NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10522, 25 February 1920, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

In connection with Bit Joseph Word s reception at Win ton last night (a lull report of which appears under another heading) a telegram states that Sir Joseph was met by the Mayor of Wiuton on his arrival and hy a band. Ha was given a warm -welcome. In the course of his reply he stated that he and .Lady Ward would be leaving for 'Australia shortly Tor a few months on invitations received two days after the election. At tho banquet given in honour of Sir Joseph and • Lady Ward -00 were present. .Many others wore unable to gain admission. Lady Ward was presented with a handsome fur rug. The proceedings were most enthusiastic and no opposition met the remarks. iMany apologies from leading Liberals were received, all strongly laudatory regarding Sir Joseph Ward’s services. An address was read to him which trar versed his work in connection with -th© constituency, country and Empire.

The departure of tho R.M.S. Moana from Wellington for San Francisco, with Homo and foreign mails, has been postponed‘till 10 o’clock this morning.

Tho R.M.S. Tofua, en route from San Francisco, left Papeete, on Sunday, and is duo at Wellington oil Tuesday or Wednesday next.

Tho next passenger steamer of the Union Company’s service fixed to leave Wellington for Sydney is the Manuka, which is timed to sail from here on March Bth.

The civil action Bryant v. Hobbs, which was to have been hoard in the Supreme Court yesterday, has been adjourned for a week, so that the parties may bo able to negotiate for a settlement. s

'Hie director of the Wellington Technical College (Mr J. H. Howell) suggested in his report to the Board oi Governors of the college last evening that in older- to compensate for the serious loss of time caused by the late opening of the college on account of the influenza precautions, the May holidays shorlld be shortened from three weeks to two weeks. Mr Howell suggested that the holidays should commence on Friday, May 14th. The recommendations were adopted. •

Two judgment summons cases were dealt with by Mr it. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. W. J. Neweombc and J. Smith Andrews were ordered to pay Smith and Smith, Ltd., the sum of £2 11s 2d, or in default threer days’ imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended so long as 5s per week is paid off the amount. T. Daniells was ordered to pay F. Doherty £4 5s by instalments of us per week, or in default five days’ imprisonment.

The Canterbury Automobile Association is agitating for the erection of bridges over the four rivers on the way to the Waiho Glaciers. These rivers, the Waitaha, Little Wanganui, -Waitangi, and Totara, rise very quickly, and at present, in had weather, hold up motorists for weeks at a time. When these rivers arc bridged this run of 125 miles from Greymouth will ho one of the prettiest, in the Dominion (says the Greymouth “Star”), and will attract tourists, not only from other parts of the country but from ell parts of the world.

A Danish carpenter, who is working at Devonport, was overjoyed when he read of the voting in connection with the handing back to Denmark of Schleswig-Holstein, which w)ae taken by thq Germans in 1864. He says he remembers as a boy the tyranny ot the German masters, who lorded it over everyone: The Danish people were not allowed to use their t'vu language, and the Germans got all the nest billo'-s in the province, whether they were fitted for them or t.ot. Ho is do’ighted at what has taken place, [ot it will ho a happy day for many of his fellow-countrymen, who have pover ceased to long for the day which has now so brightly dawned upon them.

The Ashburton police recently raided n dwelling in tho borough in quest." of liquor, with the result that -IS bottles of whisky were seized. One of tho raiding constables stated that the store was concealed by one of the cleverest pieces Wf architecture ho had ever seen in his experience. On the removal of a tea-caddy from the mantelpiece it 'was found that the polished wood behind had "been worn by continual handling. This (board was found to move, and subsequent experiments revealed a system of sliding or hinged doors behind which was a snug little apartment accommodating four dozen bottles of whisky, the straw packing stripped off, but still wrapped in tissue paper. A prosecution will follow.

Tho demand in Southland for timber for building purposes is quite beyond tho capacity of the mills. The I'eprcsentativo of ono of tho companies operating in tho district informed a “News’’ reporter that orders have to •be refused because it is impossible to execute them within a reasonable time. Tho other day, for instance, a contractor visited his firm’s office asking to be supplied with 43,000 feet of red pine which he wanted for a building near Dunedin, but as he could not promise to have the timber ready for a month or two no business was done. The fact that a builder comes down from Dunedin "for supplies shows that generally throughout Otago and Southland there is the same demand, and it is stated that it comes to a large extent from returned soldiers who have taken, up land and are naturally desirous of having houses and other necessary buildings erected without delay.

