The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1906.

Evening Star, Issue 12871, 21 July 1906, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1906.

t The Drainage, and Sewerage Board supply the following rain statistics fox the past week;— July 15, ,120 in; July 20, .OlOin; total, .loOin for the week. Total ion 1906 to date,. 12.6Khn,

_ Some considerable time ago a scheme for the construction of a railway up the Kaikorai Valley wm projected, and steps were taken for the fostering of the idea. The opes of those interested, however, seem to have reached the point of abandonment, *° °i r . Matt^ on ’s report at the TW^ I L.nti 8 Iwt evening. g^ tleman stated also that preliminary costa amounting to '£6 18s 6d had been paid by subscription. Build(W A m * Ual ® €et “g of the Dunedin SvHvft . A39o^at . lon the election of ex—Pms,,W c ?? mi T ttee res “fted as follows: d„ T ,t» a3l \r nfc ’ HiFord; vice preaiOrawfn^ leSS^L W ‘ and James hSA treasDrer > Mr Allan M'Dougall sSISIS Lf Cret< ? 7, Mr Frank Wil] Sn- ®;^ dltors > Messrs R. Crawford W. Wilkinson; representative Employers" Association, Mr George Clarkgeneral comimtteo—Means Hodges, SimpW n ’Wan-en G CLark ’ Lann ’ Ham Uton, and ..TJ® b ,ig «Perin»Qtal locomotive with the chime whistle has been sent back to Cbns.church How the department officials managed to get it over some of the bridges tn the neighborhood of Ashburton in a sotrot lenown mly to themselves. The common belief is that they ran the concern in very hght trim, and with an empty tender. The virtue of a compound engine is that it saves coal, and the purpose of its visit here was to run coal trials on some of the more or less hilly grades on the Otago lines. It is believed that these trials were satisfactory, but very little is known as to what really took place or whether the engine developed any defects. Inquiries on tha subject only meet with the answer; that is departmental business.” “Departmental business” is a pretty euphemJf 11 : e plain English of it seems to be that the public have no right to know anvtiling afc all about their own property. Yesterday the Otago Harbor Board got about two-thirds of the way through the task of revising the by-laws, and then adjourned further consideration until nest Thursday. The sections held over relate to port charges, harbor improvement rate, transhipment, etc. As the last business of the day, tenders for receiving, storing, and delivering were about to be opened, when a discussion arose as to the advisability of deleting storage from the contract, and it was resolved to call for fresh tenders for receiving and delivering only. The fourteenth annual tea given by the ladies of the Bible circles at the Benevolent Institution was held last evening, when, as usual, there were a great many willing helpers. Two choirs with litle organs went round to every ward. In the day room Mr Baeyertz and Mrs Belcher, from South Australia, entertained the old people with songs and recitations. The piano which wtu) given last year to the old women has proved a great success, and was in much evidence. A warm woollen comforter was handed to all the sick men and to the Chinese. Most of the invalids put them on at once. In the evening Mr R. Chisholm showed his views of a trip round the world, which were most entertaining. The chairman of the Board (Mr Burnett) was present during the afternoon, and the help given by various ministers was much appreciated by the ladies. Fifteen elders in the cause of education attended the meeting called last night to consider the question of the age limit of candidates for free places in the Otago High Schools. It may be assumed that of these fifteen not one went with the idea of making a speech or taking anv prominent part at tlie meeting. The advertisement summoned parents and guardians, and it was to be their meeting, managed, presumably, by the School Committees’ Association, the secretary of this body having attached his name to the advertisement. But eight o’clock came and passed, and there was no sign of any official representing the Association. A quarter of an hour later the elders thought it time to commence on their own account, and Hr Israel, who is on the Executive of the Association, was voted to the chair. Then a parent made a motion, and vhen the chairman asked that it be second ?<1 by some other parent, everybody sat s Knt. a while, since none of those who knew each other possessed that qualification. Ac 1-tsi a second parent disclosed himself and the business went on. But nary a third parens was present, and towards the end anybody who chose got up and talked, irrespective of past, present, or future claims to farter hood. The absence of represen:-arir - s cf the Association was severely commented upon by Mr J. G. Sawell, and to„*■ onlv ex cuso suggested came from Mr Israel." who said it might be that the absentees had been confused about finding the entrance from the street to the Board room of the Agricultural Hall owing; io the theatre being open and using the same entrance. Nobody thought of apologising fui the absent parents and guardians. We have received a letter from Mr F. G. Crav, president of the School Committees’ Association, stating that his absence fr° m Gst night’s meeting re the abolition of the ago limit for free scholars at the secondary schools was due to sudden indisposition. It was Mr Gray’s intention, if he had been able to be present, to have apologised for the unavoidable absence, through prior engagements, of the other members of his Executive.

