LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 99, 23 October 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The largest timber cargo yet to leav-6 the port of Greymouth in one bottom, totalling 1,300,000 superficial feet, was taken over the bar yesterday at 4 p.m. by the steamer Coolana, bound for Melbourne.—Press Association. The question of the Upper Hutt Town District fire brigade being called ! to outbreaks of fire at Trentham and Heretaunga (in the Hutt County area) without payment for extra time and expense of transport was discussed at Tuesday evening's meeting of the Upper Hutt Town Board. It was decided that tha Public Services Committee should take the matter up. The occupants of a number of rooms in the Terminus Hotel, Christchurch, received a severe scare, early this morning, when they were awakened by volumes of smoke (states a Press Association message). Some made a hasty exit, under the impression that the hotel was burning. The fire was in a small shop below, but -did not spread, though the contents were destroyed. Steps, are being taken to revive the Dunedin ...Cremation Society! It made ■ 'a; stir- about twenty years ago (states The Post's" Dunedin correspondent). An interim committee has been set up and a public meeting is to be called. Then it will be seen if there is any strong backing from the people at large. "It was for want of such backing that the proposal to erect a crematorium hero fell to the ground. Amendments have been effected to the Petone Borough' Streets Bill by the Local Bills Committee of the Legislative Council. _ The Bill originally proposed that .Nevis street, Armidale street, and Lochy street, private ways in the Petone Borough, should be declared streets. The Committee has deleted Nevis and Lochy streets, and, in its amendment form, the Bill empowers the Petone Borough Council to dclare Armidale street a street under the Municipal - Corporations Act, provided that it is widened to fifty, feet. The title of the measure • has been changed to Petone Borough Empowering The Canterbury Industrial Association last night decided that it could not see its way to do anything towards providing a provincial court at the Dunedin Exhibition, states a Press Association message from Christchurch. This is in keeping with the previous decision of the association. The chairman said that the association could not officially recognise the Exhibition, but some members might feel that as individuals they should help. Some members said that they would have to exhibit in self-de-fence. One member said that he believed that not only should members not participate in the Exhibition themselves but they should also endeavour to prevent others, from doing so; they would not be loyal to New' Zealand industries if they did not. Generally satisfactory progress of the works m hand was reported by the chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board; Mr. G. Mitchell, at the board's meeting last evening. He stated' that the plans for the new wharf at Miramar the Burnham Wharf, to be constructed parallel to the shore line, some little distance north of the present wharf had been submitted to the Marine Department and approved. The extension of the present wharf has been delayed somewhat on 'account of the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of hardwood for piling. Good progress was also ' being made with the Thorndon eea wall, i uj com Pletion °f the Pipitea , wharf shed, and the widening of the Queen's Wharf. An overhead-crane was being installed in shed 29. The loving care with which the graves of-New Zealanders buried in France are tended was mentioned by Mr. John-. Douglas, of London, in an address to members of the Auckland Rotary Club on Tuesday, reports the "New Zealand herald. Some time ago, said Mr. Douglas, ho took a party of 630 Scotsmen across to France for a week-end visit to^ the battle area, where many of their relatives lay buried. The party was distributed over 130 cemeteries, and many graves of New Zealanders were seen. The long rows of headstones made a sad but. impressive 1 sight; there was beauty in it too, for. loving hands had planted a little garden of flowers <in front of every stone. Europe had claimed much from New Zealand, but there would be forever a part of Europe that was New Zealand. Commenting upon the trade statistics for the montli of, September, the chairman of the Harbour Board, Mr. G. Mitchell, last evening remarked that compared with the figures for September, 1923, the grand total of cargo handled, showed the very satisfactory increase of 27,734 tons (163,598 as against 126,864 tons). The chief items set out, the figures for September of last year being shown in parenthesis, were: —Net registered tonnage of vessels arriving, 223,859 (232,603); general cargo, imports from British and foreign ports, 25,245 tons (17,618 tons) ; from coastal and intercolonial ports, 26,614 tons (18,199 tons); transhipments, 9871 tons (8166 tons); general cargo exports, to British and foreign ports, 8690 tons (7495 tons); coastal and intercolonial, 16,378 tons (12,652 tons); timber imports, 2,575,344 super feet (2,891,207): exports, 172,917 super, feet (81,407); coal imports, 25,385 tons (23,698 tons): wool and hemp shipped, 6587 bales (7885 bales); butter, 977 tons (544 tons); cheese 1698 tons (1469 tons); frozen meat, 4295 tons (3753 tons). A petition, containing twenty-five sheet's of foolscap with nearly seven hundred signatures of business people and residents of Island. Bay, has been-for-warded to the Postmaster-General praying that a post office be erected. r and placed in charge of a permanent officer of the Department at Island Bay. "The population of the Bay, and the beaches which it serves, has increased enormously since the last Census was,taken, and the number of dwellings has also jumped by hundreds," states a resident. "Why the Post Office authorities have uot taken action in the matter is hard to understand. (The business of the Department should- increase with the population; if it has not done so, then there must be a reason for it. As a matter of fact, the business people and many residents go past the local office to the nearest permanent office, as they object, and rightly too, to do anything of a private nature at a shop, where the arrangements are totally unsuitable for transactions which are desired to be confidential. This applies more particularly to shop people who x do not care to make known business to another business man in their midst. •It has been- a well-known fact that the Postal Department had a section, purchased some years ago, situated in a central position on the Parade, but rumour hath it that the section has changed owners. If this is so, the authorities would do well to bestir themselves and secure another site at the earliest possible moment, as the residents of Island Bay hav,e awakened to their necessity, and will not rest now until their requirements are satisfied." The receipt of the petition has been acknowledged by the Postmaster-General, who has promised to give the matter his immediate attenion.

