LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18170, 16 August 1922, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A collision between a motor-car and a motor cycle occurred on the Mount Eden Road, near the tram terminus, about 10 a.m. yesterdav. The , two vehicles, on approaching ine another, swerved the sarqe way. The cyclist was thrown headfirst through the wind-screen, and suffered injuries to the face and head. Alter receiving attention by a. doctor he was able to proceed to his home. The driver oil the motor-car was not hurt.

A new scale cf fees to be paid by friendly societies in the Auckland Hospital district will come into force at the end of this month. The charges are: Adults, hospital and Alexandra Home, 3s 6d a, day. instead of 2s 3d a day; children, 2s 3d a day under 16 years, inst.jad of Is l£d under 18 years. Charges have also been fixed for specified treatment.

The Maori "healer," Ratana, accompanied by his party, arrived in Auckland from Wanganui by the Main Trunk express yesterday morning. Ratana concluded a visit, to the South Island last week, returning to Wanganui last Friday.

" Sales have stopped, but values have not receded," stated Mr. V. G. Day, S.M., at a sitting of the Assessment Court yesterday, in reference to properties in Queen Street. Mr. H. J. C Coutts, of the Government Valuation Department, remarked that values in Queen Street to-day were probably higher than in any other street in Australia or New Zealand, a fact which he attributed to the remarkable and sustained volume of pedestrian traffic along the city's main artery. He further postulated that values were dependent on the number of people passing,a particular property, a number which was very large on most parts of Queen Street.

Some 70 applications for confirmation of sales and leases will come before the present sitting of the Maori Land Board in Auckland, which commenced yesterday morning, before Judge C. E. MacCormick. The business is largely of « routiue character and, it is expected, will be completed . to-morrow afternoon, or Friday morning,

Two petitions in bankruptcy were filed with the official assignee yesterday. One petition was that of Donald Connell, farmer, of Maunga.turotio, A meeting of creditors will be, held .at Maungaturoto on Aujrust 25. The other petition was that of Harold Cook, motor driver, of Rotorm,, formerly of Hamilton. A meeting of creditors will be held at Rotorua on August 25. .

A four days' refresher , for Anglican clergymen is in progress at St. John's College, Tamaki. The course includes a series of lectures, and is being attended by clergy from various parts of the Auckland diocese. There are altso visitors from Wellington and Christchurch. The course will conclude on Friday.

A cheque for £250, comprising subscriptions to the Russian Save the Children fund, received at the Herald Offics, was yesterday despatched to the New Zealand branch of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, in Wellington, that it may be forwarded to the headquarters of the fund in London. This sum makes a total of £1185 Is Id that has been forwarded from the Hebald Office.

The sale of war loan certificates by the post office from August 11, 1916, until October 30, 1920, when they were withdrawn, totalled £4,619,983. The earlier issues are now maturing, and from last August to March 31, the value of certificates redeemed totalled. £1,528,594. The 6ales of Post Office investment certificates, which were inaugurated on November 1, 1920, have realised £229,673.

It is stated that a deputation may wait upon Sir Joseph Ward shortly and ask him to contest the Kaiapoi seat at tha general election, says a Press Association message from Christchurch.

A burglar stole articles .valued at about £14 from Mr. F. White's tobacconist shop, Tutanekai Street, Rotorua, which was entered some time during Saturday night. The thief gained entrance to Mr. Hill's billiard room by some means and then climbed over the partition into Mr. White's shop.

"It is astonishing how few men, passing through the universities, take any leading part in the public life.of t? n Dominion," said Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., in the course of his remarks at the Town Hall in Wellington, on the occasion of the civic send-off to the Rhodes scholar, Mr. G. G. Aitkcn. "Recently I went through the register of Chrises College, where I was educated, and discovered that in 30 years only three men had bothered to enter public life and take up the burden of public duty in a Parliamentary capacity. I looked through t3ie other public institutions, and I found there were none. Oxford University, where our guest is going, is the cradle of English politics. There is the Oxford Debating Society and the Oxford | Union, which brought out sueh eminent men as Mr. F. E. Smith, now Lord High Chancellor, Mr. Asquath, Sir John Simon, and many hundreds of others. We find very little done here to fit a young man for public or civic life."

When a woman in a Christchutch Court averred that she could not tolerate kissing she waa asked if the statement were true. " Can you imagine me kissing a mouth like that?" she exolaimed, pointing at her brother, who was sitting in Court. Counsel pressed the question. " I'm not so fond of kissing men," said the lady in tones of disgust. "I couldn't go near a beard. Its horrid l" " There may bo reasonable reasons for refusing, even from a hvgienio point of view," dryly remarked Mr. Justice Adams, and counsel passed on to another point.

A number of the machine-guns which, captured from the Germans by the New Zealand Division, were subsequently distributed among the various local bodies and scholastic institutions in the Dominion, seem to be receiving treatment that is scarcely in keeping with the deeds of heroism that characterised their capture. A Dunedin pressman, whose work has taken him into the offices of some' of the local bodies within the past month or two, has on frequent occasions noticed the guns lying together in some out-of-the-way corner as if they were so many auxiliary coal scuttles. It does not reqiiire a great deal of imagination to picture them being uncovered from under a heap of useless miscellany in another 50 years when, perhaps, the find will be of more aignificance than the gun s evidently are to their present custodians.

A rumour that the appointments of the two commercial agents and the three members of the Advisory Board will be made from men who have completed or nearly completed their term of service and would otherwise be due to retire shortly on superannuation, is causing a good deal of anxious speculation in tho railway service at the present time, says a Dunedin paper. If this is tho case, it will not mean promotion for as many as it would have if five men with shorter terms of service were'." appointed to the positions, as additional vacancies would be created when the older employees retired on superannuation.

Amalgamation between the Borough ofl Wanganui and Gonville and Castlecliff is once more a fruitful subject for discussion, and advocates of the Greater Wanganui scheme are hopeful that before long the boundaries of the borough will extend from Upper Aramoho to the sea. A conference of members of the four local bodies concerned was held last week, when the proposal received a cordial reception. Two resolutions were passed, one informally by members of the Borough Council, approving of the conditions of amalgamation offered by the Mayor, equal partnership and pooling of all loans, and the other by delegates present, recommending the Town Boards to take a poll on the proposal next month*