LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume 72, Issue 72, 25 March 1924, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Lower Hutt Recreation Ground will be closed to cricketers after 31st March, i,i order that it may be prepared for the football season. A Press Association message from Chrislclmreh states that the City Council last night decided to approve of the principle of daylight-saving, and to warmly support it and urge its adoption upon the Government.

Tlie need of further dressing-room accommodation and the provision of .in ambulance room at (.he Lower Hutt Recreation Ground is realised •by the members of the Lower liutt Borough Council. Ihe council, last evening, accepted from t,ho Gala Conimitteo the sum of upwards ot £200 to be used for this purpose., and it was decided to ask the lunatice Committee to report within a fortnight on the exact cost of a building to givo the required accommodation. The election for a Mayor to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr. T. B. Williams was held yesterday, says a Press Association message from Wanganui. Mr. Hope Gibbon? polled 3055 votes, and Mr. J. C. Richardson 484. Mr. Richardson was De-puty-Mayor for some months.

The Ling Nam, which left Sydney at 2 p.m. on the 23rd instant for Wellington, carries 69 bags of mail from Australia, 383 from beyond, and seven parcel receptacle. The- mail from beyond includes: East 10, and Africa 5. Criticism of the state of a number of roads in the Lower Hutt Borough was made by Councillor M'Bain last evening. Councillor Hobbs, chairman of the Works Committee, said the wholb council musi bear the responsibility as the committee had been told to close down on all works to be done out of the District Fund Account.

At yesterday's meeting of the Christchurch Tramway Board the chairman forecasted that the financial result for the year ending 31st March would show a deficit of £7COO. states a Press Association message. This, he said, would be covered by profits made in the two preceding years, totalling £10,271. Atlantic salmon are becoming well established in Lake Te Anau. On Sunday, Mr. C. Ayson and party, trolling from a boat in Lake Te Anau" took 22 Atlantic salmon, the record day's catch so far. The total weight was 1321b, and the largest fish weighed eleven pounds. A new railway regulation has come into operation requiring guards to wave a green flag in addition to blowing a whistle as a signal to the engine-driver to start the train. This is following a practice on the lines in Great Britain. The flag is a small one, carried in the breast-pocket of the guard's uniform coat.

Several additional promotions in the Railway Service are annouueed. Mr. H. ir. White, of the local district traffic manager's office, has been promoted to the position of chief clerk at Wanganui, and will assume his new duties -to-mor-row. Mr. J. W. M. Smith is his successor at Wellington. Mr. J. Brown, v' the same office, has been promoted assistant district traffic manager at Auckland. He will be- succeeded by Mr. J. Pickard. stationmaster at New Plymouth. ,Mr. H. A. Perm, stationmaster at Napier, has been transferred ti Christchurch as chief clerk in the district traffic manager's office there.

A complaint was received from two Western Hutt ratepayers by the local council last evening that during the recent heavy rains both sewage and flood water had been forced up through their sumps. The Town Clerk was instructed to reply that in regard to the sewage the position would be much improved when tho new outfall drain was finished. The Mayor; Mr. Strand, said he was afraid some properties were so low that when the river was in flood, causing the flood-gates of the drains to close, it Would be almost impossible to prevent the drains becoming full and overflowing.

The unveiling ceremony of the stained glass window to commemorate the students of Victoria University College who died in the war is to be performed by the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), on Goad Friday, 18th April. The war made a very heavy toll in'the-ranks of the students of Victoria College, practically one out of every four who went abroad having given his life in the cause. Actually there were 146 deaths out of 620 who served. Memorial brasses underneath the window will commemorate the names of those who died, and, similar brasses containing the name of all other soldier students of Victoria College will also be placed in appropriate positions near the window, where all who frequent the college library through the years to come will be perpetually reminded of the sacrifices made by the students of the college.

The cleaning and metalling of Onehaka and 1 rice's roads and giving attention to a portion of the Western Hutt road was the subject matter of a deputation to the Lower Hutt Borough Council last evening. Mr. Gregg said this district was rapidly being settled and bettor roads were a necessity, especially m the winter months. The deputation also made a request that the council should take over and maintain a ri"ht-of-way leading from Melliiig Station to Onehaka road. Tho right-of-way, which at present was privately owned, would reduce the time of the journey for pedestrians by twenty minutes. On the motion of the Mayor, Mr. W. T. Strand, the requests were referred to the Works Committee, which was authorised to obtaiu the opinion of the borough solicitor on the legal position in regard to the right-of-way and Onehaka road.

Some times ago the Mayor of Lower Hutt secured from the Wellington Sydney Street Cemetery the headstone originally erected there to the memory of Sergeant Ingram and others who lost their lives as the result of a Maori raid on their camp in Lower Hutt. Mr. Strand had the stone renovated and proposed to have it erected near the Hutt Golf Links, as near as possible to where the men. including the -brave Bugler Allen, fell. ftxeeution lo this course was taken by the Eariy Settlers' Association, who desire the stone returned- to the Sydney Street Cemetery. The. matter has now been amicably settled. The Minister of Internal Affair., has offered to provide a granite slab, with the names inscribed of men who fell, to be erected on a site to be provided and fenced by the Lower Hutt Borough Council, with the assistance of the Early Settlers' Association. The offer was last erenin" accepted by the Lower Hutt Borough Council, the Mayor remarking that £25 had been collected for Ihe purulmHc nf the sito and that a lrian<;iilar piece of land had actually been purchased. " It ir, now proposed to push on with the work as quickly .as possible-

The tender of Mr. T. Aorris at £2685 for the erection of an up-to-date fire brigade station n>s . accepted last evening by the Lower Hutt Borough Council. Advantage is to be taken of the presence of large numbers of visitors from the Dominions at the Empire Exhibition to hold a ceremony on Empire Day at Brookwood, the largest and most representative cemetery in the United Kingdom, in which soldiers from all parts of the Empire were buried.

