LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15916, 13 May 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Thirty recruits were registered at the Drill Hall yesterday, and will be medically examined on Friday next. The authorities still require the services of two bricklayers, a cooper, a telegraph linesman, and a wheeler, for the engineering company.

The matter of Newmarket amalgamating with the city was mentioned at the meeting of the Borough Council last night, It was resolved to hold a special meeting of the council next Wednesday night to discuss the terms that have been offered by the city.

Severe injuries to his right hand and slight injuries to his legs and body were received by ft boy who exploded a detonator yesterday afternoon. The boy in question, Roy Calligan, who lives in Union Street, and is seven years of age, was playing with a friend on the street. They found the detonator, which Calligan placed on the pavement and struck with a stone held in his right hand. Hfe injuries were attended to and he was taken to his home. The other boy was only slightly, injured.

A fire occurred in a fire-roomed houfle of two storeys, situated in Pompallier Terrace, Ponsonby, just after eight o'clock last night. The City Fire Brigade arrived promptly and suppressed the flames after the staircase had been badly burned and the rooms and contents damaged by smoke and water. Mr. H. Owan is the owner of the premises, which were occupied'by Mrs. McKenzie. The contents "of the building are known to bo insured in the Northern Insurance Office. A policy for £200 in the Standard Office was'rfeid in respect to the building. Nobody was in the house when the fire broke out, and the origin of the outbreak is unknown.

Owing to a fear of possible infection with typhoid fever, the camp of th» 3rd, Auckland, Mounted Rifles has been transferred from Onehunga to the Outer Domain. The exchange of sites was carried out expeditiously on Tuesday. The camp, which has been the- means of giving the men much useful training, will come to an end on Saturday.

Many accounts of Lieutenant-General Birdwood's work with the Australian and New Zealand forces are coming from Egypt by mail. A Melbourne journalist states that when the general reached Egypt officers were receiving many complaints. Something was wrong. Men were getting sulky, were falling out, were acquiring all sorts of mysterious ills. General Birdwood soon found out the remedy—more food, less work. He understood, better than most of our officers, that men bathed in perspiration from arduous work in unaccustomed circumstances needed plenty of food and plenty of rest, and he saw to it that the troops got both. He is a leader after Australia's own heart. His office door at headquarters bears no name-plate, and he is the most accessible Kitchener man ever known. If the troops stand at church parade he stands, and when they march he dismount* and marches with them. General Birdwood is short statured—little taller than Lord Roberts was—fresh of complexion, jovial of aspect, cheery of greeting, quick to champion the side of the men, and, above all, efficient. He was military secretary to Lord Kitchener in South Africa and India. He fought in many Indian frontier campaigns; he was at famous Dargai; he went through the " black wee)" with Buller. And he has been woundedseverely wounded near Pretoria. Though he is only 49, fie has done 30 years' fighting, and he knows how the work should be done.

A sum of £100 has been cabled to the British Red Cross organisation in London by Mrs. David W. Gillies, 6f Auckland, for the purpose of maintaining a fullyqualified nurse at the Malta military hospital for one year. Mrs. Gillies, when Miss Speed, v.-as attached to Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service, and served during the South African war, being awarded the Queen's and King's medals. Mrs. Gillies is now unable to go to the front herself, and has therefore decided to provide a substitute for service under Sir Frederick Treves at Malta, where it is expected that the sick and wounded from the Dardanelles will be treated.

A Rugby football-team chosen from the men now in training at Trent-ham camp recently defeat* dthe Wellington provincial representatives by 17 points to 0. At last evening's meeting of the Auckland Rugby Union it was decided to write to the camp commandant and ask him to permit the team which defeated Wellington to visit Auckland and play a match against an Auckland representative team; the- proceeds to he devoted to the Belgian Fund. The Trent-ham team includes five New Zealaid representatives and several inter-island players. Every member of the team has played in inter-provincial matches,

' The splendid work of the New Zealand troops at the Dardanelles was the subject of eulogistic reference at last night's meeting of the Newmarket Borough Council. The following resolution was adopted : —"This council places on record its extreme admiration of the gallant conduct of the New Zealand forces at the Dardanelles; but deplores the loss of life, and extends to the relatives of the tilled and wounded its extreme sympathy."

A large cargo of assorted case oils from America readied Auckland yesterday afternoon by the steamer Cape Finisterre, from Philadelphia, via Colon and the Panama Canal. The vessel's cargo includes 167,790 cases of kerosene, benzine, motor-spirits, power oil and petrolite, and will be distributed at Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton, Timaru, and Dunedin. The steamer experienced no difficulty in the canal, which she parted through in 11 hours. The dredges were then at work I clearing svwav the debris of a slip which I had occurred in theCulebra Cut. The Cape iFinisterre visited Auckland early in the vear 1912.

