LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14809, 12 October 1911, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

An Australian mail reached Wellington from Sydney by tlio Warrimoo yesterday. As the vessel did not connect with the Main Trunk express the Auckland portion of the mail, consisting of 30 bags, will not arrive here till; to-morrow morning. A European and American mail, via San Francisco, ie due to arrive at Wellington to-day by the Maitai. : The Auckland portion of this mail, should the Maitai connect with the Main Trunk express, will also arrive here to-morrow morning.

Two very small, and very dejected-look-ing boys were brought before Mr. E. C. Cuttcn, S.M., in the Juvenile Court yesterday on a charge of letting off fireworks in Burnley Terrace. "This," said Sub-Inspec-tor Hendrey, "is another case of the small boy and the innocent cracker, Your Worship, and it had disastrous results. These two youngsters were playing close to where a horse and cart , was standing. They let off some crackers and the horse took fright and bolted. The trap was smashed almost beyond repair, the harness broken, and.the horse- injured." The boys shamefacedly admitted their offence, and in , answer ;to His Worship said they were each'lo years old. Mr. C-utten said they could now, see for themselves, if they could not before, the wrong they • had done, and they re- ■ pentantly replied that they could. The magistrate added that their parents would have to pay 16s each for Court costs. As to the damage done, that was a, matter for a civil action.

The new : steamer Lord Lonsdale, which arrived at Auckland from New York last night,-has on board 180,000 cases, of oil, consigned to Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Dunedin. 1 4.b6ut_ 70,000 cases' of - the vessel's . cargo , will be digcb&rged at

A considerable frankness charactcriscil • some of Sir John Find lay's remarks ;at that Institute for the Blind yesterday." He had - stated that -he > would do his v- utmost -to / secure for the inmates a substantial rediuj. tion in the railway fires charged them. "I want to warn you," he said, "that l. am here trying to win a seat; and anyV such promise must be regarded with at least 3, certain element of caution; so that• yon\ will recognise : that Ix am not making 4 binding promise or declaring that this -will be done." He would submit the; matter with all sympathy to the Minister for Kailways, "and he, , a very sympathetic and generous-minded man—" (Laughter.) "You don't know Mr. Millar as well as I do, or you" , would not question that statement. [ There is no more difficult and distasteful S position than that of a Minister who has to; ! say 'No'--.to some single claim which- has alt the merit in the world because it would; upset a general rule and cause trouble in -jDepartment." ' i , H ■' iyfrfi ;; Lecturers have not always sufficient humour in r them to recognise the badness; of their own jokes; but Mr. W. S. Fisher; who read a paper upon bankruptcy law to a meeting of accountants last night, has : that undoubtedly saving grace. The paper, he explained, was framed upon one read upon an earlier occasion, and in one/ respect "it ' was certainly an improvement upon the original. In the hope of possibly] lightening the subject he had attempted to be funny in places in the first paper, but upon reading it the attempted ; jokes had' appeared to be so absolutely vile that he had cut them out without hesitation. The reception of the lecture showed that he had still left one or two jokes of better quality, for some of his comments, especially upon old-fashioned proceedings, raised a hearty laugh among his audience. A suggestion has recently been made by the Education Department that fire drills shall Ibe introduced in the schools. The

