AUCKLAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) December 27.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 36

AUCKLAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) December 27.

Auckland's latest sensation was the charge of manslaughter brought against Dr J. C. Collins, of the Auckland Hospital, as the outcome of the Royal Commission which inquired into the management of the hospital. At the preliminary hearing before the magistrate, Dr Collins had the best counsel available, and fought hard for a dismissal of the case, but the magistrate decided to send it for trial to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court does not sit till February, so that, at the present stage of the case, comment would be out of place. Meantime, Dr Collins has been granted leave of absence from the hospital covering the period between the" conclusion of .the Royal Commission and the trial, six or seven weeks hence. An interesting sidelight on the system on which Government grants are distributed is provided by the publication of correspondence between Mr F. Mander, M.H.R. for Marsden, and the Premier. Mr Mander, who happens to be an Opposition member, had tried hard^ to get a grant for a certain bridge in his district. He-4ailed 'to get it, but the other day the secretary of the Liberal and Labour Federation in the | electorate spread the news that £150 had been granted for. the- work. Naturally, the I teeth of the member lor the district got j on edge, and he' wired to' the Premier a | protest, in which he stated that theMgnoring of the member. for the district and granting votes through the Liberal and' Labour ' Federation might be appreciated' "by" Scallywags, but not by / men, and ' he believed there were more men. than scallywags in thedistrict. ' This brought -a - characteristicreply from the Premier, in which' he bewailed Mr Mander's .".disrespectful language," anS .pleaded ignorance of' the vote supposed to have been granted through the all-powerful federation. Mr Mander j . responded, witli a, wire, s in- which' lie sug,- i gested' that if the Premier did not know about the grant, he ought, as Colonial Treasurer, to know as much about it as anybody. Then came another wire from Mr Seddon in best style, one sentence being an endeavour to justify the grant- . ing of the money through the "Lib-Labs," another suggesting "that the money had not been granted, and yet another in the form > of a query as to who said the money had been granted. That the speretary of the' Liberal and Labour Federation said so was in effect Mr Manders reply, which drew from Mr Seddon more telegrams saying this secretary of the Liberal and Labour Federation denied having made tflSk. statement, and that anyhow the propo-ed expenditure had not been submitted to Cabinet, and without the sanction o # f Cabinet the money could not be spent. "Again Mr Mander returned to the charge, and gave time and place where the secretary of the Liberal and Labour Federation had made the statement, and stated that he refused to act as a doormat for the Liberal and Labour Federation or anybody else. Once more the Premier replied, this time stating that the matter of the road grant had been indefinitely, hung up, and Mr M«n*der closed the correspondence with a request for th© money through the proper channel and the compli-. nients of the season. There .has been quite a boom in Waiotahi mining shares . within the past fortnight. In the eraly,part of ■ December shares in .the | Waiotahi mime were lagging at a value of | 8s to &3, but a. r find of rich quartz was made, and within 10 days shares rose rapidly till they reached £10, at which price there were sales just before the share market closed for the holidays. The find is understood ' to be a rich one, but perhaps would not have justified the big rise mentioned but for the special circumstances of a comparatively small capital a.nd a limited number of shares j available for transfer. When the find was made there were only 4-7 shareholders in the mine, holding between them 6000 shares, which had been paid up to £2 10s and had a liability of 10s each. A good number of the shareholders were tfc) original owners, j whose interest in the Waiotahi was more j as a permanent^ investment than as a temporary speculation, and as a consequence tho number of shares changing hands has Leon limited. The Waiotahi has been a fa'rly consistent dividend-payer, and has already been a c;ood investment for its shareholders. There aa-e difuculties in getting) at the rich quartz owing to bad ventilation, but in less than a fortnight tro to holiday time gold to the value of £1667" was won. The unveiling of the Sir George Grey eiat-ue, though carried out in wretched j weather, was a successful ceremony. His Excpllency the Governor made his first really public appearance, in Auckland as a speaker, ard without exception he carried off the j ! oratorical honours of the day. What oueht i to hav-e been an interesting part of the j coicmonv was omitted — namely." Sir Robert Stout's letter of apology containing an appreciative reference to Sir George Grey's work for New Zealand and the Empire. The omission was evidently intentional, because Sir Robert Stout's letter opened with an explanation that his absence from the . ceremony was entirely duo to the degradation of the office of Chief Justice through his b(*in» deprived of the precedence he forlr.erly held at all social functions on the advice of the Government Apparently the precedence question was rather rorn'e than I

