LOCALLAND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13767, 4 June 1908, Page 4

LOCALLAND GENERAL NEWS.

The Hon. Geo. Fowlds, Minister for Education and Public Health, received a number or private deputations yesterday. In ibe evening he attended the complimentary social given to Mr. F. E. Baume, M.P., by his electoral committee, in St. Benedict's Hall.

"We are approaching a"period in GreatBritain when Labour legislation will undoubtedly be introduced." said Mr. Ben. H. Morgan, special commissioner to the Manufacturers' Association of Great Britain, in conversation with a Herald representative last evening. In view of this conviction, it was not surprising to learn that the effect of the industrial and Labour legislation in New Zealand is being inquired into with considerable interest by Mr. Morgan. "My object," he explained, "is to ascertain as far as possible what effect your industrial legislation has had on the trade and industries of the Dominion. Of course, the conditions prevailing in New Zealand cannot be compared with those in Great Britain, and measures which might be successful here might prove an utter failure in the Old Country. At the same time we are anxious to get ourselves posted, as far as possible, in regard to what happens in the colonies, especially in respect to legislation of what may lie termed an experimental character. You are a new country, and you are thus able to embody in your legislation new and untried principles, which we at Home dare not touch, owing to vested and other interests surrounding every industry and trade."

What is an ideal municipality? The district health officer made some interesting remarks on this head at the meeting of the Eden Terrace Road Board on Tuesday evening. Dr. Purdy said a properly run municipality had been compared to an unlimited liability company engaged in an enterprise in which every citizen' was a shareholder, and of which the dividends were receivable in the improved health and the increase in the comfort and happiness of the community. The members of the Council were the directors, with the Mayor as chairman of. the great business, and their fees consisted in the confidence, the consideration, and the gratitude oi those am-.ngst whom they lived. . " The gratitude is sometimes a minus quantity, though," added Dr. Purdy, and members of the Board smiled meaningly at the remark. /

The Mayor of Mount Eden (Mr. O. Nicholson) waited on the Eden Terrace Road Beard on Tuesday night, and had a short conference with the members of the Board regarding the tramway services of the two districts. Mr. Nicholson pointed out that it. would be a great advantage to the Mount Eden district to have the line duplicated from Eden Terrace, as when the Dominion Road line was opened the traffic would be considerable, and that at present, with the single, line, there was frequently a block. The Board promised, to give consideration to the matter.

A subject of absorbing interest- all over the world to-day is the wonderful march of progress in • the i great Chinese Empire, so long regarded as typical of the immutability and .'the stoical indifference* of the changeless East., and Western nations are regarding the trend of events with not a little apprehension. In the course of the last six years there lias been a- sweeping away of old customs and traditions and the establishing of a new order of things ; schools modelled on Western lines are being founded throughout China, and thousands of students are being sent abroad every year to study modern methods. ' Observers in close touch with Chinese affair.* find a wonderful story unfolding itself before their eyes, they see history in the making, and one of them, the Rev. .G. McNeur, of the Canton mission station, gave a Hkr'at,i> representative an interesting and graphic sketch, published in this issue, of the real movement. lie has seen enough to convince him that the China of to-morrow will bo the greatest industrial nation of the world. In this connection if i" interesting to note a remark by Mr. It. D. Pringle, of the Y.M.C.A. at Singapore, in a speech at Wellington. He used almost the same words as Mr. McNeur uses: "The Chinaman did not want any man's patronage, and he wa.s frugal, patient, and honest, and the merchants trusted him where they could not. trust a Japanese. With Christianity, China would be a great nation in 50 years."

The steamer Cornwall, duo from West of England ports shortly, is bringing a total of 125 passengers, travelling in the third-class, who are booked to various parts of the Dominion. Males are in the majority, and labourers, both farm and city, are much in evidence.

