LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12775, 27 January 1905, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

—. — «> . The Auckland City Council is gradually working toward the realisation of the permanent water supply scheme from Waitiikereii A good deal of the land forming the"watershed has been'purchased, and negotiations are proceeding for the balance, and meantime threo contracts have bean let for the forming of service roads to enable the work to proceed. The Stock and Agricultural Departmentis vacating Government Buildings in Cus-tom-street, and is moving into the old Admirality House, which has .been; fitted up specially- for tiie Departrneat, '

: The 'municipal-.- elections . fall?to be biWiv in April this . year,, but so . fa* there has scarcely been any movement in municipal circles in -Auckland city. - It is understood that, the Hon. K. Mitclielson does not intend' to accept- re-election 'to the city ' : Mayoralty. . The animal session of the Senate of. th<f ;s: University of New Zealand was continued at. the City. Council chambers yesterday- >'• . when a great deal of preliminary business : was •' disposed of.- Several of the questional :' . referred to in the Chancellor's report, and » submitted for the consideration of the ■ Senate, were referred -to, committees. for consideration, and two or three other mat.; " - ters were dealt with. After the commit.' 1 tees, twelve in number, had been set up,, ' th& Senate adjourned till to-day, when th« report of the Recess Committee will bo j dealt with. The reports of several of th« ■ sessional committees, who sat after th« ;.-■■■ -• adjournment yesterday, may also, be re. !• eeived. A report of yesterday's proceed!:^ ■ ings appears elsewhere. /'./ A letter has been received by the WaiM ■' branch of the Liberal and Labour Federal ■ lion, stating that the Premier will prob- ' ably visit Wailii about the latter end of February, to present the charter to. tlhj . branch. \ . " --y Only two applications for nomination as : the Auckland candidate for the Rhode:! scholarship were received up till Wednesday last, when the time for application ex:-/.; pired, and the Professorial Board of the - University College, will nominate one on, v Wednesday next, nominations closing with : the secretary of the New Zealand Univer- '' sity, Wellington, on February- 3. After ' ■ consultation with His .Excellency...the Go- • vernor (chairman of the committee), the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committed decided to meet at Wellington on Tuesday, •' February 28. to allot the scholarship. This ,;' successful candidate last year was Mri.Tames Allan Thomson, a student at tlw ' Otago University. ■/-, Coal mining in the Ngunguru district i 3 about to be livened up in the near future. A block of 4000 odd acres, at Kopuatoetoe, Kiripaka, was lately purchased by Mr. J. J. Craig, who has had a mining expert, for' some weeks past- going through the blocks, ': with the result "that verv shortly active operations will be started on this land jus : the direction of mining for cool. The Ngu? nguru Coil Company have an area of 14 r acres adjoining the block on one side of th« • liver, and 300 acres on the other side, on, which boring operations have revealed thick". ; nesses of 14ft 6in, and 14ft of good hard coal. This'is very encouraging to the. district. The Kiripaka mine adjoining the 14/ • acres is getting oat a splendid quality of.", coal. This seam is dipping - towards < the Koputoetoe block, and has been located ia the latter property, the opening up of which should liven up the Ngunguru district. ; Several instances of ,good attendance ail school by individual children have recently / been chronicled in the newspapers throughout the colony, but both as an individual 1 and a family record the following will , be hard to beat. At. Thames the children (six in number) of Mr. A. Currie, bootmaker, have just completed a school at- . tendance covering a period of exactly 19 f years, commencing with the year 1886, Cand during the whole of that- period only ;/ one half-day was missed by one of the children, the others being- present on"4 every school day. The record of each.child is as follows: —Alex. Currie. .attended school seven, years, never missed a day;/.?; and gained seven .first -class a tendance cer- ¥ tificates; Bella Currie. attended school/ eight years, •. never .missed.;. a - day, and { gained eight fir>t-ckss attendance certificates; . Duncan , Currie, : attended 'school -1 seven .years,- missed one half-day,' andA.s gained six first-class and one second-class , attendance certificates; - Maggie Currie, attended school eight years, never missed a, day, and gained eight. first-class attendance certificates: Daniel Currie, 'attendedM school eight years, never missed a day,/,; and gained eight first-class attendance : certificates ; Elizabeth Currie, attended school ' eight, years, never missed a day, and gained eight first-class attendance certificates. It may be stated that the above St records were at the Kauaerauga. Bailie* street and Parawai public schools. •-/ While an elderly man named John Mimce was crossing Queen-street, ha the vicinity .of.' iShortland-street, at half-past . ten yesterday morning, he got in front of / a down car and was thrown across , the/ line. As the car. was going at a good pace, everyone though; that there was l > going to bo a fatal -accident,'-'bub fortu-j going to be a fatal accident, but fortu-l nately the prostrate man was caught by the lifeguard and pushed along the asphalt for about- 25ft. when the car stopped in response to the l emergency brake which? had been smartly, applied by the motor*; man, Thomas Troy. -Mimco iraa im- / mediately carried into Mr. Woollams', chemist's shop close by, and there attended to by Dr. Gore-Gill on. who found" that, although severely bruised and cut, and suffering from shock, ho had not sustained any broken bones. Munce, who . lives in Khybcr Pass, was afterwards taken home. / Burglars were surprised «t work about// two o'clock yesterday morning in Mr. G. Sellwood's store at Howick.. Mr. Sellwood hearing a noise opened his bedroom door,, and seeing a lijfht shining in the shop*, thought the place was on fire. Proceeding ;? to investigate, lie surprised - two burglar*' taking some loose change out of the till. When. Mr. Sellwood made his appearance the burglars made off, jumping over the counter, and in doing so pulled over the ■ scales, and broke some glass jars, doing considerable damage. Clearing outside* they sprang into a trap, which they -apparently had in waiting, and drove off. Mr. Sellwood is of opinion that a third law* was waiting in the trap. The thieves made / their entrawoe by prising open the front V shop door, an axe,-which was on the r<i*dy being probably used for the purpose. They were not well rewarded for their trouble,; obtaining only 3s 6d, though a- iwshbo? containing about £10 was alongside tlw till. Constable Roberts, who was quickly summoned, is now making investigations. . In fining two boys for offensive behaviour at a temperance meeting, the chairman of the North Melbourne Bench | said whipping would have been ordered, / but the Bench recognised the useless of doing so, as the police would not Hog.// boys. In adopting such an attitude, said Dr. Lloyd, the police set the law at defiance, and had no more right than any* one else to do so. Some day probsthly an Act would be passed to. make constable? perform the duty of flogging on penalty of dismissal from the force. At the Huntly Police Court on Wednesday, a native named Karalci Kerapa was committed for 1 trial ou two charges oi horse-stealing at Iluntly West, and Awa; , ' roa. Kerapa. was also sentenced to one .'// i month's imprisonment for theft at V?aingaro, / ' "'/// A movement has been started in SydaeJ/i|ji to secure funds for the purpose of erecting a fitting memorial to Sir Joseph Banks, who was the companion of Captain Cook in the exploration of Australia, and v fho , 1 originated, the .idea of fouudiug a colony ■botany Bay. * " ■" ,