LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13869, 1 October 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The . September vital statistics for the. district of Auckland show a gratifying improvement on the figures for the corresponding month of last year. There -were, only, 109 deaths, as compared with 122 in September.. 1907, and the births for the month just closed were considerably in excess of , lust September's, the figures being 188 in 1907, and 242 this year. The marriage statistics also show an advance— 91, as compared with 88. Some time ago the Auckland Board of Education applied for a grant of £961 from Uio Department for the purpose of furnishing, the Training College, in Wel-lesley-street, and yesterday a telegram was received by the secretary of the Board, stating .that a grant of £650 had been made, and that, the furnishing of the science room and one small lecture room had been reserved for report afterwards. The chairman {Mr. Parr) said the Board hoped to have the college opened next month, and the Minister for Education would be asked to perform the opening ceremony. It . was a very fine building, aid it Avas an important addition id the educational institutions of Auckland. • ' At the meeting of the Trades and Labour Council last night a letter was received from the general secretary of the Postal Department, stating that the Council's letter with reference to the recent post office cases was receiving due . consideration, and; a reply would bo forwarded when a decision was arrived at. The president said that notwithstanding x the -/statement '*.- of the Prime Minister tliat' there was '' nothing' which called for consideration, he bad been informed by several of the employees, here that the decision in the Supreme Court was a fair one, and that the two youths had been persecuted by a superior officer. This confirmed him in his previous opinion that the course the Council had adopted was a right one, - but he supposed they would not get any further satisfaction. Several delegates urged that further action should be taken, but nothing was done. "New- Zealand has every reason to be proud of its athletic prowess," declared the Rev. Carew Thomas at the meeting held at Ponsonby last night for the purpose of forming a swimming club. "Although this is a young country," he added, " it has..already made a name for itself in various forms of athletic sport, particularly' football, and I hope to see the Poneohby Club one of the strongest in the Dominion, but, above all, I hope to see you keep the' sport clean. That is the only way you caw have real sporty by keeping it clean, and frons*tb|> start you should make up your minds*to allow no gambling whatever in the club, and to promptly eject any member guilty of gambling." These remarks were loudly applauded. V Yesterday was a ; busy day. at the local oyster depot, two shipments arriving from Russell and Ponui respectively. Both lots vVare sent out almost • as soon as they came to hand, but a number of retailers held back in order to get Ponui supplies, which, for flavour and i fatness, are quite the best of all the local oysters. The Bay of Islands consignment received yesterday was, however, excellent. The local oyster season has another month to run, closing on the last day of October. The close season for Stewart Island oysters, of three months' duration, commenced yesterday. The total rainfall for the month just closed was 2.21 inches, falling on 14 days. This* is below the average, which, for the previous 43 years, has been 3.39 Inches. In September. 1907, the fall was 5.42 inches; in 1906 the amount registered was 4.32. inches; in 1905 it was 4.48, and in 1904 it was 3,91 inches. The heaviest rainfall ever recorded for " the month of September was in 1868, when 7.45 inches were registered. Other high September' falls were 6.70 inches in 1075, and 6.21 inches in 1902. The lowest fall recorded for September was .85 points in 1901, and another September in which the fall was very low was in 1888, when .91 points fell. At the conclusion of his farewell concert in the. Choral Hall on Tuesday evening the English tenor, Mr. Charles Saunders, intimated his intention of revisting New Zealand in three years' time, and expressed the hope that by that, time the new town hall would be built. He added that, as a rule, people did not acquire the concert-going habit in "a city which had not a town hall, and, although Auckland music lovers had apparently done so, he fully realised the inconvenience they had to put up with. An extraordinary general meeting of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association is to be held on October 23 for the purpose of considering a proposal to empower the borrowing of a sum not exceeding £5000. The power to borrow is provided* under' the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act, and the object is the purchase' of land and erection of buildings for winter ehows. At last night's meeting of the Trades and Labour Council a letter was received from Mr. F. E. Baume, M.P., acknowledging receipt of the Council's resolution requesting the removal; of Mr. Justice Sim from the Arbitration Court. Mr. Baume stated that he could not support fcbje.Coancifts attitude • v ~

The first ;sc.«*ion of ■ the' nineteenth • Diocesan Synod will be commenced at St. ■Paul's Church on the " morning of October 9, when the opening service will be..held. There"will than be a choral celebration! of the Holy Communion, the preacher being the Rev. W. E. S. Connolly, M.A. At three p.m. the Bishop's commissary will deliver his charge, and at eight p.m., at the Choral Hall, there will be a missionary meeting. ■'': On October 12, 13, and 14 committees will sit as required during the forenoons; and unless otherwise ordered the Synod will be in session daily.from 2.30 p.m. to-5.30 p.m., and from 7.30 to 10 p.m. The place of meeting .will be St. Mary's Hall. A choral festival will _be field at St. Matthew's on October 8, the preacher being the Rev. IP. W. Young, 8.A., and on Saturday a devotional meeting for the clergy will be. conducted by. the Bishop's commissary. -.

