LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14589, 27 January 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A return of the number of buildings in the city, asked for by the Government statistician, was presented to the Auckland. City Council last evening. The total number of ratable buildings is 9503, the inhabitated dwellings" number 789 and there are 1579 stores or warehouses in which no persons sleep. There are 26 empty dwellings and 53 dwellings in process of erection.

Of late there have been many references to the collapse of the land boom in Wellington. Mr. John Duthie, a wellknown business man of that city, who is at present in Auckland, holds that neither this term nor tho sinister term "slump" may fairly be applied to the recent history of Wellington. Mr. Duthie said that the value of business properties had not fallen, and one could not now buy a business "site for a penny less than before. Further, there had been no extraordinary number of failures. ' Land for residence sites had gone down a little., but the prices continued high. The slight fall, Mr. Duthie said, was due to* the fact that the expansion of the tramways had opened up fresh areas of land, and to the opening up of suburban land Mr. Duthie also attributed the fact that there were empty houses in the city.

The excellent, results obtained by pupils of the Auckland Boys' Grammar School in the junior University scholarship and senior scholarship examinations were the subject of congratulatory remarks at the meeting of the Grammar School Board yesterday. A resolution was passed expressing to the headmaster and staff the Board's appreciation' of the successes obtained by the school..

The district health officer hats returned from a visit to Dargaville, the purpose of which was to investigate the cases of typhoid at Scarrott's native settlementHe states that a number of other pas are affected, but with ordinary precautions there is no danger of a serious epidemic, or of the white population being affected.

Before the City Council proceeded to business last night, the Mayor (Mr. L, J. Bagnall), on behalf of the Board of Trade, presented a bronze medal, awarded for gallantry to Albert Erikson, a seaman who assisted in a gallant attempt to rescue a comrade who had fallen overboard from the barque Vandnara in 1902. Lite Mayor,. after expressing in complimentary terms his admiration of the deed in which Mr. Erikson had taken part, explained that the long deljay of nearly nine years had been caused by the difficulty tho Board of Trade had experienced in finding the recipient. Mr. Erikson made a happy response, and was heartily applauded. Captain Fleming, superintendent of the mercantile marine at Auckland, thanked the Mayor, on behalf of the Board of Trade, for having presented the medal, and for the kindly words with which he had accomnanied it.

The amount of research work done by scientists in New Zealand, Mr. A. Hamilton said a,t the conference of the governors of tho New Zealand Institute yesterday, is larger than is usually supposed, and much of it is of excellent quality within certain narrow limits. So far research has been but little endowed, and nearly all the work has been done in a necessarily scrappy fashion by .men.- in professional positions. The , man who will give his life for an idea is unknown in New Zealand. " Once we are made to feel the influence of science," he added, "not merely on the accelerating progress of the State, but on the world of idea, of morals, and of emotion,; we may expect endowment to be much more frequent than in the past." Men could be found to do the work if opportunity were found. -The bc*t plan, he said, would .be. to provide research scholarships for young graduates, tenable for short terms. From among them would come the born investigator— one in a thousand .who should bo kept at work by OTreaie-eiMiowmenk'ar *by*th&'Sta&e.

The system of continuation classes provided for ' under the Education Amendment Act of last year will in all probability be brought into operation for the first time in New Zealand at Devonport, the School Committee of that district, as already explained, having done itself the honour of making the first formal application for permission to inaugurate the classes. All boys and girls, between the ages of 14 and 17, residing within two miles of a school at which such classes are held, are required to attend them (if they are not otherwise receiving suit-able education), but the -period of. tuition shall , not exceed five hours in any one week or 150 hours in < any one year. Any person employing such pupils, at other than the ordinary working hours, so as to interfere with their attendance at the classes, is liable to a penalty of from 5s to £2. Mr. J. . F. Buddie, the chairman of the Devonport Committee, states that when the formal permission to establish the classes is received, no time will be lost in putting the scheme into operation.

The - syllabus for the ensuing year at the Auckland University College is now issued, and may be had by any persons interested. It is a very handy volume, containing all the information required by students, either at the college or intending, to join it. Attendance at the lectures is not restricted, as many suppose, to those who have matriculated, and any who wish .to attend arc advised to procure a copy of the syllabus, which will show just what lectures are available, in both the classical and modern courses. The subjects Include English, modern languages, music, and sciences, which in turn include . mining engineering and electrical engineering. The syllabus of the new music course, which comes into force this year in time for the examinations in May, is included, and is also issued separately. The School of Commerce syllabus, also included in the volume, will be issued separately in a few days, and the calendar of the college will be available in about a week. The college reopens on March 6.

