LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15830, 29 January 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The defence authorities in Auckland require 39 men for the field artillery, to proceed to Trentham at once. Half a dozen recruits came forward yesterday for the sixth reinforcement draft of the New Zealand expeditionary force. Thirty men will present themselves for medical examination "at the Drill Hall to-morrow morn ing.

"Do you ever buy cigars!" asked Mr. H. P. Richmond of a judgment debtor in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. " No," replied the debtor. " but people sometimes give me some. 1 got a box last Christmas from a candidate for what I did during the election." "Well," replied Mr. Richmond, laughing, "you had better not mention that fact too frequently, or you might get your benefactor into trouble."

A trap accident occurred on the Panmure Road, near Otahuhu, last night. The vehicle, which was driven by a young man named Charles Baker, upset when opposite Prince's store, and the horse broke loose. Careering at a gallop along the road, the animal knocked down and apparently trampled upon Mrs. Edward West, aged about sixty years, who was just entering the gate of her residence. The occupants of the trap were thrown out, but were not severely injured. The vehicle was smashed. The horse was not stopped until it had travelled nearly a niile. The injured lady was suffering from severe shock, and was cut about the fare and li*ad. The full extent of her injuries could not be ascertained last night.

The second wool sale in Auckland this season will be held on Tuesday morning, the fixture having been put forward a day at the request of the Wool Buyers' Association. A sale is being held in Napier to-day, and the buyers will arrive in Auckland on Sunday. The alteration in the date fixed for the Auckland sale will give them an extra day for their arrangements for the following sales in the South, for which heavy catalogues are in prospect. The catalogues for Tuesday's sale will be closed at noon on Saturday, and, according to present indications, there will be an entry of about 6000 bales, an unusually small offering for the second sale of the season. There was. however, an exceptionally heavy catalogue for the first sale held on November 26, the aggregate entry then being 12,290 bales, and during the interval there have been large shipments direct to the London market. The catalogue at thy November sale of 1913 was 6696 bales, and at the second sale on January 30 a total of 11,482 bales was offered, making a total of 18.178 bales for the first two sales of the season. The approximate total for the first two sales of the 1914 15 season is 18,290 bales.

A further meeting of the creditors of Johann Wilhelm Bensemann, settler, of Pukekohe, was held before the official assignee, Mr. W. S. Fisher, yesterday. After the bankrupt had given certain particulars regarding his and his wife's pro perties, the meeting "was adjourned to a later date to ascertain if Mrs. Bensemann was prepared to make an offer to the creditors, bankrupt in the meantime to furnish full particulars as to the position of various properties.

Two judges cf the Supreme Court will be in Auckland during the next week or fortnight. Mr. Justice Stringer, who arrives on Sunday morning, will open the criminal sessions on Monday, while during the coming week Mr. Justice Cooper will sit in Banco and in Chambers to deal with civil business. The civil sessions will be opened on February 15. Later, Mr. Justice Cooper and Mr. Justice Chapman will sit to consider the Taumarunui election petition, but at present the time and place of hearing have not been fixed.

Auckland's glorious setting was the subject, of some remarks by Mr. A. M. Myers. M.P., yesterday at the opening of Myers Park. ' Auckland possessed a beauty and charm of its own, he said. It had been lavishlv favoured by Nature, and its Glorious setting had inspired the warmest affection in many of its most prominent citizens. But there was much to be done yet, and each citizen should contribute his quota, of individual effort and selfsacrifice. Civic patriotism was as essential to the true progress of a city as was national patriotism to the prosperity and safety of a country. The people roust learn* to regard Auckland City as the outcome and expression of their common civic life, and must seek so to develop and adorn it. so to supply it with all things desirable, that it would be at once a stimulus to, and a monument of, their civic patriotism. If their ideal of a city was to b» worthy of a democratic people, they must aspire to more than a few fine streets and public buildings, a few parks and well-laid-out residential quarters. They must look for a city in even the poorest quarters in which men and women cculd make their homes and bring up their children without detriment to their self-respect, their happiness, and their health of body and mind. Why should our cities not be designed in the spirit of Port Sunlight, Bourneville, and Letch worth, and thus prove a powerful agent for improving the character and outlook of the people ?

