This was ouv experience in Cliristchurch, when the evening classes were removed from central but unsuitable buildings to the new college away from, the centre of the town. It may be necessary fof us to approach the council with a request for certain special tramway facilities for our students."

The Arbitration Court has filed its definition of the tarm "factory worker" as used in the carpenters and joiners' award of the Northern, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury,. Otago, and Southland industrial districts. By clause 2 (a) of the award it was directed, inter alia, that the minimum v,-age for carpenters and joiners and joiners' machinists should he 2s 2£d per hour for outaide workers, and 2s l?d for factory workers. The inspector of awards asked whether the term "factory > workers" meant those engaged in a factory within the meaning of the Factories Act of 1903, or. whether it referred only to woodwork factories, such as joiners' shops. The Court said that the term was intended to cover workers who worked under factory conditions. It was true that the expression "woodwork factories" was Used in the memorandum to the award, but it was used to illustrate the aistirtction between out«id,e workers and factory workers. The Court intended that workera employed in factories-(whether woodwork factories or not) under factory conditions, that was, workers who do not lose time through wet weather, should be paid at the lower rate, the higher rate being intended to compensate outside workers for the tittl6 necessarily lost by them. Last Saturday the whole of the members of the Hutt River Board made a careful and systematic inspection oi the river from Melling Bridge northwards in order to view the effect of the works carried out during the last eighteen months. Travelling as they did up the bed of the stream on horse-ba^k, members were able to compare the present course with what it was before the works were carried out. As surveyed, about two years ago, the river showed a rambling course, and the effect of the work planned and carried out by the board's engineer, Mr. Laing Sleason, was deafly seen. Previously the river was making determined efforts to eat into the eastern bank above Taita, in fact, right down to the golf links, and was a grave menace to the lower portion of the district. The works designed to throw the river back from these banks hays proved most successful, and the river is rapidly cutting its way through shingle beds, and making a safe course. The board intends to at once proceed with works which should induce the river to leave that side entirely free. The engineer's recommendation in regard to work necessary to protect Belmont is now being put in hand, the material being on order. It is hoped this work will entirely divert the water from the Belfnont bank. The board was confirmed in this opinion by iwsitig the effect of similar work in other parts oi the river,

Notification has been received from the secretary of the New Zealand Academy that the council has appointed as it« representatives on the Wellington Technical College Art Advisory Committee Mr. J.^rDonald, assistant director of the Dominion Museum, and Mr Nugent Welch.

The Technical College day school closes for the Christmas vacation on the 19th December, and resumes on the sth February. The night classes cease on the 30th November, and resume on th.c 19th February. The annual prize distribution takes place in the Concert. Chamber of tho Town Hall on tlie 19th December.

It is stated that the sum paid by the syndicate of Dunedin and Christchurch men which has purchased the freehold portion of the D.I.C. premises (including Watson's Hotel) is in the vicinity of £37,000 (reports the Dunedin "Star"). The leasehold portion of the premises still remains 'in the possession of the D.I.C. If the proposals of the syndicate can be given full effect to, it is likely that a very fine new hotel building will bo erected.

The question of .establishing trade relations with the East, particularly with Java and Singapore, is closely bound up with the provision of adequate and direct steamer service. This point was raised at the reception to the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, tendered by the Auckland Industrial Association, when it was suggested that the Government should take steps for regular communicatien. It was further proposed that tho Government should make a substantial contribution towards the cost of sending a commission of business men to Java with a comprehensive exhibit of Dominion products for display at the various fairs to be held in Java next year (reports the "New Zealand Herald"). The Mm-, ister promised to investigate the possiV bility of Government assistance in both projects..