NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11249, 29 June 1922, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

During the year 1921 10 travelling libraries were m operation throughout Canterbury. It is estimated that over 1200 volumes were sent out to the country districts, and that about 250 readers had access to tile 'boxes.

Plans for the new Patea post office are being prepared. The Hon. J. G. Coates has sent the following telegram to Mr E. Dixon, M.P.: “Re Patea post office. —Plans and' specifications are being prepared, and will be placed before Cabinet shortly, and hope to obtain necessary authority for calling tenders.-”

The total pay-out by the Tarurutangi Dairy Company (Taranaki) for the past season amounts to just a fraction under Is 7d per lb butter-fat, and the opinion was expressed in the annual report which was read) at the meeting of the company that the amount would exceed that of 'any other butter company in the Dominion.

Invercargill is remarkably free of infectious diseases at present and it is several weeks now since any fresh cases have been brought under the notice of the local health inspector (Mr R. Bleakley). In conversation with a “Times” reporter, Mr Bleakley mentioned that in all his experience 'he had never known of a winter so free from infectious disease as the present one had been.

The new telephone directory for Wellington and suburban telephone exchanges will 'be issued for use on Friday, 30th instant. With this issue an 'additional four hundred numbers are being converted from manual working -to automatic. Excepting party lines the whole of Kel-bum, Northland, Karori and Khandallah areas have been made “automatic.” Party line subscribers will still have to exercise some patience, as owing to non-arrival of the special telephones they must remain manual working for the present.

Plenty of good wheat, stack-threshed and with the sweat out of it, as coming to the Otago mills from Canterbury and North Otago, and a proportion of the south-grown wheat is also of high quality, particularly the output of Oentral Otago. Prices of both wheat and flour are stable dn Dunedin, and though it ib said that some cutting as to flour lias been going on by southern millers in regard to their trade with the North Island, the market as a whole ds quite steady, the cutting having ceased before it grew to large proportions.

A threatened shortage of water in several of the outlying districts at Auckland has been averted by the rains during the week-end. In the Mount Albert, Mount Roakill, Bapatoetoe and other suburban areas, the residents, not anticipating that the recent fine weather would last for such a long period, had grown careless of their supplies, and the consumption went on without any regard for the future. In many oases, tanks and other reservoirs were becoming alarmingly low, and the change in the weather, resulting in a fairly good downpour, saved the situation.

Delegatee from the eight squadrons of the Legion of Frontiersmen in the North Island are attending the legion’s annual conference, which opened at Auckland on Tuesday. The last occasion on which the conference met dn Auckland was in 1915. In view of the policy of retrenchment having reduced the defence foroes of New Zealand to a skeleton formation, one of the subjeota before the conference will be a proposal to establish a large force of trained men, affiliated with the legion and fledged to servioe in the event of war. reposals for tihe formation pf rifle regiments and machine-gun sections attached to the larger centres will . be made, with the view of creating a New Zealand legion of trained and aeasoned men whose servioe will he voluntary, and be given at no cost to the State.

It is said in Dunedin that if the Auckland proposals as to altering the plans and specifications of the Sanders Cup are adopted it will mean that all t'he boats except two that competed at Dunedin Inst February will l;e ineligible for further contests, the Heather being one of the boats so disqualified. The Otago Yacht and Motor Boat Association is asking the representatives of other provinces what they think of the Auckland proposals, and this question may raise some discussion, for some, at any rate, think that Aackland has taken rather much upon itself. No doubt, if the Heather is ruled out, another dinghy wall be built to take her place; but Otago people like the Heather, and no doubt other provinces like their own boats, and would prefer to see them tested again. This sentiment cannot be ignored, nor can it l>e overlooked that the cost of bringing a new fleet into being would amount to about £IOOO.

A branch of the Dairy Farmers’ Union has been formed at Woodville.

It has been decided that the presentation to Constable Holmes, of Lower Hutt, will take place at the Borough Council Chamber® on July 6tli.

Travellers to and from Wellington and Wairarapa report that enow fell at the Summit during the recent southerly cold snap.

Next year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Canterbury College. The Board of Governors is taking steps to celebrate the anniversary in a suitable manner.

No reply has 60 far been received from the Minister concerning a request from the Masterton Chamber of Commerce that he should speed up the work on the Rimutalia deviation*

The building trade at Tauranga is reported to be very brisk just now. The town is going ahead, and additional business premises are in course ol erection.

The frost experienced in Otaki and district on Wednesday morning was the heaviest this winter. Pipes were frozen, while ioe was Noticeable in pools on the roadside. The ranges are also well covered with snow.

