LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evening Star, Issue 17776, 26 September 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

European laundries are few_ and far between in Auckland (according to the 'Star ’). During the past few years a - decided vellow tinge has come oyer the ' business." You may come across_a Lana- ■ dian laundry” or some other ultva-Bmisii cognomen, but when you get closer there- ' is always an Ah, or a Lee, or a bmg before the gentleman’s name, and the doorwav frames j on€ or xnoxo of those inscrutnb!o faces which have about as much expression as a shiny “ boiled shirt front. One white oerson did start a laundry in Auckland within the twelve month, but after'a ‘three’weeks’ experiment the shuttera went up. It was hopeless trying to compete against .the yellow_ man. The ■scattered Chinamen—there is one every lew yards, so to speak, in the environs of the city—have a big advantage over the lame European laundries in the matter of delivery. The Chinaman can keep open in the "evenings, so it is an easy matter for the householder to slip round after work, or even after tea, for his washing. It is not often that a local- body bases anything so extensive as a gravel pit, and finds it again after twenty years; but this has happened to the Horowhenua County Council (reports a contemporary). At the council’s’ last meeting it was mentioned that the occupier of an aero of land on which the’gravel pit is situated, and on which he is running a pig farm, had offered, to buy tho_ land and pit from the council, and this was first intimation that members had received as to the council’s ownership. Oho member .stated that it had been taken over from 'the Wiroldno’ Road Board twenty years ago. and then forgotten. The Education Department is not in favor of a recent suggestion made by the Auckland Education Board that the supervisor of domestic science in Victoria should be asked to come to Auckland to investigate the methods adopted there. A letter received from the Director of Education at last week’s meeting of the board stated that in the Victorian primary schools svllabus no provision whatever was made for the teaching of domestic science, so that this State was far behind New Zealand. which provided for instruction in cookery and laundry work for girls throughnut tho Dominion. The instruction referred to in the Victorian schools related only to four centres in the whole State, embracing not ’mere than 400 _ girls; in New Zealand it was given in 527 schools to 12,120 girls. Tt was further.pointed out that .in the Junior Technical School in Victoria no provision whatever wan made for the teaching of domestic science. In view of tho very limited scope of the worK in Victoria, it was unlikely that an officer from that State could be of much .assistance in reporting on the work in the Vuckland province, which was already veryfar in advance of anything in .Australia. Mr A. Burns, who previously introduced the matter, said there Were, several, statements in ’this communication. which he might be able’to refute,- and further consideration of the matter was accordingly deferred’ until next meeting. What is perhaps a unique but certainly a magnificent family .war record came under the purview of the Finance Committee of the Wellington War Relief Association during the past month (says the 'Post’). ' The committee granted a,Joan :>£ £l5O to the father of two soldiers who were killed in action. -It appears thatethe father himself enlisted when he was sixtyfour, and served four years in the trenches. As if that was not 'enough to ffiow that the male members of the family had “done their bit,’’ the wife of the an-ed warrior paid her own fare to England, where she voluntarily engaged for several years in honorary war work. Remarkable figures relating to the value of .the penny when given regularly and for a specified purpose are disclosed by the annual report of the Wellington Catholic Education Board. That body has been in existence since 1913, at which , time, was inaugurated ’ a system of collecting pennies at the church doors for the support of tho Catholic schools, so as to make up the difference beween what the pupils were able to pay and what was tho cost of the services of. the teachers. The net result is that since that time tho “ pennies,” as they are known, have yielded the very satisfactory amount, of i 0,766; last year r the amount raised by that means was £724, as compared with £713 for 1920.

■A London minister epoko a picturesque sentence at the Wesleyan Conference. “During the last five years,” he said, “ God had tumbled the chinch out of bed, and' they most employ new methods, if they-were to meet the spiritual wistfulr.ess o! the suburbs.” Whether the suburbs are more spiritually wistful than the centre is uncertain, but the description is generally truthful enough. “ One of the defects of our religious work is cowardice,” was another dictum from the same lips. A strange skeleton .head, about three feet long, found in the Pohangina River by Mr D. J. Lovelock i and a party of Palmerston North residents recently, ha« so fax perplexed all who have essayed to give an opinion as to what species of animal the bones have come from (says an exchange). ‘The skeleton is in one piece and well preserved. The face is curiously shaped, having the appearance of a fancy-dress mask. The sides curve in a semi-circle to a point below the eyeholes, and at the end of the curve another commences, which slopes into the base of a slightly pointed ridge, which evidently formed the foundation for the snout of the beast. Large eye-holes are set high in the face, and just above are the ear sockets, which are shaped like those of a wild boar. But the most peculiar features of the skeleton are two flat bones which surmount the face. They are almost like antlers, except that they are flat at the top, resembling a Maori mere in shape. A noticeable feature is that all the contours are of uniform length and breadth. Ridges along the back of what appear to be antlers are very sharp. A girl about eighteen years of age, residing in Ponsonby district of Auckland city, had a narrow escape from asphyxiation on Tuesday. It appears that when she retired to bed, rather earlier than usual, she left her bedroom light burning. The friends with whom she was residing shortly afterwards found the gas supply in the house cut off, a defect which was remedied by attention to the slot meter. When the fresh supply came on the occupants of various rooms relit their gasjets; but the girl in question had fallen asleep and knew nothing of the impending dancer. Nearly two hours later the lady of the hefuse had occasion to bo near the girl’s bedroom, when she detected the escape of gas. On opening the door she roused the inmate, who was assisted out of Led couching and choking. Fortunately the window had , been open, and although the atmosphere was very poisonous by the time the girl was rescued she suffered nothing worse than a severe headache in consequence of the mishap.

Four meetings of the Claims Committee of the Otago Patriotic and General Welfare .Association- were hold during the month of August. Ninety-two applications from returned soldiers were considered and with as folows:—Grants totalling £153 16s 10d were made to 38 applicants; 'allowances aggregating at the weekly rate of £29 12s 6d were made 'to 19; one loan of £SO (secured by a registered mortgage) was granted, and a second loan of £4 was authorised, but the applicant did not arail himself of it; rearrangements were \ made in connection ■with the repayment of loans in four cases; 21 applications were declined; consideration of fire applications deferred; discharge of the mortgage was executed in one case, the amount loaned by the committee having been paid in full; in one case arrangements were made for the disbursement of money received from war expense*; and a grant of £2O was made to the returned soldiers’ orchestra. In acrordance with the resolution of the executive at the quarterly meeting hefd_ on August 8, the committee is now considering case* whjre the disability a soldier «r dependent is suffering from is not dirtctly due to his v/ar service, but where it is evident tfie case is one ,of hardship due to illness or the present scarcity of employment where a man is unfit for heavy manual labor.