LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 17926, 23 March 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

With. reference to the protests of A. and P. Societies against, their being called on to pay the amusement tax, the Prime Minister states that, as he had said when tho tax was imposed, the Government was obliged to take revenue from sources which had hitherto escaped taxation. Ho hopes to be able next session to ask Parliament to amend tho law so as to relieve A. and P. shows from future payments. He has replied to quite a number of societies to this effect.

The subject of tho proposed 1 advance in telephono .rentals was discussed at some length at Tuesday night’s meeting of tho Balclutha, Retailers’ Association. It was pointed out that, although a business firm might consent to pay £lB a year rental, private subscribers would certainly refuse to pay £9, and tho result would bo that tho department would lose a very large number of subscribers, and” storekeepers would suffer through their customers being unable to communicate, orders by ’phone. It was resolved to send an emphatic protest against tho suggested charges to the Prim© Minister, and to employ a paid canvasser to get signatures to a petition, which it was hoped would 1 include tho names of all the subscribers in Balclutha and vicinity.

Tho United Starr-Bowkctt Building Society hold a members’ meeting at Messrs Hugh Mitchell and Co.’s office Inst night for tho purpose of disposing of £I,OOO in Nos. 2 and 4 groups. Tho eighty-sixth appropriation in No. 2 group was drawn by cluster No. 13, held by one member, and tho forty-third appropriation in No. 4 group by cluster No. 173, held by two members. The chairman of directors (Mr E. A. Eosevear) stated that it was his pleasure to announce that tho No. 1 group (which had now reached its Jinal stage) was paying the extremely satisfactory dividend 1 of £ls per share, being far in excess of dividends paid by any other society. Ho also stated that large numbers of applications were being received for the new No. 6 group, which would hold its second ballot of £SOO next month. With tho £I,OOO drawn that night the United had granted loans amounting to the large total of £229,034 4s lOd. Tho deliberations of the Parliamentary Recess Committee on licensing law amendment were continued at Wellington yesterday, and tho committee hopes to conclude to-day. Tho draft report and the recommendations aro practically complete, but it is anticipated that when the. session opens tho committer, will hake an opportunity of revising tho draft before it is finally submitted to Parliament.

Tho North Canterbury Hospital Board carried a resolution- —“ I'hat the hoard invites the hospital boards in Now Zealand to urge the Government to appoint a commission to inquire into the prevalence of venereal disease in New Zealand, and to suggest the host means of combating tho disease.”

A head master’s responsibility with, regard to 1 the education of pupil teachers and apprentices is the subject of a circular issued by the Director of Education to senior inspectors. 31 r Caughley points out that head teachers are required to see that the necessary instruction is given to all trainees, and" that those who matriculated before appointment should sit for their 1) certificate at the end of their first year, and then go to the Training College. Beferonco is made to the fact that in some districts failures by this class of teacher were unknown, while in others they were far too numerous. Strict observance of the regulation for four hours’ teaching and one hour’s study is enjoined. Assistant teachers are to assist in the instruction, and to give the trainees' work kindly criticism, while the latter are not to be allowed to attend technical school classes without the Education Board’s permission.

Medical science has determined that sedentary occupations are. not conducive to longevity. It is difficult to find an occupation more sedentary .than that of a judge, but the batch of judges who have retired within the last few years have not had their- chances of longevity impaired (says the Sydney ‘ Daily Telegraph’). Judge Rogers has passed the octogenarian mark; Judge Murray is creeping up to it; and likewise Judge Docker. Judge Heydon is malting for seven years more than three-score and ton, and so is Judge Fitzhanlinge. Mr Justice Sly has passed the seventy mark by three years, and Judge Backhouse is lagging only two years behind. Seventy years was regarded by Mr Justice Sly as comparative longevity, ami lie returned to the Bar in a consultative capacity.

The rapidly-growing need for the extension of the Minders street railway station in Melbourne, stated to be the busiest in the world, was alluded' to at Auckland by the Hon. J. G. Meuibrey, a inenruer of the Melbourne Tramways Board, who recently toured the Dominion. It was estimated that more trains and more traffic passed through Flinders street than through any railway station in the world, said Mr Membrey, and, although this was an interesting distinction, it had its decided disadvantages. The traffic had grown enormously in recent years, and was now so congested at certain points as to be a positive danger to public palely. _ Steps would certainly have to bo taken in the near future to relievo the congestion. Some people woro of opinion that it would have been bettor to have built another station in the northern part of the city, and, despite the enormous cost involved, this was still being advocated by a largo section of the public. The settlers of the “ Winterloss ' North ” have shown a truly progressive spirit in establishing a newspaper at Kaitaia to advance the interests of the peninsula north of Auckland. The residents in the small townships from Waitcraata to the Mongonui district in the Far North are determined to boost this comparatively little-known portion of the Dominion, and they desire settlers of the right class to take up land there and develop this splendidly fertile region. Transport for farm produce is afforded in many "parts by fine rivers penetrating far inland, and on the coast there are some of the'best harbors in New Zealand. The well-sheltered harbor of Mongonui, opening on to Doubtless Bay, has a depth of 27ft of low water, and there is every probability of it becoming a busy port in the future, when the interior reaches a greater state of development. Colonel Allen -Bell is one of an enthusiastic band who sees a great future before the “ Winterless North,” and it was he who promoted the 1 Northlander, the journal which it is hoped to make the official voice of the settlers on the peninsula. The Auckland Harbor Board is faced with" the position of having to increase its revenue. The secretary at the annual meeting of the board stated that the board’s loan indebtedness (including the £50,000 being issued) amounted to £2,175,0C0, involving an annual payment of £126,300 for interest and sinking funds, and this was increasing every year. The expenditure on Urn works authorised by the 1919 Empowering Act was to have been spread over ten years; but at the rate the money was being spent the loan would be exhausted by 1924. To cover these additional payments for interest and sinking fund the board would require additional revenue each year amounting to £21,000. Great daring was shown by a thief who rdbhe-d a woman passenger on the liner Narkunda of £l5O in money before tiro vessel sailed from Sydney last week. He snatched the money out of a handbag which the woman (Mrs Grenfell) war. carrying on her arm. The money war. contained in -a wallet, and Mrs Grenfell, 1 who is travelling to London, was standing on (the saloon deck of the vessel at the p. and O. wharf not long before the vessel left. Her bag was hanging on her arm as she was talking to some friends who had eofnc to say good-bye. .Suddenly a hand' was plunged into the bag at her elbow, and she found to her consternation that the wallet was missing. She saw a man making a hurried departure, and was able to give a detailed description to the police, who are investigating the case. The money was mostly in £lO with a number of £1 notes-.