LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16443, 20 January 1917, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A steamer which is duo to arrive at Auckland late on Sunday night or early on Monday morning ha? on board 236 Bags of mail for Auckland, 176 bags being English mail and tho balance Australian. These will be delivered in the city on Monday morning. It is undc -stood that as part of the rearrangement of magisterial work necessitated by the appointment of Mr. F. J. Burgess, S.M., as chairman of tho Auckland Military Service Board, the Courts at Dargaville, Helensville, Warkworth and Wellsford will in future be conducted by the city magistrates. The idea of substituting a flat roof for the pitched roof provided in the contract for the erection of the Children's Hospital has been definitely abandoned. Since the Hospital Board met on. Tuesday a further communication has been received from the Minister in charge of Hospitals, the Hon. G. W. Russell, agreeing that in view of the extra expenditure of £1285 which would be involved in the proposed alteration, the board should adhere to the scheme for a pitched roof, and the board has decided to act accordingly. Excellent sport was found this week at the kingfish grounds in the vicinity of the Bay of Islands by an expedition, of which Mr. W. H. Hazard, of Auckland, and Mr. R. Acton Adams, of Dunedin, were the principal members. Fish were very plentiful, and the take included about a dozen large ones, ranging in weight from 451b to 801b. A half-caste Maori boy, aged 15 years, admitted to Mr. E. C. Cat-ten S.M., in the Juvenile Offenders Court yesterday that he had stolen a parcel of clothing valued at £3, the property of the New Zealand Government. Sub-Inspector Mcllveney stated that the boy's father was at the front, and the boy had been neglected for some time past. The boy stole a parcel which had just been taken from a train and placed in the Manurewa goods shed. When found by a constable the boy was wearing a suit of clothes that was in the parcel. The boy was committed to Weraroa Industrial School. Four officers from the Salvation Army will leave New Zealand next month to engage in mission work in China. The party, which will be in charge of Lieu-tenant-Colonel Freidrich, lately editor-in-chief of the Australian War-Cry, will also include eight officers from Australia. Mission work in China was commenced by the Salvation Army about a year ago, when 12 members from the international headquarters in London journeyed to Pekin to study the language. Since that time, most encouraging reports of progress have been sent Home, with the result that additional officers are being sent out for training. The selection of the four missionaries from New Zealand has not been made as yet, but a large number of officers have volunteered. Efforts are being made to provide a room at the Rotorua Sanatorium to be used as a workshop by returned soldiers in carrying on basket-making, wood-carv-ing, and other work. The Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister for Internal Affairs, paid ; a brief visit to Rotorua, and visited the institution to see a proposed site for the room. He requested that an estimate of the cost might be forwarded. The Piako County Council, at its last meeting, received a circular letter from tho Petone Borough Council, asking for sup-1 port in urging the Government to pay all men who have enlisted from New Zealand a minimum payment per day of 10s; also urging the Government to take immediate steps to conscript wealth, and pass such measures as will prevent tho public being exploited, such legislation to be retrospective from the outbreak of the war. The resolutions were approved, except that in reference to the payment of soldiers, though an increase was favoured. Very exhaustive inquiries are bring made by the members of the Board of Trade into the condition of the retail meat trade in Auckland and also as to the effect of the board's scheme for the regulation of the price of the commodity in the North. The wholo of yesterday was devoted to tho taking of further evidence and last evening the board held a conference with the representatives of retail butchers of the city. The conference was not open to tho press. i The annual conference of officers of the Salvation Army in the North Island will be held in Auckland, commencing on March 6, and closing on March 11. Council meetings will bo held through the week and there will bo a young people's demonstration in the Town Hall. Commissioner H. C. Hodder will preside, and will be assisted by officers of tho headquarters staff from Wellington. About 200 officers are expected to attend. This is the first time such a meeting has been arranged to take place in Auckland. It has been decided in future to hold only the triennial gathering in Wellington, meetings being held in the North. and the South Islands in the alternate years. It is anticipated that great benefit will be derived from this arrangement, which will permit a much larger number of officers to attend than formerly. In the South Island the congress will be held in Dunedin from March 27 to April 1. The road between Whakatane and Matata., known as the Inland Road, has been brought into prominence by reason of tho necessity for providing access from this part of the district to tho railhead at Matata. There is now before the County | Council a proposal to raise a loan for tho , purpose of improving tho roads connect- ! ing with Matata, and it appears likely that some way will be devised of avoiding or improving the loose sandy portion of Inland Road. The county chairman and the engineer have inspected the road, and also a proposed new route along the bank of the old course of the Rangitaiki River. Their report will probably be submitted to the next meeting of the council, and will be considered in conjunction with the loan proposal. Tho first pile of tho new wharf which is being built by Messrs. Goodmand and Jones for the Whakatane Harbour Board was driven this week. Nearly all the piles have been pointed for driving, and most of the timber is on the ground. Five men are at present working on the contract. Mr. D. C. Martin, chairman of tho board, has completed negotiations for tho purchaso of the auxiliary scow Vesper, and the vessel is expected to arrive early next week. Tenders will be invited for tho work of blasting rocks out of the channel at Pearly Gate. The engineer, Mr. H. H. Metcalfe, will visit Whakatane shortly. The Timaru Borough Council have decided not to sanction any more street collections on behalf of the war during tho next three months, it being considered that the townspeople are being too much exploited, while others, not so easily accessible, are giving nothing. Moreover, the council considers that all money needed for the war should be got through taxation imposed by the Government.

