LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17909, 11 October 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Public health conditions in Auckland were yestorday stated by the medical officer for health, Dr. T. J. Hughes, to be satisfactory. He said that fairly large numbers of rats were being sent in for examination from the waterfont, shipping, and other likely points of infection, the average dealt with being something like 1200 a month. In no case had any but healthy rodents baen examined so far. As regards diphtheria, he said that in the week just ended 18 cases, mostly from the country, had been reported, compared with nine in the previous week, and 19 in the last week of September. Scarlet fever cases were on about the average level, while only one case of pneumonic influenza had been reported in the week just closed.

The promptitude of a Harbour Board official yesterday averted danger to traffic in Lower Queen Street. Shortly after 1 p.m. a horse, attached to an express cart standing at the harbour end of Queen's Wharf, bolted in the direction of Qu6en Street. Mr. Harvey, a Harbour Board traffic official, realising that if the horse dashed into Queen Street it might cause a serious accident, signalled to another official, stationed higher up, to close the gates. This was done just as the animal reached the gate. The horse swerved to pass through another gate, but an obstruction checked it sufficiently to enable it to be caught. Very little damage was done to the cart, hut the tyre on one wheel, which was chained, was worn flat where it was dragged along the concrete surface of the wharf.

The annual presentation of a cheque for £5, given by the family of the late Mr. J. M. McLachlan to the oldest surviving descendant of the passengers by the chip Brilliant was an interesting feature of the reunion of old colonists ati the Town Hall yesterday. The honour fell again to Mr. W. Bain, who has received the cheque for several years, and in making the presentation, the Mayor expressed the hope that the same honour might fall to the recipient for many years to come. He also mentioned the fact that it was 80 years this month since the Brilliant pioneers landed at Auckland.

The supply of hot cocoa to children attending the city schools has again proved successful, according to a report received by the schools committee last evening. The total expenses during the winter had amounted to nearly £25, a small cash credit balance being shown at the end of the period. In addition there had been a surplus of 101b. of cocoa and 401b. of sugar, which had been donated to a school cOL.ert fund.

The arrangement* for the observance of Nelson Day, on October 21, were further considered at a meeting of the Auckland branch of the Navy League last evening. Reports were received from those detailed to wait on the citizens in order to ensure an enthusiastic celebration of the day. Wherever they went the visitors found a ready appreciation of the work of the league in seeking to foster a sense of the great importance of sea power to this country, and to emphasise the use of sea communications in peace by a mercantile marine manned by sailors of British birth, as well as the defence of these communications by an adequate fleet in time of war. The request for assistance in the work met with a generous response, many thousands of gifts of substantial value being donated to the league for distribution as memorials of the day.

The recent publication of a cablegram stating that instruction in wireless telegraphy had been included in the curriculum of a London school has prompted a letter from a correspondent who declares that the idea is by no means a new one, having been introduced ten years ago in the Levuka public school by the headmaster, Mr. D. (lamer Jones. Ho installed, at his own expense, and thoroughly equipped a wireless plant, by which he trained his boys to send and receive messages from passing vessels, several of the pupils showing great enthusiasm, and becoming skilled operators. Some years later, the Fiji Government installed a wireless plant at Suva, and the headmaster was forbidden to use the one whrich he had attached to the school grounds. " I hear that Mr. Jones has recently set up a semaphore for the instruction of his pupils," states the writer of the letter, " so that the southern schoolmaster is still before the northern."

A Chambers sitting will be held at the Supreme Court this morning at ten o'clock. Mr. Justice Herdman will deal with all pending matters, a list of which has been posted in the Court building. At the annnaj meeting of the Morrinsville Public Library it was reported that there were now 180 subscribers to the library. A total of 120 had been added in the last year. Hawthorn was recently declared a noxious weed in the Borough of Mount Albert by special resolution of the Borough Council. This resolution was confirmed at a special meeting held last evening.

A protest against the publication of details of the execution of Hakaraia Te Kahu at Auckland yesterday was uttered by Mr. Martin at a meeting of the Christchurch City Council last night, says a Press Association message. He moved that the council express its disapproval of the publication of reports of executions and that the Prime Minister be requested to have such reports prohibited. Mr. Armstrong said if it was right to have executions carried cut at all, there was nothing wrong about, an account of an execution appearing in the newspapers. He proposed a motion protesting against capital punishment altogether, but this could not be accepted without notice, and Mr. Martin's motion was carried.

Reporting to the Morrinsville School Committee the headmaster of the Morrinsville school, Mr. D. R. F. Campbell, advised that the attendance during the current quarter had been very poor owin°to an epidemic of measles. This was the se-ond consecutive year in which the children's time had been broken. The fishing season has found the Tuki Tuii River, Hawke's Bay, much lower thakr is usual at this period of the year. The_"fly" appears to be the favourite bait at Waipukurau this season, whereas in previous years the spoon or the minnow have alone been used during the first part of the season. Fair bags are reported, and it would appear that sport is somewhat better than was the case last year. Sereral applicants for work at the unemployment bureau in Napier have told the officers in charge that they walked up from Wellington in their search for work. All have been given work in the Hawke's Bay centre. A policy of retrenchment was resolved upon by the Waimea (Nelson) County Council at a meeting last week. It was decided that no travelling expense? be paid to members of the council for 12 months, and that the chairman's honorarium be reduced to £50 a year.

The suggestion that constables should be specially trained to estimate the speed of motor-cars was made by Mr. Wikon, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court in church. In a case before the Court the constable alleged that a motor-cycle was travelling at 30 to 35 miles an hour, but was unable to produce anything in support of his estimate, which the rider of the cycle contested. The magistrate remarked that so many motorists were being apprehended for dangerous driving, and so many constables were engaged in detecting them, it seemed to be time some measures were taken to train the pohce in judging speed, otherwise their evidence could be nothing better than guesswork. It was a very easy matter for a constable provided with a stop-watch to tune numbers of cars every day over measured distances such as a city block. By means of such a practice lie would soon learn to estimate the speed of any car from memory sJono,