LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15298, 10 May 1913, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The. arrival of the Union . Company** . new mail liner ■ Niagara: from Sydney yesterday;morning attracted large crowds to the waterfront, ; and; as .the: warship New ■* f Zealand was closed, to the public much interest was centred in the big* liner. . The 7 vessel had on board nearly 500 passengers, and as these came ashore, the Queen Street. : Wharf bore an animated appearance.' .The :'-;;7 Harbour Board authorities barricaded the" - <• wharf off where the Niagara was berthed, and those working the cargo from the long ' line of railway trucks had plenty of room in which to; carry'out'their operations. When the Niagara sails fox Vancouver ;!; to-day she will .■< have .; over 800 . persons - ou board, including 373 through' passengers from Australia and 200 New Zealand pas- ' sengers. The crew numbers about 260. Great amusement was caused in the Police Court yesterday morning; jwhen aMaori was7charged - with- 7 being ;., drunk. 7 r:;i The accused intimated -that he was unable 77 to understand ;a. word. of English. Mr. Lundon - offered his services as. an interpreter. •.-. He ; then put \;: the ■ charge in [ Maori to the ; accused, 7 who responded, - 7: through ; his .-, interpreter,:, to . the . effect that - he did not- object speaking English to the' Court, but ! that he would not talk to a , '.; ; policeman. , Almost immediately the accused, • amid .much -laughter,--threw; the 7 interpreter's services ? to the wind, and": , burst out into- i English; 1 the quality'- of-• t ;• which would 'have 3 put -many Englishmen! 1 ' ' to shame. : - '/'"■■ "'/' " * **-•■.-«-.■ Keen enjoyment of their visit to AnclC"'"> : land was expressed yesterday by the offi- ■ cers of the New Zealand. They l are T ' , charmed with the "city and its picturesqueenvironments, and .have: an ; unbounded .. '. admiration for' the beauties of the Waited mata Harbour. Not one of the officers 7 '"'• has expressed . any . other feeling than re-. - . gret at the prospect "of to-day's departure; . from Auckland, They say that the. hospi- : tality they have received has been lavish. As far as the rush of visitors to the. ship 7 ' is concerned, and the trouble entailed in . 1 entertaining them,', the '..whole,, of,the '.' oJfii cers refuse to admit that they have been .. in the.least put out by it. On the con-. \ ; trary, they are agreed that it will, seem very dull for the next, few days, and they 7 ' will miss the friendly faces which hava i been all round, them for several days. past v Owing to the increased water consump- , tion in the Ellerslie: district, due to the . rapid growth of the population, the Elle rsi ►" lie Town :'■ Board has : found - it '. necessary, to 77 > increase the supply of water. For this f purpose a larger .; meter is. to be attached r ] to the mains, and it will;. be installed tomorrow. The supply of water in the • district will therefore'be cut off from 10 • a.m. till 4 p.m., to allow the work to be-' [ carried out. - 7 . .. Publication is commenced, in our literary supplement to-day, of a short serial ;. story,-entitled"The Honour of a Con- :. : vict," by Eobert Halifax. -What is called. . the... "short serial" '-■_ is -now - quite a popular, feature in some English and American ' magazines, and a portion of the first of a * • series is presented in this issue. \ ./ /; i ' '.-,". * The vagaries ; of. the weather were fur- J/ a ther exemplified last; night. About 7.30 g I p.m. a thunderstorm blew' up from the 1 south-west. There were some particularly.: i vivid -flashes of J lightning, 7with : several '-'k - claps' of f rumbling thunder. Very -heavy iy--3 hail ''followed by torrential rain, which . - drove the crowds in Queen-Street to take s shelter wherever 7 possible. :. The storm,;/: 3 which was of but short duration, was pre-;■, 1 ceded by; some distant lightning, which 7 a was mistaken by several people for the '- battleship's searchlights. 8 ' The danger arising from meat trusts a was emphasised; yesterday by Mr. John rii t Cooke, a ; well-known Australian frozen 7; 8 meat 'exporter, % who ':'_ was a ■? passenger, by ; e the Niagara. 7 Already a great deal of the 1, Argentine meat trade with England: had 7 s come under the control of combines, /he:;; r remarked, and at the present time foreign ;:; a agents were in; Australia with. a view vtor , securing complete control of the British ¥: ;.' market. 