LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 86, 10 April 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

School committee elections throughout the Wellington Education District will be held on Monday, sth May, at 7.30 p.m. ' In the case of schools which have had an average attendance during the year of over 120, nominations will close one week before the date of the election, but in smaller schools nominations are receivable up to and at the meetings. Scots College Cadqts have been very successful in military and shooting ■ competitions during the past year, and have won many prizes, including the Riddi-' ford Cup. To-morrow mo_rning at 9.30 o'clock 'His Excellency, the GovernorGeneral will present the Riddiford Cup to the cadet corps. i The Wellington Acclimatisation Society has received a' cheque^ for two : guineas from an'anonymous contributor, with the suggestion that the council ; should subsidise , the amount, and offer prizes for an essay competition on acclimatisation matters by children attending the Hutfc and. Petone District High Schools. The council at its, meeting last •' night decided to subsidise the,donation to the extent of another two guineas. - ; "H an employer disperses., with your services because you have to attend parades you notify the defence! authorities, and they will bring him before me. I will deal with him." The foregoing remark yssxs made by Mr. E. D. Moriey. 5.M.,.-at. the 'Waimate Magistrate's Court, to » young married man' who had failed to comply with the defence regulations,. ■'-..' " i ■ ■She chairman reported at fjhe Waiiga-* nui Chamberjof Commerce meeting on Monday, that he had telegraphed to the VVoiliugton Chamber of Commerce offering the Wausaniii Chamber of 'Commerce s support to the proposal to eet boats with fruit from the Cook- Islands to; call on; alternate trips at Auckland and Wellington. Before doin 2 io he •nad consulted some of the local fruiterers, and Had been told that direct <-on: signments of fruit to Wellington would mean cheaper fruit for Wauganui. Mr. Massey said in an address at Invercargill that if.it became necessary for Aew.'Zealand, to borrow it could do so, justas easily as -an ordinary' citizen could' go m and buy a pound of butter, over I the counter. (Laughter.) ■ ■Money" lent" to Aew Zealand was,regarded as absolutely safe;■ and the Dominion .could propably raise a loan at a less rate of ' interest "than any other country >onld be asked to pay: .When he was at Home he did not ask them, for '■ money,, but! they came to him and-asked him to borrow it from them. (Laughter.) . .. • • At a meeting of the Lyttelton branch of, the Amalgamated' Society of Railway j Servants held yesterday afternoon, says a Press Association message from Christ-chui-ch, \ . the following resolution ' was passed: "That this branch entirely sup- . ports any action deemed fit by its executive to impress upon the Department the necessity of a rise in salary at.once." .! It' was also decided : "This branch, despite the Wages Board statement regarding house rent (the minimum;is specified as 8s), points out that members in Lyt- I teltori pay l-16th of a week's pay a week, with water rates and lighting 'additional. We think; the public should be. enlightened as to the truth of this matter." • The.largest quinnat salmon' that has yet. been taken;from the Rakaia River■' 'recently fell to the rpd of the Rev. H. G. Hawkins (says • the. "Lyttelton .Times").'_ . Tho fish, 'which was ,an exceptionally, »fine specimen, tipped the scales at 421b, and it vwas: with some ; difficulty that v Mr. . Hawkins' succeeded .in bringing his catch to land. He was fishing \on- the banks 'of • the Rakaia Island at the time, and th,e big fish gavel him quite a'busy time. • He pilote.l tlie catch some two miles down stream before' ho was successful .'in landing him. There was quite a nutter ' of excitement on the island, when the extraordinary' weight and^nature of the fish became known. 'Mr. Hawkins generously gave;the fish to a visitor, and it is the. intention of the tourist'to have the' specimen staffed. r -.[. ' ;. ' „ According to a Press Association message from Blenheim, advice was received yesterday afternoon by a 'shareholder in 'Mahakipawa Goldfields,.'Ltd.