LAST PHASE.

Evening Star, Issue 19290, 1 July 1926, Page 4

LAST PHASE.

Meetings of shareholders of tho New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition have been brief and formal ever since the company was constituted, and last night’s was no exception to the rule. It is probable that no public project on the same scale, once it had been fairly launched, was ever carried on with less dissension or doubts of tho discretion of those governing it. Tho undertaking was in the fortunate position described in the old chanty, “We’ve a jolly good crow, and ;i good skipper, too.” All things combined to prosper it, and they have brought their vessel into port, not with “ rent cordage, tattered sails,” hut £rcsh, shining, and triumphant; no voyage over fairy seas could have been more blest. Last night’s meeting, to wind up tho company, may be regarded as tho end of the great adventure, as tho confirmatory meeting which is still to come will he more formal still. It was a happy ending. The big project, which had doubters not a few before tho company was born, which was conceived in Dunedin, and of which tho intended scale and’ potentialities wore only slowly grasped at first by the Government, despite its most handsome assistance as the undertaking advanced, achieved a complete success as a national and Imperial, if not as an international, Exhibition. it was blessed and congratulated by tho King; it was mentioned in tho House of Commons; it required a whole paragraph to itself in the Go-vernor-General’s Address to tho Parliament of this dominion, in wliich it was stated that “the results juust prove beneficial to tho whole ot New Zealand.” More honor could not have been paid to it if it had been a Government enterprise from the start. They were wonderful figures which the president quoted at last night’s meeting. The receipts from space lees alone were £6O,QUO. Fixed at a lower rate, they were loss than £30,000 for the Exhibition hold at Christchurch in 3.906-07. The receipts from admissions passed £IOO,OOO. Fixed on practically tho samo scale, at Christchurch they were £52,600. Aids in making those past records look foolish were tho increased population of tho whole dominion, improved transportation, and an all-rail connection with tho West Coast which Christchurch did not enjoy when its Exhibition was held. In addition to new and favorable publicity which this city and province could not have won in half a score of years otherwise, Dunedin benefits by tho highway, a m. ,„nilicent park to be, the improvement and new sightliness of its northern entrance, and increased profits from its trading departments whicli are to afford the nucleus for providing, within tho shortest time, that long-wished-for and long-needed boon, a Town Hall. The repayment on £1 shares will he 14s lOd in the £, and it may be a trifle more—and this to shareholders who had conceived of those subscriptions as virtual gifts, for tho most part, and were writing them off their books before the big show opened. It has all been a triumph of zeal and of faith in Dunedin. Tho Expansion League is asking now that those who cast their bread upon tho waters and are receiving it back in unexpected measure should give a small percentage of tho return to help its work—the same work as that

which the Exhibition itself was designed to forward. Wo hope they will, but the appeal might be made also, with even more cogency, to those who were not shareholders in tho Exhibition.'

Tho expenditure on school buildings in the Otago education district, including general maintenance, repairs, alterations, small additions, and rents, amounted to £17,451 6s 6d for tho year 1925. New buildings cost £7,325 17s 7d; rebuilding, £6,891 11s 6d; purchase of sites, £l4 4s 6d; and manual and technical requirements, £B9 4s. At tho last meeting of tho council of the Chamber of Commerce the following resolution was affirmed:—“ That tho chamber issues a warning against tho growing practice of purchasing articles of luxury on the hire purchase system.”

Tho proportion of male teachers to female teachers in the Otago district has increased during the past few years In 1923 the ratio of males to females was 100 to 196, in 1924 it was 100 to 191, and in 1925 it was 100 to 185. The proportion among pupil touchers and probationers shows remarkable change. In 1923 tho ratio was 100 males to 245 females, in 1924 it was 100 to 150, and in 1925 it was 100 to 142.

For the conveyance of children to school and for the board of children who had to live away from their homes in order to attend school, the Otago Education Board, during 1925. expended £4,200 19s Bd, of which the department contributed £3,674 18s lid and tho board contributed £526 0s 9d out of its general fund. The expenditure on this item shows a decrease of £339 15s 4d, as compared with the previous year. Conveyance allowance was paid in respect of 633 children and boarding allowance in respect of eighty - sovou children.

At Rabiutua, Arthur S. Winter, a farmer, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a motor car while in a state of intoxication; also to driving in a manner dangerous to the public. On the latter count bo was lined £10; and on the first charge his license was suspended till March 31, 1927. The police said the incident happened as defendant was returning from a clearing sale, where he had obtained liquor. In driving homo his ear struck another, and damage resulted to “Winter’s car; also (slightly) to the other car. a youth, Arthur Vernon Stevens, for unlawfully converting a car to his own use, was fined £5. On a charge of driving the same car while in a state of intoxication, his license was suspended till March 31 nest.—Press Association.

On the subject of school hooks, the annual report of-the Otago Education Board for last year states:—“Free grants of hooks "were, as in former years, made to children of parents in necessitous circumstances and to pupils coining to Otago schools from education districts where different hooks were in use. Supplies of continuous readers were forwarded to all schools as required. With regard to the general question of the supply of school books, the board is still of opinion that the wisest course would bo for the Government to prescribe the use in all schools of tho dominion of one set of books for each subject of the primary school course, purchase or import tho required number of copies, and supply them at cost price to pupils, tho Education Boards to ho the distributing agencies.”