I the Statue Committee was inclined to tackle, and it preferred to sail in smooth water, and handed Sir Robert Stout's letter tv the press for the public to worry over after the unveiling ceremony. The Auckland Harbour Board has decided to go on with another portion of the harbour improvement scheme — namely, the erection, of the new Queen street wharf. The resolution, however, was only carried by five votes to four, and an agitation is now proceeding in the Borough of Devonport against this portion of the scheme on the ground that it will lengthen the run of the passenger ferry boats between Auckland and Devoni port, and endanger the lives of the pasi eenigers. The Auckland ITniversitv College Council is still in a fighting mood over its request fo-T the establishment of a School of Mir.es <tt the college. The Premier was expected! i in Auckland last week, and a deputation wag i appointed to interview him on the subject, but Mr Seddon was otherwise engaged, and the interview aid not come off. Meantime, however, the College Council has decided to make a beginning in the teaching of the subjects necessary for the first two years* 1 ' course for a degree in mining science. This it is hoped, can be done with the present teaching staff, and the agitation for the i Mining School will be renewed when opportunity offers. An effort is also being made to arrange a course of leotures on commercial science at the college, with a View to the ultimate establishment of a chair of commerce. Several attempts have been made to establish a glass industry in Auckland. A company formed to make bottles by machinery a year or two ago lost money in its enterprise, and more recently an attempt to produce bottles by the blowing process" met with a similar fate owing to foreign competition. To start the industry j the company brought a number of expert i glass-blowers out from England, and when, the collapse came the men were left stranded in Auckland. The hat went round, and just on £100 . was collected, part of which paid the pasages of the men to England, and the remainder was sent to relieve their wives and families till their return. A valuable addition has just been made to the exhibits in the Auckalnd Museum in the shape of a case of stuffed lions. This was purchased out of a bequest left by Mr E. A. JVlackechnie, who was a staunch. , friend of the museum duriiw? his lifetime. ! The bequest amoimted to £500, ancj it ia expected that 'it will purchase other three or four groups of large animals — such as tigers, "leopards, etc The lions form a striking addition to the museum, which in the pasb has suffered somewhat from the absence of large conspicuous specimens to attract tie eye. The result of another bequest of Mr Mackechnie's will soon be in evidence before the public in the shape of the art gallery to be erected opposite the Municipal Chambers. A tender for the erection of th© building at £2417 has just been accepted, and the work will be started when the holidays are over. • The motor . 'bus is making rapid strides ,in Auckland as a xneSifs ' of public conveyance. The latest enterprise is a service between - Devonport and' Lake Takap'una,- - run ,by a syndicate which. . has- 'had. Jh& courage to put .'threa 'busses on the "roadl . and place' orders for other two. The -'busses . have been running for a fortnieht, and the owners -nave so far 'done splendid busi- . =ness. A proposal to increase the accommodation at the Sailors' "Home in Auckland has given rise- to great difference of opinion, among those ip>«ponsible for the management of the Home. A majority of the council favour the - extension,, and have elaborated a scheme to carry out their ideas, but a feeling has. grown up that the Home is to some tx'tent developing into a cheap boarding-house and when the proposal came before a meeting of subscribers it was decided by 44- votes to 33 to shehre the scheme for six months. The majority was not very decisive and the council a. few days after, the subscribers' meeting peeided to have the matter dealt with over again, and in consequence there will be another meeting of subscribers early in the. year, when an effort will be made to rescind the previous resolutioriv and adont a proposal for the immediate extension of the buildings.

Tucker, of Melbourne, made in the course of what he termed a. " practical talk" to a numerous audience which attended the annual distribution of prizes to successful pupils of the Church of England Girls' Grammar School, at South Yarra a fcwi evenings ago. "1-sa.y^. it quite -added the professor when' the ' assemblage broke^ oiit into laughter ; "we have a series of examinations and re-examinations, and the .end of it all is that the average pupil makes it his purpose not to attain to an education so much as to pass examinations. You might say to the university," he went oil, as if in fear that -he had placed in the hands of his hearers a weapon which might be turned upon that institution, " * What do you mean?' '' There was an explanation required, and it was a simple one, he proceeded- If every secondary or higher school in Victoria were properly manned or " wommaned" with a_ staff of teachers who understood their business thoroughly there might be no necessity for all the series of examinations. But it appeared that all schools were not so equipped, and consequently it would not be wise to sweep away tbe examinations, because there was no guarantee at present that the teachers in. every school were competent to carry on. their work. He had made up his mind, he remarked in conclusion, not to appear in the future upon the platform of any school with which he had not a personal acquaintance. The educative effect that the motor car is having on drivers of vehicles and small animals that t>lay on the road is described by Mr A. B. Filson Young in " The Complete Motorist (Methuen). In regard to cocks and dogs, he writes: — "I know a rooster on the Heathfield road who, bufc that he is honest, might be made- constable over a trap. He can judge to a fraction the speed of every motor that comes his j way, and since he has no tail to speak of he takes chances that bring the heart into your mouth. But he survives, and I do not doubt will bo the sire of a line of double-breasted, facing-both-ways poultry. A.nd there is a dog, who was once bold against the bare legs of children and skirts of nurses — the sort of ravening hound of whom his owner says : ' It's only his play ; he won't hurt you unless you show you're afraid of him.' Last year my car caught him on the shoulder and hoisted him nearly as high as Sirius. He came down again quite well, thank you, but so changed — and so vastly for the better ! He, too, will j propagate polite puppies^"