-, that.1 ■ the company, which has been 'sinking a shaft on the property of Mrs. Stratford, has struck a reef; and that a good lead is believed to be opening up. Tlie company has^only been in existence for ■ a few months, and is. -working on land which has been in tlie possession of Mrs. ..Stratford's family, the Greggs, for half a century or more. ' In •. the ..'nineties a great deal of gold wai taken out at.j Mahakipawa, it being estimated that no 'less than 11 tons were securedsin a few j weeks. : All this was more or less oV>- ! tamed on the surface of a valley, and') the new company has been sinking a .shaft in an'endeavour to'locate a deep lead in the valley. It. is understood that the directors, who reside in Christchurch. have been summoned immediately to a meeting, to bo held on the scene of. operations. ' , •'.' ... Ap tribute to the. officers and men of the, Public Works and Railway Departments was made .by ' the Minister (the Hon. J. G. Coates) in his speech at the opening of the Waimaku Post Office last week (states the " Herald ".).• . Be..had been greatly impressed, he said, with the organisation which had been set in motion to effect repairs to the means of communication, and the efforts made to keep the roads and railways <open during the floods in tlie North. Officers of the two Departments and the local bodies quickly realised that the rains were exceptional, and werp on the scene of action even before the floods had reached their greatest height, Everyone appear-' ed to have been on the gui vivo, and everything . possible was accomplished. Times of emergency tested men. and women as no other occasion would, and it was a pleasure to find, whenever he was obliged.to make'inquiries as to what action was being taken, that prompt'decisions had been arrived at, and promptly carried out. - Given reasonably good" weather, the engineer in charge of the Hutt road paving.^ 'Mr. K. G. Lake, states the> season's work should be completed by about tlie first week in May, as only' a mile and a quarter now remain \o ■be surfaced. A short length of paving has also to be laid down under the railway bridge, but that work must await the decision of. the Tramway Department in regard to the manner in which the trackless car for Kaiwarra is to be taken underneath the bridge. On Tuesday' the "previous best" was badly beatenby paving plant and men, 2077 square, yards of. surface being laid down in a nine-hour day.' 'When, it is considered that both' the American roading plant expert; Mr. T. W. Patterson, and tlm Acting-City Engineer, Mr. A. J. Pat- I evson. spoke—before the paving had ' actually started—of.a probable working 1 day (eight hours) run oi 10GO yards, it , will he realised that particularly Rood progress is beins; raado. Several times the area laid has exceeded 1900 square j yards, but the men wore not able to \ top the 2000 mark previously. A .point j which is to be remembered is that 'wages are bassd on hours of work, not upon I yardage output, and from that fact it j follows plainly enough that the enthus-' iasm of every man on the Ifutt road job, torn the onp;ineers 'to the odd job's men, is a very real factor in the progress made. ; -

'An adjourned meeting iii the bankrupt estate of George Hillj butcher; of Rona Bay, was to have been held this morning, but it lapsed for want of a quorum. . ■ The informal conference between members of the Arbitration Court and. representatives of trades interested in the question of apprentices came to a conclusion yesterday afternoon. The main object of the conference was to discuss a draft order issued by the Court. ' In closing the conference, his Honour, Mr. Justice Frazer thanked delegates for the reasonable' manner in which they had discussed the matter, a faect that augured well for the success of the Ac^. All surplus rainbow yearling fry are to be liberated from the Masterton trout hatchery .in feedors of. the Wairarapa Lake. At last, night's meeting of, the Wellington Acclimatisation Society it was stated.that rainbow trout liberated in.the lake found their, way to the sea, and afforded' very good sport. The opinion was expressed that the stocking' of the Wairarapa Lake . and rivers of that district .with/ rainbow trout would give keen pleasured to': anglers. A request has been.made by. the Wei-1 lington' North Ratepayers' Association that . the Baths Committee of City Council .should receive ,a deputation to place before it the association's views in regard to the provision of Turkish baths and a gymnasium, as well as tepid baths, on the site of the Harris street power station, which station presumably will shortly be available for the municipal baths^ scheme