Mr E. A. Shrimpton, Wellington, announces that for several nights past, between 5.30 and 9 p.m., ho has been hearing clear and distinct speech on forty-five metres, also on about thirty metres, from 2XG, the De Forest Telephone and Telegraph Company, Now York. The power in use has not yet been ascertained. He considers that this is a good augury for round-the-world conversation as a practical thing.—Press Association.

Of the 2,212 pupils in Standard VI. in the schools in Otago in 1925. 1,870 (84.5 per cent.) gained proficiency certificates and 181 (8.1 _ per cent.) obtained competency in the private registered schools, of 202 pupils obtained proficiency certificates and thirty-four (nearly 13 per cent.) competency certificates.

It was announced at the meeting of the City Council last night that Alessrs Charles Begg and Co. had offered to present to tho city for uso in tho new Town Hall a grand concert piano. Tho council gratefully decided to accept tho gift, also a similar gift which was offered some weeks ago by Tho Bristol Company. As there will ho two halls in the new building—the large hall and the concert hall—this moans that both will he equipped with splendid pianos. The council will thus bo saved considerable expense, and tho citizens will no doubt thoroughly appreciate tho generous action of the two donors.

The tuition which was carried out by correspondence during the months of Alarch and April of last, year, when the schools _ were closed on account of the epidemic if infantile paralysis, is referred to in_ the annual report of tho Otago Education Board. It states that an assignment of work for each week fairly suitable for all schools was prepared by a committee of teachers, and published in tho Dunedin daily papers and in a number of the country papers. The scheme was intended to be a guide to _ parents to facilitate their supervision of tho children’s work, and pupils were urged to work independently in their own homes. Tho work done by tho pupils was posted weekly by tho parents to tho teachers, and tho corrected work returned in duo course. Tho teachers wore required to remain at their schools and to use their own discretion in carrying out the details of tho instruction. The secondary pupils of district high schools were communicated, with individually and directed as to their course of study. On tho whole it may he said that the measures adopted were the best possible under the circumstances. Tho cost of this tuition in this district was £18(1 os Id.

An Auckland Press Association telegram states that advice has been received from the Alinister of Alnrine that legislation will he introduced as soon as possible dealing with the discharge of oil refuse in New Zealand 1 waters by oil tankers and oil-burning vessels, which is a serious menace to tho fishing industry.

It is difficult to realise that there'are still people with such perverted sense of humor that they do not hesitate to perpetrate a practical joke which must cause acute mental distress to the victim or victims. A case in point occurred on Tuesday afternoon last, when some woman rang up n north end fruiterer, and, after stating that she was speaking from the hospital, asked that a message he conveyed to a certain household in Leith street informing them that the mother had been taken with a serious illness and conveyed to the hospital for an operation. As the Indy in question had left her home in the best of health a .short time before on a visit to friends at Port Chalmers, tho information, which reached the family as they sat at tea, caused consternation, and an anxious time ensued until tho lady was located, well and happy, in ignorance of the distress of her folk. Meantime the hospital authorities had rendered kindly aid in trying to fathom the mystery, and sympathetic help had been given all round. It was a cruel joke, and it is to he hoped that the perpetrator now realises her _ stupidity. Inquiries are being made with a view to the possible tracing of tho sender of tho message.

The Mount Cargill road is standing up well under winter conditions. The unsealed sections have been dressed with a live layer, and a surfaceman is employed attending to the metal. Mr J. P, Marks (Public Works Engineer) stated that he is satisfied with tho work.

Sunk at the dock fairway is the latest and last experience of tho dismantled steamer Broxton. A production of war exigency, tho Broxton has had a varied career during the few years of her existence. She was buuo in America to carry food to the Allies wheh the submarines threatened to cut off their supplies. Being an emergency job, she was not constructed with the facilities for despatch which' are regarded as indispensable to the commercial trader, and after the war she soon proved unprofitable for trading purposes. A syndicate bought her at Lyttelton as a speculation, and then sold her to the Union Steam Ship Company, who had her dismantled and tho machinery removed at Port Chalmers. Reduced thus to tho status ■of a “ sheer hulk,” she was not then easily' disposed of. Tho heavy timbering of her internal structure rendered her unsuitable for even a coal hulk. She was thrown on the scrap f heap of rotting old hulks down the harborside. A few days later a very high tide floated her out of that graveyard of buried sea romances, and she drifted ono night all over the Lower Harbor like a shrouded ghost of the might-have-been. Next day she was captured by a tug and returned to Carey 13ay, a wire hawser being put out to bridle her impatience. She remained there until a clay bed was ready for her alongside tho fairway to the new dock, where she was sunk yesterday afternoon in 17ft of water. Tho salvage tug Dunedin pumped in the water to sink her, and to-day she was sitting upright to serve as a fender for steadying ships about to enter or leave the dock.

Last month was the driest June in Christchurch since 1902, tho total rainfall (0.903) being 64 per cent, below the Juno average.—Press Association.

In the Auckland case in which Joseph Mercer, charged noth negligent driving on January 22 (when his car smashed into a telegraph post at Papakura) was sentenced by Air Hunt, S.M., to a month’s imprisonment, the sentence was altered to-day to one month and one day to enable an appeal to he made. Tho magistrate said defendant was driving the car, which was badly smashed. One life was lost, and a girl lost her eyesight. He was sorry for Mercer, but had come to the conclusion that he was not taking tho necessary care.—Press Association.