The supplement issued with to-day's Herald contains a number of interesting features. ' Tohunga writes under 'the heading "Wasting Timo and Money," while other contributions are:—"The Illusion of Distance," by Frank Morton; "The Decisive Offensive," by Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Grace; "The Army Surgeon," by C. G. Nicol; "Doctors of Health," by Maurice Hurst; and "Some Rain Pictures," by Elsie K. Morton. A number of pictures and cartoons relative to the war are included in the illustrations. Some months ago an amateur concert company wus formed in Auckland by members of the girls' branch of the Navy League, under the style of "The Originals," to raise funds on behalf of the league. The little company has given entertainments in a number of country towns and in the city, by means of which over £100 has been raised. The present retail prices of coal in Christchurch are as follows: —Westport, 545; Australian, 565; Kaitangata, 48s; Homebush, 38s; State, 395. Some of the Christchurch dealers have expressed the opinion that a rise in the price of New Zealand coals will follow the increase in the price of the Australian commodity. Regulations were recently brought into force in Sydney with the object of economising the labour of letter-carriers. They provide that mail matter will not be delivered by postmen above the first floor of office buildings not equipped with elevators available to the postman at the time of delivery, nor to different rooms or suites of rooms on any floor or apartment buildings, whether or not such apartment buildings are equipped with elevators. In office buildings where elevators are not provided, or are not available to the postman at the time of delivery, the occupants of the building above the first floor must provide at or near the entrance of the building on the ground floor a suitable receptacle in which correspondence may be deposited by the postman, or they must arrange with some person to receive the mail matter from the postman. It was suggested on behalf of a man who had pleaded guilty to charges of theft at the Wellington Magistrate's Court that he should be given a chance to go into camp, the military authorities being ready to take him. He had a rather bad record, and Mr. S. E. McCarthy, S.M., declined to accede to counsel's request. "I do not think," he said, "that it is fair to the young men who are enlisting, or who have been called up by ballot, to be asked to associate with men like this." Canterbury farmers, generally, express themselves a3 well satisfied with the price put upon their wool by the Government valuers. One farmer told a reporter that his wool realised prices above his expectations, and even better than last year, when the 55 per cent, bonus is taken into consideration. In addition to this, his wool was at least 10 per cent, heavier in condition that it was last year, and this would also help to swell the wool cheque. He thought that farmers had every reason to be satisfied with the Imperial scheme, as far as wool was concerned, and it was a pity that some such arrangement with regard to wheat had not been made before now. A firm of Masterton drapers ordered a lot of hosiery about eighteen months ago. The stock was badly needed, and there were expressions of satisfaction when the case came to hand. When it was opened 1 it was found that about 30 dozen nairs of >' men's stockings were missing. Claims made at Wellington on account of pillaged cargo represent a total of £1000 in twelve months. This statement was made in i the local Magistrate's Court a day of two ago. , A Palmerston butcher remarked to a , reporter that the rise that had taken place , in the price of meat was easily accounted for when the present and pre-war whole* i sale prices were compared. He produced sale notes showing that in May, 1913, he purchased beef at 18s per cwt—equal to 22s per cwt in the paddock—and mutton at 2id per lb, the 601b sheep averaging , 14s. In December last his sale notes showed that he paid 38s 6d per cwt for beefequal to £2 5s in the paddock 5Jd for mutton, or 34s for!the 601b sheep. "This shows," the butcher stated, "that wholesale prices have risen about 115 per cent." At the last meeting of the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society the question of the importation of stubble quail from Australia was discussed at some length, strong representations being made from responsible quarters in favour of the importation of the bird, which was described by the Pastoral and Agricultural Societies' Union of New South Wales as "a friend to the farmer.'" The report added "It,should do well in New Zealand, especially on marshy country. It multiplies quickly and, with plenty of cover, gives the gun lots of smart work." It was decided to bring the matter before the Minister. Factory managers in Wellington < complain of the scarcity of female labour. The difficulty arises from the ease with which girls are finding employment in offices, and especially Government offices. Even where wages and hours are equal the girls prefer the office employment, rightly or wrongly considering it, as one employer said, "more genteel." The principal inducement, however, is the much-increased money which the girls are able to earn at office work, the amount being, one employer stated, more than double the award rates ruling in the factories. Owing to the great shortage of labour for harvest work in the Wanganui district a number of girls, all of them the daughters of well-to-do people, offered their services to some of the farmersThose who have employed these girls are loud in their praises of the excellent work they are doing. They are paid a shilling per hour for a nine-hour day. It is thought by those who have analysed the Census figures, says a Wellington paper, that Clutha and Motueka are the constituencies that will disappear, and that one additional seat will go to Auckland and suburbs. The other new seat is likely to co to the Auckland rural districts, after absorbing the excess of the Hawke's Bay and Taumarunui electorates. A meeting of the executive of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association was held yesterday at the Hall of Commerce, Mr. A. W. Thompson, president, in the chair. A letter was received from the secretary of the New Zealand Council of Agriculture desiring the opinion of the fanning community in regard to the proposal of the Government to commandeer all hides not required for military purposes in Australia and Canada and for local purposes. It was agreed to recommend that the Government adopt the same method as was followed by the requisitioning of wool. A letter from the Prime Minister's office stated that it is not intended to introduce legislation in regard to the rating of showgrounds, the Rating Amendment Act, 1910 giving municipal authorities power to remit rates on show-grounds vested iii the A. and P.. Association.