A person fortunate enough to “strike” Tattersall’a loses a goodly proportion of the prize through taxation, though the sweeps are banned by law (says the Melbourne “Age”). The question was asked at a lecture by Mr if. AV. Buckley to the Students' Society of the Incorporated institut © of Aocounants whether at common law the Federal Government could bo compelled to allow as deductions money spent in the purchase of sweep tickets that failed to win a prize. Air Buckley, who was formerly chief assessor in the Federal taxation office, said that if a man won £SOOO it would be taxed ns income, and the cost of the ticket that produced the income could bo claimed ns a deduction. If a ticket foiled to produce income its cost could not be deducted. During the course of his lecture on the Federal taxing machine, Mr Buckley showed that the graduated system of taxation operated harshly in some cases. In one instance a man’s income exceeded that of the , previous year by £7. His income having reached a certain xioak, ho paid a different rate in the pound, witli the result that for his increase of £7 he was taxed an additional £67-

The Union Co.’s steamer Raima berthed at the Railway wharf yesterday morning to discharge 2200 tons of coal from Newcastle.

A't a meeting of the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union yesterday a motion was passed protesting against the Government tending nu armed force to Fiji “obviously lor the purpose of intimidating 'the strikers.’,’

“There is no doubt that the French system of architectural training is by far superior to anything else in the world,” remarked .Mr C. E. Lawrence at the meeting of the Board of Governors of the Wellington Technical College last night. /

An Auckland telegram received last night states that tho late Mr James Young has bequeathed £11,252 to the borough of Mount Eden for use in the borough, of which he was a well-known resident. The sum of £3OOO is available for immediate use.

“I like New Zealand much better than Australia, and I like the people,” said Miss Muriel Starr, the well-known American actress to a “Times” reporter yesterday. '“New Zealand is much more progressive in many ways, and I like the general atmosphere much better.”

Tho annual conference of 'the New Zealand Furniture and Furnishing Trade Union of Employers will to opened in Wellington at 10 a.m. to-day. In the evening this delegates will he enbentainiedl at Dustin’s Moms, Cuba street, and to-morrow afternoon they will be taken for a motor trip.

Napier was tho hottest district in New Zealand yesterday, the thermometer recording 73. Auckland (73), Russell, Gisborne, Wanganui, and Kaikoura (71) enjoyed warm weather, while Capo Maria Van Diemen, Tauranga, and Capo Foulwind (70), and Wellington and Greymouth (68)) wero next. The lowest reading was 60, at The Nuggets.

At tho annual meeting.of the Wellington District Law Society, the following motion was passed: “'That this meeting endorses the views expressed ■by the president of the Auckland Law Society as to the inadequacy of the salaries paid to judges of the Supreme Court, and is also of opinion that the salaries paid to magistrates should be increased; and that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Justice? and the Attorney-General.'’

Mr J. W. Collins, secretary of the •Board of Trade, which; is sitting in Christchurch, has been informed that 2000 pairs of standardised boots have been placed on the market in Wellington. They are boys’, youths’ and men’s boots, made under a license issued by the board in October last to Messrs C. J Ward and Co., a Wellington firm. The prices range from 29s to 33s for men’s boots and up fo 18s 0d for youths’ boots The quality is guaranteed by the board. The leather was manufactured at the Woolston Tanneries.

Details are now officially announced concerning the awarding of the D.C.M. to Sergeant I. G. Short, of Opunake. The particulars arc as follow ; 30650 L.-Sergeant I. G. Short, Wellington Regiment, east of Lo Quesnoy, on November 4 th, 1918, early in the attack, when in support, led a section, and mopped up an enemy ma-chine-gun that had been passed oyer, killing several of the team and taking the remainder prisoner. Later, with a few men, ho outflanked and ’took prisoner a party of the enemy who were taking up a firing position. After reaching the final .objective ho went forward to reconnoitre, and was severely wounded by . a strong party of the enemy after he hhd killed one of them. He set a splendid example to those with him.

In. the course of a sermon at St. Paul’s Church, Devonport, on Sunday "the Bov. George Bnud said the native race was not dying out, and that there were now about 50,000 Maoris in the Dominion, all being in the North Island with tho exception of about 8000 who lived in the South Island. A decade or so ago there was a great cry to try am Europeanise the -Maori, and make him the same, as tho pakoha, but that phase of civilising the Maori had passed. Not long ago it was freely stated, added the, preacher,, that it was time to knock off training missionaries to speak tho Maori language, but there was more need than ever for such work, as the native language was going to live, and it was impossible to get the aboriginal mind quite free from all the, customs and traditions of many centuries of training. Some of 1 the native customs wore excellent, and it was only right that what was good in native character should be allowed to remain and be saved to the country which had bred such a noble race.