The ‘Gazette’ notifies that Parliament meets at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 21. ihe following telegram was forwarded last night by Mr J. F. Arnold, M.fILK, to the Hon. W. Hall-Jones just prior to the Premier’s leaving Wellingtonl shall be glad if during your stay in.Dunedin next week you can make it convenient to visit Hillside Workshops and ihe railway works upon the foreshore, so that you may get a better idea of the large area taken from the Harbor Board by the Railway Department, and how completely they have cut off the foreshore from the City.” When asked to-day for his opinion of the chance of any of the Harbor Board’s endowments being restored to them, Mr Arnold said that it was very slight. The best thing to do was to agitate unceasingly for overbridges across the railway to the foreshore.

Additional carriages for the heavy railway traffic in connection with the Christchurch Exhibition are being pushed forward at the Hillside Workshops. The rate of construction is reported as one carnage per week—a vety creditable rate. The staff at the Workshops ore also preparing to turn out a number of tank locomotives. Ten of these were recently built at the Addington shops, and ton by a private firm at the Thames. Tank locomotives can run either end first with equal facility. Having no semi-detached tender, they never require to be swung on a turn-table. Their value m suburban traffic is therefore considerable.

A matter engaging the attention of the local defence office at present is how to provide challenge shields in connection with certain competitive practices. , These competitive practices were mentioned in general orders on May 22. Two are to be held each year, and the subjects of competition include marching, shooting, entrencliing, drill, and camp duties. Each of the six battalions in Otago compete, not against each other, hut among themselves. It is a question of the best company in each battalion. Consequently six shields are required. So far, Colonel Nicholls has presented one to the North Otago mounted men. Subscriptions towards a second shield have been handed in by the Dunedin Builders’ Association and the Maniototo County Council. Jane Whittaker this morning made her sixtieth appearance at the Police Court. Tire charge against her was the usual one —drunkenness. She faced Mr Graham, S.M., with a bland mien. “Take a -prohibition order put against j'ourself,” advised the Bench. “Oh, I can’t do that,” she said. ‘‘l’m too ill to take an. order out against myself. Give us a chance, like a good man.” As she bad received the maximum sentence on her last appearance, the magistrate granted her a breathing space- She was convicted and discharged. She is a woman of sixty-three years, and, as she proudly affirms, a grandmother. The record of her offences shows them nearly all to have been of the type “ drunk,” “ drunk and disorderly,” “ vagrancy,” and the like. The only other person dealt with this morning was a first offender (drunkenness), who was fined ss. in default twenty-four hours’ imprisonment.

A native woman gave birth to triplets at Otaki on Sunday last. This is said to be the first case' pf Maori triplets on record. All are doip£ well,

The fifth annual Colonial Conference of delegate? of the Farmers’ Unipn vyill be held in Wellington about the 28th of next month. The remits forwarded from provincial conferences bear upon the land question, taxation and valuation proposals, hospital and charitable aid. rating, subsidies to local bodies, resistance to an extension of the franchise in country districts, railway matters, and Tariff revision. Four provincial conferences sent the following motion : —“ That the only fair and equitable way of altering the Tariff is in the direction of a revenue tariff, with preference to British goods carried in British bottoms.” Wellington will urge the removal of duties from all farm products coming from countries which meet New Zealand on an equal basis, and three provinces will protest against any duty on agricultural machinery.

