LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13523, 22 August 1907, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The postal authorities advise . that administration arrangements .have now been made for a bi-weekly service for American cablegrams to be posted from Bamfield to Seattle and telegraphed to their destination from the latter point. .Messages by this means can only be accepted at. the sender's risk, and will be subject to indefinite delay between Seattle and destination. Ordinary rates to the station destination will be charged. American .cables for transmission by this means can be accepted at Bamfield up to 9.30 a.m. (New Zealand time) to-day. The time of mail transit from Bamfield to Seattle is three days. Further advice of subsequent mailing dates from Bamfield will be given. Mr/ George George, director of technical education, speaking at the Education Board's meeting yesterday, stated that Miss Emily Lawson, the new cookery instructor, had just arrived from London. He added that Miss Lawson after visiting the Ponsonby Cookery School had given it as her opinion that it was infinitely superior to any cookery school in London at the present time. Another collision between a Irani car and a spring-dray occurred near the corner of Queen and Custom Streets yesterday morning. Motor-man Stephen Chapman was in charge of the car, and Arthur Sayers was driving the dray, which was the property of J. J. Craig and Co. Through the dray getting on to the line and not clearing iu time the back portion was hit by the car. The only damage resulting, however, was to the iron gate in front, of the car. The motorman says he sounded the gong, but the driver of the dray did not get sufficiently away from the track to give a clear passage. On the other hand, the driver of the dray says he did not hear the gong, hut even if he had he would not have boen able to get out of the way of the car, because there were two other drays abreast of him. The prophet Rua. if all that was reported to the Education Board yesterday be true, has been responsible for materially reducing the attendance at the Waioweka native school at Opotiki. It was stated that there wore only 17 Maori children attending, and that the. European children were in the majority to the extent of 21, while Rua's influences had drawn away 30 Maori pupils from the school. The question which the Board is now called upon to consider is whether the time has not. arrived for it to take over the school, . - ■■■'■•-■

It has been.decided by the Auckland Trades and Labour Council to hold an indignation meeting to protest against the proposed confirmation by the City Council of the "strap hangers" by-law. The Independent Political Labour League is cooperating. Failing the promoters being able to obtain a suitable hall, .the meeting is to bo held at the wharf end of Queenstreet on a Sunday afternoon preceding the City Council meeting-for the confirmation of the by-law.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has addressed a letter to Mr. R. Donovan, a motonnan in the employ of the Tramways Company, expressing its appreciation of his humane conduct in savii.j the life of a cat.' Donovan, whilst driving ' a car up the Parnell Rise, cut off the current on observing the animal between the rails, and jumping off removed it out of danger, instead of callously driving over it. The meeting of fish dealers, which was convened for last evening, for the purpose of considering whether it was advisable to ; give fishermen a bonus for destroying sharks, until such time as the Government came to their-assistance, was abandoned, only two dealers putting in an appearance. The convener (Mr. T. Vivian), in speaking to a Herald reporter, stated that it was j urgently necessary that something should be done to encourage the destruction of sharks, which were multiplying very rapidly in our local waters, and were devouring all the small fish. I A case of more than local interest will bo heard shortly (writes our Huntly correspondent). The Taupiri Company having received instructions from the Mines Department to sink an extra shaft on the west bank of the river have, in accordance with the Act, laid objections tc such order, on the ground that all legal obligations have been complied with, and that an additional shaft would not tend to the increased safety of their employees. The matter will come before an Arbitration Court, which will have for its president a judge of the Supreme Court. Mr. McEwan, of the Taupiri West Company, has been appointed assessor for the Mines Department, and Mr. Tatlley, sen., for the local company. Though the search for the two missing brothers, John Henry and Albert Watkins, who have failed to return from a fishing cruise on which they started from Devonport on Sunday morning last lias been continued with vigilance, nothing to indicate the fate of the two men has been discovered. Messrs. William Tanner and Harold W. Wells came back late on Tuesday night from ;t cruise in the gulf, in search of the mising men, but their mission was unsuc.cesful. They visited the different islands in the gulf, including Rangitoto, Brown's, Motutapu, Motuihi, Waiheke, Rakino, and the Noisies, as well as the bays and likely sheltering places, but absolutely nothing was elicited to show what had become of the two men.