Mr. A. Hamilton, director of the Wellington Museum, has received a letter from Major Robley, the well-known collector, of tattooed Maori heads, on which he has written a standard work, in which he states that though the greater part of his collection of heads was sold and went to American museums, lie has retained five of the very best specimens, which he hopes that the New Zealand Government will buy for the national collection. Though Major Robley's offer of his previous collection was twice declined by New Zealand, he still hopes that some of the heads will be kept in this country. There is not on© tattooed Maori head in the Dominion Museum, Mr. Hamilton states, and though the Christchurch and Auckland Museums each have two, they are not the best specimens obtainable. A number of the European museums are well supplied with these heads, many of which were specially tattooed in view of the trade that formerly flourished, their owners, who were generally slaves, being promptly killed when the tattooing was completed. The great museum in Paris has a whole shelf full of Maori heads.

The second day of the Groat Northern Meeting under the auspices of the Auckland Racing Club at Ellerslie yesterday drew a very large attendance, and the weather was again splendid. His Excellency the Governor and party were present. The Great Northern festeeplechss-j was won by Mr. C. Thede's gelding Loch Fyne, who beat the favourite, Sol, the latter getting second place. In this race in the first mile Innisktllcn fell at the sod wall, throwing' the rider, W. Young, heavily. The horse never rose, his back being broken, but Young sustained nothing more serious than a severe shaking. Manoe was also thrown out 01 action in this race. In the Tally-ho Steeplechase Matakokiii and his rider were precipitated into the water, both, however, escaping injury. The field:; tapered off towards the end of the day, but on the whole an excellent day's sport was witnessed. The management was again all that could be desired.

In connection with the acquisition of the Wellington Gasworks by the Citj Council, the directors of the company resolved to offer the works to the Council on terms to bo approved by the shareholders. The Council's offer to the company, in reply to a communication from the directors, was a price of £20 for shares on which £10 had been paid and £10 for shares paid up to £5, the Council to take over the company's assets and liabilities. It is estimated that £250,000 will bo required to effect the purchase.

On being invited by a Herald representative to express an opinion regarding New Zealand's Labour legislation, Mr. Morgan, the representative of the Manufacturers' Association of Great Britain, responded by a shake of the head, "I have," he said. "been in your country only some three weeks, aire! I should not think of expressing an opinion on such a matter with.carefully studying ail the conditions," On one point, however, the visitor felt constrained to make an observation. "There is on* point." he said, "which seems to stand out very strongly in regard to your Arbitration Act. and that is that whilst your disputes seem to have been fairly numerous since the passing of the Act, there have been no strikes of any serious dimensions, as the small number of hour* work that have been lost is probably a record for any country in the world. The true test of such a measure is not whether wages have been increased, not whether sweating has been eliminated, but whether it has prevented those industrial struggles which constitute such grave calamities in the Old Country. Your disturbances certainly seem to have been very few since the measure was passed."

Delegates from all parts of. the world have been invited to attend the Seventeenth Universal Peace Congress, to be held in London, and lasting from July 27 to August 1. The local branch of the. International Arbitration and Peace Association has appointed Professor W. S. Alois, late of Auckland University (now residing in England), to act as its representative. The meetings are to be held in the Caxtou Hall, Westminster. The presidency of the Congress has been accepted by the Right Hon. Lord Couiteney, of Pemvitli. Hospitality will be extended to all delegates, both British and foreign. The last congress was held at Munich.

A two-year-old daughter of Mr. J. R. Lundon, of Parnell, met with a serious accident yesterday morning shortly after 10 o'clock. It would appear* that the child was left in bed upstairs, and apparently made her way to an open window and leaning too far out over balanced herself and fell on to a concrete path 17ft below. Dr. Marsack was called in, and attended the little one. The only apparent injury is a bruising on the head, and although the child fell pueh a distance she did not lose consciousness.