Mr E. A. Axelsen has definitely severed his connection with the Patients and Prisoners’ Aid Society. His resignation as assistant agent was received and accepted at a committee meeting held yesterday afternoon. Mr Axelsen is taking up work in connection with the Presbyterian Church. In the meantime Mr J. A. Torrance will continue the duties of chaplain and agent of the society. Tho country lad who comes to town to make a start in life or to prepare himself for mailing one is not in general looked on very favorably by boarding-house keepers. He generally brings his country appetite with him. As ho is not overburticned with means, he lias to seek the cheapest class of boarding-house. There lie is thrown into contact with tho roughest class of men. His young njind is open to receive impressions easily, and he is particularly liable to influences which may not be good for him. In short, ho is exposed to a town life which is full of- new temptations and difficulties. Under these circumstances the boarding-house keeper sometimes declines to accept the responsibility to his parents of such a boarder. What, then, is tho Lid do - Tko Y.M.C.A. are solving the difficulty. The establishment of boys’ homes as an adjunct to their work in the towns is now recognised by them as a desideratum. Splendid work—on a small scale, perhaps—has been accomplished, by them in a small way. Tho three-storey semi-detached building in Moray place which was rented by tho Y.M.C.A. for use as a boys home has been in occupation by nc ? w ' f° r about three weeks. About £IOO raised by the Ladies’ Committee has been spent in furnishing it, and fourteen boys arc now living there under the charge of the resident managers, Mr and Mrs fianna.)i. An inspection the other morning showed that while there is nothing ' ol luxuiy there is abundance of comfort. Best of all, the boys take an interest and pride m their home. Their ages range from fourteen to twenty—those are the Limits imposed—and they pay from 10s to 12s 6d per week. In this way the establishment is being made self-supporting, excluding, . c< ? urse , tho original cost of furnishing, which may be charged to capital account and not revenue. _ While recreation is provided m the evenings, the religions side s nob overlooked, as a Bible class is held one evening a week, under the leadership of a student boarder. In passing it may be mentioned that a stipulation is maae that all boarders must be attached in some way to one of the local churches. Mr M’Farlane, the secretary of the local branch of o i.M.C.A., says that if more accommodation were available the scale of this undertaking could be enormously enlarged siorn 161 ' 0 18 n<> * ack a PPkcants for admis-

ITie purpose of the Hon. T. Y. Duncan’s visit to Camara is (says the ‘Mail’) to inspect the Corriedale Estate, which is to be opened for settlement in March. The survey of the block, which consists of 7,000 acres, will be commenced at an early date, and the Minister is anxious to go over the land so that he may be in a position to issue instructions as to the most suitable way of subdivising it. Matters in regard to Otekaike have also been advanced a stage, and the Land Purchase Inspector will arrive in Oamaru the week after next to further the preparations for talcing over that estate.

The change of public feeling with respect to the method of making war was exemplified in the case of a speaker at a volunteer gathering last evening. He said that the worst friend of the British Army was the British public, who wanted war sans loss. He then went on to say that Lord Kitchener’s jvish to assault at Paardeberg would have caused less lose in the long run than Lord Roberts’s plan of investment and bombardment. In short, Lord Pitchener was right and his comman-der-in-chief wrong. Time was, and nob so long ago, when even post-prandial stimulus would not have brought such sentiments out of a public speaker. In all the Empire there were only two authorities—Lieuten-ant-colonel Maude and Colonel LonsdaleHale—who 'were “game” to speak them at the time. Now it seems to bo a fairly popular sentiment.

A ‘ Star ’ representative interviewed a number of teachers with reference to the decision arrived at by the Education Board on vertical writing. The system of vertical writing was introduced here by Inspector Petrie something like fourteen years ago. The teachers interviewed were divided as to its merits, but them feeling on the Board’s decision was unanimous in one respect. They complain that educational trees are too frequently torn up by the roots before there is time to determine whether they will bear fruit. Any reason is deemed sufficient to warrant a change, and those who liavo to bear the heat and burden of teaching never know where they stand or what they are required to teach. In the present case the reason for change was that the son cf a member of the Board had produced a bad copy book. On this one instance vertical writing was condemned, none of the other members of the Eoard, apparently, knowing enough about the general merits of the question to say either “Yea” or “Nay.”