7: Such combinations were dan-/7 i gerous, as '■'■ in hard 7 times 7their;interests;7 e might lead them to leave the masses ofre England practically, starving. ■ . 7 7 a 27. '■• '• :7-'7"' : --":■-;■'•'■•;•;■ :' : -■.' : "-": . ,:■ , , s The rapid growth of trade between New . 0 Zealand and west of England ports was 7, „ mentioned by Sir James Mills (managing director of the Union Steam Ship Com-7 , ,-■; pany) during an interview yesterday. Sir ' James said that so much cargo had been offering in New Zealand for this part of { ' Britain that the Union Company had pur- ■,:: chased, the Tyrone, Westmeath, Eoscom- * mon, and Limerick from, the New Zealand > Shipping Company. These vessels were a .7 fine stamp of cargo-carrier, and had only 7 0 a short time to run under the Federal-; l " Shire Line's flag. Sir James.said, that' r they 'would.continue to : run in the ° Federal-Shire services In the interests l - of -the Union/.Company to west ."of 6 England ports, where the trade was de- (;• >f veloping ra-pidly/arid showed signs' of still further advajic^ ? •' > - $

The supplement • issued ' with to-day's v . sjbaid iwill be found to contain, besides - " a budget of other interesting - reading J matter,* ".Beauty ; >and' Battleships," • -Jlbbaid will be found to contain, besides ji, budget of other interesting reading : inatter, "Beauty and Battleships," by '-'. Tohunga, and ".Marriage ..and the Great .Xaw," J by Frank Morton. . Mercutio's column of Local Gossip appears as usual, v ; while other articles are "Slavery," in the ' Series "Where the White Man Treads," by W. 8., and ."New Zealand Place . Names," by A. D. Bright. A further injstalment of the series, " Experiences of a "First Offender," is supplied by A.Z. The *• ■ : issue also contains a fine photograph of the I new mail steamer Niagara, which arrived in Auckland yesterday/ :.-'■. .;.;•,, ~ i * '.'.'■■■■■'"■'■■'.-■'' '-■'-'. '•' '■■ '•'■' / ;■ .. I % New Zealand is not doing enough to W: bring it-self ' before the British public, ac- •;.--';-- xording to Mr. M. M. McCallum, who has "just returned to the .Dominion from a ■ :.,-' ..visit to England and the Continent. He pointed out that the London offices of the §- High Commissioner are situated in an in- '/ •significant building miles out of the city, ';.''• while the Australian and Canadian offices, :M¥ on the other hand, are in central posi- :-.;'.•' tions, and frequently attracted attention. vp; While admitting that the trade of the Dominion is being well looked after by the • . new High Commissioner, Mr. McCallum ■.§;/;: considers that New Zealand is sadly lacking in enterprise as far as the '. question of . immigration is . concerned. All the children who were reported as . missing after visiting the battleship New Zealand have now returned home or have been satisfactorily accounted for. The : Buntly boy, Horace Body, who was thought to have been lost on Thursday, was, it appears," on the. train with the other children, but his father evidently ~; : missed him in the crowd. The lad reached >■ -■: home in safety. While engaged in the. : ! v' search for this boy, Mr. J. Dineen, of the Vv/ Wellington Education Board, and Mr. Oakley, who were looking after the in- ./. terests of the -children generally, found another boy, and forwarded him to his j. home at Te Kuiti yesterday. Albert Holland, 'the'little boy who was lest on Tuesday after the visit of children from the * - Kimihia School, has also returned safely. In response to its protest against the discontinuance of the ' "second" express to '• * .Wellington, the Auckland Chamber of . Commerce has received an assurance from V -•' Mr. W. H. Herries (Minister for Railways) .<■- that .the matter will receive his considera- „' tion. -If 'the- daily running of the two expresses is not - reverted to, - the chamber holds out strong hopes of obtaining at least a partial service. This ' would probably mean the running of the double service on three days each week. : ' 7 At a meeting of Waitemata- County ', ' Council yesterday, the following letter zs2i from Mr.; J. H. Gunson . (chairman of the Harbour Board) was received, dealing with his trip up.the harbour on Thursday:— if'-,. " Following, on our visit of yesterday to , Te Atatu . (Henderson Point),, and in re- \ spect ;to previous * negotiations concerning .the wharf there, I am prepared to recom- /■•/■" mend to'.the board to erect the wharf at c this site at a cost of. about £300, and also %\% to blast away the rock in mid-Channel at .that point.. With regard to Albany, as arranged previously when this matter was last considered, I am prepared to ask the ;" board-to blast away the pinnacle of rocks ?