LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 12661, 15 September 1904, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A bather serious burst in the city water main in Symonds-street, near the Cemetery bridge, occurred yesterday forenoon, and was detected about twelve o'clock by the water freely bubbling through the surface of the road. Upon an examination being made by the waterworks engineer (Mr. Carlaw), it was ascertained that on© of the joints of the main pipe, located between the two sets of the electric tram tracks, had blown out, and the water had mada its way some distance underground. It is thought that the roadway has been undermined, although not seriously, and last evening all cars on. the western circuit (that is, via Wellesley and Symonds Streets) proceeded up Wellesley-street West, through Hobsonstreet, thence along Karangahape Road, and into Bymonds-street, and this order of things will" be maintained to-day. The undermined portion of the. road was fenced in last night for purposes of safety, and Mr. Carlaw intends to put men on the work of opening up the roadway early this morning. He considers that from 200 to 250 feet of the road will require to be opened up, but expects to have the whole of the Work completed early on Friday morning.

Work in connection with the new church of St. Matthew, in Hobson-street, is progressing satisfactorily. The magnificent tower is to be built two feet higher than it is at present, but it will then bo 25 feet short of the height provided for in the original plan. At present preparations are being made for laying the floor, which will be three feet above the ground. The whole of the vaulting of the chancel and aisle is completed, and what m known as ordinary cathedral leaded lights are being put into the windows in the clerestory and west front. The work, so far as it has gone, shows that when finished St. Matthew's will be one of the finest Gothic churches in Australasia. The purity of style, the honesty of the work, and the " goodness" of the material are such as would meet with the approval of Mr. Ruskin himself. It is to be hoped that the furniture will be in harmony with the edifice, and the whole will then stand as an architectural example, which, apart from fulfilling the functions of a place of divine worship, will be of great value to students of architecture. It is proposed to take a party of students from the 'technical School over the building on Saturday next, under the guidance of Mr. G. W. Allsop, A.R.1.8.A. The students will be from the elementary and advanced classes.

Among the applications for employment received by the Auckland Education Board yesterday was ore from Mr. J. B. Murray, who was formerly headmaster of the Kirikiri school (Thames), hut was dismissed some time ago for refusing to comply with the Board's instructions to observe the then prevalent custom of causing the school children to salute the flag. Mr. McKonzie, who \\ii one of the members of the Board to support the dismissal of Mr. Murray, who refused to obey the Board's orders for conscientious reasons, said he thought that the teacher in question had suffered a sufficent penalty, and this view being supported by others present, it was decided that Mr. Murray's name should be placed on the list for employment.

The funeral of the late Mr. Daniel A. Tole (late Commissioner of Crown Lands) took place yesterday afternoon, the cortege leaving the Church of the Sacred Heart, Ponsonby, where a requiem mass was celebrated at half-past seven a.m. for the repose of the soul of the deceased. Amongst those present at the church and graveside were His Lordship Bishop Lenihan, Monsignor O'Reilly, a number of the clergy, in addition to a large number of prominent citizens and business men. Prior to the removal of this coffin from the church the orphans from the convent, under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy, visited the church, each of the little ones wearing a crepe rosette as a mark of respect to the deceased. Miss Lily Thomson, organist, played the "Dead March" as the congregation were leaving the church, the deceased being for a number of years a prominent member, of the choir. Fathers C4illan and Buckley officiated at the graveside. Mr. Tole was the last surviving officer of the detachment of the Auckland Rifles which was under fire at South Wairoa in September, 1863, and of which he waa ensign. The other officers were Captain McCosh Clark and Lieutenant J.' M. Tabuteau.

The City Fire Brigade received a call front the east circuit (Upper Pitt-street) yesterday afternoon, and on arriving on the seen© discovered that a conflagration had been occasioned-by the upsetting of a pot of boiling tar in the yard of Mr. Hope, of Randolph-street. The flames, which were not near enough to any buildings to cause any danger, had exhausted themselves in a few minutes, and the services of the brigade were not required. At yesterday's meeting of the Education Board Mr. George George, director of technical education and manual training in the Auckland district, said that he had tried several bakers, but had not, eo far, been, able to get a decent loaf of bread since he came to the colonv. Mr. George did not exactly say that this was due to want of instruction in bread-making, but the inference was there. The trolley-pole of No. 12 combination-car, bound for Onehunga, was broken off about twenty minutes past nine last evening, when the car was rounding the junction of Karangahape Road and Symonds-street. The passengers in th© disabled car had to transfer to another car, which pushed the former to the Epsom barn.

