LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18135, 6 July 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

Extra choice beef had a firming tendency at the West-field fat stock market yestsrday, but there'was no improvement on recent rates in other classes of beef. Extra choico ox beef made up to 22s per 1001b., while choice and prime brought from 18s to 21s. Cow and heifer beef realised from 15s to 18s. There was a good demand for sheep, extra heavy wethers making from 32s to 34s 6d, and prime from 25s to 295. Heavy ewes realised from 26s to 28s, and lighter lots 19s to 225. Bacon pigs brought from £2 12s to £3 15s, and choppers from £1 lis to £3 10s.

A splendid catch of 250 baskets of fish was landed on Tuesday night by the City Council's trawler Cowan, which returned to the harbour after operating in the gulf, in tho vicinity of. Tiri and Kawau. The 'haul comprised schnapper, principally of a very fine class. Tho Simplon, which returned last evening with a good haul, berthed for the first time at the Municipal Fish Market wharf, the recent dredging operations having enabled this to be done. Previously only tho Cowan was able to berth alongside the Fish Market.

Tho conference under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act in connection with tho dispute between R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd., and their abattoir employees was continued yesterday, Mr. C. Eanson presiding. Tho assessors for the employers are Messrs. F. Hellaby, S. Wing, and S. E. Wright, and for the employees Messrs. J. Dunstan, J. Carter, and W. E. Sill. An agreement was reached on practically all clauses except wages, and the conference was adjourned until 2 p.m. to-day.

That sea training agrees with the boys of H.M.S. Philomel may be judged from the fact that during the training period a fair average increase in weight is about 301b. a year. These boys aro carefully selected from numerous applicants from every part of the Dominion. Tho New Z<*land boys have so far given an excellent account of themselves, and are considered by those qualified to judge as being first-class seamen, and second to none as regards ability and character. The first batch of boys for 1922 have iust entered the ship, and there are still a few vacancies. •

To-day is the 29th anniversary of the .wedding of King George and Queen Mary, Their Majesties having been married on July 6, 1893. Their present family consists of four sons and one daughter. The eldest, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, was born on' Juno 23, 1894. Tho youngest son, Prince John, died *a year or two ago.

The City and Grey Lynn Fire Brigades received a call shortly after nine o'clock yesterday morning to the shop and residence of Mr. J. Lindsay, bootmaker, of Richmond Road, Grey Lynn. A workman was attending to the gas meter with a naked lamp, when an explosion occurred. No damage was done. H.M.S. Chatham, en route from Wellington to Auckland, called at Gisboxne yesterday. She arrived there at 8 a.m., and sailed again at noon. It is understood that she is due at Auckland about Monday. If the weather is suitable she will probably undergo big gun and torpedo practice in tho Hauraki Gulf I 'before coming to port. "We must beware of the great danger of having igiorant people in our midst," said Mr. J. Caughley, Director of Education, in the course of his lecture at the Winter Show on Tuesday, " and a man must be considered ignorant if he does not go beyond the sixth standard in our primary schools. No nation will ever rise to high levels by having 20 per cent, of the population as its leaders and good thinkors aird allow the remaining §0 per cent, to follow ignorantly. The nation which comes to the front is the one which has 100 per cent, of its people thoroughly educated."

Messages of welcome forwarded to the members of the Empire Exhibition Mission by the' Auckland Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association have been acknowledged by Major A. E. Belcher, who states that the actual date of the arrival of the mission in Auckland has not yet been fixed. Full details respecting the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 and the objects of the mission now in the Dominion will be placed before the council of the Chamber of Commerce by Mr. J. W. Collins, secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce, at a meeting to-morrow afternoon.

Three cases of dfphtheria were reported to the Health Department yesterday. Of these two cccurred in the city and one in PukekoUe.

Over 60 licenses for opossum taking have been issued by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society for the present season, which opened on Saturday. Last year 51. licenses were issued.

"We hear a great deal about tho crowded syllabus at present, but I am convinced it is only half as heavy as it was in 1900." said Mr. J. Caughley, Director of Education, during his lecture at the Winter Show on Tuesday. "The intensity of study which was needed to meet the exacting requirements of examinations required just twice as much work then as it does now." '

There waß just a touch, of irony in the remarka of Dr. E. H. Wilkins, who delivered a lecture on the health of New Zealand last evening at the Winter Show. In his addiess he referred very largely to errors in dietary, and he had throughout to speak against the incessant clatter of cups and saucers, emanating from the refreshment room. Only a thin canvas soreen separated the lecture hall from the refreshment room, and more than once the lecturer had to apologise for the din and noisy interruption.

The Birkenhead Borough Council last evening carried a resolution protesting against the continuation of the railway connecting Queen Street with the Prinoe's Wharf, 'past the Ferry Buildings, without the assurance of the Harbour Board that the safety of the ferry passengers would be adequately safeguarded by the construction of a subway or overhead bridge, to be built before the railway was used. The motion was opposed by Messrs. E. C. Walton and A. Bartlett. A further resolution was earned requesting the City Council' to have tho taxi stand at the Ferry Buildings removed.

The objections lodged against the Valuation Department's assessments of Birkenhead properties, as being too low in many cases, were discussed by the Borough Council last evening. A suggestion was made that those concerned should meet the council's valuers with a view to effect ng compromises, but it was pointed out that time did not permit of this being done. Consequently all the objections by the council will be dealt with at the sitting of the Assessment Court on Monday.

Sixty-three dozen flounders were taken in one haul last week on the sand flats below Lower Portobello, says a Dunedin paper. This was not only a record catch for a single haul, but it was also"'at a place that, so far as is known, the fishermen had not hauled previously. It was a new hauling ground, and one that has since been regularly fished with decreasing results. Two seine boat crews combined to make the first haul, and their reason for breaking the new ground was because flounders had been caught there by means of set nets. It was not regarded as a suitable place for seining, but the very remunerative result of the first haul will probably induce fishermen to shoot their nets at other parts of the harbour hitherto regarded as unsuitable for seine fishing.