suggestion was reported upon by the chief . inspector of the Auckland Education Board yesterday. He stated that fire drill - was not so urgently needed in this centre _ as in others where there are schools of two * *|| storeys. Nevertheless he considered the suggestion a good one, and recommended ■_ that it should be carried out, and that tha superintendents of ■' the fire brigades should be asked to confer with the head teachers with the object of arranging for periodical . drills in the larger schools. The chairman' - of the Board (Mr. G.. J. Garland) said that % arrangements would have to be made with ■ the brigades for the use of plant and for-.".;, instruction. The recommendations of th»; inspector were adopted. ' The right of a schoolmaster to take an ; active part in politics was the topic of an interesting discussion ,at * yesterday's meet-. ing of the Education Board. The headmaster of the Pukekone High School is a - candidate for the Raglan electorate, and-a»;.; . report was received from the , inspector stat* ing that he could not see how the school . duties could be carried on without suflcring while the master .was conducting an ! election campaign. He considered that if the master intended to i continue ? the, cam-. 1,1 paign he should be relieved of his, school duties at - once. I s Several members : took : the part of the master, and said they could see no more • harm in the electoral campaign : than in growing cabbages, provided that it was pursued out of school .hours. The Board had no right to interfere so long as \ its work was being done properly. Neglect of the school work, of course, put a' differ- : ent complexion 'on the matter. It was *?,{ mentioned that the master in question -had _ >■ already announced , that he intended, to resign. The chairman | said | that in other * j Government Departments men who wished to stand for 1 parliament had either ! to ;rev\,V. sign "or apply" for leave of "absence. '' One ; | member, said he did not see how anyone* could work an electorate like Raglan without intruding upon school-hours. It was , moved that the teacher should be written to in terms of the inspector's letter -and!, 4| asked what his intentions were, but an .. amendment deferring the matter for a fort* night was carried. * 1 iiSlftH HI KSI

' In • the matter of park v improvements,, [the .Council does not pro- * pose to confine its efforts to the beautifying of the Point Erin Reserve. The Bayfield Part, a 'property comprising overt six acres, which was purchased by the Council some three "years ago, is also 'to '' ■ ; receive attention. The land is to be'fi levelled and sown in grass, and later orna-. mental shrubs will be planted throughout - • the reserve. Tenders for" the, necessary -j; excavation and filling-in are now invited. • ' Some important changes will be mads > ! shortly in tie staffing of the Mount-Eden - Gaol. ; Sir John Findlay, Minister for < Justice, stated yesterday, that' at least in ",:i part as the. result of the recent inquiry at "v; the prison, a number of transfers are to / ." be effected. At present only one side of the changes has been definitely decided, so: that he was unable -to give any particu- v ; lars. The whole of the rearrangements -- _ would probably' be made public shortly., .>5 At about 12 o'clock yesterday' a rhuntof ; . ' ; named Patrick. Carr, while coupling wag- ■ ~ gons in the goods yard at the Auckland ' railway station, was caught between two trucks. On examination by doctors it Vj was found that Carr had sustained, among . other injuries, a broken collarbone. Ha • was conveyed to his home. ' At a meeting of the , council of th* Acclimatisation Society on Monday night ..; the | president, § Mr. W. J; H. Hazard, re- gggjj§ ported on his visit to the hatchery at ' sTapapa, where he. found everythingi in'• if Y excellent order Preparations were going ' < forward for the " rearing of" some 600,;"; pheasants for next season. The pheasants ;< f which had .recently been distributed had I given every satisfaction. There were . , numerous applications for pheasants' 'eggs'.',: on the part* of private breeders of birds, asvJ well as from the * various rod and gur\ ", clubs; From "'this source it was anticipated 5 there ..would be a considerable out* ! put of birds.

The Opposition candidate / for Waited 4-fi mata expounded at some length, at North-. , .I? cote last Bight, upon the sinful taihoa policy of . he Government with regard to the opening up of the native lands in the Auckland province. His sporting defini- : . j tion of "taihoa," viz. " This year, -next -* a year, some time, never; with 50 to one on, ... never, and this year and K next year scratched," rather tickled the ears of the audience, and was * received with laughte? ~ > and applaise. Members of the Northcote Fire Brigadft j are indignant at the action of the Borough < « Council in " turning jdown " their applica-» - j;| tion . "for the" ; annual "boot. money" allowance. A special meeting of the brigade has been convened, and it is |J|fc stated that : the outcomo of the : meeting will be the resignation of the ■ brigade in : a n .body. , "It all depends on sixpence," said a large shareholder of the Wanganui Freezing Company when referring to J the succeeii pr"-> i?| otherwise of the company operation. "11, the price received for oar sheep goes .up ; sixpence per, head'at Home, we can present - a big credit balance; if the price drops six* 9. y pence per head, wa make a loss. This call V-j be'understood when the large number el. vsig. sheep put tbrnnah each year is taken ii#t 1 'jji jwwuak! „ ' '"" " J