The yacht Sairose sailed from Auckland yesterday afternoon ( for Dublin, in completion of her world tour, states a Press Association message. Her ownercaptain is Connor O'Brien. The Mount Eden ratepayers, by 596 votes to 189, carried a poll to raise £100,000 for the extension of the drainage in the borough.—Press Association. The Moeraki, which left Melbourne on the 21st instant for Wellington, has on board 174 bags of mail from Australia, 9/0 bags from other places, and 59 parcel receptacles. It has been pointed out that, by the new road routes to Taupo and Wairakei, Rotorua's interest would be prejudiced, as they bring the great lake . within a day s journey of Auckland. In noticing this fact the Rotorua "Chronicle" remarks :-—"lt is good fortune to our sister spa that it is so, and it emphasises the need of Rotorua to put her house in order and her. roads also, and indicates that we have ,to move with the times. The Tourist Department has some stake in this place, and it must be induced to make a belated attempt to compete with virile private enterprise opposition." What about the tunnel? The Eastern Suburbs Association is getting impatient. The subject was fully discussed at the recent meeting of that body, when it was stated that a committee appointed to interview the Mayor reported the result of its interview, and as the position was not considered, satisfactory, it was unanimously decided that a monster deputation now wait upon the council at its next meeting, with the re-, quest that it state whether its experts have come to an agreement with regard to the tunnel, and what the council in: tends to' do m the matter. Sir Frederick Chapman and members of, the family of the late " Mr. Martin Chapman, have presented to the New Zealand Academy, for its gallery, a particularly fine piece of statuary. • It is a portrait bust of a beautiful young lady, a relative of the Chapman family, and the work of an eminent English sculptor, Charles A. Summers, who was in New Zealand in the 'sixties. The gift is not only a welcome addition to the collection of the academy; but it '"is a work of great artistic yalue in itself. It was only last year that the late Mr. Martin Chapman was elected a life member by the academy for the interest he took and the services he rendered in the' promotion of art in New Zealand. Th« council of the academy has recorded its trrateful thanks to the donors for their- beautiful gift and thoughtful action. "I cannot think that the Church has ever done much to avert war," declared hie Grace Archbishop C. Julius in his Synodical address to the Synod of the Christchurch Diocese, -when dealing with the Church's duty to avert war (reports the "Sun".) "I do not think that we fail in reverence for the past, he said. I do think that in our concern for the' sa-fety of the Church, we are afraid to venture forward. It is no business of ours to defend the Church. Christ Himself will be her defence so long- as she is faithful to her witness for Him. Like enough she will suffer. Who knows? She may yet hav6 to walk in rags and become more like her Master. This much we do know—the world is crying out for the witness of .the Church, and the Church hangs back. Further, other, influences are making for righteousness, and we are afraid to "recognise them. It is a mistake to suppose that naval and military men are advocates of war. ' They are often its" chief opponents. In my humble judgment, the chief occasion of war is the profiteer. Greed of wealth m. yto master the worl<l unless the Church can bear more faithful witness to Christ. Meanwhile the League of Nations is doing what it can for the peace of the world. I wish it had more of our sympathy and prayer. Are we afraid to be thought unpatriotic if we contend more earnestly for the great principle: that in Christ there if no race nor empire, no class nor colour, but that we are brethren one of another T Among lesser influences making lor peace I am glad to recognise those of the, Boy Scouts and Girl Guide*, because their, like the Church and Salvation Armies, have stolen tfte, Devil's weapons and turned"them against him "