now that, the Evans Bay power-house is nearing completion. '■. . "The Post's" London correspondent says that a committee consisting of leading medical men, in. which' principal medical societies are interested, has. been set up to look after the interests of members of the medical profession fi- om i the Dominions coming to the. Empire Exhibi- I tion, and to oiler them hospitality.' The chairman is Sir William Hall White, and the. vice-chairman Sir B. BrucePorter. . The address of the -Hospitality Committee is the Royal Society of Medicine, Wimpole street. .; ■ ■' In concluding his reply to addresses at .Invercargill, the Prime.Mimster said that lie appreciated to the full the compliment paid.to him by the citizens of l/iivercargill in extending to him such, a warm 'welcome. He hoped 'that now the Conference was over he would be' able to meet them very much' oftener than in the- past,. . A _f,ewdays ago he had travelled, through.his;own electorate^ and .had visited,one p^ace- to which he had not. been for" .'2O .-years;,-and other places to which he had not been for 12, 10, and 11. years. ■' .A" voice :. -"You would be something of a curiosity."-Mr. Massey :"I <am a curiosity in that I hold the confidence, of many of the best men and women.in this country." Con: tinuing, Mr. .Massey said that it wa3 just .20' years that week.since he1, first' entered. Parliament. He was practically a young man 'then, and had ,a good growth of hair on his head. (Laughter.) Ho did ' not think then that, he would ever become Prime ilia-. isler, buthe had occupied'that'position for the last twelve yearsj and expected to be Prime-Minister;for: another eight. (Cheers). ' . ./. ;,' . .■; ,•. r As the result of inauiries made into the subject of foadmakihg in. America, Mr, F. C. Daniell. speaking at a meeti.ing of ..,the .Hamilton "'Chamber.' of - Com-, merce; said that no .road was permanent; but the nearest approach to permanency was in the road oed -itself, and there- j fore '.very great care.had.beea exercisedm respect to subsoil "and surface drainage, and to proper , consolidation before the surfacing material was applied.- This, was a feature that was noticeably absent in.New Zealand,'.where there appeared f.o be a desire to-coyer the'su|face! witU gravel or crushed stone, and call the result a road,, irrespective, of the 'state' of the roadbed; Generally speaking Amer-" if.an road builders had aimed at grades iio ( t exceeding five ..per. cent., of one in twenty,.as we would express it, and a I minimum curve radius of 200 feet. The spread of motor vehicles ;had also led to super elevation of the curves with, benefit to the roads and a very great reduction of steering to-the motor, driv- «•-' Broken stone or," gravel has given satisfactory results in a width of sixteen feet, and a depth of eight inches, ■of which the/top four inches1 is laid with stoTio having a maximum size of threequarters of an inclu- The growth of traffic had been enormous, and-traffic tallies showed a gradual diminution of horse-drawn traffic, so that'it now rarely exceeds'three per cent, of the .whole. « In the course of an address at Hamilton, on the^ subject of 'main highways, Mr. F. G. 'Daniell, '"who has recently made a special study ; of the system in America, outlined-the New Zealand law, and added that it would be seen that the machinery of the Act. was .very simple,, and was'dependent for effective working, upon the co-operation of the local authority, but as in. most cases this would, j mean a lessening of the funds these I bodies were now required to raise while j ;ths advances, of co-operation-were po -evident that there should very soon be manifested a great improvement in the roads now carrying most of the- Dominion's traffic. lii' California, ho said." from 1912,t0 1922, 2500 miles had been constructed or improved, of which 1700 miles had been laid with a concrete base, State being the first to: adopt, coacreto as a standard, the width being fii'toon feot, and the thickness five indies. Funds for this had been found in the proportion of'so per cent, by; the Statq, 10 per cent, from the Fedei^l Government, and J. 6 per cent.' from' counties,, 13 per -cent, from motor vehicles, and 7 per cent, from the gasoline tax. On the expenditure side 6 per cent._ had been spent in engineering and administration, 'and 8 per cent, in jp-t'erest-arid repayment of .loans. '.. Interest in the possibility '• of . motor coaches being usad on" Auckland