LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19197, 10 December 1925, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

When operating an ice crasher yesterday Arthur Leslie Green, aged 19, employed by Sanford, Limited, was severely bruised on the right side through his coat becoming caught in part of thn machine. He was admitted to the Auckland Hospital , and his condition is not considered serious. Another patient admitted to the hospital yesterday was Mr. Harold Thompson Joll, a farm employee, aged 23, who was suffering from injuries to the right eye. Ho was sewing up a bale of wool at Pukehuia, near Whangarci, on Tuesday, when the thread broke, and the needle flew up, striking him in the eye. His injury is not believed to bo serious.

The yarding of cattle at the Westfield fat. stock sale yesterday was slightly smaller than in the previous week. There was a keen demand, and a further advance took place in the price of prime, medium and light-weight ox beef. Extra choice ox brought up to £1 16s per 1001b., and prime young cow and heifer beef, £1 10s to £1 13s. There was a heavy yarding of sheep and the demand remained steady at last week's rates. Heavy prime wethers realised from £1 10s to £1 12s 9d, and extra heavy prime lambs, £1 10s to £1 12s. Bidding for pigs was steady, but there was no improvement in prices. Choppers made £2 12s 6d to £4, heavy baconers £3 18s to £4 4s, and heavy porkers £2 ,19s to £3 4s. The volunteer seamen who were employed on the federal Line steamer Devon while she was loading on the coast have been replaced by 35 strikers, most of whom left the Devon at this port. She is to be despatched for London to-day. The idle British seamen at Auckland will be increased on Friday by 38 members of the crew of the Athenic. They are to be released that clay after serving two months' hard labour for refusing duty. The Waimana, which left Auckland on October 20 for New York, Boston and England, arrived at Liverpool on Monday. Fifty of her crew went on strike at Auckland and were sent to gaol. They were replaced here by volunteer seamen.

An ambitious scheme for the erection of a large garage to house 450 automobiles and afford service and repair facilities was submitted to the council of the Auckland Automobile Association last evening by a local business man. The site suggested is in Victoria Street, between the intersection of High and Kitchener Streets. It was estimated that the proposition would cost £IOO,OOO. The building proposed would consist of eight storeys, the construction to be on the ramp system, which has been so widely used in America for garages. Under this plan the sections on each floor are slightly inclined and arranged to afford access to each landing by driving straight up from the street. A special committee was set up to investigate the scheme.

" The practice among cyclists of trailing behind vehicles is becoming too common," said Mr. G. R. Hogan, chief traffic- inspector, in the Police Court yesterday when three youths were charged with breaking the by-law prohibiting cyclists holding on to vehicles. Mr. Hogan said great danger was attached to the practice, and this was illustrated only a few days previously when a boy lost his life through being thrown from his cycle behind a lorry at Devonport. The magistrate. Mr. Povnton, said he regarded the matter seriously. In the present cases fines of 10s, with costs, would be imposed, but further offenders would be dealt with rigorously.

" Some of these committees are showing signs of slackness," remarked Mr. Justice Frazer in the Arbitration Courtyesterday, when it. was reported that three members had resigned from an apprenticeship committee. "If the committees will not function, the Act will not function. Some are doing excellent work, but some are quarrelling and bickering all the time and they are not doing any good to the boys, the trade, the Court, or anyone else."

A land agent giving evidence in the Hamilton Supreme Court on Tuesday stated that he often sold property without the written authority of the vendor. When he did get authorities, he never kept them after the deal was completed. He used a card system, and the cards were destroyed when the properties were sold. Mr. Justice Herdman remarked that the practice was an extraordinary one. Land agents were frequently called on to produce documents in disputed transactions. A new Anglican Church is to be erected at To Aroha. Mr. Hugh Ross, of Waihou, has bought the old edifice for re-erection at Waihou for the free use of any denomination. To secure the correct use of the vocal organs, purity of speech, clear articulation. and purity of vowel sounds is the object of a special report on speech training now being issued by the Education Department.. In many infant departments this is already done, but in few schools is the work continued beyond the preparatory course. The report emphasises the desirability of giving further attention to such training in the middle and higher divisions of the school and proceeds to set out a syllabus of work for the guidance of teachers. The Minister. Sir James Parr, gives the report his benediction, expressing the hope that the result will be "the purity of our glorious English tongue in the mouths of our young people." One fault found with the boys of the present generation was that they were allowed too much pocket money, said Mr. W. Eraser, principal of the Hamilton Technical School, at a "father and son" banquet in that town. He considered that the fathers were to blame. In his experience as a schoolmaster ho found some boys in possession of as much as 10s at a time. He believed in allowing boys a reasonable sum each week, but he considered it a mistake to give them too much. One effect of the practice was that boys became reckless regarding their expenditure. The Bruce County Council has made an emphatic protest against the use and working of motor-lorries in the county on Sundays. A councillor, at a recent meeting, said that it had become the practice for lorries to cart wool and other merchandise all day Sunday, and he considered that, apart from being a desecration of the Sabbath, this traffic tended to "cut in" on the railways. Another councillor remarked that he could not understand why the drivers of these lorries were not penalised. "Why," he asked, "should Chinese be fined for working in their gardens on a Sunday, and these men be allowed to work in full view of the public and have nothing done to -them 1"