By the death of Mrs. William Kemp New; Zealand has lost one of the links that bind the present generation to the earliest history of New Zealand. Mrs. Kemp passed away .it her , residence, Ponsonby, on the 19th hist. ■■ Mr.' William Pickman, her father, came, to New Zealand in 1825, and settled at Whangaroa, where be at once engaged in the timber industry. The deceased was bom in the year 1834, and was baptised ay. the Rev. W. Williams (afterwards archdeacon). The scene of her birth was near the spot upon which a; few years previously the notorious massacre of the Boyd was perpetrated. Her childhood was surrounded by innumerable dangers anH difficulties, there being little security to life, owing to the unsettled state of the natives at that time. As a child it was her experience on several occasions to be taken by a native servant into .the bush out of harm's way. She was married to Mr. William Kemp in 1851, at the ■ first Wesleyan chapel, Epsom, and at once' went to live at Mount Albert. The difficulties of pioneer life at that'time may be gauged from the fact that Mr. Kemp found that the most advantageous way to procure the material for building his home was to Journey to Whangaroa, saw the timber, have it brought to Auckland in a cutter, and then cart it via Epsom (the only road a|> that time) to Mount Albert. The late Mrs. Kemp was a member of the Wesleyan Church from her youth. Her kindly disposition and hospitality endeared' her to a very large circle of friends. She leaves numerous relatives to mourn their loss, including a grown-up family of sis sons and four daughters, besides 23 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

two and a-half year old &on of Constable Robinson, of the Auckland police force, met with a distressing accident last evening. He fell with a china teacup in his hand, and the cup broke into fragments, one piece striking, the little fellownear the right eye, penetrating the flesh and injuring the eyeball. He was taken to the district hospital, and the injury- was found to be so serious that an operation for the removal of the eye was necessary. The action begun by Lawrence Mack against, the Auckland Harbour Board for £501 damages for injuries received in connection with the Calliope Dock accident has been discontinued. A short meeting of the Auckland Grammar School Board of Governors was held yesterday, when there were present:—Professor Thomas (acting-chairman), the Hon. J. A. Tole, Dr. Roberton, and Mr. L. J. Bagnall. Tho meeting decided to authorise the Hobson County Council to take certain roads under the Public Works Act, at the Board's expense. Various leases were dealt with, and it was agreed to authorise the purchase of £35 os 5d worth, of apparatus and chemicals for the year 1908. For about the fifth time, the Waipori {Dunedin) electric power failed one night last week at 11.17, and ail the cars in the service, which included all but two in the sheds, we're brought to a standstill for a full 20 minutes in various parts of the city and suburbs, and the city itself was plunged, into temporary darkness. Some of tl. cars had their full complement of home-ward-bound passengers. Some passengers, tired of waiting, preferred to leave their cars and walk the remainder of the journey. Auckland is not the only city that has tramway troubles. It is an unusual thing to find a bullock a friend in need," but one under the care of a roadman in the Masterton County enjoys this unique distinction. The roads in the particular part of the county in which the bullock—an old mill-hauling beastgrazes leisurely, are typical of New Zealand country roads in mid-winter, and when a settler's buggy or other vehicle gets stuck so deeply in the mud as to defy the efforts of the horses to pull it out, the bullock in question is immediately sent for and the crisis is soon over. This fact was elicited at a recent meeting of the Cojiniy Council (says the Wairarapa Daily Times), when it was unanimously decided to exercise the powers cenferred on lojal bodies under the Impounding Act, and giant the bullock grazing rights on the road, while the baneful eye of the county ranger has been statutorily closed to the fact.

Two persons, one charged with drunkenness and tho other with [ailing to provide maintenance, were the only occupants of tho polico colls last evening. * '