LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 18047, 15 August 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The following resolution was hnanimously adopted at tho meeting of the Albany Street School Committee iast evening :—“ There as no site available for a new school in the north end that in any way possesses tho great advantages of tho Lake Logan site, already secured by the Education Board, and the committee expects the board to adhere to tho existing arrangement.”

It is to be regretted (says the session report of St. Andrew’s Church) that the Wednesday evening meeting has so little hold upon the congregation. The attendance is barely twenty, and, in spite of every attempt to make it suit the needs of the members, less an d less interest seems to be shown in it. Tho session feels that the time has come to determine whether it fulfils any useful purpose, and whether it warrants tho time spent in. preparation for it hy the minister. Tho Invercargill Competitions Society’s annual festival opened last night before a crowded house. Tho entries are 50 . per cent, above last year’s total, and are well distributed among the various sections. Thera is every prospect of an unusually successful festival.

Miss Jane Chalmers, of Ashburton, who recently gave the Hospital Board £3,000 for tho purpose of extending the women’s ward accommodation at .the County Hospital, has now given another £I,OOO to build a new operating theatre. Under the will of the late Mr W. Brucksha-w, the Ashburton Board has had bequeathed to it the sum of £SO.

Tho matter of providing necessary increased accommodation at (he St. Andrew’s Church Bible School lias bad very protracted consideration during the year (states tho Deacons’ Court report). Two schemes were brought, forward ; one providing for on additional story to the present building, the other for a separate building at the rear. Alternative tenders were called for. By,a small majority the court recommended the former scheme to the congregation. A general meeting_ of the latter was held on June 25 to consider the recommendation. Aiter a very full discussion, it was resolved, on account of tho present cost and of a difference of opinion as to which was more suitable for the school —“ That the matter be referred back to tho court, with a recommendation to confer with the Bible School Cabinet regarding a less expensive scheme.” Tho Brown Iboquost, available for this purpose, amounts now, with interest, to_ £552 19s lOd. It is recognised this will be insufficient, and tho difference will require to be met by the congregation. It is also desired fo proceed with the renovation of the inside of the church. It will bo necessary to make a further appeal to the congregation to enable the court to proceed with this pressing work, Japanese coal is being landed at Pbciflc Coast ports of America at 27s per ton, according to a cable received in Sydney recently from Mr G. M'Leod Bolton, of M'Leoci Bolton and Co.. Sydney, who is at present in America. Strikes in America had, it appears, increased the demand for coal from overseas, and the fact that Japanese vessels have secured the business at 27s per ton would indicate that there is nothing in the rumor that twentytwo vessels had been chartered to take coal from Australia to the Pacific Coast.

It is probably fifty years ago since Chew Chong, a Chines© storekeeper in Now Plymouth, found out the value of fungus as a marketable commodity, and offered to buy as much of it as the poor struggling Taranaki farmer was able to gather from the stumps in the bush-clearing which settlement had made, and was making. Fungus gathering (states the Auckland ‘Star’)-be-came quite an industry at certain seasons of the year; but it took an awful lot to make a sackful of tho dried product, for after it was picked from the stumps in a wet state it had to be spread out and dried till every particle of moisture was out of it. After Chew Chong had been dealing in fungus for a short time he decided to go back to China on a visit, but did not want to let the industry languish, so he left a sum of money with a European storekeeper to buy lor him all the fungus offering. Many months after Chew Chong walked into-the storekeeper’s shop and paid over the money for the accumulated fungus. Ho had found a regular market for the stuff in his .own country, where tho demand was unlimited, because of tho use that was made of it for .culinary purposes, especially in the making of vegetable soup. What the kauri gum industry was in Auckland so the fungus industry was to Taranaki half a century ago. The meeting of the railway branch of the Workers’ Educational Association was held in tho Running Sheds Hall, and there was a fair attendance. The subject of the lecture—‘ Crime ’ —proved to bo one of great interest to, tho class, 'iho following were the chief sub-headings(l) What is Crime? (2) Classification of Criminals • (3) Extent and Cost of Crime; (4) Is Crime Decreasing? (5) Causes of Crime ; and (6) Remedies for Crime. At the conelusion of the lecture the lecturer was heartily applauded. Afterwards the usual discussion by the class followed, and this will ho continued at the next meeting. That section of tho Police Departments report which deals with appointments to the Police Forco during the past year states '“ One hundred and forty-one men were permanently appointed to the force during tho year, their birthplaces, relieions.°and occupations being as follows: Bir , hplaces-—New Zealand 105, England 14 "Scotland 6, Ireland 8, Australia 8. Religions—Church of England 64, Presbytorian 34, Roman Catholic ch, Methodist 9, Occupations—Blacksmiths 2, baker 1, bushmen 2, buttermaker 1, brnssfiuislici 1, compositors 2, chainman 1, carpenter 1, cheesemakers 3, oordinl-maker 1, cabinetmakers 2, dairyman 1, drivers 2, ex-con-stables 8, engine-driver 1, farm laborers 44 fireman 1, french polisher 1, flax-miller l.’irrocers 2, laborers 22, motor-drivers 6, miner I, mechanic 1, postman 1, paintci 1, qunrrvman 1, railway porters 2, shepherds 3, ‘shop assistant 1, seamen 3, sales--1 men 4, storemen 1, tram conductors 2, traI vcllers 2, limber measurer 1, wireless | operator 1.