■':■' below the lower wharf, 'provided;' such work can be carried out to effect an appreciable improvement to the channel at a ; cost'- not exceeding ; £500. If the settlers interested^ and your Waitemata Council , > "approve of-this, I shall be pleased to bring ''•■\\ the matter before the board. I have also . pleasure in acceding to-: your request that .<• I should accompany:you;to -Albany at low water on" ; the 21st instant to look into the question of. shoal accommodation and ; 'other .matters." Satisfaction ; this letter .was"expressed by the chairman, , and it was agreed -to renew the application for ::■..';■ the , wharf, so that '< Mr. "= Gunson might ■"■■-. bring* ''..-matter before ..■th© Harbour ; : ; ; f'"; Board. '.„...- . . • ' Auckland/will be invaded next week by " a large number of Freemasons. x The occa- ;" sion will be the annual communication of \ the Grand Lodge of New Zealand, which .'■ is to open in the" Town Hall on Wednesday morning, and will continue on > the " following day. Usually on such occasions '.-"+; practically every lodge in the Dominion is represented, which - means that- nearly 7 200 '.■vr, direct >representatives of lodges will be present; while grand lodge officers' and past'officers will, probably'bring up the 'fez strength of the gathering ;to about 300 visiting members, apart from the local ' Freemasons, who will be entitled to;, be v. present.' The feature of the proceedings, :, apart from the deliberative work, will be the ,re-installation of M.W. Bro. Maurice |1/ Thompson (of Ihvercargill) into the; office r of grand master, to which he has been reelected by the unanimous consent of the .. lodges of the tcrriiory. - //.,■, Following on a ; meeting of Henderson ■residents, held on Thursday night, with ] - reference to the condition of the roads in - Henderson township, a strong > deputation '■ y-p waited: : upon the Waitemata County Coun;/;cil yesterday. - It was pointed out that some £1500 had been spent, but the roads , K ; were not as good as they should be. Mr. . '< - Greenwood said the state of roads was . ' '. due to having to alter the levels. During ; the fine weather the work had been ; " , pushed on rapidly, but the wet weather , , had- made the roads very bad. The . ' chairman (Mr. A. Cochran) said there had ; '?fyi been some delay in getting metal; but he } . • promised that everything possible would ' be done to improve the present condition , of the roads. ••'.".;< A private in the territorials named J 0, George Edward Wahlstrom, was} charged j in- the Police Court yesterday With having interrupted a parade and with assault- i tog William Stewart Kehnerley. It was f alleged that Kennerley,; who is sergeant , ■ of the company, had occasion to repri- , " roand r the accused for smoking on parade, i * Wahletrom was said ■ to. have retaliated by . - saying that he would ' meet Kennerley ) •afterwards. At the conclusion of the ■ ■■ parade, a scuffle 4 between : the _ two''took ' f- place, but they were separated. Wahl- ' strom is then alleged to have waited for ' : -.Kennerley as he came out of ■; the drill ; hall, and to' have violently assaulted him, marks of violence • being very , plainly visible on.the complainant's > face. After - Considerable evidence had been called for the prosecution,/' Mr. ; Hockett, for / the /defence, called two witnesses, including the accused. Other witnesses had -'.; still to give evidence, and as the hour was late ' the case was adjourned until this morn-; , lag. s . ! ;'■'*- At- the annual meeting, of the Sydney * ; : f 'Engineering Society last week, ,1 . *; the president . said the settlement of Aus- ■ tralia meant the annihilation of space. He .} advocated the establishment of an aero .< -' , mail service, and ' . prophesied that the 1 toono-rail service would be the railway of ! "Australia in the future. - The development ] bf aU kinds of .electrical undertakings all i -over the r world, he said, had been; remark- , able, but Australia was lagging far behind. Unfortunately water power was ex- . ;;t«imely.limitedj as 'Australia had so. few rivers capable of.; being harnessed or econo- .. '."r, mically developed, but in New South j •• Wales all enterprise in developing hydro- ] '•!■" electric power had :been destroyed by the i •elfish' action -of ■- the State Government, J ~.; wiiich claimed all the streams, and, while to .them at the- State ex- < Jteose, declined, to ' allow private capital --- -■-_■ ...