Mr. W. H. Draffin, headmaster of the Chapel-street school, has received an intimation from Lady Plunket that she will have much pleasure in accepting the po3t of patroness to the Guild of Courtesy," established in connection with Chapel-street school six months ago.

At yesterday's meeting of the Auckland Education Board the secretary (Mr. V, E. Rice) brought under notice of the members a fifth standard public schools certificate, which was evidently a forgery, and had apparently been used with the objecli of obtaining employment. The name of the original holder had been erased, and another name entered in its place, while th© person set forth as the inspector signing the certificate had never been in the emploj of the Board. Mr. Rice said a gentleman of the same name had been in the employ of the Board some years ago as a teacher, but the signature was certainly not his.

The Eden No-license League have forwarded the following telegram to Mr. John Bollard, M.HR. for Eden:—"Regret violation of written pledge to resist any attempt to repeal existing licensing law, given November 13,. 1899." The following is the pledge referred to in the telegram:—"This is to certify I am in favour of the present, law, which gives the people the power to prohibit the liquor traffic without compensation by a three-fifths majority } and hereby pledge myself, if again elected for Eden, to do all in my power to resist any attempt that may be made to repeal the existing law."

The question of the men thrown out of work by the recent cessation of business by the National Glass Company was referred to at last night's meeting of the Liberal and Labour Federation, by the president (Mr. P. J. Nerheny). He said 12 competent glassblowers who had been brought out- from Home were thrown out of work, and they were stranded, as they could not .take up another class of labour. This occurrence showed the advisability of fostering locsd industries. He hoped the Government would take it into serious consideration, and that local industries would not be snatched from us one after another. With regard to the glassblowers out of work, the secretary (Mr. T. Harle Giles} had a subscription list on their behalf. Mr. Giles mentioned that three of the men were married, and had families dependent upon them at Home, whilst a fourth, who was single, was in a delicate state of health. These four it was desired to assist back to their homes. The remainder had, he said, decided to remain in the colonv.

A deputation from the Oeehunga Borough Council, consisting of Messrs. S. Barr and J. Stoupc, was met by the engineer from the Railway Department at the Oaehunga station, yesterday morning, in connection with the request for a loading platform at Onehunga. After considerable discussion the deputation was informed that at present the Department could not undertake to carryout any further works, but would provide "ft temporary platform. If it were deemed necessary., after a fair trial of this platform, the forming of a permanent one would receive considfiraMon. ':

At a committee meeting.of the Y.M.O.A. it was unanimously resolved: "That this association, after hearing the addresses of Mr. D. A. Budge., resolves to enter upon a forward movement, and for that purpose authorises the House Committee to make a canvass, With the object of obtaining a guarantee fund for three years, to secure a competent man who will combine the offices of secretary and physical director for the development of the work in the interests of boys and young men of fthis city, and, further, to assist in obtaining; a supervising secretary for the Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand."

At the meeting of the Auckland branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation, lastnight, the secretary for the Department of Agriculture wrote in reply to the branch's recommendation that a fruit inspector should be stationed at Rarotonga to obviate the expense in connection with the fumigation of fruit in Auckland. He stated that the Minister directed him to say that although the scale insect could not be said to be prevalent in the other islands of the Cook Group, it existed to some extent in several of them. An inspector at Rarotonga would not therefore do away with the neceasitv for fumigating a part of the trait received from those islands. Fumigation would, of course, have to be performed at Rarotonga in the case of all fruit from the island now fumigated at Auckland, although, no doubt, the handling, etc., might be done more cheaply at the island. It was a mistake to suppose that one inspector could deal with the whole of the fruit received at Auckland from places other than Rarotonga, the quantity from that island being but; a small part of the total landed at the port of Aucldand. Under these circumstances it was not considered advisable to place an inspector at the islands. As to the statement that the fumigafcor was located in an out-of-the-way place it would hardly be possible to get the building nearer the wharf unless it were actually upon it* The letter was received.

