LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16763, 1 February 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Two schoolboys were admitted lo tho hospital yesterday suffering from the results of accidents. Leslie Newman, aged eight, whose parents, reside at N< thcoto, fell from a horse at Albany, su ning a fractured thigh and a iractn " arm. William Dawkins, aged 10, livir., in William Street, Mount Albert, fe ■ from a tree, and fractured his wrist. Another accident case was that of Mr. John Wood, Hepburn Street, who, while working for the Kauri Timber Company, was struck by a falling beam, sustaining a fractured left leg.

The bearing of the compensation claim brought by the Auckland University College against the City Counc : .l in respect of the taking by the latter of the University buildings for the purposes of the Anzac Avenue road formation works, will bo commenced at the Supreme Court on Saturday next before Mr. Justice Cooper, and will be continued on Monday. On Tuesday the civil action Raven v. Keane will be heard, and on Wednesday the compensation case will be resumed if it has not been concluded. On Thursday a Banco sitting will be held, and on Thursday the Judge will sit in Chambers, when the' order of the list of cases set down for hearing at the civil sittings, which will commence on February 11, will be fixed.*

A correspondent writes:—" 1 have read with pleasure the sub-lead* in Thursday's Herald ro shutting paqpengers off the Main Trunk train <on Tuesday night. I regret that you did not refer to the disgraceful scramble that occurred at the entrance gate for second-class passengers. It was pitiful' to see the women, with, children and with hand luggage, being pushed about in the crowd. The police made absolutely no attempt to .«ee order kept. There were at least five constables ! on the platform after the train left, but not one came outside to form the crowd ' into iv queue. Surely it is time the public ' demanded attention from these men. As ' for the Railway Department's arrangeI ments, the less said the better. Even the 1 inqnirv office was shut, so that one had , to guess what to do with the tickets i bought for seats not available." | The young man named John Thomas Christie who, while in the custody of the police, jumped from the Main Trunk express near Penrose on Wednesday morning, and made good his escape, has not yet been recaptured. The police havo maintained a >ystcmatic watch throughout the locality, but so far without success. Christie's knowledge of the neighbourhood and his audacious confidence will favour him in his bid for liberty. So far as is known there is no definite clue to his whereabouts.' •

Local fruit auctioneers report that heavy supplies of peaches are now on the market, making almost a glut, and causing prices to drop. Tomatoes have also dropped in price due, no doubt, largely to the general public growing their own fruit,