At the present time it is only possible to despatch one train north and one south at the same time from the Dunedin station. There is platform accommodation for five trains of limited length. When the new station is open there will be platform accommodation for six long trains, and three simultaneous, despatches will be possible after the Mosgiel line has been duplicated. Just now there is much activity in the railway area. The shifting of the maintenance sheds from the vicinity of Thomas Bums street to the vicinity of Hanover street is going on rapidly. The sheds are being moved in sections, with the aid of a steam crane. Something like a fortnight from now will see the work through. After a quarter of a century of usefulness the old railway station is likely soon to be a thing of the past. As soon as the new station is ready the old one will be demolished, and the “ remains ” sent to do 'railway duty of some sort in country places.

Inventors the world over have been devoting themselves for years to the task of providing efficient ana economical means of preventing the great loss of life which happens annually upon the great railway systems through collisions and other accidents. Even in New Zealand the problem has received some attention, and judging from experiments which were witnessed in Wellington by a member of the ‘ Post ’ stqff, it would appear as if a very simple and satisfactory solution had been arrived at. Those who have undertaken to solve the problem of railway safety are Messrs E. W. and G. H. Buckeridge, of Auckland, both of whom are well known in Nelson. For eight years these brothers have been testing their ideas and putting them into practical form, and now they have protected throughout the world their automatic means of preventing railway accidents. By means of wires placed between the rails on the permanent way and an equipment in the cab of each engine, automatic warnings can be conveyed to enginedrivers either by the ringing of a bell, the ’ blowing of a whistle by steam, or other signals. The system is electrical, and the warning is conveyed by means of direct continuous currents. A danger zone can be arranged within which it would bo impossible for two engines to come into collision, and the giving way of a ginkr on a bridge, the collapse of any portion of a tunnel, the washing away of part of the permanent way, and the displacing of i points would all be automatically intiI Slated on an aEproachdng engine,

A- statement of startling importance was made at last night’s meeting by hfr W. C. Allnutt, head-master of the Kaikorai School, who mentioned incidentally that out of forty-five pupils who would qualify this year for “free places” in the secondary schools he aid not think that more than half a dozen would proceed to Schools. And Mr Whether (head-master of Forbnry School) backed up the assertion, saying that out of thirty-two children in his school who would qualify he doubted whether more than two would go to the High Schools. Yet another suburban head-master declares that though nearly twenty pupils m his will be entitled to “free places,” he is extremely doubtful whether any will go forward to the secondary schools. It would thus appear that the opmion expressed by this journal when the free place ” scheme was inaugurated that the rush of primary scholars into the secondary schools would ease off is likely to be sooner borne out than even we expected.

The Clutha River Board, at a meeting this morning at Balclutha, accepted the tender of Messrs Knewstubb Bros., Port Chalmers, for an oil launch for the Clutha River.

An exceptional assortment of hand-made furniture is offered at lower prices than ever. Banders, 88 George street.—fAdvt.l Friends of the Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin are urged to support the effort being made to raise funds for renovating tho church building. The management look for a large attendance at tho sale of work to be opened on Wednesday evening at 7.30. The Ladies’ Guild offer goods for sale, arid arrangements have been made for numerous attractive items.

t , second quarter of the George street Ladies Gymnastic Club commences on Tuesday, the 24th inst.

Tamer Juice for liver and kidney is a Genuine medicine. jy og j A notice to members of Dnrid lodges appears in this issue.