- In referring to the action of the committee of the Christehurch Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Taranaki committee, in urging the withdrawal of soiled bank notes, Mr. A. Kaye. said that the banks were now doing their bestto cope with that possible evil to public health, and some, at any rate, had a system by which the note issue was regularly inspected, and a large number of soiled notes withdrawn and destroyed. He had been informed by one bank that the number of notes destroyed in a week was about 3000, although the number was not kept up all the year round. The good effect of the care of the banks should soon be apparent in the note Circulation.

Referring to the outbreak of typhoid fever in the Eden Terrace district. Dr. Purdy told the Eden Terrace Road Board on Tuesday evening that it was unfortunate that, in spite of the work done by the Board for the improvement of Eden Terrace, the district should still suffer from a disease such as typhoid fever, which was now classed as preventable, and that from a sanitary point of view the district should suffer in comparison with other districts; but this was liable to occur in any area, where there was an aggregation of population and the modern water carriage system for the disposal of sewage had not been ! < introduced. The district health officer added that it was now well established that the introduction of one case of typhoid fever into a district might be the precursor of many, unless very stringent precautions were taken.

Alterations have been made in the control of the female employment bureaux, recently established in the four principal centres by the Labour Department. Miss Morrison, lady inspector of factories for the South Island, will take charge of the branch at Auckland. Mrs. 11. H. Mitchell, one of the oldest private registry office-keepers in Christchurch, will be in charge at that city; Mrs. Hawthorne, who temporarily had control of the Auckland bureau, will return to Wellington and undertake the duties of lady factory inspector for the whole of the Dominion.

An eccentric resident of Oamaru who died recently had long had a hobby for accumulating books. He had acquired a heterogeneous collection of some 2000 volumes,-dealing with history, theology, philosophy, New Zealand literature, and literary curiosities. It had been his intention to bequeath these to the town in which lie spent his hermit, life, but he passed away without specifying this wish in a will. The library, therefore, came under the hammer of an auctioneer at Oamaru the other day. The Star says that an enterprising book dealer of Dunedin travelled to Oamaru, fondly expecting to secure- half the collection at low prices. He soon found that he had indulged delusive hopes. Many of the prices offered made his mouth water, and led him to wish that he had taken his stock with him, instead of his cheque-book. Bidding throughout was brisk and brave. Wright's "Caricature History of the Georges'' (issued at 3s 6dj brought 16s 6d, Kirk's "Forest Flora of New Zealand" (obtained new at 12s 6d) brought 22s 6d, Gully's " New Zealand Scenery" realised 24gns., Robley's " Moko or Maori Tattooing" Signs., Buller's "Birds of New Zealand" (second edition, two volumes) lljgns., Mrs. Heatley's "Native Flowers of New Zealand" 3gns., the fac-simile of "The Treaty of Waitangi" (issued by the Government printer at ss) 12s; a 3s 6d Shakespere ran up to 7s. The prices, it is suggested, are a fine index of the prosperity of Oamaru.

The late Hon. J. Bamicoat was a draughtsman of more than ordinary talent, and his daughter has deposited with the Department of Tourists and Health Resorts a Unique collection of drawings by him. Most of these drawings are dated 1843, and include pencil sketches of Auckland, Port Chalmers. Nelson, and other places. There are also scrupulously detailed drawings and Maori carvings, many sketched from the decorative work of Maori cauoes. Photograph? of each drawing in the collection lave been taken by the Department's photographers, and will Ik- used as occasion offers. All the sketches are in first-class condition.

Good sport is being obtained by local devotees of the gun throughout the. Hawera district, quail and hares being very plentiful (fay? the Hatvera Star). Ducks have also provided excellent sport, but pheasants are a rarity, one local gentleman remarking that tro long the scarcity would bo so pronounced that when a pheasant was shot it would be kept for museum purposes. People who live in the back country state- that the, pheasants aro extremely shy after the sound of the gun denotes the opening of the season, and usually retire to the bush and almost inaccessible gullies, and aro seldom seen again until the close season.