LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 18334, 23 July 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In response to an Invitation from the Waikouaiti branch of the Fanners’ Union about forty farmers met in the Public Hall on Thursday night to hear an address by Mr A. G. Ross (Dairy Division, Dunedin) on ‘Herd Testing.’ Delegates were present [from Goodwood, Waikouaiti, and Morton Co-operative Dairy Companies. ' The Waitnki Dairy Company and the Co-operativo Dairy Company of Otago wore also represented. , After the address, Mr William Leo (Goodwood) moved the following resolution; —“That a herd-testing association, to be called the Waikouaiti and Waihemo Herd-testing Association, bo formed, and that co-opera-tion bo invited from the districts between Waitati and Palmerston.” Speaking to the resolution, Mr' Lee said they should strive to secure 2,000 cows. They could then afford to have an independent testing officer, which would bo the most desirable method. In the event of this number not being reached, an arrangement might be made with the dairy companies concerned to do the testing. Messrs C. M‘Cailum, jun., and A. Fell supported the resolution, which was carried unanimously. For the purpose of giving effect to the resolution, the following ..executive committee was appointed :—-Messrs A. Wilson, C, M’Callum, jun., and A. Gilmore (Goodwood), E. 11. Scott and 0. Hammond (Merton), Charles Hallum and J. M. White (Waikouaiti). The support of 227 cows was promised at the meeting.

The manuscript journal of the St. Andrew's Litprary and Debating Club,' ‘ The Mirror,’ was read to club members on Saturday evening. This was the third issue of the year, and the editors, Messrs L. S. Rogers and W. A. Wilson, presented some nine articles in prose and four essays in verse. Some were imaginative, some descriptive of travel, and there were also some entertaining club notes and a book review. In tho Ipnsuing discussion some of the papers and the editors themselves wore criticised. A vote taken at tho close showed that *An Autograph Album ' was the most popular of the prose, and ‘ Quest ’ the most popular of tho verse contributions.

The Arbitration Court gave judgment at Auckland on the question whether wages must bo paid for Anzac Day under the award, the case being an appeal by the Inspector of .Awardjs against the magistrate’s decision in a case against the Federal Boot Company, of Wellington. The magistrate held that Anzac Day, being a Sunday, and wages being computed under the award on an hourly basis,' the defendants were not. bound to pay journeymen for Anzac Day, and could deduct the amount of that day’s wages, and judgment was given for the defendants. Mr Justice Frazer said that Anzac Day was not included in the schedule of holidays to be recognised ns such. Under clause 9 of the award that day was required to bo observed as a Sunday, not as a holiday, and it did not come within the holiday provisions in the award. While in the absence of special provision in the award no deduction in respect of Anzac Day or a holiday could bo made from the weekly wages payable to weekly workers, the present workers were not weekly workers, and, apart from the provisions in the Factories Act. there was nothing in the award or elsewhere to prohibit deductions from being made from their wages in respect of holidays, while in the case of Anzac Day there was no .prohibition at all against time lost being deducted from their weekly carnihgs. Mr Justice Frazer said it was an undesirable situation, for unless remedied by legislation it would lead to Anzac Day becoming a bone of contention between two classes of workers. If Anzac Day were observed on a Sunday this difficulty would not occur. The court’s opinion was that the magistrate’s judgment was sound in law, and the- appeal must mail. This being a test case, no costs were allowed.

A fine model of an ideal school playground for New Zealand schools was one of the. attractions in the education section at the Winter Exhibition (states the Auckland ‘ Herald ’). The design and layout are by Mrs N, E. Ferner, a member of the Auckland Education Board, and president of the Auckland Flay Association, In the centre of 1 lie spacious grounds stands the school, the buildings arranged in a semi-circular fashion. There is a football ground, several cricket pitches, and grounds set apart for basketball and other school games; a fine swimming bath, sand pits for the smaller children, and a number of swings and other playground appliances. The surface of the playground consists of grass plots and sand paths, with a complete ring of trees and shrubs round the boundary fence.

Tho usual circuit sittings of the Supremo Court commenced at Nelson on Wednesday last, His Honor Sir John Salmond presiding. There was no criminal business, and the registrar presented His Honor with a pair of white gloves to mark the occasion. In acknowledging the presentation, His Honor congratulated tho Nelson district on the absence of criminal business. It was, he said, the first time in his experience during Iris three years on tho Bench that he had been able to offer such congratulations in any district. Ho hoped the example set by Nelson would be followed in other parts of tho dominion.

Extraordinary interest in the opening of the box plans for the first six nights of Oscar Asche’s production, ‘ Cairo,’ at Auckland, was evinced last night (says 7 Thursday’s ‘ Herald), when eleven persons assembled at the entrance to tho box office in Queen strret, to undergo an allnight vigil pending the opening of tho doors at 8 o’clock this morning. A managerial announcement reads: “A queue will bo formed from 7 a.m.,” but so impatient was one' man that no arrived on tho spot at 4.30 p.m. yesterday, and took up his stand immediately outside the door as soon as the shop closed. Ho was the ‘first-comer, and was on the scene 15} hours before the plans were opened. He stood alone for but two and a-half hours, two other young men arriving at 7 p.m. Thereafter a steady trickle of young men came along, until at midnight eleven persons sat in a group in tho doorway. One man lay asleep on tho hard stonework, with his coat for a pillow. Two others sat on boxes with their heads resting in their hands, while the remainder reclined in various attitudes of fatigue, conversing in low tones with their companions. Two of the men were furnished with thermos flasks and sandwiches; tho remainder arranged among themselves to repair to a neighboring place of refreshment in relays. By midnight all had had supper. As an instance of the excellent work being done by tho Cawthron Institute in the matter of research into waste products, it was stated in tho course of a deputation’s interview with tho Prime Minister that Professor Easterficld had utilised the vegetable refuse from tho flax industry by redistributing it on the flax fields, with beneficial results to tho plants, and he had been also experimenting with tho green waste. Professor Easterfield is convinced that not only can he distil alcohol from the green residue of the mills, but that both in quantity and quality the now by-product would go far towards satisfying New Zoanland’s needs in industrial alcohol.