LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14081, 8 June 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

At the monthly meeting of the Ancle-, land Minister*.' Association, held yesterday, a letter was received from, the- Postmaster -General, elating that the making up of the mail at Auckland on Sunday nights for despatch by the Main Trunk train was regarded as a work of necessity, and he regretted that it could net therefore be abolished. Every care wae taken to minimise the amount of Sunday work in the Department, but a certain measure {hereof was regarded as unavoidable

The building operation;, 9* the now Town, Hail are being carried forward rapid'y, end the great structure is now in a stage Chat enables an Abserver to note the outline of the hall in * eovt of ground plan. The concrete work on the Queenstreet frontage is level with the pavement, and the stone front in Grey-street ie well underway. .The supper-room, off the lesser hall, and the strongrooms have been.built, and the ground work for the floor of the great hall has been accomplished, and several of the doorways are in position. An enormous amount of work had to be done on the site before the wall* could rise to view above the Queen-street footpath, but from now on tile structure will rapidly develop, and in a short time passers-by will see the walls rising above the hoardings, whjch surround the scene of operations. About 400 tons of undressed bluestone werC brought by the barque Laira, which arrived from Melbourne yesterday, for use in the construction of the Town Hall.V

The Union Steam Ship Company's steamer Mokoia, which left for Sydney last night, -will, in all probability, again return to Sydney on June 21, instead of proceeding to East Coast- and Southern ports as formerly. By this time it is expected that the repairs to the Maheno's turbines will be completed. It is not yet decided, however, whether the Maheao will resume her running in the Sydney-Auckland trade or not.

The supply of oysters to the State depot has now reached 500 sacks a week. The demand still exceeds the strpply, but. it is expected to fall off as the season advances. It is difficult to estimate. what the actual demand really is, as some of the orders put in are considered to be fictitious, the object being to secure a larger supply than would be given on a lower order. The Wellington demand is expected to increase a little during the Parliamentary session, as several restaurants in that city, which at other times keep only Stewart Island oysters, then 6tock the Auckland article. Present supplies are coming from Chamberlin's or Ponui Island, in the Huaraki Gulf, and the quality is stated to be excellent.

With reference to the wire from our Wellington correspondent, appearing in yesterday's Herald, stating that a party of nine Chinese, bound from China for Tahiti, were not allowed to land at Auckland until a sum of £1800 had been doposited in cash with the Customs, but had, instead, been transferred from their steamer to a hulk in the harbour, Customs officers informed a Herald representative yesterday that the Minister had allowed the party to land, but only one had taken advantage of the privilege. The others had been informed by the local Chinese that if they went ashore they would have to buy European clothes, and rather than incur this expense they had preferred to stay on the hulk, where they have been very comfortable. . They leave by the Hauroto, for Tahiti, to-day.

Constable Montgomery left for Sydney yesterday, to bring to Auckland a. man named Georgo, Demetre, who has been arrested on a charge of fraudulent bankruptcy. i

The Ponsonby police station was advised yesterday of the sudden death of a six-weeks-old infant named Albert. H. W. Sullivan, who resided with the mother at Elizabeth-street. The child, which was rather delicate, was put to bed about seven o'clock on Sunday evening, and at midnight the mother woke and found it dead. An inquest will be held this morning.

The Auckland Kennel Club decided at its last meeting to offer three medals, of gold, silver, and bronze, for compewtkni amongst the primary schools, the medals to be awarded to the children ' writing 'the best *s*<fcjs on the subject, "'The Origin of'the Dog as a Domestic Animal.." The competition is open to children of 'all ages, but age and standard in net be stated. The Auckland Education Board hits accepted the offer. The object of .the club is to inculcate the love of animals in children, and it proposes to make thie an annual competition, changing the subject each year, and in addition to offer a prize next year for the best trained dog, open to any child attending a primary school. A suggestion has been made that the poultry and dog shows should amalgamate with the Winter Show, and Dr. K. Stopford, president of the Kennel Club, heart approves of the idea. " . ': ,

