LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17963, 13 December 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The accommodation on the Main Trunk express which leaves Auckland for Wellington in the evening has been fully booked for the last' two weeks, and the number of people travelling has necessitated extra carriages being put on to each train. On some trains as many as four extra carriages have been needed. The price of strawberries has fallen slightly since last week, chips selling in the shops yesterday at Is to Is 3d each. The fall occurred first on Saturday, largely owing to tho fact that the week-end precluded the jam factories taking any quantity and to tho absence of shipping. To-day is the fourth anniversary of the escape of Count von Luckner and ten other prisoners of war from the Motuihi Island internment camp. The prisoners were recaptured on the scow Moa, near the Kermadec Islands, on December 21, M 7, and wore brought back to Auckland on Boxing Day. The City Fire Brigade received a call at 10.55 o'clock last night to the iron foundry of A. and T. Burt, Ltd., in Graham Street. Tho fire was confined to a quantity of coke, and no material damage was done. The custom of paying the salaries of Technical College teachers a week or two before the date on which they ;;re due to enable tho teachers to depart on their holidays financially unembarrassed, received a somewhat severe shaking yesterday, when the director, Mr. George George, informed tho board of.managers that it was unlikely tho bank would allow an overdraft for the required amount—-£937—-at tho lime it was usually obtainable in the past. One member of the board said that in view of tho exigencies of the time tho teachers should bo very thankful to get their salaries on the due date—December 31. It was decided that tho director « approach the Education Board with a view to obtaining its assistant in accommodating the teachers in accordance with the custom.

A cheerful roview of world events was given by the Hon. George Fowlds at the meeting of the Rotary Club yesterday. Although it had been a black year from tho point of view of business balancesheets there were, he said, many ovidences of advance and the advent of a new spirit in the world. He referred to the hopefulness of the limitation of armaments as a result of the Washington Conference, and said the news of the Pacific Treaty was something over which we could most heartily rejoice. After .touching upon the Irish settlement and evidences of a movement toward sanity in Russia, Mr. Fowlds said we wero closing the year • with less friction between Capital and Labour than had been the case at various periods during the year. If the same spirit that had been manifested at Washington and in Downing Street were brought to consideration of the problem of Capital and Labour during the coming year similar beneficial results would be obtained.

Debentures to the value of £8000 in the Auckland Patriotio Association's issue are held by the Devonport Borough Council. These matured on September 1 last, but the council has been unable to meet the payment. At a meeting of the executive of the association yesterday the president, Mr. J. H. Gunson, said repeated applications had been made to the council for payment, but without avail. He understood the council had raised a loan outside the Dominion, and probably the de bentm'es would be liquidated from that money. In the meantime the association needed cash and was overdrawn. It was decided to instruct the secretary to write to the council pointing out that owing to the state of its finances the association required the £8000, and asking that arrangements be made for its payment.

A Chambers sitting will be taken by Mr. Justice Herdman at the Supreme Court at 2.15 o'clock to-day.

A complaint made by a member of the executive of tho Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association that the association had not been invited to be represented officially at a recent ceremony, where a war memorial was unveiled was commented upon by tho Technical College board of managers yesterday. On the motion of Mr. J. A. C. Allum, it was resolved to send the association's executive a letter explaining, that, if the complaint referred to the unveiling of the memorial at the college by tho Governor-General, the board wished the association to know that no invitations whatsoever were issued, the only notices of the function being those that appeared In the press.

"Looking back now at my work a* a Judge in Mesopotamia, I marvel I had the impudence to assume the responsibilities," said Mr. T. N. Holmden, an Auckland barrister, in addressing members of the Rotary Club yesterday. He thought, however, that that was the experience of most officials in the East, and it was a characteristic of our race. During his two years at Hitlah, where he was stationed, he sentenced 23 men to death end sentenced 52 others to terms of imprisonment amounting in the aggregate to 206 years. In the civil Courts the yearly fees amounted to over half a lakh of rupees. "And I assumed these responsibilities without knowing a word of Arabic, and Arabic was the only language allowed to be spoken or written in the Courts, and without having the slightest knowledge of any Turkish law, and Turkish law was the law administered," the speaker added amid laughter.

One effect of the decision of the Government I not to allow commission on the sale of stamps is that all fees at the Magistrate's Court must be prepaid in stamps, money not being accepted. This will bo a great inconvenience to the legal profession especially, as it was formerly customary to pay m cash and have the stamps affixed later.

\ An imputation that the Patriotic Association had been remiss in the matter of assisting a returned disabled soldier wVs resented by the executive of the association yesterday. Mr. E. Phelan said the man in question had appeared in the Magistrate's.Court on Friday in connection with the maintenance of his three children, and it had been given out that the association had not helped him as it might have done. The fact was that the association had assisted the man to the extent of £160, of which £140 had been granted to set him up as a bootmaier. The president. Mr. J. H. Gunson, daid that when the man, went "aw.",y with N the Expeditionary Forces his children were committed to a home,' and the association was- constituted his agent in regard to them. It received his military allowance and that for the children, and on his return all his obligations had been met. The association then gave him £19 in cash, and later made him a grant of £140 to establish him in business. In addition the man received from the Government £148 retrospective allowances. For a period of years he had received every consideration from the association, and the statements said to have been made Jo the contrary were entirely without foundation. • ' "There is the Garden of Eden with its tree of life, surrounded by a palisade and" well labelled in Arabic and English characters that it is tho tree of life," said Mr. T. N. Holmden at the Rotary Club yesterday, in referring to places of interest in Mesopotamia. "As a matter of fact, it is a mulberry tree* about 600 years old," he added amid laughter.

Appreciative references to the great performed on behalf of blinded soldiers by the late' Sir Arthur Pearson were made at the meeting of the executive of the Auckland Patriotic Association , yesterday. A vote of sympathy with his relatives was passed. The Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association is forwarding the following cablegram to Sir Arthur's son, Neville Arthur Pearson :—"Heartfelt sympathy in your sad bereavement. We feel thankful, for Sir Arthur's life and service." "