FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Star, Issue 23560, 26 April 1940, Page 11

FIFTY YEARS AGO

FROM ‘ STAR ' FILES The New Zealand and' South Seas Exhibition held in Dunedin has dosed. The total attendance was 025,248, or nearly 18,000 iu excess of the European population of the colony when the last census returns were made. Mr John Roberts, president of the exhibition, was entertained at a banquet in the Grand Hotel. A presentation of three pictures by noted British artists was made to him and Sirs Roberts. The sculling race between Peter Kemp and Neil Matterson for £2OO a-side and the championship of the world was rowed over the championship course on the Parramatta yesterday, Kemp winning easily. German Socialists have presented to the Reichstag a petition bearing .8.000,000 signatures urging that the eight hours’ system bo adopted throughout the German Empire. The water is now stationary iu Bpurke (New South Wales). It is expected that it will be quite three weeks before the flood waters recede. Nino hundred women and children are now living under canvas at North Bourke. Rations are dealt out daily in the town, and many people are in a destitute condition.

Tho Emperor William, of Germany, in the course of a speech at Bremen, said his efforts would be directed towards the maintenance of peace. * * « « The quarterly returns of attendance for the period ended March 31, w'hich have been compiled by the Otago Education Board, show' that there were 190 schools in operation during the quarter, employing 254 male and 247 female teachers, besides 15 teachers for sew’ing. The number of pupils on the school rolls at tho beginning of the quarter was 21,300. A Christchurch meeting held this week decided to prepare a scheme for Saturday evening entertainments, in order to keep people from walking the streets at night. The eminent novelist, Mr Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mrs Stevenson were passengers by the Janet Nicol, which arrived »at Auckland from Sydney on Saturday. ■•» • • It is stated that Mrs Robert Campbell bequeathed £5,000 for the specific purpose of erecting a church and parsonage in the Waitaki Valley, in some spot between Duntroon and Kurow.