LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16099, 13 December 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Advice was received by the Union Steam Ship Company yesterday that the Australasian mail steamer Niagara is expected to arrive at Auckland from Vancouver, via way ports, at nine o'clock to-night, and will berth at the Queen's Wharf. The vessel mot with bad weather after leaving Vancouver, hence her late arrival. She is carrying 236 passengers, and she will discharge 1300 tons of cargo here. An English and American mail, comprising 453 bags, of which 157 are for Auckland, will also arrive by the vessel. The Niagara's departure for Sydney has been fixed for noon to-morrow.

A medical examination of recruits for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force will be held at the Drill Hall from 10 a.m. to noon to-day. This examination is being held instead of the customary Tuesday examination. A large draft of recruits is being despatched to Trentham tomorrow, and it will be possible for men to register and bo examined to-day and proceed to Trenthani to-morrow. The local Defence authorities require more infantrymen for the eleventh reinforcements.

The opinion of a headmaster of 34 years' experience in Auckland on the matter of the abolition from the primary schools of the Domin'on of the junior cadet system was given by Mr. E. T. Hart, headmaster of the Beresford Street school, at the annual reunion of the Old Boys' Association on Saturday evening. He said that during recent years a great deal of legislation had been introduced having for its object the betterment of children's education in the schools. He was sorry to think, however, that during the last two years the Legislature should have thought fit to take a retrograde step by abolishing the junior cadets from the primary schools. Every headmaster and every teacher knew that the system li.id revolutionised discipline in the schools. During the years the system had bee.i in vogue truancy had been slowly disappearing, but since the cadets had been disestablished the practice of truancy among boys was creeping in again. He expressed the hope that all those old boys who possessed the franchise would exercise their privilege towards securing the reestablishment of the junior cadet system. As the Tesult of a. conference, over which the Conciliation Commissioner, Mr. T. Harle Giles, provided, an industrial ' agreement has been arrived at between i the Auckland General Labourers' Union | and Messrs. Langdon and Co., contractors J for the Nlhotupu dam works. A minimum | wage of Is 3jd an hour has been fixed, I but it is not to prejudice peibons already in j receipt of higher wages; and double time i is to be allowed for Sunday and holiday work. Unionists are granted absolute pre- | ference, and the contractors have under- I taken to see that their employees are 1 financial members of the union. The agreement has been filed with the clerk : of awards, and is to remain in force until • December 2, 1917, and thereafter until I superseded. j The Minister for Defence has received j the following telegram from the officer commanding the New Zealand base at Alexandria —" One thousand one hundred and eighty-seven cases of comforts have been landed at Suez and the same number have reached Alexandria. Of the above-mentioned as much as possible— namely, 6400 leather coats—have been despatched to the front by means of supply ships. Remainder will be sent by earliest opportunity." j

