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Evening Star, Issue 21994, 2 April 1935, Page 8

Announcing his intention not to seek re-election for the Clutha electorate at the forthcoming General Election, Mr Peter M'Skimming candidly admitted in a statement to the ‘ Clutha Leader ’ yesterday that he had had a taste of political life and that it was not congenial to him. Selected as the Labour candidate, the Ilev. E. T. Cox is at present the only nominee for the constituency.

The men employed by the Ocean Beach Domain Board to extend the St. Clair esplanade eastward from the stepsin front of the pavilion are finding the work so far not quite so heavy as it was on the first section of the job. The boulders that have to be dug out are smaller, and now that the drought is broken the hydraulic plant for blowing out the sand is brought into use again. Eighteen of the concrete piles were in position this morning. A hundred is the total number required for completing the present undertaking to the full three chains of the second section. The excavating yet to he done to ■ ensure proper bedding of the concrete slabs may he more laborious, since nobody can foretell what is yet to be found when the uncovering proceeds; but the men will not be dismayed whatever difficulty may have to be overcome.

Some of the old surviving gold diggers in Otago had experience, when young men, of, the wonderful richness of the Thames goldfields in the late ’sixties. One of these men remembers seeing a quartz specimen brought up by a steamer from the Thames and carried to the Bank of New Zealand as a wonderful sample from the Caledonia mine, main reef. Speaking from memory, he says that this specimen was about a foot and a-half long, and that prior to the assay in the bank it was roughly valued at about £3,000. That specimen was, he thinks, sent to England as an illustration of New Zealand’s possibilities in gold. The Caledonia was only one, although certainly one of the chief, of the many rich claims on the Thames. The Golden Crown is also remembered. This company’s mine was fairly close to the Caledonia, and it was commonly reported at the time that its first crushing yielded enough gold to pay for the installation of very expensive plant that was imported for the purpose..

As a result of one advertisement in each of the city newspapers 129 applications were received for the position of janitor at the North-east Valley School, although the salary was announced as only £BO a year, with a free house, lighting, and fuel. Applications for the position came from as far afield as Oamaru, Tapanui, and Lawrence. The school committee sat until nearly midnight wading through the correspondence, and it was expected that a week would elapse before the final selection was made. As the result of a backfire a motor cycle caught fire yesterday at the corner of Bond and Liverpool streets, the City Brigade answering the call at 6.7 p.m. and extinguishing the outbreak before much damage was done to the machine. A malicious false alarm at the corner of Queen’s drive and Serpentine avenue was answered by the brigade at 10.37 p.m. When last week’s gale was at its highest fury kand blew into St. Kilda to a further point than had been reached at any time during the past twenty years, traces of it carrying almost up to the Council Chambers—not to such an extent as to cause trouble but certainly indicating that the planting of marram and lupin on the sandhills has staved off what otherwise would have been most undesirable happenings. The foresight of the Domain Board in thus ensuring against a real affliction to the locality is the more to be commended when it is remembered that the planting cost but a fraction of what an engineering scheme would have entailed. The date of the municipal elections has been fixed for May 8, one week later than the statutory date under the terms of the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Bill in charge of the Minister of Internal Affairs, which was passed by the House last night. The reason for the change is that this year the election date, the first Wednesday in May, would fall on May 1. It was also proposed that the rolls close on the usual date, though, after a long discussion, during which members urged that the closing date should he extended, the Minister agreed to 'this suggestion and dropped his clause. This enables the rolls to be closed a week later than the former statutory date.

It was reported at the meeting of the St. Kilda Council last night that the water consumption in the borough during the past fortnight was 4,227,000 gallons, the cost being £lO5 13s 6d, compared with £lO3 16s 6d for the previous fortnight. The Wellington City Couucil last night contributed £SO toward the fund the mayor has initiated nationally for the purpose of haviug a portrait painted of Lord Bledisloe to be hung in the new National Art Gallery and Museum. —Press Association.

Inquiries made locally concerning the establishment of a guarantee fund by the Government for the fruit export trade show that at present it' will probably uot affect growers in Otago, as they do not come under the control of the Fruit Board. The arrangement was thought to be a reasonably good ofte, said a gentleman connected with the industry this morning, but it wfts questionable if St would apply to Otago unless the .growers of the province combined and applied to come under the Fruit Board.