!■:.' A grant sufficient to cover the cost of the erection of an infan' school at Remuera has been received bj the Board of Education from the Department, but there is. no money, available to cover the expense of removing- the present Remuera school to the new site selected some time ago. The Board : has decided to apply again for a grant for this purpose, and it may be necessary for some time to carry on two schools, the infant department at the new site, and the main school at its present site, till the latter can, be removed '.■■..

; Brigadier" Albistoh, leader of the Salvation Army work in the South Island, speaking on the Army work to an Otago Daily' Times representative '(telegraphs our correspondent), stated that the home for inebriates at* Pakatoa Island, near Auckland, had fully justified the institution. At the present ■ time there were 40 male persons kept there. Now the Army had decided. on extending its work in this direction, and it had just completed the purchase of Ruthe's Island, about a mile from Pakatoa Island, and having an area of about 400 acres. The amount paid in the purchase of this island was £7000. A second home for inebriates is to be set up there, and is to be used exclusively, when completed, for male inebriates, and the present one at Pakatoa for. females only. The Pakatoa Island has now been, purchased outright.

On the petition of 'T. and S. Morrill, Limited, of Auckland', W. Henshaw, black'smith, of RoWrua, has been adjudged bankrupt. The first meeting of creditors -will be held at the office of the official assignee, Auckland, next Tuesday morning. "The desirableness oi introducing special scientific temperance lessons into the' State school curriculum was urged on the Board of Education yesterday by a deputation from the.'W.C.T.U. In replying to the deputation, the chairman (Mr. 0. J. -Parr) said the Board was extremely alive to the necessity of safeguarding young people from excesses, alcoholic or otherwise. As far as lay in its power, the Board did its best •to inculcate, through its teachers; the lessons of temperance, not only in regard to alcohol, but in regard to tobacco and other vices. As to. a statement, made by 'one of • the deputation, that, in • Christchurch, the: Minister for, Education had told a deputation that the, matter rested with the boards; ho the chairman) thought' there must be some mistake, as the course of instruction was very strictly laid, down in regulations, and outside those the Board was not permitted to go. He was pleased to say that under the heading of moral instruction, the syllabus provided for temperance instruction, and he was also pleased .that ..many, of 'jthe teachers., made . a point, in .connection with lessons on health, 5 of giving temperance instruction. .There was no power to make temperance a special , subject, and if it was . desired that special emphasis should be laid on this, then the deputation would have to approach the .Minister.,He did not think there would! be any objection- to ..temperance wall-sheets in schools, but these, of course, would, first have to .-. be approved by the !, Board. - , "'

■'■ In a letter from the Minister for Labour read at last night's 'meeting of the Trades and Labour Council .'•■ th- Minister stated that under the .Arbitration Act no class of labour was excluded from its provisions. 1 The statement gave rise to considerable discussion, members, desiring to know whether the Minister meant the present or the proposed new Act, and if the former how, he reconciled his statement with the decision in the farm labourers' dispute. The president 'remarked that while farm . labourers we'rp included. in the new- Act, domestic servants had been excluded at the Minister's, own suggestion, he having got a provision inserted whereby workers were defined as all persons employed for- direct pecuniary gain or .profit. This, declared the speaker,- had been inserted with the deliberate intention of shutting out domestic servant*, because it was contended that they wore not employed for direct profit or pecuniary, gain. He thought that the Minister's attention should be drawn to this, and he moved to that effect. The motion was carried.' •' ~ ■

The current, number of the School Journal for the use of classes V. and VI. in the public schools contains an ; article on Now Zealand harbours in which an obsolete and erroneous -idea of the port of Timaru is disseminated. An illustration is given. of " the Timaru breakwater during a storm," which is correct for the era prior to the construction of the eastern extension mole, but is absolutely ■•. incorrect" now. The letterpress reads as follows: — " On these parts of the coast where shelter is required, and where produce must be shipped, we have a number of artificial harbours. The great drawbacks to these are the heavy seas which break on our coast, -and the enormous quantities of shingle and sand which are drifted' along the shore by strong currents and tend to fill the enclosed area that" is made. At Timaru, however, the quantity of shingle drifted by the sea is so great that : the breakwater has had to be extended seaward for a long distance. As a compensation the sea has piled up so much material on the weather side of the breakwater that acres of land have been formed above ; high-water mark, and stores have been built where once was deep water." The secretary of the Timaru Harbour Board says it is disappointing after all that has been done, by illustrations in the weekly papers and in other ways, to spread a ; correct idea ;of present conditions at > Timaru, that such; a false impression should be laid before all the senior scholars of the schools in New Zealand. ■ ■■•'- ■ Attention was drawn by Mr. W.iPeake, at the -meeting of--.the:- Trades and -Labour Council last night, to the action of the City Council in adopting the overhead construction for electric lighting extension. He submitted that the poles were most unsightly; \ and that the system the Council was adopting was quite as dangerous to property: as the overhead construction in the) toamwa-y system, to which the Auckland Fire Board strongly objected. / When the City Council was approached on the matter-some time ago, it gave a promise that future extensions would' be made Underground. He moved ..resolution expressing regret that the Council'. had not carried .put-its. jjromiee. This was carried.