A motion of sympathy with the relatives of Mr. and Mrs. J. 0. Macky, who are supposed to have been lost in the Lusitania. was adopted by a meeting of the executive of the Auckland Patriotic League yesterday. Mr. Macky was an active, member'of the Finance Committee, and took a keen interest in all the work of the Patriotic League. Reference- was made to the valuable services ho had rendered to the league while he was a member of the Finance Committee.

A welcome was extended at the sitting of the Conciliation Council yesterday to Mr. (i. E. Wright, secretary of the Employers' Association, who made his first appearance as advocate for the employers in Auckland industrial cases. The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr. T. Harle Giles, said he understood certain adjustments had been made in the Employers' Association, whereby all the advocacy work was to be taken over by Mr. Wright. He hoped that the relations with Mr. Wright, i» Conciliation Council work would be as amicable as had been those with his predecessor. Mr. C, Grosvenor, whom they all esteemed very highly. In acknowledging the welcome, Mr. Wright said that it would be his aim to work amicably with the assessors and commissioner in industrial matters. In Hawke's Bay he had the confidence of the employers and of the workers' unions, and he hoped that he would have the same pleasant experience in Auckland.

The Minister for Education, the Hon. Jas. Allen, stated in an interview in Wellington yesterday that the Government's decision regarding the site of the new University in Auckland will not be long delayed. "I am awaiting certain information." he said, "which I have to consider before the Government comes to a decision, but the matter will not he delayed more than two weeks."

A number of applications were made to Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., yesterday, for licenses to sell wine. In regard to applications for wine licenses in no-license areas, His Worship said that in the absence of counsel to argue on the other side, he would grant the applications. He considered, however, that the question was one of legal interpretation. The sale of wine in such districts is prohibited by Section 146 of the Licensing Act, 1908, but sub-section (f) states that " this section shall not apply to sales by brewers of liquor, being their own manufacture.'' The Act of 1914 provides that "a manufacturer of wine within the meaning of the Act shall bo deemed to be a brewer of liquor within the meaning of the Act." '

A boy named Robert McMinn, who resides in King Street, Arclihill, was knocked down in Stanley Street by a motor-car, driven by a woman, yesterday. McMinn, with several other youths from Donaghy's rope works, which are situated in Stanley Street, was playing football on the roadway, when the accident occurred. His injuries were alight, being .merely bruises on his shoulders, but he was, nevertheless, removed to ihe hospital.

"Fiction and newspapers all the world over seem to form the staple article of literary diet," remarked Mr. T. W. Leys last night, when referring to the largo percentage that books of fiction form of the total number of books issued annually to subscribers to the Leys Institute library. Out of the 20,827 books circulated during the year 14,397 were works of fiction, although there are plenty of other works to choose from. It was stated that in Wellington the fiction percentage was as high as 91, and was 85 in Dunedin, where fiction readers were nob specially catered for.

The annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute will be held in Wellington, probably during the first week of July. The representatives of the Auckland Education District will be Misses E. Simpson, Newton East; E. F. Hawkins, Mount Eden; Messrs. F. H. Brown, Takapuna; H. G. Cousins, Normal School ; H. A. Darrovr, Avondale : D.' W. Dunlop, Paeroa; W. 0. Lamb, Maungakaramea ; G. Lippiatt. Pokeno; and C. R. Munro, Remuera. Mr. T. U. Wells will be present as vice-president, and Mr. W. H. Newton as a member of the executive.

While walking down Symonds Street early last night, Arthur Gordon Spinley, 16 years of age, fell and broke his arm, and was immediately taken to the hospital. It is a curious coincidence that Spinley, whose parents live in Newton Road, broke the same arm only three months ago.

The annual meeting of the N*\y Zealand Rugby League held last night adopted the following resolution :—" That this league places on record its appreciation of the gallantly displayed by the New Zealand and Australian troops at their first serious engagement; and extends to the relatives of those involved its deepest sympathy." The president remarked that League players to the number of 297 had enlisted, 168 belonging to the Auckland Lcagut. He understood that the RugbyLeague in New South Wales had sent 1000 men to the war.

Four more case? of typhoid fever were reported to the Health Department yesterday, three of them being from the Epsom and One-tree Hill districts and one from Newmarket. A total of 48 cases has now been reported from Epsom and One-tree Hill. It is anticipated that the Health Department's precautionary measures in regard to the Manukau Water Supply Board's supplies will come into operation to-day.

A sequel to the recent deaths in Wellington by gas poisoning is the insuring of the bodies of the three Chinese victims, Young Wong, Young Chung, and Young King, for £200, with a view to having them safely conveyed to China. The coffins containing the bodies will bo first shipped to Sydney, and then transhipped to the Japanese mail steamer Nikko Mam for shipment to Hongkong. The Wellington Chinese Association effected the insurances and the cost of landing the bodies in China will amount to over £100. The men were natives of Gow Fong, in tho province of Canton, and in that village they will eventually, find their last resting place.