Some interesting remarks upon a Greater Auckland were made yesterday by Mr. A. M. Myers, M.P., at the official opening of his gift park. He said he believed that the people of Auckland could best display their civic patriotism by -working wholeheartedly, in the first instance, for a Greater Auckland. The population of the city and suburbs was now 113,000, scattered over a large area and under the control of a large number of local bodies. The people had been unable to evolve any general plan as regards the great avenues of traffic, the laying out of minor streets and roads, the preservation of natural beauty— in the case of the volcanic hills—and the growth of new suburbsThere was insufficiency of public control over the laying out of new estates, and a total absence of any attempt to make shops and warehouses conform to any accepted principle of beauty in design. The first step towards remedying this state of affairs was for the outlying districts to unite with the City of Auckland in forming one large municipality, thus ensuring centralised control, efficient municipal services, and economy of administration. He was sanguine enough to believe that the municipality of Auckland would one day cover the isthmus between the Y.'aitemata and the Manukau, with its eastern and western boundaries touching the Whau and the Tamaki, its citizens having but one aim— placing of Auckland City in the forefront of municipalities in the Southern Hemisphere.

" One old Belgian man wfiom I saw step off a small boat at Tilbury Docks at once knelt down, and in reverence

kissed the land which was to give him shelter," remarked the. Rev. A. Fowler last night at a meeting held in Remoera to form a branch of the National Reserve. " Hundreds of them came across in terrible plight," he added- "They were not white, but were grey with the horrors they had gone through The old Mother Country was there, however, as it always is for those in distress, to give them refuge and to welcome them with open hands." (Applause.)

Since the fishing industry in the Kaipara waters reached its present important position, the men engaged in the industry have been handicapped by the fact that stalling with fixed nets has been disallowed. A few who disregarded the regulations and fixed their nets on the numerous banks till the waters receded, had to appear before magistrates for their offences, and were accoidingly fined. An agitation for wider latitude in pursuing their calling ensued, with the result that Mr. J. G. Coates, M.P., has been notified by the Minister for Marine that regulations are now being prepared to allow hitherto prohibited netting on the numerous sand banks in the Kaipara Estuary. The Minister has also intimated that the mesh of nets used under the amended provisions shall not be less than 4£in, that no boat shall set more than 300 fathoms of net, that the joining of nets shall be illegal, that a clear space of not less than 100 yds shall separate the nets of each boat, and that all nets shall be regularly under-run, and the fish taken from the time, the nets are set until the tide has run out. It is expected that the new regulations will create increased activity in Kaipara fishing, and fishermen state that heavier supplies of mullet will be available for the Auckland market.

The constitution o. the newly-elected House of Representatives is regarded with considerable satisfaction by the council of the New Zealand Sports Protection League. Prior to the general election the council submitted to each candidate two questions, asking whether he would maintain the rights of the people to the free enjoyment of all legitimate sports and oppose any curtailment of their statutory privileges in connection with them, and whether he was in favour of the principle that all recreation grounds not used for private gain should be exempt from local rates. The replies made by the elected candidates have been analysed by the general secretary in a report recently pre-sent-id to the council of the league. Replies considered unfavourable were received from three members. Another member did not answer the questions. Three elected candidates reserved the right to use their own judgment with respect to the issue? raised. In two instances the implies were indefinite. The. remaining 67 members have either given definite favourable answers to the main question submitted, or expressed from the platform their appro\ al of the interests committed to the care of the league.

At the last meeting of the Waikato County Council a, letter was received from the Whangamarino Road Board asking for the council's co-operation in the erection of a toll-gate on the Great South Road to provide funds for its upkeep, and pointing out that the road was mostly used bv motorists and others residing outside the rating area, and who contributed nothing to the upkeep of the road. Some of the members of the council expressed the opinion that the cost of collection would be equal to the fees derived, and on it being pointed out that the question of the Government taking over the control of the arterial roads was still under consideration a decision on the matter was deferred,