An invest was held at OtahnhiW*?.' day concerning the death of Chas.licfce, who was killed through, a gun if .3 w £ handling going off. A verdict las re : turned that death was due to an accident no blame being attachable to anyone. '.' ' ' Two men named Walter McShane and Chas. Bennett received somewhat Lserious ?? injuries through being thrown o\% of a • sulky yesterday afternoon. They were returning from Kilerslie by way of the Lady's Mile, and when they were ap. preaching the intersection of Remuera ' Road and the Lady's Mile, the horse bolted and the trap capsized. McShane was rendered unconscious for half an hour, and injured his back. Bennett received' cuts V about the head, and his left thigh was bruised. Dr. Williams rendered first aid and Sergeant McPhee and Constable Hunt' of the Newmarket station, had the men removed to (he hospital, where both are progressing favourably. ' -li At a meeting of the Auckland Head- - masters' Association, Mr. Wooller presiding, an interesting address, was given by - Mr. H. G. Cousins, M.A., of the Norma) : School, on "Play Grounds." Mr. Cousins ■- treated the subject on the broad principle '■' of the physical and moral development, of the child, emphasising that the fullest intellectual advancement was possible only ?? when scope was given for the play of such? natural forces as were brought to the ' front in the play-ground. He advocated the opening of all school play-grounds to all children out of school hours, possibly under the supervision of a director of play. In the discussion which followed, many. complaints were made regarding the inadequacy of the. play-grounds attached to the city schools, and a general wish was expressed that means should be takenl to ■ awaken public interest in the matter of open spaces as play-grounds, not gardens and walks, for children. As a means to this end, the headmasters of the city ' schools will prepare a table showing sp. proximately the space allotted to cadi? child in the play-ground. - ???? The fire brigade received a call about 10 o'clock yesterday morning to a firs; in r a wash-house at Grafton Road, in premises owned and occupied by Mrs. DSlon. The blaze was extinguished in a few minutes, and only slight damage was done. *, Something savouring of a combine is ap-5 parently scented by the Government - ia": ; connection with the annual tendering for. supplies to the various State Departments (says the New Zealand Times). These were considered on Tuesday, and only ia connection with one centre were any contracts accepted, those for Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill being declined. The Prime Minister explained that the reason for this was that? in all these cases the lowest prices were ; uniformly much higher than those quoted in the tender which was accepted. These contracts are of great, importance, for the supplies cover a period of three years, and although the Public Works Department controls them, many other State Departments, such as Mental Hospitals and Defence, take advantage of the elaborate contract schedules to order their materialsthrough this medium. The average value of. goods purchased tinder. theire contracts in the past has totalled over £100,000 per annum. ''■'"■ '"-•'■' Times are said to be rather hard for the majority of those who gain a livelihood on the Wellington wharves. Still, some of the waterside workers 'can find money to gamble with if they can't find workdays the New Zealand Times). On Tuee- ? day the somewhat unique spectacle was to ? bOi'sseen **;■ number .of -mensnear, rtheS Sailors' ■■' Rest "rolling the dice" on the." wharf, ' while a couple lof well-known detectives were less than 200 yds away. As long as' the detective* kept their distance play went on without interruption, bet when they shifted an air of innocence stole? over the ring of gamblers, which would have done credit to a' circle in a more pious sphere. - The difficulty in the detection of this illegal' gambling is ihe positive identi-■ fication of the participators. . .;. Members of the committee -of the Wellington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had their attention J-:J directed for a space on Tuesday ,to th; ■ methods of horse-drivers in "Red Russia." They were agreeably surprised to, learn, first, that there were no whips to be seen in the street* of Moscow, but their gratificatioa was very considerably modified when it was point«l out that the energies of the Muscovian equines were stimulated by the application of something which smacked of the "refinement of cruelty." ... In Moscow the driving reins c* vehicles are fitted with a leather contrivance, studded with. spikes; these spikes are brought smartlyand painfully— against the flanks of the horses whenever the reins are "flapped." There.is, compared with Muscovian methods, some humanity in our whips after all (says the Dominion).

" I never stayed anywhere for six nxraths., in my life." The speaker (says the New Zealand Times) was a weather-beaten man: - of 69 years of age, and his audience the; trustees of the Wellington Benevolent Institution. He had been a gumdigger, and had walked from the far north of Auck. land. He thought he would like to trawl l through the Wairarapa—on foot. , Ther trustees commended the pluck of the old' man, and gave him a ticket to Featherston, "to get him over the hill"—also 2s. -The applicant retired rejoicing, his brown face all aglow. -v' V-. , » # ~-. ■ "We do not look upon examinations a* / our sole end and aim," declared the Eev.> Father Bartley, of St. Patrick's College,. when speaking at the Old Boys' Associa-' tion reunion, " for examinations are tha bane and blight and curse of our educational system. The cram necessarily at- " tached to them is enough to do away, with all the good which might be obtained by a three or four years' course. at a college." In this connection Father* Bartley referred with gladness to the fact' that the college was not hampered by a. board of governors and its restrictions, attributing much of the success attained to the circumstance. ~ — "A few years ago he was a man of considerable means," said counsel for defendant in a maintenance case at the Wellington Magistrate's Court, but unfortunately he speculated in property." Counsel went on • to explain that his client had put his money. into fciihmban property about Wellington,, g and he *&* «**w unable to raise a nenny on the prow*! v• His Worship said that it v.sM , no u» ; o*fcu£ &» < *d*r against defendant. He harl '&& got th* money, and the Court could not' «*K iv iU# fcis bands. The can would be s4joume4 *-* give things * chance ": •-■;, of improving. ..'"_;;;■-.; ' ,_, '. It '& not often .*&«*» collection ha« to be taken .ujr.fciV «-..public ' gathering that it is forgotten••<»}•» the Timaro Herald), but -jcS *,* ?* case at tna. ■ meeting address* l.;-.; M.-. B. M«A"»:Sfi the Theatre m& imaj:U ; \ ha collection was -w^d.-to defray. >■•* expends-hire &' %&!& and ad " .: vertiring-and the t&ss'&vn ™" **£ as to who -ill foot, a-v V.!?. The Mayo* will have to do c>U-i-V »* « wholly or partially relieve*! pf ii»