Untitled

Evening Star, Issue 19045, 14 September 1925, Page 6

The postal authorities advise that the RMS Tahiti, which was listed t 0 arrive at Wellington to-day from, Sydney, has 108 hags (including cightythree from the United Kingdom) and forty-seven parcel receptacles ot mad for Dunedin. This lot will come to hand to-morrow afternoon. The R.M.b. Niagara was duo at Auckland to-day from Vancouver with English and American mails. The sixteen bags ot letters for Dunedin should inmo 011 Wednesday evening, and the Wigs (nearly 100) of newspapers and parcels on the following afternoon.

A complete post office is to bo erected at the entrance to the Government Pavilion at the Big Exhibition, at which a savings bank and all postal facilities will ho° provided. A reception, room will he stationed near the mam entrance for the use of the GovernorGeneral and Ministers ot the Grown. This reception room, panelled with New Zealand timbers and hud down with a floor of selected Southland beech, will bo entirely furnished with _ locallymanufactured furniture from New Zealand timbers, and tho floor rugs used will bo representative of tho host work of an Auckland maiiufactuici. Now doors of modern typo have haon set into the entrance of tho main chamber of tho Dunedin Post Office in Dowlin" street. A firm panel is built in, and on each side is a glass door that swings both ways. Hie effect is not only pleasing to the eye, but to give better light and make the ingress and eerross easier for tho heavy trafhe. hor these advantages our citizens will not mind surrendering the sentimental attachment to the doors that are now removed—tho doors through which our people entered the buildings in its old days as the Garrison Hall to hear such celebrities as Camille TJrso, R. A. Proctor Henry Ketten, Archibald Forbes, G. ‘A. Sala, Madame Patey, H M, Stanley, Ovide Musiu, Foli, Madame d’e Vere Sapio, Dr Talmadge, and many other entertainers and orators, including Sir George Grey, who are milestones in the memory of our seniors.

The promise of a pleasant afternoon on Saturday was not fulfilled. At about 8 o’clock rainclouds blew up from the north-oast, and gave Dunedin another drenching. Towards evening the downpour lightened and gradually ceased, but the weaher remained sad and vaporous. Yesterday the sun got through in only occasional peeps, and it was the same this morning. September so far has been exceptionally moist. The temperature, however, is more tolerable. Christchurch is getting a similar experience. In a ’phone conversation this morning a resident of the City of the Plains said that the whole countryside is waterlogged.

As soon as the Roslyn tramcar service was finished on Saturday night a party of workmen set in to repair the tenninal wheel at the junction of Ratlray and Princes streets. The main bush had become worn, with the result that the wheel was not running true. The job, therefore, was to put in a now hush. Work of that nature is always awkward, and nobody could say how long it would take, so it was decided to suspend the cable service lor the whole of yesterday, and the buses were put on instead. The repairing operatious were prolonged by tho accidental breaking of a lug whilst tho bush was being turned in. A new Ing had to he electrically welded. _ Though tho workmen kept on continuously they could not finish till 4 o’clock tins morning. Tho ordinary cable sendee was resumed to-day. incidentally another vexations occurrence happened yesterday afternoon at about 2.30. One of the electric buses skidded in Highgato. near Garfield street, owing to tho road being made slippery by _rain, and it ran into and partially split a telegraph polo, besides breaking tho front door of the bus.

The kincnia theatre, with which tho builders at the Big Exhibition are well advanced, will accommodate about 300 people. Hero will be screened films depicting almost every phase of Now Zealand’s national life, its sporting and tourist attractions, commerce, and industries. Another film will show_ the scenic wonders and attractiveness of tbo All-Red route. Most of the films used will bo duplicates of those sent to "Wembley this year,, and practically all have been prepared by the Government Publicity Department.

The grievances of the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association wero voiced at tho annual reunion of tho Auckland section on Saturday evening. Mr Parnell, vice-president, said they had no confidence in tho chairman of the Appeal Board. At least two appeals that should have been upheld were recently disallowed. They wore going to take this matter before Parliament this session, and ask for an amendment of tho Act. Mr Combs said that if the commercial balance-sheet method of computing the department’s prosperity was to continue for the next ton years they would got no increases of salaries during that time. The revenue surrendered in postage and telegrams was equivalent to £020,000, lie urged ail to work towards securing the standard of living that they had in 1914. During the last four years the association had been losing ground cons! nutly. What they could do alone was a great deal, but what they could do in alliance with the other workers of the dominion was simply stupendous. Messrs Barham and Leo, M.P.’s, made sympathetic speeches.—Auckland Association telegram.