Mrs O. B. Honey field, a resident of Sydney, who formerly resided at New Plymouth, has expressed a wish to present New Plymouth with a tram shelter. The gift has been gratefully accepted by the council.

The Court of Arbitration will sit in Christchurch on Tuesday, July 4th, for tile purpose of hearing industrial disputes’ application for exemption from the reduction of bonus, and applications for variation of the general order reducing the bonus.

Mr Percy Kime, in a letter to Mr H. Nicolson, secretary to the OtakiTararua Mountaineering Club, offers £SO towards the erection of a further hut on the Tararua track. The matter will reoeivo consideration at the next meeting of the club.

The fifth annual festival of the Wellington Competitions Society will commence at the Town Hall on August 22nd. Intending competitors are notified that all entries will close on Tuesday next, July 4th, at the secretary’s office, 40, Willis street, at 5 p.m.

A member of the telephone construction gang, working on the renewal of the line from Wanganui to Turakina, met with a severe accident through the collapse of a pole or ladder. He Was removed to the hospital suffering from a compound fracture of the leg.

Indications of the amount of unemployment in the Manawatu district are disclosed in the fact that the Mayor (Mr J. A. Nash, M.P.) has received numerous applications for employment in the work that will be entailed in the creation of the new gasworks and electric power station, aa soon as sites are decided on.

At last nigjht’s meeting of the Victoria Bowling Club, the president (Councillor O. J. B. Norwood) referred to the death of two of the club’s members, Messrs Jaimes Kellow and John Kershaw, whom to know, he said, was to love. The dub would miss them very muoh, he continued, and in comCaoe with his request, all the memstood for a moment as a token of the dub's respect for them.

Bro. A. Rippon, of Masterton, proposing the toast of “Our Sisters’’ at the social of the Loyal Dannevirke Lodge, humorously referred to the introduction of lady members into the order. “Now you members of the Dannovirke lodge, be careful,” he said, “for it is written in the Book, God made man and rested.’ After that, ‘God made woman,’ but neither God nor man has rested ever since.”

A correspondent writes to the Southland “News” as follows: —“The peculiar psychology of some of the freezing works strikers at Ocean Beach is that they will not work at their own trade, but nevertheless have been endeavouring to take the bread and butter out of the mouths of their co-unioniste, the Bluff watereiders, by obtaining work an wharf-lumpers. So far they have not succeeded, but it would be ironic if they were employed to load frozen mutton.”

With the exception of a small work at Lumsden at which nine men from Gore have been placed the Government has not vet commenced any relief works in Southland this winter (states the Southland “Times”). Inquiry at the local office of the Public Works Department yesterday elicited the information that there was a steady flow of applicants for works and the department would not experience diffi. culty in finding plenty of labour if relief works were started.

Discussion on the proposal to increase the hospital fees at a meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board elicited some frank remarks. Beference bad been made by several speakers, which suggested that the farmers were in a much better position than the townsmen, and that the country members of the board never work for wages. The chairman: “I married on pne pound a week.” Another member: “I married on less”;, while a third interjected i “We did well on it, too.” Sirs Comyns: “I am glad I was not married in those days, for I couldn’t live on it.”

The recent resolution passed at New Plymouth by the civil servants was forwarded to the New Plymouth Borough Council at a meeting by Mr W. J. Ewart, who wrote: “The meeting decided to appeal for public support, and would be glad if the matter were brought before the council. It is advisable, we think,” the letter continued, “to get an expression of opinion. by the local bodies as an indication as to the attitude of the public, and I trust your council will give the matter serious consideration.” The opinion was expressed by the Mayor that this was not a matter for the council, and councillors agreed.

“And now I want to discuss my owp position with you,” said Mr S. G. Smith, M.P., an an address at New Plymouth. He affirmed that next to a good Government the most important thing was a good Opposition. The Opposition to-day numbered 32, and some, outside of the Labour Party, had discussed the question of whether these various sections of the Opposition cou'nl work with a little more cohesion in order to offer constructive criticism to the Government. The speaker had been asked to join the United Liberal-Labour Party, but had made it quite clear that he would attach himself to no party without first consulting the people who had sent him to Parliament, lie proposed to give general support to the United Liberal-Labour Party, for be believed they would work for the. good of the country • but he was not going to be a party hack, a mere voting machine, as some of the Government’s negative members were, in order to serve the ambitions of some party leaden-. He would not join the Labour Party, tlie so-called “Reds,” for he had no confidence in their leaders,