The number of cricket clubs and players in Wellington is desired by the Government Statistician for inclusion in the record of participants in sport, which is at present being compiled. The Management Committee of the Wellington Cricket Association gave instructions last evening for the information to be sunplied. '

The Appeal Court yesterday afternoon concluded the hearing o f the legal argument in the case of Boyd against the Wellington City Council, a dispute concerning the taking of a small section of land at Kilbimie for tramway purposes At tho hearing Mr. Skerrett* X C appeared with Mr. S. A. Wiren for Boyd, *lr- J- O'Shea, with Mr. L. C. Hemery fc.r the Corporation, and Mr. A. Fair for the District Land Registrar. The French warship Aldebaran. which is to visit Wellington this week, is a sister ship to the IWtish war sloop Laburnum, and was built at Glasgow during the war. She arrived at Auckland from Noumea last Thursday for her periodical docking and overhaul, but as the_ dock is engaged she is making a cruise to southern ports, and will return to Auckland later, when the dock will be disengaged. A portion of the crew will visit Rotorua on 19th, April. Mr Rudyavd Kipling, states the Imperial War Graves Commission, has drawn up inscriptions for the Menin Uato as follow:—Ob the main central n° nn°l , th|, arch: "To lho armios of io?a + im O Empire who stood here froni 1914 to 1918, and to those of their dead who have no known grave." In connection with the names: "Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in ipros salient, but to Whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death."

Mr. Massey s views on the question of publishing the Cabinet's message to the Home Government relating to Singapore was the subject of comment by Mr. Massey during a conversation with an Auckland Star" representative. "The people at Home say they are going to publish my telegram on the subject of Singapore, he^remarked. "If that is so. 1 want them to do it, and if they do so I shall have something to say." "You might as well say it now," suggested tha pressman. Mr. Massey looked the reporter full in the face, winked knowingly, and opened the door.

A "to add a bit cf 'gin-, S jl. 'to the end oi. tbe season was placed before the Wellington Cricket Associations Management Committee last evening by an enthusiast. The idea was that the team winning the Plunket (shield play a team from the other three . associations concerned in the shield contest. It was considered by the enthusiast that the match would create great interest and would attract a big crowd. It would also provide an opportunity for some colts to be tried out. The committee decided, to write to the enthusiast expressing thanks for the suggestion and pointing out that the matter was one tor the New Zealanor Cricket Council. A request has been received by the Wellington Technical College Boall of Governors from the Christchurch Board of Governors, asking whether the Wellington board would co-operate with the Christchurch board in a request to the Minister to have IBs constitution of the New Zealand University Senate and of the University College Councils altered, so as to allow fullei representation for agriculture and the industries. The Christchurch board considered that the present constitutions were on too narrow a basis, and > that a larger section of the communiiy should have a voice in the election of the members of the two bodies. The request is to be considered ai the Technical College Conference to b& held in Wellington in May.

"Unfortunately we are drifting • into the condition of some of the older countries of the world in regard to wages and hours conditions," remarked Mr. M. J. Mack, general secretary of the A.S.R.S., in the course of the Railway AVages Board proceedings yesterday afternoon. "I am afraid that we don't really understand or don't seriously think about where reductions in wages or inadequate living costs are leading us. I really believe the Railway Department is getting better service- as a result of the shorter hours now obtaining than ever it had previously, and I am supported in this by nearly all the professors of economics that we have ever had, right down from Adam Smith."

''When the plans of the college were being prepared, a memorandum was received from the Department giving the instructions that corridors must be of the open cloister type. We have now tested these for two years, and the objections I offered at the outset have been more than confirmed." states the Director of the Technical' College (Mr. J. H. Howell). "In windless, sunny situations, open corridors may be'desirable, but under other conditions they are, to say the least, most unwise.' During the strong winds of last week our experience was very unpleasant, and it is fortunate that the windows ordered to close in the upper corridor have come to hand before the weather gets worse. Two doors in the new wing were smashed lo pieces by the wind coming through the corridor opening. It might save similar mistakes elsewhere if the Department were informed of the facts-"

The seventy-sixth anniversary of First Church and of Otago was celebrated in First Church on Sunday, when special services were held. In the evening His Excellency the. Governor-General, Viscount Jellicoe, was present, whilst the Mayor and city councillors were also in the congregation. In this connection ("states "The Post's" Dunedin correspondent) an interesting bit of history has come to light regarding the first" be!! that replaced the 12 o'clock g\in. This bell originally belonged to a Botany Bay convict ship, and was bought by Mr. John Jones, who put it on his brig Magnet. The Magnet left the bell at "Wuikouaiti, and it was used there for the purposes of the Wesleyan mission station, being subsequently brought to Dunedic. The bell was placed on the church reserve at Bell Hill, and did duty there until 1851, when it was superseded by the bigger bell that now stands on First Church lawn.

A deputation from the Lower Hutt Miniature Rille- Club waited on the Lower Hutt Borough Council last evening with a. request for assistance in providing a building suitable for a shooting gallery. The speakers wore Messrs. J. Henderson and S. Clendon. The encouragement of shooting from a national point of view was stressed by the speakers,. and also the fact that private employers and public bodies, such as the Wellington Harbour Koard, were providing accommodation for their employees. The building required would cost about £200. The club was prepared to guarantee interest and sinking fund on the amount expended. In reply the Mayor, Mr. \V. T. Strand, said it was wholly a question of' ways and moans, as the council hud the necessary power to spend money for the purpose. The question was referred to the Finance .Committee fur rejporU,