An interesting proposal was brought before the Auckland Land Board yesterday, when Mr. J. W. Ellis, of Hamilton, made an application for some 600 acres of timber in the Piopiotia survey district, near Taumarunui. From his investigations in the United States, Mr. Ellis is importing a complete plant for cutting veneers, and if his application goes through, will commence operations at the place mentioned. The veneered timber is useful in various ways, and the method of cutting it in thin sheets round the log, shows up the beauty of the grain well. It has been found that all New Zealand wood is capable of treatment by this process, and no doubt the' result of the experiment will be eagerly looked forward to by those interested in the timber industry. '■

The triennial conference of the North Island Druids will be held in Auckland next month, commencing on the sth. About 80 ' delegates are expected to be present. Among the business to come up for consideration will be the questions of sick pay and levies.

A continuation of the conference of representatives of commercial and shipping interests, for the purpose of collecting evidence showing the need of retaining the Mokohinau light, and for the erection of lights at Bushy Head and Three Kings, was held yesterday afternoon. Several shipmasters gave evidence, and a report will be presented at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, to be held at an early date.

. A visit of , members of .the, British Association, the leading scientific body of Great Britain, ;to Australia is contemplated for the year 1914. The New Zealand Institute is desirous of having the visit extended to New Zealand. At yesterday's meeting of the governors of the institute, the president (Mr. A. Hamilton) stated that it- would be desirable to ask the Government to make a grant to illable the Canadian and American members of . the . association to visit New Zealand, and for the other members to return Home from Australia, via New Zealand. As, the visit was still so remote, it was decided to leave the making of further arrangements in the hands of Professor Easlerfield, Mr. Hamilton, and the president for the ensuing period (Mr. T. F. Cheeseman).

The great, extent, to which the Waitakere waterworks reserve is being frequented by camping and picnicking parties was reported to the City Council last evening by the town clerk (Mr. H. W. Wilson), who stated that, his attention had 'been drawn to, tho fact by- the waterworks engineer (Mr. J- ; Carlaw). The campers, it was reported, had been notified that they could not be allowed to pitch their tents on the watershed.. As, however, it was difficult to keep such a large area under observation, the town clerk recommended that public notice bo given-that such parties will not be allowed to make use of the reserve for camping purposes without special permits. It was resolved that camping on the watershed should be forbidden, as suggested, the town clerk to be authorised to issue the permits.

Scientists interested in the preservation of indigenous flora and fauna were displeased at the recent leasing of the Auckland Islands by the Government for the purposes of raising stock. At yesterday's meeting of the board of the New Zealand Institute the matter was referred to by the president (Mr. A. Hamilton)," who -remarked that the small rental (under £50 a year) did not give a return for the disadvantages due to the stocking of the islands. The institute had itself tried to get a lease of the islands, but was oo late, as matters had then gone too far.

The Heleneville Agricultural Show, to be held on Monday, promises to be highly successful.'The entries constitute a record, being considerably larger than in any previous year, and it is expected that there will ..be . a decided improvement in the quality of the animals exhibited. The horse sections, apart from.the competition classes, for which post entries arc received, • have drawn 220 entries, or 40 more than last year, and correspondingly satisfactory results have been achieved in other classes. Special excursion trains will be run by the Railway Department to Helensville on Monday for the convenience of Aucklanders desiring to visit the show.

Those who are familiar with the. wellknown solid little volumes of the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," will be interested in a decision of the governors of the Institute, who met at Auckland yesterday. It is now settled that "short papers" shall he'printed in the " Proceedings" which are at present quite small pamphlets, containing the minutes of the various meetings. ■ It was stated at the meeting that the result of the change would be that the " proceedings would gradually take over the functions of the "Transactions in becoming a quarterly volume of papers sent in, and that such a change would be a welcome one. In . one of his references to the subject, the president (Mr. A. Hamilton) said that a great improvement could made in the "Transactions " by condensation of a number of the longer papers. The Board further decided that along with the transactions and bulletins would, in future, be included special scientific monographs,. .. ok u , " J

Inquiries were made by a reporter yesterday into the complaint of the Herald's correspondent at Apia that it had been found impossible to buy tinned meat at Auckland in sufficient quantity to fill the requirements of the islands. A representative of the firm of Hellaby's, stated that the reason why it had not been possible to fill all orders was that the price of stock had remained high longer than usual— high to permit of much canning. There had been heavy expectations of stock from the province, and the price, in consequence, had remained high. It was now beginning to ease, and there should not be the same difficulty from how onwards in meeting the demand.

