LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 19774, 26 January 1928, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Wheat Committee of Canterbury, representing the growers, issued a statement yesterday _ urging farmers to refrain from accepting prices below the market rates for wheat. The committee argues that under a sliding sr-.le of duties the price of wheat should not alter, and only larger offerings than the market ca!n absorb will reduce the price. The committee urge's growers v.' o press sales at present, as selling pressure will weaken prices. A State and civic reception was. Just; .night accorded to Dr A. W. Hill, dircc*t • of the Kew Gardens,' at Wellington. Dr Hill said he considered Wilton’s bush an ideal place for an opeunT museum, and stated that botanists in England and on_the Continent were greatly interested in the plant_ experiments being conducted within it. Detectives raided the Central Hotel, Lambton quay, Wellington, and arrested three men—Vincent Eric Reeve (aged thirty years), Horace Haycock (barman and upholsterer; aged, twenty-eight years), and Bernard Sullivan (barman, aged thirty-thrco rears). In the afternoon the throe men appeared in the Magistrate’s Court before Mr E. Page. S.M.,_to answer charges against the gaming laws. Reeve and Haycock pleaded guilty to carrying on the business of bookmakers, and Sullivan pleaded guilty to keeping and using the public bar of the Central Hotel as a common gaming house. Reeve was fined £3O and Haycock and Sullivan wore each fined £2O. .Fourteen days were allowed in which to pav the fines, in default one month’s imprisonment in each case.

Closer contact between native education in Samoa and tlie New Zealand system is expected to result from the visit now being paid to the dominion hv two Samoan teachers—Tnua ami Katenc—who aro accompanied hy Mr H. A. J. Rutherford, superintendent of schools in Samoa. Referring to tbe visit of the teachers, the Director of Education (Mr T. R. Strong) stated that the Administrator of the mandated territory of Western Samoa (Sir George Richardson) considered that it was of the utmost importance that two native teachers who understood the English language should visit the New Zcv.land educational institutions and gain some experience as to what was done in educational matters here, m order that an improvement might be made in the scheme of native school education in Samoa. It was understood that later on a. visit to the dominion would be paid hy a, body of Samoan schoolboys. In that ray the Administrator was establishing closer contact between the Samoan schools and the New Zealand system. Already, added, the director, the most, important schools in Samoa were staffed hy Now Zealand teachers, and were the subject of annual inspection hy an inspector from the dominion. There is no sign of breaking of the dry spell in Auckland province. In the city'and suburbs gardens are parched and bare pin the country farmers have little green feed, and milk production continues to fall. Reports indicate that the hush fires which have been raging have been got under control, or else are not spreading owing to the drop in the wind. The danger of further damage, however, is not yet over. —Press. Association.

An Oamaru Association message states that at 11.30 a.m. yesterday a five-roomed residence in South Oamaru was completely destroyed by fire, together with its contents. It was owned by Mr S. G. King, of Clydevale, Gore, and occupied by Mr David Brown, railway employee, who was at work at the time of its occurrence. Mrs Brown was also absent, having left homo a short time previously to catch the mid-day train to Fairlie. The origin of the outbreak is a mystery. The insurance was £265 in the Royal Exchange. At the Oamaru Magistrate’s Court, before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., William Fraser, a runholder at Hakatararaea, appeared on a charge of being in charge of a car while intoxicated. The magistrate, after hearing lengthy evidence, said he was satisfied defendant and his companion, Wilson, had in a drinking bout. On the day previous defendant stayed out the night, though less than two miles from Kurow, while WiKon refused to

give any account of his whereabouts during the night, though lie admitted i.hat at 5.30 in the morning he was reading a paper at the monument. Defendant was fined £8 and his license cancelled for two years. At the same sitting Mary Jane Clark, of Dunedin, charged with unlawfully using an instrument and committing an unlawful act, thereby causing the death of Jessie Elizabeth Smart, reserved her defence, and was committed for trial to flic next sessions of the Supreme Court at Oamaru. Bail was granted in £2OO, with two sureties of £IOO each.—Press Association.