LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16375, 1 November 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Three accidents occurred in Auckland last evening. A tasicab driver, named George Miller, aged 27 years, residing in i Hobson Street, received an injury to his arm while starting his motor-car. The engine backfired, breaking his wrist. Whilst stepping out of a tramcar in ; motion on the Khyber Pass Road, a man : named Edward Drum was rendered unI conscious. It was found, on his removal to the hospital, that Drum was suffering from acute pains in the head. A bey of 15 years, named James Jones, employed as winch hand on the Northern ! Steamship Company's Kotiti, was knocked over by a mob of sheep which the vessel I was discharging, sustaining an injury to | It's nose. The lad resides in Foley's I Avenue, off Hobson Street.

The matter of an anniented water supply for the north shore boroughs has been taken up by the Government. At last night's meeting of the Devonport Borough Council the Mayor, Mr. J. Henderson, mentioned the fact, and stated that the chief Government drainage engineer, Mr. J. B. Thompson, had arrived in Auckland for the purpose of making an exhaustive report on the subject

Telephone subscribers who rent party lines—i.e., two or more of whom use the samo wire—may have been surprised at receiving an intimation from the Post and Telegraph Department that an alteration is to be made in their distinctive callsignals. It appears that the change is not confined to Auckland. The signals are being revised throughout the Dominion, with a view to uniformity of system. In lieu of the employment of two, three, or four rings, long or short, and somewhat arbitrarily chosen, the Morse signals for the letters D, K, M, Ft. S. and \V have been selected as being especially distinctive, and one or other of these is being assigned to each subscriber to a party line. Though notice of the change has been given already in regard to some of the suburban exchanges, it is not intended to be put into operation until the Telephone Directory is reprinted, about the end of the year.

The revision and consolidation of the? city by-laws has been completed by the By-laws Committee of the City Council, and the regulations as amended are now being printed. At a meeting of the committee yesterday it was decided to divide the city into inner and outer zones for the purpose of the administration of the by-laws. Certain of the by-laws will not he operative in the outer zone. The Mayor, in a statement on the subject, said that the committee in its work, which has occupied some weeks, had paid due regard to the interests of the public health and convenience, and the general good government of the city. The new by-laws will be brought before the council for confirmation at an early date.

Twenty-nine applications for assistance by returned soldiers were dealt with at a meeting of the Claims Board of the Patriotic Association yesterday. Seventeen of the cases were new applications, and in all these instances assistance was granted, according to circumstances and the amount of the Government pension. There were 12 applications for renewal of assistance previously given. Seven of these cases were favourably considered, but the remaining five applications were declined, tho board being of opinion that further assistance was unnecessary.

In discussing Red Cross activities in Sydney, the. Hon. George Fowlds yesterday spoke of the splendid work dene in a building seven storeys high, containing a number of depots for the different branches of work for the local hospitals and convalescent homes. The ground floor is a fruit and vegetable depot, receiving gifts for the supply of local institutions. Another storey is occupied with a jam-making plant, another for making pickles. One of the most interesting branches of work carried on in the building is the toy-making industry, in which returned soldiers are trained and employed. Another floor is devoted to basket-making, and yet another is used as a kitchen. This kitchen provides meals for all the workers in the various depots, and also supplies luncheons for the Queensland troops arriving in Sydney. Practically the whole of the material for all these activities is provided free of cost; p"ntly, a consignment of about eight tons of piemelons was received in one day.

Complaints regarding the sale of fruit in the streets by hawkers were made by a deputation of fruit-sellers, which waited upon the Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, yesterday. The members of the deputation stated that they were labouring under a great disability through the increasing number of hawkers who. they said, were occupying the best stands in the city. They asserted that fruit could be purchased quite as cheaply in the shops as from the hawkers, and they represented that they were being subjected to an unfair disadvantage. The Mayor promised to- bring the matter before the By-laws Committee of the City Council.

The impression seems to be abroad that returned soldiers, so far as having employment found for them in the Defence Department, are not meeting with a fair deal, remarks an Oamaru paper. It is impossible to state the position regarding the whole Dominion, but so far as Oamaru and Dunedin are concerned, the soldier seems to be receiving very fair treatment. On the Oamaru staff there are at the present time no less than four returned men. Dunedin, as the centre of the Otago military district, is heavily staffed, and of the old permanent staff there is only on° member left, all having been drafted out to active service and their places filled by returned soldiers.

The Devonport Borough Council deckled last night to entertain, at a social, members of the twentieth reinforcements hailing from that borough who will be up on their final leave from camp shortly. A sub-committee was set up to make the necessary arrangements. A member of the council jocularly suggested that the function should be confined to speeches. This suggestion the Mayor, Mr. J. Henderson, speedily quashed, however, remarking that he had been told that when the speeches becan the soidiers " said things under their breath."

Tn response to a suggestion made in the last session of Parliament by Mr. A. Harris. M.P. for Waitemata,, the Government has .instructed Mr. J. B. Thompson, chief drainago engineer to the Lands and Survey Department, to inspect the possible means of augmentation of the supply of water to Lake Takapuna, and present a report on the subject. Mr. Thompson in at present in the district making the necessary investigations.

The Bishop of Wellington has consecrated the new Anglican church (All Saints) in Falmerston. The original church was opened on the present site in 1871. Archdeacon Harper was in charge of the parish between 1900 and 1910. The present vicar Lb the Rev. H. G. Blackburne.