The provincial secretary of the Farmers Union. Mr. A. Schraitt, has returned from a \isit to the Horotiu and Ngaruawahia branches of the Fanners' Union. The meetings were well attended, and at Horotiu a resolution was passed favouring conscription. The offer of the Teachers' Institute to fupplv labour during harvest timo has been greatly appreciated by some of the country districts. It has been decided to accept their services in. groups of four at Kihikihi, Mangapiko, Horotiu and Ngaruawahia. The farms at -which they will he stationed are as follows —Major J. Wynyard's, Kihikihi; Mr. J. Alexander's, Mangapiko; Mr. R. D. Duxfield 6, Horotiu; Mr. Morris's, Ngaruawahia. These gentlemen will do all they can to assist and look after the volunteer •workers. It is understood that the money earned has to go towards the Wounded Soldiers' Fund. Mr. Schmitt is now visiting Morrinsville. Twenty assistants in town schools in Auckland have arranged with the secretary of the Farmers' Union to work for farmers in the Waikato district during the holidays. The following resolution was adopted at the last meeting of the Auckland Iron and Brass Moulders' Industrial Union— " That, while this union is favourable to a successful prosecution of the war to a! finish, we feel that before conscription is | put into force the conscription of wealth < should be attained first; thereby the dependants of the soldiers will be in a position to be provided for, should necessity arise." An accident betel a young man named j Matthew Moore—known among boxers as j " Mat James," a champion light-weight, boxer Onehunga on friday evening. j Moore was riding a bicycle up Queen Street, when the wheel of the machine | caught in the tram-track. The rider was | thrown heavily, and suffered severely from. I shock. j | In proposing the toast c* Our Boys j at the Front," at the annual re-union of j the Beresford Street Old Boys' Associa- j I tion on Saturday evening, Mr. W. A, | Beddw. Canadian Trade Commissioner, j I mentioned the fact that >500 ex-pupils of the school had volunteered for active service. Ho said he felt sure that these 300 could account for at least 600 Turks or Germans. The next one or two years would be years of memories. When these men returned from the front they would cherish memories of many a battlefield, tender memories of fathers, brothers, or comrades fallen, beautiful memories of heroic virtues, exultant memories of victories won, glorious memories of those who had returned with them, but, saddest of all, would be the memory that the Union Jack was covering many of their old schoolmates and comrades- That emblem already covered six of the Beresford Street boys and hundreds of others who were now sleeping a dreamless sleep in the sunbaked valleys of Gallipoli. The Right Rev. Dr. Averill, Bishop of Auckland, administered confirmation to a large number of young people of both sexes at St. Paul's Church yesterday afternoon. The bishop's address to the candidates was studded with illustrative allusions to the military spirit of the times. " When I think of the brave boys who aro doing their bit of service for their King and Empire," he remarked at one stage, " and who are prepared to suffer, and eveij lay down their lives for the sake of duty, and when I think how many shirkers there are amongst members of the Church in regard to their spiritual duties, I feel almost ashamed." The untiring efforts of the Auckland Women's Patriotic League have been' much appreciated on all sides. The members of the Tunnelling Company of Engineers will also have reason to commend their efforts, for to-day the members of the league will be busy at the Town Hall packing Christmas presents for tunnellers, who are expected to sail very soon. The presents will take the form of a " Christmas billy" to each man, containing tobacco, pipe, chocolates, sweets, writing materials, khaki handkerchiefs, etc. The Mayoress, Mrs. J. H. Gunson has asked members of the league to attend to-day to assist in the packing.

A tribute to the patience, fortitude and sacrifice of the mothers who have sons at the front, was made by Mr. W. Blomfield, Mayor of Takapuna, in replying to the toast of " Our Boys at The Front," at the Beresford Street Old Boys' Association's annual reunion on Saturday evening. In the course of his remarks he said that the recent carnival had a very laudable object, but when parents of boys—and he was one of them—at the front saw the scenes of gaiety all around they were naturally very much touched. This was especially so when letters were received containing such news as "Things are pretty hard; we have had nothing but bully beef and biscuits for some days. Our last supply was left on the beach in the baking sun for three days, and when we got it the beef was as hard as a board. We tried to soften it by boiling, but it made us ill when we ate it. So we just had the biscuits. The Turks threw some dates over into our trenches, and we divided them among us."

One of the many small tradesmen who have been somewhat hard hit by the war is the hairdresser and tobacconist. A hairdresser in one of the suburbs states that he has lost 60 customers since the war began. "Unfortunately for me," ho said, " tuere are too many men having their hair cut in Egypt." Naturally the tobacco side of the business has also suffered severely. Boardinghonse-keepers also complain that they have been greatly a fleeted by the absence of so many men. In Auckland board and residence may now be obtained much more easily than was the case before the war, despite the fact that the prices of commodities have increased considerably. There was a large influx of Maoris into Taumarunui on Friday, says our correspondent on the occasion of a meeting of the aikato-Maniapoto Land Board the occasion being made a somewhat festive one. Gaily-dressed parties of Maoris— me,, women and children in along ah the roads leading to Taumarunui Motor-cars, motor-bicycles, traps, and | riding-horses were the modes of convev- , nncc_ It was noticeable that not one camo on foot. Considerable sums Were paid out, either as rents or purchase-moLv T'm Roil r • i , purchase-monev. Uie Bell family, who recently sold to the | Crown their interest in Blocks I. and II | Taumarunui Township, received £4S4o' I Such a day as this is one of activity among tradespeople and agents who do business with the Maoris. The latter ,-las. : includes a number ° Hindoos, who have . established themselves here, and act as I intermediaries in land deals and othej j tiansactions lor the natives. I A visitor from the country at the back of W anganui states that the summer so far has been remarkable for extremelv broken weather. „ rained nearlv day in November, and whilst it was good for the grass, which was knee high in many places, the continual wet wether had delayed the shearing considerably One farmer who sneers about two thousand sheep usually got through the job in 1 fine weather m a Week but this year it . had taken him ,i weeks to get through.