LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 18141, 4 December 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A limited number of members responded to the invitation to attend a meeting _ ot tho Management Committee of the Taion Agricultural Society, held at Outram on Saturday night. l-Vom. the particulars supplied of tho operations in connection with the recent show, it was ascertained that tho function had proved very satisfactory. Tho slight falling off in the entries and gate receipts had been moro ihan made up in other ways, and. it was anticipated that after al! liabilities had been discharged there would be a< satisfa.ctory oredit balance. What tho exact amount will bo cannot bo stated till all Urn members’ subscriptions have been paid. in. Tho secretary was instructed lo pay out the cash prizes (£177 18h 6d) and other expenses (£105): also to have tho various trophies inscribed and handed over to the several winners. An intimation that there was a likelihood of tho Outram Town Board taking steps to have water laid on lo tho reserve mot with the approval of the meeting, and it was decided l that the society shout'd do all it could to help in the matter.

It is officially announced that the medieval arch of Old London Bridge, discovered during the excavations at House, on tho north side of tho is to he preserved as a permanent memorial within tho grounds of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park. Mr Tildcu Smith, owner of the site of Adelaide House, and the firm of Sir Robert M’Alpine and Sons, the principal contractors for tho exhibition, liave offered to present tho arch to the exhibition authorities, to pay tho cost of dismantling it, and to remove it to Wembley. They will take care to number all the stones of tho arch as they dismantle it, so that it may be re-erected in the exhibition grounds exactly in its original early Plantagenet condition. The offer is contingent on the Oity Corporation sanctioning tho removal of the arch to Wembley, but it. is not considered likely that this permission will bo withheld.

Just prior to the sailing of the s.s. Matakana from Bluff on© of tho firemen, who was being assisted down to tho vriiarf by his mates, suddenly broke away from them and l plunged into tho harbor. He then swam to the shore, and by that lime ho was sober enough to go aboard the vessel without assistance.

The case of a youth who applied before .Mr H. Y. Widdowson, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, on. Thursday for a certificate' of exemption from military training on the ground that such" training was contrary to his religious beliefs, was heard further by tho magistrate in Chambers next day. Tho case had been adjourned in order to obtain evidence from tho representative of thoSocialists’ Sunday School and on« of the boy’s parents. However, after recalling the boy, who again stated that military training* was contrary lo Jiis religious beliefs, (hr magistrate refused the application mu the ground that the iriocialiste’ Bnmiay School was an educational institution and not a religions one.

Tho probation .system in vogue in Now Zealand -was the subject, of, some comments by JILs Honor Mr Justice Adams in tho Supremo Court at Christchurch. Ills Honor stated that the probation law bad been passed to fit the case of young people who were just entering upon what might be a career of crime. He had made careful inquiry into the result of tho working of tho system, and was satisfied that in many cases tho result had been tho redemption of the young person from such a career. The dominant intention of tho criminal law, in this country at least, was to effect the reformation of tho young criminal. That purpose was being furthered by the law of probation. Mr Massey’s pose that Labor is an evilminded monster pursuing him with slavering jaws and gnashing teeth, and, from which he and his faithful henchmen must be carefully protected, is on occasion rather humorously illustrated (says the Auckland ‘Star’). On Wednesday night Mr 'Massey spoke at Dominion road, and in the same thoroughfare Mr Bahrain, the Labor candidate for Grey Lynn, has a committee room. Curiously enough just before the Prime Minister’s ca,r passed this committee room on its way to the Empire Theatre two stalwart policemen took up their station immediately outside and remained there till the car containing tho first gentleman in Now Zealand hacT rolled by. As Mr Bahrain put it afterwards, “Now, wore those two policemen there to protect me against Mr Massey or to protect Mr Massey against me?’*

Over two thousand children from the various Sunday schools in tho city took part in a Prohibition demonstration on Saturday afternoon. Led hy tho Salvation Army Band, tho .procession traversed the. main streets, which were crowded with onlookers. Tho children we.ro mounted on motor lorries and cars, and bore bannerson which various mottoes were inscribed, while they sang songs as they wore carried along. Tho procession, which was organised and controlled by Mr Macourt., of the hiew Zealand Alliance, drew rip in tho Triangle. Hero a choir of several hundred young people, conducted by Mr Hiet’t, sang campaign songs, and brief addresses were delivered by Mr Herbert Adams (president of the Tinted Temperance lieform Council) and the Rev, Clarence Eaton. Mr Macourt ■expressed his; thanks to all who had assisted tho movement, and the gathering dispersed after tho (National Anthem, had bean sung.

A meeting of the settlers of the Upper (,'lulUa Valley was held at Cromwell on Saturday night, when the following motion was carried unanimously:—“That this meeting of representative landholders, comprising a large proportion of returned soldiers, emphatically endorses a reform in the Land Act granting an extension of pastoral leases up to thirty-live years, as it would bo lo tho advantage of tho country, as against short-dated leases. As far as further subdivision of Otago lands is concerned, wo could point to very few properties now held that could bo further subdivided, to the advantage of the Slate or tho adjoining country.” Tho meeting was presided over by Mr D. Middleton, president of the Upper Clutha branch of tho Sheep Owners’ Association.