Several fine views of Roumania together with portraits of the King and Queen of that country, which is now fighting gallantly on the side of the allies, form a very attractive feature of to-day's issue of the Accklaot Weekly News. The recent march of New Zealand's nineteenth reinforcement's over the Rimutakas is well depicted, the photographs giving an admirable idea of the fine type of men this country is sending to reinforce comrades in the firing line. Several photographs deal with the arrival of the hospital ship Marama at Port Chalmers, with the latest contingent, of wounded New Zealander*. The activities of the allies on the French front are interestingly depicted, while phases of the war at Salonika and German East Africa are also touched upon. The portraits of many New Zealand officers, non-commissioned officers and men appear in the Roll of Honour. Several other war and other topics are also admirably illustrated.

In connection with the Auckland and J suburban railway staff a christv minstrel . club has lately been formed The club i gave its first performance at St. Mark's j Hall, Remuori, last week, in aid of the j funds rais.-d by the Newmarket Patriotic [ Association, under the management of ■ .Messrs. J. Lonergan and J. Elliott. The building was crowd, and the minstrelsy ' selections were received with enthusiasm. Other performers supplemented the programme of the biT-nt-crk artists. It is : understood that the club proposes to give : a scries of entertainments in aid of other i branches of patriotic effort. Gratification ft the fact " that the D.C.M. had been won by Gunner Ivan Fleming for gallantry at the front was expressed last night by the Mayor of ! Devonport, Mr. J. Henderson. The young j soldier who had distinguished himself, he | said, was "another Devonport school boy." j It was agreed to send a letter of congratu- ' lation to Gunner Fleming's father, a resi- j dent of Cheltenham. Incidentally Mr. ' Henderson remarked that the honour con-1 ferred on the young soldier was particularly gratifying just now, when most of . them must f.-el disappointed at the re.'r.lt 1 of the conscription vote in Australia. He I could hardly believe his eyes when he saw j the figures in the H v m.d. To his mind 1 it made it the mori essential that New j Zealand and New Zealanders should keep j their separate identity complete. They | could, however, sympathise with all the : loyalists of Australia, and hope that better '■ things were to come. An advertisement, signed by the Commissioner of Taxes, which has been published in the Heraix>, states that the land (« and graduated land tax leviable under the Final.re Act, passed last session, is payable to-day. This notification has created some surprise, as the notices of the amounts that would be payable which were sent to taxpayers son.° time ago contained the following note :—" Payment of the amount shown herein is not required until November, when an account will be sent." Many persons who received these notices did not preserve them, relying on the statement that accounts would be forwarded in November. The Hon. Arthur XI. Myers, Acting-Minister for Finance, to whom the matter was referred last evening, stated that the note on the previous notices was correct. Although the tax was due on November 1, 23 days' grace, he said, were being allowed, and the last day for payment accordingly would be November 24. Accounts, he said, were being sent to all taxpayers.

Congratulations were accorded by the Devonport Borough Council at its meeting last night, to the census official for the borough on having been the first to complete his returns. Mr. F. A. Thompson, a member of the council, said he had been pleased to see that there had been an increase in the population of the district-, in spite of the number of men who had gone to the war. It was especially pleasing, in view of the fact that some people told them that the council was driving residents out of the district.

Wellington College will reach its jubilee year in 1917, and the Old Boys' Association proposes to make an appeal for funds to establish an assembly hall as a memorial to former students who have fallen on the battlefield. In a letter addressed to the Board of Governors, Mr. W. W. Cook, secretary of the association, says: 'The association proposes within the next month to issue an appeal to old boys and others interested in the college for subscriptions to defray the cost of the erection of an assembly hall in the college grounds, as a memorial to the old boys who have gone forth to terve their King and country in the war. The hall is intended to be utilised to the full extent for the purposes of the school, and the idea is to line its walls with tablets to the memory of those who have fallen, and with photographs of all those who joined the forces for active service, if they can possibly be obtained. _ My committee recognises the difficulty there may be in collecting sufficient money to provide for the erection of a building such as it would like to see erected— that is, one of a permanent character, of a suitable size, and of a design calculated to make it a credit to the institution and the old boys, but it is determined to make an effort to do so. . . ." At its last meeting the Board of Governors decided to give the scheme its hearty support.

The compulsory clause of the Education Act regarding notification of mentally defective children will, it is anticipated, bring about 100 girls and 200 boys into the already swollen list, which now reaches to the total of some 800 cases, and it is considered that 60 per cent, of these will be found suitable for admission to special schools.

From the evidence given in a case heard at the Foxton Magistrate's Court it appears that there is money to be made at share-milking. The share-milker in the case in question, according to a statement made by the employer, received last sea son for his share the sum of £600 6s 2d. Out of this he had to pay for labour, after allowing for which the contractor's ret earnings averaged £6 12s 6d per week for the whole year.

A delay has occurred in the shipment of the first two machines for the Canterbury Aviation Company. At a meeting of directors of the company it was reported that arrangements had been made for shipment by the Athenic. At the last moment the War Trade Department of the British Government had intervened and prohibited the shipment. The correspondence showed that the Caudron Company, from which the machines had been purchased, was under Government control, and had permission to manufacture for the colonies and other allied countries so that the embargo placed on the shipment was quite unexpected. With the assistance of the Hieh Commissioner, it had at last been removed, and a cablegram received stated that the " license to ship " had been granted. The school will start with 20 pupils.

A sum of £129.613 was put through the totalisators at the seven racing and trotting meetings held in New Zealand on the 23rd inst.