An inquest was held yesterday by Mr. E. G. Cutten, S.M., into' the death, of William L. Dawes, who died at a private hospital on Wednesday morning -as the result of .injuries received by being jammed between a truck and the siding while trucking cattle at the Tuak'au railway station on Tuesday morning. The verdict returned was that death was due to shock, no blame being attachable to any other person, and that the provision for loading cattle at Tuakau station is proper. The induction of the Rev. A. J. Greenwood to the pastoral chargo of the parochial district of Mount Albert and Avondale took place at St. Luke's Church last evening. The Bishop of Auckland, Dr. A. W. Averill, preached the sermon, in wh.ich he urged the clergyman and parishioners,: to work together for the good of the two churches. A. large congregation was pre-' sent, including five visiting clergymen and representatives of St. Jude's vestry and choir. The meeting convened for 'last evening at the Town Hall concert chamber to consider ways and means of promoting a campaign to raise funds for the Auckland Hospital benevolent fund, was very poorly attended, and Mr. C. 0. Parr, M.P., who had been requested to preside, after conferring with the promoters, announced that it had been decided to dissolve the meeting. He said the public evidently was not aware of the importance of the movement in the interests of which the meeting had been called. He trusted that when the appeal was placed before the public its imnortance would be recognised in a practical manner. The Hospital Benevolent Society had done excellent work in assisting needy persons who were discharged from the hospital, and the activities of the society had grown to such an extent that greater public support was required, in order that the work of the society could bo carried out to the best advantage. Those present dispersed after - passing a* vote of thanks to the chairman, _ The hearing of the Auckland Colonial Ammunition employees' dispute was continued yesterday before a{. Conciliation Council over which the commissioner, Mr. T. Harle Giles, presided. The assessors for the company were Messrs. # C. A. Whitney and! J. C. Whitney, whilst those for the employees were Mrs. Rowlatt and Misses L. Hjles and E. Grace. Mr. ,C. Grosvenor appeared for the company and Mr. B. Martin for the union. , After considerable discussion it was agreed that a representative workers' committee he appointed to formulate proposals for the rectification of any grievances that are considered to exist, and that such proposals shall receive careful consideration from the company, When the committee has completed its work a dato will be fixed by the commissioner for a further sitting of the council with a view to embodying any agreement arrived at in all .award. A hearty vote of thanks was passed to the commissioner for his assistance in connection with the dispute. In the statement of the Minister for Railways, published on Wednesday, there was the following sentence :— Tho. whole of the fit men of the First Division of the railway service will be exhausted, with the exception of about twenty or thirty experts, when the drafts duo to go into camp in March and April have gone." To' this was added a note suggesting that Mr. Herries possibly referred to the First Division of the railway service classification and not to the First Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve, Mr. Herrios, mow ' telegraphs that this is not correct. He says : " When I mentioned division I referred to tho First Division of the Expeditionary Force." A 'welcome social to the Rev. H. Johnson, who was inducted to the charge of the Mount Eden Congregational Church on January 17, was tendered by the members of the church in the school hall last evening. Mr. S. W. Smceton presided, and speeches of welcome were made by tho Revs. Clyde Can- and C. H. Garland, and by Mr. Moodie, superintendent of tho Sunday-school. An apology for absence was received from Canon McFarland, of St. Barnabas' Church. During the evening musical items were given and refreshments served. The hearing of two cases involving breaches of the Auckland and Suburban Local Bodies' Union Award was 'commenced at the Magistrate's Court yesterday before Mr. E. C. Cutten,. S.M! The union (Mr. Skelton) claimed from tho Avondale Road Board (Mr/Vallance) the sum of £20 as penalty for a breach of clause 9 of the award in that during September, 1917, the board, having retrenched or shortened the number of hands employed by it, failed to give pre- : ference to one Bernard Clews, a member of the union, equally competent with nonunion employees to perform the work and ready and willing to undertake such work; also £20 in respect of George Walker, another member of the union. The union further claimed £20 in each of two alleged breaches of clause 2 of the award in that the wages of Olews and Walker were reduced below the wages paid under tho former award. Evidence having been called in support of the claims the cases were adjourned until Monday next. A total of 2089 persons arrived at the Port of Auckland during January, as compared with 984 for the corresponding month of last year, an increase of 1105. The departures last month totalled 251, as against 454 in January, 1917, a decrease of 203. " ( In respect to the disposal of 'the remaining assets, of tho Manukau Water Supply Board, which embrace a considerable quantity of machinery and mains, the chairman of the QnC-tree Hill Road Board vesterday waited on the Mayor. Mr. J. H. Gunson, and a settlement as to the terms on which tenders shall be invited was arrived at. With the disposal of these assets the" matters arising out of the recent dissolution of the Water Supply Board, and the taking over of its interests by the city and the One-tree Hill Road Uoard will bo completed.

A vote of sympathy with Mr. G. C. Kettle, S.M., who has been ill for some timo past, was passed at the annual meeting of the Auckland Law Society on tho motion of Mr. R. McVcagh yesterday. In his annual summary of infectious diseases in Te Awamutu for the year 1917, the health inspector for that district reports : —Scarlet fever, ons case; diphtheria, one case; spinal meningitis, one case. Commenting on tho report, the inspector says that the record is a fine one. and will compare farourably with that of any borough in the Dominion. He adds that, without a doubt, tho introduction of a plentiful supply of pure water has been an important factor in keeping down infectious diseases, the total absence of typhoid fever being a point deserving of special emphasis. He congratulates tho town on its splendid record. Suppliers to the Cambridge Co-operative Dairy Company's factory have just received an additional bonus of two pence per pound for butter-fat supplied for cheese during the season ending .May 31, 1917. Cheese suppliers have already received Is 9.17 d per pound of butter-fat,. A waterside worker at Wellington was an unwitting passenger by the Corinna on her, recent trip to Timaru. He had visited a hotel, and on his return to the ship fell asleep in one of the bathrooms, where he was discovered as tho vessel was clearing Wellington Heads. He was charged at the Timaru Police Court with stowing away on the steamer,'but the magistrate I holding that the offence had not been comI mitted deliberately, dismissed the case. Sharks of considerable size are more i than usually plentiful just now in the I harbours of the Bay of Plenty and the I Coromandel peninsula. One that measured I BJft was caught last week from the wharf !at .Whitlanga, Mercury Bay. On the previous day another", estimated to have been 2ft longer, had been hauled to tho i surface, when it Broke the line, and got away. After the 8-footer had been bus* pended from the wharf derrick for about an hour it broke the lashings, and had sufficient vitality left to give two boatloads of lads an exciting half-hour before i it was harpooned and finally despatch^