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Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 40

Private advice by wireless has been received in Dunedin that the Athenio is due in Wellington on Friday. The Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department advises that during the present interruption to the Pacifio cable'the Eastern route will be heavily taxed, and messages will bo subjected to serious delay. Cable users are requested to confine their messages to urgent rates. This does*not refer to traffic to Australia. The Customs returns for Dimedin for last month were £41,834 5s 3d, the beer duty amounting- to £9376 5s lid. The figures for January last were: Customs, £63,289 10* sd; beer duty, £8203 Bs. In February, ISI9, the Customs returns totalled £39,761 6s 2d, and the. beer duty 829 S 16s 2d. It •will thus be seen that there was a falling off in the general Customs figures in February as compared with the January figures,, amounting to £21,455 5s 2d, but there ?vus an increase in the total beer duty paid in February as against the January figures of £1167 17s lid. The Customs returns for last month, however, were in excess of those in February, 1919, by £2072 19s Id, but the beer duty paid during the latter month was £IOBO 9s 9d more than for'the month just ended. The vital statistics for Dunedin for the past month were: Birlhs, 116 j deaths, 65; marriages, 63. For the corresponding period .Tart year 'he figures were: Births, 117; deaths, 64; marriages, 34. It will be remembered that following on several long passages across tho Strait, which the company said were due to inferior coal, the ferry steamer Maori was held up at Wellington, the firemen refusing to sail owing to' the state of the boilers. As the vessel had undergone her anmial overhaul not many weeks previously, the Union Company ofieials" held that the boilers were fit for work, and, what is •more, Government inspectors certified to the same effect. The steamer was ultimately to Port Chalmers for repairs, and it is now said —but not authoritatively—that such extensive repairs" are to be effeoted that it will be two or three months before she will be ready to resume her running. The question of the valuation and rating of houses acquired under The Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act is exercising the minds at the present time of a number of the. returned soldiers in the city and suburban districts. A typical case may be said to be that of a house of which the price has advanoed from £550 before the war to £7OO at the time of its latest sale and upon »vhich the valuation for rating purposes has been correspondingly raised. There are, probably, a considerable number of cases of this kind is each of the l©rgea: towns, and instances are said to be not unknown of soldiers' houses being valued for rating purposes at figures higher than those at which adjoining- houses of a ijike class, that have not been in the market, are valued. The suggestion has been made that tho legislation governing the rating of properties should bo so amended as to admit of houses acquired by soldiers being valued at pre-war rates for a period not exceeding five years. The Winton Munioipal Band, which arrived in Dunedin on Saturday, hold the distinction of being the only country town &and competing at the contest. The difficulty of maintaining a band of any size in such a small centre is obvious, and the Winton Band with its 16 flayers—the smallest number of any band competing —is to be commer-ded for its pluck. The members hold no exaggerated ideas of their efficiency and are not carried away by visions of victory over orack b&nds from larger centres, but they appreciate the eduoativo value of participation, and intend to parry through the whole programme, including the Quickstep Competition. In common with other visiting bandsmen the members A this band apprecip+ed the compliment paid by tho turning out of tho Band of the Fourth Regiment t*» welcome them on arrival.

The hydro-e'ectrio meeting at floacburg-h lost Thursday evening led to some v<*ry lifcraight speaking on the part of local Residents, who stated that they weve sick ind liired of hearing city people speak of

what they were going to do for the district. Promises had been made in the past that had never been carried into effect. A wave of enthusiasm was responsible for a spasmodic effort now and again that never resulted in any practical benefit to the district, and the result was that Roxburgh and tho surrounding country was being left behind, while other district* were being pushed ahead. They had come to the conclusion that if their district was to go ahead it had to be done by the people themselves, and that if they wanted any of tho modern conveniences of life they had to provide them themselves. For that reason, therefore, they had taken up the question of electrical energy generated from their own scheme with an earnestness that was bound to carry it through, for, as one speaker put it, they wanted to enjoy some of the" modern advantages of life before they died. Captain Euan Dickson was kept busy with his flying machine at Mosgiel on Saturday afternoon, when 30 passengers made ascents. Owing to the heavy mist in the forenoon, flying was hampered, but about midday, when the mist cleared off somewhat, the machine flew over the city, but was not visible, although it could be heard overhead. Captain Dickson left for Gore at 7 a.m on Sunday, and expects to return to Dunedin by next Sunday or Monday, when he will complete his local programme.

The Roxburgh people, in order to provide finance for immediate expenditure on their electrical scheme, have arranged with the bank for an advance on the security of a joint and several guarantee. At the meeting there on Thursday evening one local speaker suggested that evidence of tho whole-hearted support of the visiting members of the. Hydro-Electric Committee from Dunedin in the local scheme would be their signing of this document. The suggestion (says our correspondent) was not availed of.

"Under the new agreements we have given seamen and stewards benefits which they receive nowhere else in the world," said the Union Company's representative during the hearing of tho dispute in the Arbitration Court at Christchurch yesterday, reported by Press Association. "Under the present law, when a seaman is shipwrecked, his wages are stopped. Now the company hag agreed to pay the wages of the shipwrecked seaman until he arrives back. It is tho same with medical benefits. Under the existing law, where a seaman falls ill, his wages are stopped. Now he will receive full wages and benefits." Sunday waa widely observed here as the day of Universal Prayer for Students, and fitting reference to the day was made in many pulpits. After tho evening services over 100 students and friends of the Student Movement attended an intercessory meeting in the First Church Hall, under the auspices of the Otago Auxiliary of tho Movement. The Rev. G. H. Balfour presided, and a brief address was given by Professor It. Q. Maointyre, of Sydney University. The devotions of the meeting were led by Professor R. E. Davies and the Rev. Dr Cameron, Chancellor of Otago University.

At Roxburgh on Thursday evening Mr L. Birks, Government electrical engineer, gave some interesting figures of the generating cost of electricity per horse-power. Hora Hora Falls, the cheapest in New Zealand, cost £27 per horse-power; Lake Coleridge cost £45, and was now paying handsomely. On the prices supplied by a leading electrical firm in New Zealand the Roxburgh scheme, small though it may be, would cost £23 per h.p. Through passengers from the north by the Wahine on Friday night and the first express from Christohurch on Saturday had an unpleasant experience through their difficulty in getting food. The steamer arrrived at Lyttelton, after an uncomfortable crossing, before the hour at which breakfast was served on board, and the passengers rwoceeded without- delay by train to Christchurch, where the express, which had been held back for them, was awaiting them, so that they had no time to refresh the inner man at the' railway station.* In these circumstances, the only opportunity they had of obtaining food or drink before their arrival at Oamaru was at the refreshment counter at Ashburton. As a matter of fact, the express was so greatly crowded with passengers and there was suoh a surging rush for the refreshment rooms at both Ashburton and Oamaru that in a great many cases it was a practical impossibility to obtain any food at all until Dunedin was reached.