The conviction and sentencing at Wellington the other day of a young -woman for shoplifting has moved drapery firms to threaten exposure and the full penalties of the law in future, in order to stop what they declare is a great and growing evil. One firm declares that its losses run to £1000 a year, another states that it would not like to say that even that sum covers all deficiencies, while a third gives the- more modest estimate of its' loss as something between £400 and £500 per annum. This method of polite thieving is laid boldly at the door of Woman, and the particular harvest time is when "bargain sales"' are in season. It is said, too, that the greatest offenders are not those living in " respectable mediocrity," but people of a higher sphere, whose position has in the past protected them from public exposure when a private settlement is procurable after detection. In the effort to cope with the mischief one local firm lias organised a staff of private detectives, who " walk the shop" as ordinary staff employees, but do nothing beyond keeping their eyes open for possible Cases, while other establishments have a system among the shop assistants, by which the word is passed round to "watch the customer—she is suspicious Most houses have private lists of "suspects," and probably an effort will be made to establish a system of interchange of lists, so that the path of the evil-doer will be mad ft harder in the future. We are informed by Mr, Stevenson.;, P.R.A.S., that a slight earth tremor was felt in the Mount Eden district at twenty minufes to three o'clock yesterday morning. The Waipa County Council has accepted the tender of Messrs. John Burns and Co. of £352 for a steel bridge at Pirongia. The Council has decided to protest against the extension of the franchise for the election, of local bodies. News has been received that a Maori woman was " burned to death at Tauhei, Hukiinui, on Tuesday night. No further particulars are at present available..

uwmg to tiie rapid *xjgj on of th© Imam ■ - meat industry in Pov©]. Bay ( sayß Hawke's 3ay Herald), 6 i son Brothers, Limited, have found it nWry to further enlarge their refrigerate: eil at \ h faruheru works, and wjt% s object have forwarded from Tomoana, spal . Lind<i British i-Wraior, capably freeai sheep per day, and of sit the * .• The machine weighed ftltoa, er about 45:; tons. The improvements mao^ artag reoent years in the system of refngey ng ave en j abled Nelson Brothers to convt, e j r -g _ lam plant to the Linde amm,j system and they now have at their Toi Blia wor j,j two converted Haslam sear ately capable of freezing 5000 vee *LJg ■'.- day, and of keeping the stores colt An English lady, who arrived Gentry in Christchurch, had an a servant which well serves as an '^gtra. 1 .. ii lion of the servant difficulty. took a house, and the servant wii ft previous occupiers consented to rema oa for a fortnight To the lady's sur)j se ' however, she stipulated for every eve~! ; off, in order to go out visiting,, or to en r .' | tain her friends in the kitchen. "W\ ..] supposing % ring came at the door in t£ evening, would you answer it?" asked hi new employer. " Oh, yes, I think I ooul do that," she said. "Would you briny in supper?" was the next question. " Oh, no," was the answer. I could not leave my guests in the kitchen." The lady subsequently arranged for a washerwoman 4© come in and do some of the work on a certain day, but the day came and she did not arrive. "Just fancy," said this stranger to New Zealand, "she 'not. even write and let me know she was not! coming!" '■'■

During the unpacking at Nelson of a case of goods which arrived from Yokohama} (Japan) a fortnight ago,-states- the Mail, a 1 live bee was found amongst the rice-straw packing. The case in which the bee was' confined was tightly nailed, and was enclosed in a larger case, also closely nailed. It is evident that the bee cot into the oas« before leaving Japan, and had, therefore, been a close prisoner for six weeks at the least. It is extraordinary that it should have survived without food for such a length, of time. The bee (which was set at liberty) is described as being very similar to our well-known honey-bee. UI

Our Dargaville correspondent reports a serious accident which happened' to Mr. W. B. Stephens, of Messrs. William* and Stephens, on Sunday afternoon last. Ho was one of a riding party, going to the West Coast beach from his residence at Aranga. Something he was carrying frightened his. horse, causing it to bolt. In Mr. Stephens* ? efforts to check the animal one of the stirrup leathers broke, which caused the rider to bo thrown violently on the ground, face downwards. Upon being picked up he was found to be in an unconscious state. Dr. Purchas was immediately summoned. Mr. Stephens, was found to hav« ■ sustained nasty cuts, about the face and concussion, of the brain. On Monday morning the sufferer! had regained consciousness, and was doing fairly well. Mr. Stephens is a well-known cricketer, last season having been a member of the Auckland representative team. <

In an article on Wairoa lands! the North of Auckland Times says: —" Within the past few years the importance) of our cattle export has assumed abnormal proportions, and the attention of all those interested in the -.-, beef trade is directed to the capabilities of - our district. Several run-holders win are i interested in the Auckland trade have lately i been inquiring for suitable lands adjacent to river frontage, from which the shipping;} and carriage of cattle may be attended with the least possible drawback. Unfortunately % for them, such lands ate not on the sale list, which speaks volumes for the faith shown by our settlers in 1 the future of the Wairoa, Every succeeding year sees the constant - falling of bush and the grassing of the '■< land, with the ultimate accession of herds of either dairy or beef cattle. - In eitinet class our district is destined shortly to stepinto a first position, and the success of the whole Kaipara as a stock-raising and daily- ; ing district is assured as second to none in the colony."