An inquiry addressed this morning to Hr M'Kibbin, medical officer of health for Otago and Southland, leads to the information that nrithing of a serious nature is giving trouble. There arc a few cases of scarlet fever, a complaint that for years past has been with us. Its development is relatively slow, calling for constant oversight, but it is kept in check. Latterly measles and chicken pox have appeared. In such cases the development is quicker and the treatment comparatively simple, and the whole position is such as to give no cause for anxiety. Probate has been granted by His Honour Mr Justice Kennedy in the estates of Elizabeth Forbes, widow, Lawrence; Mary Jane Grange M'Caw, spinster, Oamaru; John Harold Outram, fisherman, Taieri Mouth; George Murray Kennard, confectioner, Dunedin ; Elizabeth Maxwell, married woman, Ravensbourne; William Preen, labourer, South Oamaru; William Henry Cherry, commercial traveller, Dunedin; Charles Edward Jones, accountant, Dunedin; Mary Warden Davis, widow, Dunedin; Robert Penny, retired railway engine driver, Palmerston ; William Henry Rust, labourer, St. Kilda; Madeline Jessie Ward, widow, Dunedin; James Anderson Walker, farmer, Flag Swamp; Thomas Christie, farmer, Ailanton; Duncan Campbell, retired farmer, Owaka; James Pringle, gardener, Dunedin; John Cameron, tobacconist, Dunedin; and Michael Graham, farmer, Wainiata. Letters of administration have been granted in the estates of Roderick Shaw, labourer, Dunedin; James Ballock, poundkeeper, Kaitangata; and Christina Macdonald, married woman, Waipori. A Gisborne Association message states that the night mail truck from Napier left the road on the hill section between Morere and Gisborne at an early hour this morning, rolling down a bank and coming to rest against a fence with the wheels in the air. The driver escaped injury. The mail was three hours late.

As a result of the death of Mrs Alice Bertha Sampson, who had a life interest in the will of the late Mr Jesse Ernest Hounsell (states a Nelson message), the residue of the estate will be'divided in equal parts between the Talnma Sands Association and the Nelson Cathedral fund. It is expected that the amount will be well into four figures for each. Mr Hounsell left £I,OOO to the college governors and £IOO each to the Nelson Institute, the Salvation Army, the New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, the St. Andrew’s Orphanage, the Society for tile Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and £IOO each to three Nelson schools. Of £492,285 rates levied, Wellington city has received £445,355, or 90.46 per cent. Moreover (says a Press Association telegram), £50,929 has been received of rates in arrears. If the rate payments are anv indication oi the state of affairs it would appear that Wellington has entered definitely on better days.

The position of the Dunedin Savings Bank at the end of the first quarter of 1935 is that a fair volume of business is recorded the credits are well maintained and new accounts are being opened at a steady rate. Such is the effect of the reply by Mr Quaile (manager) to questions put to him today; The balance-sheet for the whole financial year to the end of March is now being made up.

Our anniversary list in Saturday’s issue brought to notice the ending of the Crimean War. A way-back ‘ Star ’ reader asks for a refreshing of his memory as to tho events surrounding the fall of Sebastopol, the most thrilling victory with which British forces were engaged in his younger days. The request is reasonable. Ask the man in the street what is in his mind as to the doings in that war, and he will probably reply that it was the charge of the Light Brigade, and likely enough he will quote Tennyson’s “ Half a league onward.” Colonel Todleben put the town and harbour of_ Sebastopol into what was deemed an impregnable state of defence, the forts mounting 700 guns, and the armies of France and England wore kept at bay for eleven months from October, 1854, till the capture of the Mnlakoff and the Redan in September of 1855 forced the Russians to evacuate. Todleben was made a general for his services in the siege. He afterwards besieged and captured Plevna from the Turks.

He sees well who see* Stunner. —W. V. Stunner, Optician, 2 Octagon, Dunedin Consulting Opticians—W. V. Slurmcr, A K. Watson, E. R. Boyd.—[Advt.]