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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 93, 19 March 1936, Page 6

That Auckland, from the point of view of the port, had been built on the Avrong side of the harbour, Avas stated by Mr H. 13. Burnett, former superintendent of the Auckland Harbour Board, at a meeting of the Auckland Rotary Club. Mr Patrick Lucas Hamilton, Avho resides near Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, celebrated what he claimed was his 106th birthday on Tuesday. His hearing is almost unimpaired while lie is still able to read. He was born in County Donegal, Ireland, on St. Patrick’s Da.y in the reign of William IV, and came to New Zealand in 1870.

“Borrow, beg or get hold of a Avireless set for March 25 somehoAv or other, even if you have to put down Is and then pay no more,” Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., advised raihvay Avorkers at a smoke concert in Christchurch, referring to the opening of Parliament. A little later, appealing for solidarity among Avorkers, he said : “You are going to be called on shortly to stand together more than ever in the past. The same thing as happened to Lang in Noav South Wales aaull happen here'and that is when we Avill Av'ant to knoAV Avho are our friends.” “We NeAV Zealanders as a body are not, I think, strong in historical knoAVledge,” said Mr Justice Ostler, when addressing a gathering of the Wellington Justices of the Peace Association last night. “It is a subject Avliich is not given the importance it deserves in our schools, which is a pity, because if studied properly AA r e can learn many useful lessons from the past. Human nature has changed but little over tlie last six or seven hundred years. A knoAvledge of history is therefore useful, if only to enable us to escape from the mistakes made by our ancestors.”

Deprecation of the practice of some Justices of the Peace in Avitnessing documents when the signatory is not present Avas expressed by the Mayor of Wellington (Mr T. C. A. Hishop), when giving a civic reception on Tuesday to the delegates to the annual conference of the Federation of NeAV Zealand Justices’ Associations. Mr H. H. Seaton, president-elect, said that about tAvo years ago the federation had sent a notice to every Justice of the Peace in New Zealand stating that all documents not Avitnessed in person were invalid. This notice had been effective in giving a course of action for all neAV Justices to folloAV.

Toward the end of July the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum in Wellington will open its doors to the public.

A district campaign to further the arrangements being made to celebrate New Zealand’s hundredth birthday will be discussed at a special meeting of representatives of local bodies of Hawke’s Bay early next month.

Work was started on Tuesday on a scheme for irrigating 25,000 acres in the Ashburton county. The work is being done by the Public Works Department at a cost of about £130.000 and it is estimated that it will be three years before it is finished. A brilliant musical success, notification of which was received at Dunedin yesterday, has been registered by Mr Denis Dowling. Singing at the London musical festival, which is conducted on similar lines to competitions in New Zealand, this gifted baritone from Central Otago won the first men’s solo. The Bible from which the Lessons were read at the opening of the first Presbyterian Church in Devonport was used again at the 70th anniversary services last Sunday. ' The Bible is the property of Mr Henry Pitts, who remembers attending the opening service as a small boy, and who was present at the services on Sunday. To investigate the extent to which malnutrition and undernourishment prevail among primary school children, the Minister of Education, Hon. P. Fraser, is to be asked to appoint a national committee representative of education and hospital boards and the Health Department. The Wellington Education Board made this decision last night. A thorough investigation of the importation and sale of fruit in New Zealand is to be made.by the Government. The Prime Minister (Hon. M. J. Savage) who is also Minister for the Cook Islands, said yesterday that the people of ltarotonga proposed to petition Parliament during its coming session. He added that the Government intended to go thoroughly into the whole question. Twelve Public Works employees who stated that they were dissatisfied with the conditions at Milford Sound returned to Bluff by the Marama. The men were employed on the construction of the road from the sound to the tunnel now being made through Homer Saddle. The workmen alleged that under the prevailing conditions ,it was impossible to make more than 10s- a day. The food, they also said,, was inadequate.

In the course of a discussion at the Horowlienua County Council meeting, yesterday, Cr A. J. Gimblett said that, if his memory serve him correctly, the school dental service had been started by Mr D. S. McKenzie, of Levin. The subject under discussion was a proposal for a national health insurance scheme, to apply to medical, dental and hospital treatments, and it was the opinion of Cr Gimblett that the scheme should be extended to apply to school dental services as well, -where there could be great ‘ expansion, .he said.

The tutorial system as adopted at both Oxford and Cambridge was described by Professor W. A. Sowell, of Auckland University College, who returned this week, as admirable for the good student but not very helpful to the backward one, but at Toronto University, which he also visited, the lecture system was being scrapped for the tutorial system. At Tortonto, as at Oxford and Cambridge, the University was divided into a number of colleges, with facilities for learning and recreation developed to an almost extravagant scale. Over 10,000 students attended. Sir Alfred Hansom, member for Pahiatua, recently telegraphed the Minister of Public Works (Hon. It. Semple) in regard to the latter’s offer of subsidies to carry out flood damage restoration work' in the Dannevirke and Akitio counties, asking whether the offer also applied to the Woodville. Weber and Pahiatua County Councils. The reply received was as follows: “I consider the Woodville and Weber counties can meet the position without Government assistance. The Pahiatua 'County Council’s application was received only a few days ago and is being given consideration. I will wire my decision.”

“Why does a girl thinks she Is in a better social class because she can use a typewriter and not cook a dinner?” asked Dr Ada Patterson, chief medical officer'of schools in New Zealand, yesterday, m when making a suggestion to the Wanganui Education Board that more simplicity in education was desirable. Dr Patterson, who has recently returned from Great Britain, where she was able to observe improved conditions in the depressed areas and a consequent uplift in physical stamina among the poorer classes, said that a false value was placed on a great deal of education. A more common-sense view was needed, one which would place equal honour on the man who did clerical work and he who could build a good house. Mr Horace Eldred, the chief steward of the Union Company’s steamer Marama, which is proceeding to Wellington to be- laiu up for several months, has been associated with the company for many years, and is known to hundreds of trans-Tasman and trans-Pacific travellers. He told a Southland Times reporter that before going to sea he was first footman to Mr Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England, and later on was first footman to the Dowager Counttess Beauchamp, of Belgrave Square, London. When he commenced his career at sea he served in the P. and 0. vessels Arcadia and Arabia, which were in the lndia-China mail service. Mr Eldred also served with the Orient Line and the America Line. The latter company’s vessels ran from Southampton to New York. “It was in the year 1908 that I joined the Union Company,” lie stated. “At that time I was second grade steward in the Maheno, which is now lying on Eraser Island qff the coast of Queensland. Soon afterwards I was promoted to chief steward, and I have served in this capacity in the Moana, Manuka, Moeraki, Manaroa, Maunganui, and Marama.”