Mr Morris, artist in photography, gives special attention to portrait studies m bridal costume, wedding groups, etc. Long experi ence, combined with a most perfectlyequipped studio, enables him to render the texture of light draperies to the best possible Ste^Bdvtj 8 cpecimen8 ’ 6tudi0 ’ PriDces To-morrow evening the Rev. H. L. Blamires, the travelling secretary of th© Methodist Young Peoples Forward Movement wll preach at 'Trinity Methodist Church, and will speemfiy address young men and women. Un Wednesday evening a united meeting of ihe young people of the Trinity, Woodhaugh, and North-east Valley congregations will be held m Trinity Schoolroom to meet Mr Blamires. '

To-morrow evening, in the Trades Hall, Mr Perry will deliver a lecture before the Progressive Society on ‘ State Socialism-’

Artistic hairdressing for evenings, etc— a specialty by Mr Hendy, who secured diploma of honor at the hairdressing comoatitions hddmLondcm last year. Hairdressing Lorn Mr Watt advertises that to-night is the night of the exhibition of his collection of spirit drawings at 112 George street, they are well worth inspection. The annual card tournament m connection with Unity Lodge, 1.0.0. F., and Caversham Lodge, M.U., will take place in the Friendly Societies Hall, South Dunedin, on Monday evening. J

Have you a sore that won’t heal? Witch’s Ointment, a mighty healer. [lo9] Dr Waddells lecture to-morrow evening is on ‘Man, the Poem of God.’

This month F, and F. Martin, Octagon, are offering furniture and furnishings at lower prices than ever. Great sale of remnants of linos, and floorcloths. Keep money by purchasing at their great sale.—[Advt.] Dr Waddell’s lecture on Tennyson’s ‘Vision of Sin, a study in spiritual devolution (which was postponed), will be delivered on Monday evening in St. Andrew’s Hall, at eight o’clock Music and songs will be contributed by Mrs Stone, Miss Mitchell, aud Miss Waddell. Those who come to the lecture are requested to bring their ‘Tennyson’ with them. The Rev. Alfred Gamble, formerly of Melbourne, who was recently appointed organising secretary of the Church Mission Association, Nelson, will deliver a missionary address in the rooms of the Y.M.CA. on Monday evening, as notified tlsewhere. The Association is an offshoot of the Well-Known Church Missionary Society, which was founded in 1799, and is represented in almost every part of the world where missions have been established.

Last few days of T. Ross’s sale. All jackets, furs, blouses, umbrellas, stockings, lined gloves, etc., to be cleared out at still further reductions.—TAdvt.] • The Rescue Lodge of Good Templars hold their second anniversary concert in ihe Town Hall, South Dunedin, on Wednesday, the 25th inst. The programme comprises sixteen vocal and Instrumental items by some of Dunedin’s leading amateurs. The chair will be taken by the Rev. T. Trestrail. A meeting of shareholders in tho Soutehm Starr-Bowkett Society will be held on Monday next, when two appropriations will be disposed of. Applications for shares in the No. 2 group are coming in freely. 7 Tussicura for coughs and cold has stood the test of time, [lo3]

The Rev. H. L. Blamires, organising secretary for the Young Men’s Forward Movement in connection with the New Zealand Methodist Church, will deliver an address to men only in the Garrison Hall to-morrow afternoon. The subject of the address will be ‘ Christian Manliness.’ Mr Findlay will sing, and, Mr De Lautour’s Mandoline Bend will play selections. The evening servoie will be conducted by the Rev. W. A. Sinclair, who will speak on ‘Hidden Wells.’ The solo will bo ‘ Sun of My Soul.’

The foundation stone of the now medical wing of tie Dunedin Hospital will be laid by His Excellency the Governor on Wednesday afternoon. Ladies who assisted at the Saturday collection are specially invited to be present.

A notice to members of Court Robin Hood, A.0.F., appears in this issue. Residents of Sfe. Kilda interested in the erection of & band rotunda are invited to attend a meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday evening. The North End Boating Club hold an important meeting at Hotel Middlemarch on Monday evening, when all members and exmembers are requested to attend. The Christian Brothers’ School reopens on Monday nexj. For stiff jojnts, lame back, contracted muscles, nothing beats Witch’s Oil. [lo9]