LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17650, 10 December 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The increase- in the price of tobacco, which was announced last week, and which will come into force next Monday, is somewhat more extensive and more severe than was expected. Certain lines of plug and cut tobacco are affected, also one brand of cigarettes, the rise in price ranging from Id to 9d. It is stated that in some other popular classes of tobacco prices have also been increased, but that owing to their smallness they cannot be passed on to the public.

The King's College barracks were inspected yesterday by Lieutenant-Colonel R. 0., Chesney. Major J. R. Henderson, and Captain A. W. Brock, who arrived from Trentham on a flying visit to Auckland in connection' with the competition for the Passmore Shield, which is awarded to the best secondary school cadet unit in the Dominion. The choice at present lies between King's College and the Nelson Hiqh School. The inspection was carried out in conjunction with Colonel H. R. Potter, officer commanding the district, and Colonel J. E. Duigan, chief staff officer. Lieutenant-Colonel Chesney, Major Henderson, and Captain Brock left Auckland last evening to pay a similar visit to Nelson High School.

The children unfortunately compelled to spend their Christmas in the public hospital will have their lot made as bright as possible by the provision of toys and comforts, as is the time-honoured custom. The ■ committee of the Auckland Racing Club yesterday voted a donation of £10 to provide seasonable gifts for the little ones.

A six-year-old girl named Emily Marshall, residing with her parents at Lower Selwyn Street, Onehunga, sustained a. fractured leg as the result of falling off a fence between seven and eight o'clock last evening, She was admitted to the Auckland Hospital.

A protest against the proposal to repeat the musical portion of "A Soldier's Life" in the» Domain on Sunday evening was made last evening bv representatives ot the evangelical churches of the city at the. mid-week Bible study meeting at the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle. A resolution was passed protesting against permission being granted by the city authorities, on the ground that the performance was a violation of the sanctity of the Lord's Day and of the widespread regard in which it was held as a day of rest and worship.

The sweet potato weevil has been proclaimed a ' disease -under the second schedule of the Orchard and Garden Diseases Act, telegraphs our Wellington correspondent.

The Rotorua Women's Patriotic League, formed early in the war, has been disbanded. There is a large staff of women attached to King George Hospital, and the need for the league's services no longer exists. At the closing gathering the members made a presentation to the president, Mrs. W. Hill.

A successful garden fjte, organised by the Epsom District Committee in aid of the funds for the erection of a new building in connection with the Grey Street Mission, was held yesterday at The Pines, Owen's Road, Epsom, the ..residence' of Mrs. G. R. Bloomfield. Fine weather prevailed, and a good attendance was recorded. Numerous attractions were provided in the form of tennis, fortune-tell-ing, and afternoon tea, and very , good business was done in the sale of cakes and strawberries and cream. A string band gave selections.

Apparently public bathing is gaining ground in Christchurch. It was reported to a meeting of the Christchurch City Council that the cash taken at 1 the municipal baths in October amounted to £221 12s 6d. In October, 1919, the takings were only £168 2s Id. Seven months of the current financial year, are now gone, and the bath takings to date total £781 10s Id. For the first seven,- months ofthe last financial year the takings were £571 17s 3d, and for the corresponding period of the year before that £388 6s Bd.

Steps are being taken by the Wellington Harbour Board to check a practice that has developed in recent years among consignees, of inward cargo, of subdividing their consignments into several parcels and of issuing sub-orders for them, thus turning the board's stores from their proper "us© as transit sheds into so many distributing depots. This practice has now grown to such an extent that the legitimate work of receiving and delivering cargo is greatly hampered, and the board has decided that after March 1, 1921, no sub-order for inward cargo' necessitating the splitting up of a bill of lading, will be recognised by the board, except for the delivery of agricultural produce. r

A motor., van from Wanganui, loaded wi"h bottles, was descending a hill at' Patea when one of the steering rods broke, causing the van to become unmanageable. . As a result it turned sharply at right angles, throwing the whole weight on to one of the hind wheels, causing it to crumple up and turn the van completely upside down. Its two occupants were thrown underneath, but fortunately theie was a large covered top which enabled the occupants to crawl out little the worse for the accident.

An appropriate scheme of decoration is being applied to the Native Affairs Committee's room in the new Parliamentary Buildings. At one end of the room are the carved outlines of the front of a Maori meeting house. Along the other walls are further examples of carvings with spaces left for appropriate historical pictures, while in one panel is to be a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is expected that it will be possible to prore l r A om l , lts P re£enfc resting place in North Auckland the actual table on which the Treaty was signed. The beams of the ceiling have been ornamented with a design in plaster of Maori carving.

A suggestion has been made to the Minister for Education by the Epuni School Committee that the Prince of Wales' message to the school children of New Zealand should be issued in a more permanent form than in the School Journal, where it is apt to be lost or defaced. The Minister has that he considers the message of such worth that it should be kept as a permanent record in the schools. He is submitting the proposal to the Education Department.

The first lady member will join the Wellington City Council when the amalgamation of Miramar Borough with the city is completed early next year. The retiring Borough Council has nominated three representatives to sit with the City Council until the general election in April and one of them is Mrs. Annie McVicar! of Miramar, who has served on many local bodies for a number of years past. Mrs. McVicar is also a member of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board.

Some difficulty was experienced by Mr Justice Herdman during the proceedings of the Supreme Court in Christchurch. in ascertaining the law in respect of admitting offenders to probation. No copy of the Act passed last session could be produced in Court, but after some delay a copy of the Act was got from 'the Magistrates Court, and His Honor was able to give the prisoner the benefit of the latest legislation and admit him to probation. Under the law as it stood prior to last session's amendment the prisoner would not have been entitled to probation.

" I do not think it. likely that I -was exceeding the speed limit," said a defendant at the Lower Hutt Court, when charged with driving through the borough at a greater speed than allowed by the by-law. "I followed the Governor-General's car from Trentham to Wellington,'' he thoughtfully added.