Tbo Hon. A. D. M’Lcod, Minister of Lands, referring to a, Press Association message report of severe criticism of him by the Huuraki Plains County Council, said that apparently the trouble had arisen out of statements by him to a deputation, and in a speech _in tlio House the Minister emphatically denied the statement by Cr M’Lauclilan that ho (tho Minister) bad threatened to arrange for the auditor to investigate the council’s hooks when he was at patetonga. Ho had endeavored to find a way out of the settlers’ difficulties, and at the same time to do justice to the general taxpayer of the dominion. He asked whether the ratepayers would pay the same rate if the Lauds Department took over control of Papetonga Riding. In reply, the councillor representing this riding said the county collected £BOO, and spent practically nothing. If they reverted to the Lands Department they would get “a fair spin.” The Minister bad said lie could not understand the position. The riding was entitled to the expenditure of the balance, and it was the duty of the Audit Department to see that this took place. Replying to his (the Minister’s) inquiry, Mr M'LaucJilan said the county’s balance-sheet was returned from tlio audit taglcss, and the Minister, as an old county councillor, remarked jocularly that a tagless balance-sheet was a rarity, and should he photographed. He made no charge against the county administration in any way.—" Wellington Association telegram. A Napier Association message stales that fire on Saturday night destroyed the store, post office, and dwellings at Tc Polmo owned by "Grant and Howell. It is understood that they were covered by insuiauco. Tbo proceeds of Iho ‘Moxicano’ revue and its accompanying bazaar, which came to an end on Saturday night in His Majesty's Then I re, are in the vicinity of £‘3,100. That sum ol money will go to the Dominican Convent building fund.

In the Auckland Police Court, Henry Newell (forty), Harry Betts (twentyseven), and Amos George Taylor (twenty-seven), who pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of serge, stockings, etc., from various vessels, were sentenced, Newell to six months, and the two others eacli to two months. Thomas Langsford, for the theft cf serge the property of the Shaw, vSnvill Company, was fined £'lo, there being no conspiracy in this case.—Press Association.

Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs that the Blackball miners did not work on Saturday, and it is understood that their absence was duo to a decision to work a five-day week. About 7.30 ;Vm. on Saturday a man on his way to work at Lyttelton felt an insatiable desire to see what news was in the morning paper. Instead of obtaining one by paying 2d, ho decided to borrow the copv left for Schneidcman and Sons, Colombo street. Constable Duff saw him, and two hours later tiio magistrate saw him. too, for ho appeared in court charged with tho theft of ouo newspaper, valued at 2d. In the good old days ho would have been “gaoled’' for tho offence, but Mr Widdowson, S.M., discharged hiin without recording a conviction. Senior-sergeant Lewin said, that accused, a dork employed at Lyttelton, was a married man with a family. He had been caught stealing the paper by a constable who had been placed near there because firms in tho street complained that their papers were missing each morning. Accused, who pleaded guilty, said that ho had taken tho paper to have a glanco at the news. was the first time ho had taken a *pap<ic. “For the sake of my wife and family, please suppress my name,” ho asked tho magistrate. Tho Magistrate: “I’ll extend to you all tho leniency • I can under the First Offenders’ Probation Act. You will bo discharged without aeonviction being recorded, and your name ia suppressed.”—Christchurch correspondent. Humorous publications have boon given credit for exercising more influence on people’s behaviour than tho sternest works of philosophy. It has been mentioned that the fun that has been poked at the expense of their reputed loquacity has made barbers taciturn, that chorus girls for the same reason will generally decline champagne, that the disappearance of the three balls from the pawnbroker’s facade is attributable to the same cause, and so on through the whole category of belabored jokes. But in New Zealand, at any rate, Punch’s stand-by of the urchin cadging cigarette cards Ims not hitherto been applicable. For the last few days, however, Dunedin smokers—tho innocent parties who evince the slightest indication of addiction to the soothing weed —have been constantly and promiscuously solicited for “ cigarette cards.” The question is—have these lads been reading ‘ Punch ’ and adopting to their own environment the youthful enterprise there depicted, or is it the outcome of their own ingenuity t

Yes, the best place for children’s toys is Todd’s Toy Arcade, George street (nest the Plaza).—[Advt.] A endue tournament will be hold in Jay's Tea Rooms, next Plaza Pictures, to-night. The St. John Ambulance Brigade (men's division), which, unfortunately, tor a number of years has been non-existent in Dunedin, is about to ba revived. An executive lias the matter in hand, and anyone interested in practical firsUnd work is invited (o attend tho first meeting, to be held at tho St. John Ambulance Association Rooms, Old Fire Brigade Buildings/ Octagon, on Tuesday, at 8 p.m. • Dunedin is tlio onlycentre winch has no active body, and, in view of the coming Exhibition, it is of the utmost importance that an efficient body be formed.

Word has been received that tho four free kindergartens in Auckland are each sending £1 worth of f.reeaias and other flowers for ibo Dunedin kindergarten street sale. Wellington Kindergarten Association has also promised to send n donation of flowers. These will be for sale at tho stall at Jacobs s Corner next Friday.