railway lines was manifested by a deputation of Kumeu settlers who waited upon tho■Minister of Railways, the Hon. J.:. G. Hoates. -.Asked by Mr."R. Gates, secretary, of the local " ratepayers' association, whether the department intended to.institute a. motor-coach service on'the North Auckland suburban line, ' JSr. Coates said he was doubtful if such vehicles'would "be of much service on the North Auckland. line. "We have four or five motor enaehes under construction in New Zealand," stated the Minister,' "and we would, have 45 if I hud mv way, but.until wo can speed up the Auckland service it is no good putting them on " The trouble, explained the. Minister- was tho congestion inseparable with the Newmarket loop. The idea of "the motor cpaches was to run' coach after coach at frequent-intervals, but until there was a clear run into, the city, effected "possibly by tho construction of tunnels, with adequite station facilities at1 Auckland little improvement conld be expected from the use of--raptor coaches. -The"whole means of railway access to Auckland' from tho North would need to be redesia-ned befor,; much could be accomplished. With pi'biic favour and support, however, the motor coach, would, on the whole lie generally;'usaful on New Zealand "'railways. It is . understood- to be. unlikely that the motor-trains will be ru:i on the Hutt line, from Wellington: which is considered to be unsuitable for their use. A motor-train service was operated on the Ilutt' S2ct;.ori a few Years nco. but not with satisfactory results. The prob abilities are that the new petrol-driven coaches which the Department is build ! ma will be tried out on branch lines m I the South Island. _ ' ■ I

itT'n Tif reported by ««> "Me*. ' cantile Gazette. as registered are J. A- .'• Roberts and Co., Ltd., private com- " pany Capital: £3000, in 3000 shares of hi each. \. Subscribers: J. A Roberts 2999, C. H. Roberts 1. Objects ■■ guilders, contractors, and incidental ■dominion Timber Co., .Ltd., private ' company. £20,000 in 20,000 shares of, ±-1 each. ; Subscribers: Horopito—S. Mil- " hgan 1499, N, Milligan 1, W. Billsand / 1500, M. H. Morris' 1999, F. H. Morris 1;' Ohakune^G. Sargeant 999. Objects: bawmilling, timber merchants, and incidental. ' \ ,-.--,..' "There is no slackening in the demand ■ for timber " was' the reply of a Grey- . mouth .sawnuUer. when asked by a corespondent p f the Christchurch "Prea" what were the prospects of that industry. " tie proceeded to explain that although m. ' the case of many millers the-Canterbury . . wT n rn Wal for Epecial orders, Uhese'' were still substantial enough to keep the m Is runnins: on full time. The" Canter- - bmy market was,a great boon to-West--'-'-; and, and the benefit reaped increased . HokiUka. An additional 10 per cent: ■ of piofit accrued to sawmfflers throu h .': the savinß of freight achieved by dealing with Canterbury. The. tunnel, meant an mcrease; of 400.CC0 feet of timber per .' " m ff^*° Canterbury .from the West . Coast' : This .transfer ■of orders to the Coast had,made 'itself felt in Southland, which- formerly cut large" quantities for -■ tho, Canterbury market. •'",.' :./! ;' "' 'A. regrettable'"-. bre!ach of discipline, says the "Taranaki Herald," took placein connection with the Territorial Camp Vat. the VVaiwakaiho Showgrounds dvi1-" ing th« week-end,.resulting in two of tho :. - •local Territorials being expelled from - ••■amp Throughout the period the'gen-' V eral discipline has been good, and, not-; withstanding very unfavourable weather conditions that-have ; prevailed sine» the men went into camp, everything has." worked as. smoothly as couid be expected. Two Territorials who - overstayed .their leave on ■ one occasion were pun- : uhed by-,the infliction of a fine; but" a - repetition of the offence!-was met with more drastic treatment. The men were" granted leave on Saturday to allow them ■ ' to attend' the benefit :football match- '■■ being required to return to camp at""a"-.'' given time. 'The two offenders, how-' fiver, did not return until several hours ' Later, and then- breach: was considered sufficiently., serious •to merit" thfiir ex- ■ ■ pulsipn from camp. ..They-were there--tore paraded under, an'armed guard this morning before the officers and the!Kvhole ; 0 of the men m camp, who were addressed by. Captain Bremner.". ,' The- • offenders1 - were stripped of their accoutrements and -• then marched by the guard;off the camp grounds. ''•■.;- .r : .'