Twoßcore » persons . or / more . crowded t-o\ind Sir John Findlay as he stepped, on. the: -Main Trunk express last evening, wished him success in his fight for the l?arcell seat,- and, amid.- a good deal of Enthusiasm, a neatly-dressed little girl presented Lady Findlay with a pretty bouquet of flowers. ■/- The candidate - was in a genial mood, and facetious. '' I have selected a temporary residence in the electorate," he remarked with a smile, ■" I hope that before I come back you will select - a permanent residence for me." "Where would you - like it," queried a demonstrative elector, "in Parnell, Newmarket, or Remuera ?" "Why not have one in each ?" suggested someone else, "and Sir John retorted, "Three residences on ;£3OO a year! and I understand' the trams in Parnell are enough to waken the dead." During a lull in the laughter, the cheers, and the effusive handshakings, one gentleman remarked that anyway, Sir John would be as dead as a political doornail after the elections.

"With a view to settling motor tire troubles a Christ-church resident has been working at an invention which he expects will entirely do away with punctures and their attendant delays. The new idea is very simple, and consists of a cork interior to the outer cover, wrapped in canvas. It is claimed that the cork will preserve the cushion properties of the tire and will be light and nonpuncturable. It is provided thai the tire shall be attached to the rim, which will have a movable shoulder, by means of clamps. The invention has been shown to several motor experts in Christchurch, but the inventor intends to proceed further with the idea before conducting any exhaustive teste.

The movement amongst labour unions to cancel registration under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and join the New Zealand Federation of Labour,' which aims at making the grievance of one union the grievance of all, is spreading rapidly. During the past few weeks the Auckland Electric Tramways' Union and the General ; Labourers' Union have both decided to adopt this, course, and the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union is now contemplating taking similar action. At a meeting of the members of the Waterside Workers' Union yesterday it was resolved to toko a ballot on the issues between the 16th and the 21st inst. Members supporting the proposals contend that there is now little prospect of getting any further concessions from the Arbitration Court, and that by breaking away from the Court, and co-operating with other unions, under the Federation of Labour, they will have better prospects of enforcing their demands. The opponents of the proposals, on the other hand, contend that by adopting them the union would be taking a retrograde step, inasmuch as it would lose the authority of the Arbitration Court in enforcing its awards.

- "One matter which engaged my- attention," said Inspector Wyllie, reporting to the Southland Education Board on the work of the pupils in the woodwork classes at the Technical School, "was the inability V of lads from the upper classes of some of our schools to use an ordinary ' footrule fe with ease or even approximate accuracy. It is clear that a good many teachers take it for granted that when their pupils , have V learned the necessary tables they are fully i- equipped for practical "measuring work. v They would have been sadly undeceived v had they been present at the demonstration I attended and seen the futile attempts of fi their pupils to perform tie very simple feat of • measurement required of them." - - A " The judgment of Mr. Justice Sim in the action heard in banco for. the rectifica- - • tion -pi -the Mount Zeehaa Gold Mining Company's register was received yesterday morning by Mr. R. Goring Thomas, regis-. trar, and was delivered to the counsel con- ■■-■■ cerned in the case at noon. In the course of his judgment Sir. Justice Sim says the application made by the liquidator of the Mount Zeehan Company was to have the fV register of that company rectified by striking out the name of Albert Edward Burcher as the holder of 10,552 fully paid up * shares, and substituting the name ,of the Complex Ore Refining Process Company, Limited. The fact , that Burcher held the " shares as trustee for the latter company ■;■■■ was objected to by the liquidator, of the Mount Zeehan Company, his objection apparently beings owing to the fact that he : v", desired to have the shares in the name of ' the Complex Ore Company? so that- he - - . could enforce a right of • lien on them in ; V respect of a debt of £1090. The judge held that the claim of right to rectification '.was entirely without foundation, and dismissed the application, with costs £5 5s against the plaintiffs. Mr. Skelton ' ap- , • .'peared for: the liquidators of the - Mount iZeehan Company and Dr. Bamford for the j liquidators of the Complex Ore Company.: