LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14930, 1 March 1912, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

The three members of the Waterside Workers' Union who were, appointed b; the Conciliation Commissioner to act a assessors in the dispute now being con fiidered by the Conciliation Council wor threatened with the displeasure of th union if they made any agreement with th employers. Two of them are members o the union executive, and they have alread; had the pains and penalties of unpopu larity heaped upon them. They attendee a meeting of the union on Wednesday, an< when they attempted to speak they wer< greeted with disorder. Their colleague: on the executive refused yesterday to si with the.two assessors, and during the da] a special meeting of the union was held and demanded the resignations of the tw< assessors in question, f Both officials wen among those in the union who oppose* the recent cancellation of the union's regis tration. ' . , The necessity for the consideration of th( interests of the "third party " in industria disputes was urged by Mr. F. G. Ewingtoi in some remarks on the subject of capita and labour at the annual meeting of th( Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday "The time is coming," he said, "whilsl in these industrial crises, when the thirc party— is, the publicwill have to ttf considered. It is no longer merely a quos tion between workers and employers. It if becoming more a question between thest two parties and the people generally, and provision should be made for the propel representation of the rights of this third great party."- ,' " Anything but ; dignified has been th< attitude of the Ward Ministry," says' the Australasian in an article on the political situation in New Zealand. lb considers that the best hope for New Zealand lies in the formation of a combined party oi Oppositionists and moderate Ministerialists. " Sir Joseph Ward's own forecast of a Liberal-Labour coalition does not command much credence," the paper continues. "Among his present adherents are many whose political principles are practically the same as those of the Opposition, while on several vital questions they are at issue with the Radical van of their own party. Seeing that; Sir Joseph -has withdrawn, what could be more natural than for them to gravitate towards the Opposition? Thus might be created a soberly progressive Liberal party, which, for the time being, would have an assured superiority in Parliament and countiy over the LabourSocialists and their next of kin, the Wardite Radicals. Whether or no this fusion can be effected in the existing Parliament, it is bound sooner"or later to come about as j the now Labour-Socialist party increases its sectional activity." The fact that "the affairs of the city of Auckland in some of its most important aspects are at present entrusted to the young men of the community," was referred to by the Mayor (Mr. C. J. Parr) in his speech at the annual meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday. "These young men," said Mr. Parr, amidst applause and cordial "hear, hears," are doing their best for tho community. They may make, and will make, mistakes, but they are, and will be, honest mistakes, which are easily remediable. They may be trusted to do their work with an energy and persistence that will be helpful to the community. I for one believe that Auckland will not sucor if, in the future, she trusts her young men even more than at present."

The vital statistics of Auckland for the month of February showt that there was a notable decrease in the number of deaths during the month l as cornered with February of last year. The decrease was chiefly among children. This is attributed to the fact that gastro-eneritis, or summer diarrhoea, which is very dangerous to children, and 'which prevails in hot weather, was much less frequent than at the same time- last summer. The only other special feature in the statistics is a largo increase in tho number of marriages by the registrar. January showed a very large increase in this respect, and a lesser increase was shown last month. The number of births last month was 210, compared with 219 in Fobruary, 1911. The total births for the year were 433, as compared with 466 for the first two months of 1911. " Deaths numbered 84, which is 15 less than in the preceding February. The totals for January and February of this year and last were 169 and 223. There were 123 marriages last month, making a total of 261 for the year. Last year the figures were February 108, January a.nd February 216. The registrar celebrated 21 marriages last month, as against 16 a year earlier, and since New Year he has married 59 couples, compared with 33 in January and February, 1911.

While working at a lift in Endean'a Buildings, Queen-street, yesterday afternoon, Arthur Watts/ of Grange Road, Mount R( skill, had the misfortune to have his hand caught in the machinery. He was removed to the hospital, where it was found necessary to amputate' the fourth finger. The people who arrived in New Zealand by way of the port of Auckland during February numbered 1196, as compared with 905 last February. The emigrants via Auckland were 1296, as against .'1378. 'the excess of departures over arrivals last month was thus 100. In February, 1911, it was 473. .;'','•'; , To carry out Admiral Henderson's scheme for naval bases in Australia, will involve very heavy expenditure. It was recently stated by the Federal Minister for Defence (Senator Pearce) that the works at Port Western (Westernport Bay, ■ Victoria) will cost about £250,000; but ', the expenditure in West Australia,, at ; Sockburn Sound, will, it is expected, be i :ar heavier. ': ' ; i it

, In congratulating the Auckland 'ChamberV- ; 1 ; 'i ; of Commerce at yesterday's annual^etw , upon its -virility and activity, the Mayo, . (Mr. C. J. Ban) said:—"Judging by «. marks one hears outside, one might hava : expected that you would all by this timHfß , bo swept out of existence by revolutionary'' ''. 1 / socialism." The Mayor jocularly added , that this was likely to happen to them ft , revolutionary socialism got its way in this country. "If it takes your capital &nd ■ ■ business," he went on to ask, '-what are : they going-to do with you? I suppose toq I must follow some occupation. If they take your capital and business tho least thet' ■ |. .they can do is to keep you for the rest of ' j your days." ! In connection with the Quay-street im- ■ provement scheme tho Harbour Board are > now inviting tenders for the excavation of ' ■ the cliff at St. Barnabas's Point, and th» • construction of ah embankment at Mechanics' . Bay. The Board undertook some time ago . to reclaim about 30 acres at Mechanics' i Bay at the expense of the Hallway Depart. I ment, the estimated cost being £90 000 . By this work mainly the Department's :; . goods yard space will be more than doubled , comprising 44 acres instead of 18 acres "at , present, and the area will be unbroken and , easily worked. . . •' ■ Mr. W. G. Wickham. who has recently '■ been appointed Commissioner for 'New. Zealand by the British Board of Trade with headquarters at Wellington, will visit Auckland within the next few days,.with 1 the object of inquiring into trade competitions in this district. Mr. Denniston, secretary of the Auckland Chamber of Com. merce, who is the local correspondent of the Board of Trade, will be pleased to arrange interviews for any mercantile men who may be desirous of meeting Mr. Wick- « ham. The latter will probably arrive in Auckland on Tuesday next. It is generally admitted that the Auckland Railways League has rendered good ■ > service in keeping the need for railways i constantly before the Government., Sir Wm. Hall-Jones at the banquet on the opening of the Main Trunk railway, speci. ' ally advised Auckland people to keep the < league alive, as it had .done good work, and that whichever party was in power, it was necessary to have a spur on to their ; movement?.. It is admitted since that they have done good work, but the. curious fact remains that while the league had over £30 extra expenses in taking the Par- : liamentary party over the feast Coast, railway route last year, its actual ' subscrip- 3 f tions were much less than usual, so that the league finds itself short of money now, and is obliged to send their collector round a little earlier than usual, beginning in i March instead of May, and it is hoped that the Auckland public will subscribe liberally. An inquest on the body of the lad George Davies, who died as a result "or taking prnssic acid in the shop of Mr. F. Murray, chemist, of Parnell, on Wednesday afternoon, was held yesterday. Mr. ■ W. Johns acted as Coroner. The jury returned a' verdict ..that ■. deceased committed suicide whole of unsound mind. Moral decline in the family life of the Dominion was a subject touched upon by:'; the Rev. G. W. J. Spence, retiring president of the New Zealand-Methodist Conference, in his address at the opening session.Last night. It was, he said, most f "distressing to find what a large proportion of children, even in professedly Christian homes, proved to bo receiving practically no Christian training during the most impressionable period of their lii.'e. Formerly, it was the common practice amongst Methodists to have family worship at least once a day, but this excellent usage seemed now to be rather the exception than the rule. He had no hesi-;|j;S|' ration in saying that this . was a most serious loss, not only ■to the .individual and the family, but to the Church and to the State. In these days when our public school education was exclusively secular, and family worship > was largely crowded out of the day's programme, how were oiiy |:; children to be instructed in Bible truth? Too often this all-important duty devolved mainly on the Sunday-school teacher; and while he yielded to no ono in his appro- '• ciation of the self-denying efforts of j Sunday-school teachers', yet lie said emphatically that half-an-hour's religious, instruction on one day in seven was totally k:; inadequate for a child, no matter how good the teacher might be. Further, this ■ was work which should not be done by !:, I proxy, but by those primarily and wor* ally responsiblethe parents, than whom no one had freer access to the child's heart, or greater influence over the child's mind in its formative period. .', ,' A long discussion on mixed bathing' took place at the last meeting of the Anglican Social Questions Committee in {V Melbourne, over which Archdeacon '.Hindley presided. Several members spoke of the absolute necessity there was, in. their view, for the provision at public expense of more ample dressingroom and other ■ facilities for' the people indulging in sea batliing. They declared that the scenes witnessed at . some of the seaside places during the last few weeks were such as to force every man who desired to retain >. a high standard of modesty, decency, and . chivalry to seek the intervention of. the •; Government. One speaker stated that the w . real troubles were the parading of the beaches in batliing attire, and the boldness of women and girls who, lay about the beaches in the arms of men or re-;,: , ; clining on the latter, after their swim-; Reference was made to the new Sydney ':. ', regulations, and a strong deijire was ex- - • pressed that the policy of the Church of England in the matter should be reasonable control and better facilities for pro-, moting decencyand not the suppression \ of mixed bathing. It was decided to., • wait as a deputation on the Chief Secre-,', tary to urge uniform regulations ior mixed . bathing, and the vote by Parliament of a sum of money to enable the maritime municipalities to provide facilities for the , influx of bathing visitors from other : Mel-> bourne municipalities and inland districts*

During the month of February,..4o sec-! tions of Crown land?! were offered for selection in the Auckland district. Twenty of the sections were balloted for at Morrinsvillo on February 22, the number of applicants being 483, and all the sections were allotted except one. This land was all on the Hauraki Plains. The otner 29 sections were dealt with at Auckland yesterday.. Five were withdrawn. There were no applications for eight of tho sections,, the applicants for the other lots numbering 115. The total area passed over to settlers yesterday was about - 2940 acres. The sections already under offer for the coming month in th« Auckland district include five for sale by public auction to-day. There are two quarter-acre sections in the town of Ngaruawahia, at an upset price of £45; one of nine acres, and one of five acres in the suburbs of Raupo in the Otamatea County, at an upset price of £135 and £75 respectively ; and one of 24 acres, at £75, in the '; Mangaorongo Survey District, Waitomo ■;■ County. Ten sections, offered on the. optional system, will bo balloted for on .; March 29, applications closing on March 25. Six of them, all adjoining, are in the Thames Survey Distrct, Thames County* Block XL, sections 21 to !%. They range ' from 96 acres to 125 acres, and the cash • price from £750 to £830. The other four ire in Ohinemuri County,, Waihcu Survey ■ District, Block VII., sections 3 to 6. They ire about 123 acres each, and the prie« 6830 to £860. . . ... . " --■ .--.'. •'' •■■■■..;•'.■■;:.■.: ': .'/ > : ' :■ : i > ■ ; '- ■■" .-■■■':'.:.',"■ v.■^■'^■v^:■';'■o^yv ' • ■:.'. '. .:■ ■.-'■"