The town clerk, in a report submitted to the City Council last night, stated that in, the course of preparing the district electors'- roll, which had to be prepared by February 15, he had found that the roll needed purging. He had put on three house-to-house canvassers in several of the streets occupied chiefly for residential purposes, and in which changes of tenancy were frequent, and the results had already proved the necessity for (he action, as a very large number of persons had been found to have moved, their places being taken by others. This would result in a considerable change in the new roll. He also stated that the opportunity had been taken to adopt a card system, which had greatly facilitated the work, and would reduce the expenditure in future.

The danger of stepping from the front of a tramcar and trying to cross the rails ahead of the car, was illustrated in Ponsonbv Road yesterday.- At the stoppingplace near Wood-street, a young lady stepped daintily from a car, she hesitated a moment as if undecided what to do, and then made a dash to cross in front of the car, which had then started to move. Several spectators who noticed the lady were horrified at her action, as they felt certain she would be struck by the tramcar. Fortunately, the motorman was equal to the occasion, for he promptly applied the emergency brake juct in time to avert a serious accident.

The Auckland City Council is in negotiation with the authorities for a proper coat of arms, and the High Commissioner for New Zealand has written to state that the cost of the armorial bearings will be about £130, and to ask for further instructions. The Council decided last night to authorise him to proceed with the business.

A painful though not serious accident happened -yesterday afternoon to a carter in the employ of J. J. Craig, Limited. When rounding the corner of the ParkerLamb Company's yards in Customs-street West, the cart went into a rut and jerked the driver between the horse and the shafts. There was a load of coke on the vehicle, and one of the wheels went over the unfortunate man's legs. There appeared to be no bones broken, however, though the carter was unable to walk, and was taken home in a cab.

A -cheque for £50, fortunately useless, has been lost somewhere' between Christchurch and its Auckland address. The secretary of the New Zealand Institute stated' at the conference of the governors of that. body yesterday, that a cheque intended for the payment of the expenses of the delegates had been posted in Christchurch on Friday, but it . had not reached him, and he supposed it had been lost by the Poet Office. It had been signed bythe treasurer, and was. of no value till' he (the chairman] had signed it -as well, -so that the institute could, lose nothing. . If anyone cashed the cheque, he .would do so at his own risk.

A deputation of members of the Parnell Borough Council met the Remuera Road Board yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of viewing a portion of the boundary between Parnell. and Remuera, having regard to a proposal to include within the Parnell borough the piece of land between Batscombe's gully and Manukatt Road, bounded by Ayr-street on the north and a line parallel from the Blind Institute on the south. There had been a unanimous petition from the residents of Ayr-street and Cowie Road praying to be included in the Parnell borough, owing to their situation. The cost of draining the gully appeared to present the most difficulties to the Parnell deputation, and after some discussion it was decided to leave the matter over until the " details were gone into thoroughly.

A conference is to be held in Wellington early next month by delegates from all branches of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, to decide whether the society can continue to exist as a single body. For some time there have been differences within the society, and the engine-drivers, firemen, and cleaners have been trying to obtain leave to form a union of their own. The Minister for Railways has withdrawn his opposition to the proposed division of the society, but it has not yet taken place, and efforts are being made to avoid it, the conference referred to being the culmination. The old executive, and with it the old method of representation, have gone, and a new committee, elected to directly represent locomotive, goods, maintenance, and workshops branches of the society, has been set up, and will endeavour to heal the breach. If it fails, then ■a separate union will be formed. It is understood that Mr. R. Hollis, a member of the New South Wales Parliament, is in New Zealand to try and make arrangements for the establishment of separate unions for each of the four departments of the " second division.''

During his recent official visit to the South Island, Mr. W. C. Kensington (Under-Secretary for Lands) inspected' the State nurseries at Tapanui (telegraphs our Wellington correspondent). He reports that the season has been most satisfactory and the growth the most luxuriant ever experienced. This is the more fortunate in view of the fact- that arrangements are being made to supply trees to the selectors of land in the Mackenzie Country, where a number of runs are to be opened for selection in a few weeks' time. Under the conditions of settlement ouch selector must plant at least an acre of land with not less than 1000 trees every year after the first year of his license, and enclose the area with rabbit and stock proof fences to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Crown Lands.

The subject, of the approaches to Customs-street- West, and the retention of the Hobson-street bridge will be discussed at the City Council's next meeting. Mr. J, A. Pond has written to the Council asking it to receive a deputation desirous of making representations on the subject. The Council decided last evening to receive the deputation at.its next meeting.

An accident occurred 011 board the steamer Corinna at Wellington on Monday morning. Two men named T. Pressley and F. C. Gibson were working in one of the holds when a box of butter, which with many others was beiqg transferred : to the lonic, slipped out of a sling and fell back into the Corinna's hold,, striking the two men named. Both sustained severe scalp wounds and slight concussion. They were taken to the hospital as quickly ■as jposeihl©..