LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22524, 15 September 1936, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Beer and Prices A questioner at Mr. F. W. Doidge's political meeting last night said that since his arrival in New Zealand 11 months ago most commodities had increased in price. "Rent is up, bread, clothes and coal are up," he said. "The only thing that is not up is beer; why is that?" Amid laughter the candidate replied: "Well, one usually puts that down." Naval Ratings Return

Five naval ratings from H.M.S. Dunedin and H.M.S. Philomel, who have been taking a leading stoker's course in Australia, returned 'to Auckland by the Niagara from Sydney yesterday, after an absence of four months. They wore caps bearing the name H.M.S. Cerebus, which is the identification of the Flinders Naval Depot, to which batches of New Zealand ratings are sent at intervals for special training.

Exhibition Building "In the 15 years the Winter Exhibition has been held we have re'ceived £14,500," said Mr. J. A. C. Allum, president of the Auckland Manufacturers' Association, at a meeting of the association yesterday. Mr. Allum said he was confident that in the next three or four years a permanent exhibition building would be built either by private enterprise or to mark the centenary. He knew that a company was now being promoted. "Oheap Law is Bad Law"

"Cheap law is notoriously bad law," said Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when a defendant pleaded that a Government department had been interviewed regarding his responsibilities, but had been unable to give a definite answer. "If people are in doubt about their legal rights they should go to a lawyer," said Mr. Wilson. "They are foolish to shelter behind what they have been told by some unqualified person."

A Little Game "There is one good thing about opening school buildings: no one waits for the opening to be done," said the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Eraser, at the Parnell School yesterday, when told that the new infant department had already been in use for a week. "People are not so illogical as to keep out of a new school just because there is no Minister of the Crown about to say that it is open. To-day we are all playing a game, just as children do, and as the children have already opened this building themselves, all I mean to do is declare it open."

Carpenters' Dispute It was reported yesterday that shipwrights in Auckland had refused to work on several vessels, but Mr. H. Campbell, secretary to the Auckland Shipwrights' Union, advises that carpenters, not shipwrights, have been involved in a dispute. The carpenters complain that they are not paid the same wages for ship work as they would receive ashore and contend they should be paid at the same rate as shipwrights, even if they were only battening-down. It was said that carpenters include a number of shipwrights, who, if given shipwright work to do, receive higher wages.

Concern Over Stock Statements that it was cruel to force cattle to traverse the stock route at Manurewa were made at. the Otahuhu Magistrate's Court yesterday when farmers were giving evidence on the condition of stock. Several witnesses stated that dairy cows and fat stock were in a "disgraceful condition" after passing over the route, as they had to walk through mud that reached above their knees. "I am afraid you are getting as fussy about your stock as the motorists are about their cars," replied Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in pointing out that any road was liable to become cut up when used by cattle. Tramway Reconstruction

The laying of new foundations for the Auckland tramway system in Queen Street, between Customs Street and Victoria Street, probably will be commenced on October 5, according to a report by the manager, Mr. A. E. Ford, which was placed before the Transport Board at its meeting yesterday. Mr. Ford said the work was fairly extensive and, in carrying it out, there would, unfortunately, be a considerable amount of noise on five nights of the week. Operations would take place between midnight and 5.30 a.m., and would be pushed on as rapidly as possible in order to reduce to a minimum the incom r enienco created by both noise and obstruction to traffic. The report was adopted.

Goodwill lor a School Some objections raised against the location of the Parnell School on its present site were recalled by the chairman of the Auckland Education Board, Mr. T. U. Wells, at the opening of the new infant department yesterday. Some of the near by residents, he said, feared that the value of their properties would be depreciated, but the event had proved that a well-managed school was no detriment to a residential area, but an asset. He was sure that the residents would not now wish to see the school removed. The headmaster, Mr. J. W. McGechie, later mentioned that one gentleman who was stated to have taken round a petition against the proposal to build the school called on him a year after the opening and handed him a cheque for five guineas.

Value of Survey Marks Concern at the failure of the community to realise the importance of the ground marks put in by surveyors was expressed by many speakers at the annual meeting of the Surveyors' Institute. More than merely the corners of properties was involved in this casual indifference, it was said. Points Buch as the blocks and marks of the standard traverses of city streets, and the signals and points of the triangulation system of the Dominion, were also seriously disturbed, or, in the case of trig points, destroyed, pulled up, or rendered useless by plantations. The man in the street, or the settler, did not seem to understand that the safety of his title to landed property depended in a large measure on the integrity of such points which had been established at great cost, and with meticulous care, and were an essential factor in the re-establishment and verification of property corners and boundaries. Even the Government had in the past failed to provide the funds necessary for the upkeep and restoration of lost or damaged ppiuts, in spite of the representations of its technical advisers.