LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17483, 29 May 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

No supplies of fish wero received in the city yesterday, tho continued heavy weather rendering trawling impossible, and the market is still bare. Further supplies are not expected to arrive this week.

An accident to a two-horse lorry, owned by W. S. Laurie and Co., occurred at the foot of Queen Street yesterday afternoon, and resulted in ono of the horses, valued at £65, being killed. Something startled the horses which bolted. One horse fell and was dragged a considerable distance by tho other, its neck being broken. The drher escaped injury.

" During the season only one councillor visited the baths and had a swim," was a phrase in the report of the baths-mana-ger, which caused general laughter at the meeting of the Hamilton Borough Council on Thursday svening. The manager urged members 61 the council to visit the baths more. often, and to become acquainted with requirements, Incidentally he remarked that during the present season 30 000 people visited the baths, including 20,000 children.

The oyster season in Auckland was to have opened on May 1, but, owing,, it is stated, to delay in issuing the necessary authority to begin picking, the «season will not commence till Tuesday next. The beds from which the oysters are obtained are at the Great Barrier, 'Russell, and Waiheke Island the best specimens being obtained from the last-named place. There are about twelve men gathering oysters there, and fully 300 sacks, should bo available from this source alone on Tuesday.

Several young women who arrived by the Faparoa yesterday, are engaged to marry ex-New Zealand soldiers whom they met in England.

During a discussion on the high price of woollen goods yesterday at, the Provincial Conference of the Formers' Union Mr. -A. A. Ross said that the extreme prices of woollen goods in the Dominion were due to the fact that the New Zealand woollen mills could sell their output for export at fabulout prices. Notwithstanding that there was a huge accumulation of wool in Britain it was under Government control, and the Home mills could not obtain the raw material.

To-day is the sixth anniversary of the wreck of the Canadian-Pacific Railway Company's steamer Empress of Ireland, which was sunk in the St. Lawrence River shortly after sturting on a voyage from Quebec to Liverpool. The liner collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad at night in a dense fog, and sank in 14 minutes. The disaster resulted in the loss of 1023 lives, only 432 of the passengers and crew being saved.

That tho Government should be urged to remove or reduce the duty on imported cement with a view to encouraging building operations, was advocated by Mr. J. McKinnon at the nrsting of the Hamilton Borough Council on Thursday night. He raid that cement which used to cost £3 10s per ton, now cost £7 12s M »w ton. His resolution that all leal bodies.' bs asked to <o-oper-t» in bringing pressure to bear o.i tl,e Govenment in having the duty removed wua c—niu Li.a... moufily.

Srnic dissatisfaction was expressed by a number of the immigrants who disembarked from the Paparoa yesterday over the treatment they received on the voyage. They allege that the accommodation was very poor, and, altogether inadequate.

Suffering (rom the effect*! of a fall from a tramcar, a five-year-old girl, Isabella Trnvin, whose parents reside in Wellesley Street West, was admitted to the Auckland Hospital yesterday afternoon. When picked np the child was alone, and her parents, who arrived from England by 'ho Maheno this week, did not discover hor whereabouts until late in the evening.

About one hundred passengers from the steamer Paparoa, which arrived in Auckland yesterday, travelled South by tho Main Trunk express last evening. Some thirty of this number travelled first-class.

On her voyage from Panama the steamer Paparoa called at Pitcairn Island and unloaded some goods for the inhabitants. Among these was. an harmonium. The islanders were quite happy, and had no unsual occurrence to report.

Exception is taken by the local representatives of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Messrs. Russell and Somers, to a statement mule by Mr. Robert Burjw. to the effect that the Newcastle steel works had received so many orders that they had increased their prices by £2.10s per ton. They state that the prices were certainly raised, but that this was in February last, and was due mainly to the marine engineers' strike, which lasted three months. Tho company's stocks were depleted as a result of the strike, but would shortly bo normal again. They also took exception to tho statement that their company was refusing to book orders. This was absolutely incorrect and misleading. As to tho statement that dolivery could not be given by the company that also was denied, and it was stated that delivery could be given, but that it was all a matter of shipping space over which the company had no control.

A particularly high standard of health among the children of tho Papatoetoe Orphan Homo was shown to have been attained in the report presented at the 'annual meeting yesterday. '"Die general health of the children during tho past year has been excellent," stated tho report, "and this has been tho usual record year after year. In tho whole sixty years of its existence death "has claimed only four of the children in the home." At present there are 76 children in the home, 41 boys and 35 girls. As there is only adequate accommodation for 65, the home is inconveniently overcrowded, the increased number being due largely to the influenza epidemic and to the war. A campaign is now being arranged for the purpose of raising funds for the enlargejpent of the home.