NEWS IN BRIEF.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 41, 25 March 1914, Page 10

NEWS IN BRIEF.

According to the official report issued at 9 a.m. to-day, all the rivers of ; the district are clear. ../■ The Coronation Hospital for Consumptives is now practically completed. It 'will be formally opened on June 3. Applications are invited for a ranger :for the Public Trust Office. The position carries a salary of £3OO per annum. The Lyttelton Marine Band will play A programme of music on the rotunda at Lyttelton to-morrow evening, commence ing at 8 o'clock. During February 63 new patients attended the dental department of the Christchurch Hospital, and there were 287 attendances. In a total of 237 operations, 50 were performed under anaesthetics. There were 55 patients in the Cashmere Hills Sanatorium on February 28. At the tuberculosis dispensary there were--130 attendances, and 23 persons called for information. The nurse paid 91 visits to patients in their own homes. The Christchurch Tramways Board forwarded to last night's meeting of the Sumner Borough Council a deed of arbitration with reference to the apportionment of cost of making a causeway past the Sumner cliffs. The Council considered the communication in .committee. The sixth annual dinner of the Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Public Service Association will be held on April 4. The Hon. A. L. Herdman, Minister of Justice, has promised to be present, and will speak on matters affecting the Service, fy is expected that the Civil Service Commissioners will also be present. On the 28th January last there died in the Townland of Teaguy, County Armagh, Ireland, Jane Atkins, on, agetl 105. Jane, who kept house for her youngest boy Tom, was hale and hearty, and did her own housework until within a short time of her death. Tom, who is bordering on 70, promised his mother that he would keep single while she lived, and has kept his word. The old lady brought up her family and lived in the same house over eighty years, and although she lived till 105, she had never seen the sea.

Eeporting to the North Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board this morning, the Hospital Committee stated that on the representation of the chairman of the Management Committee of the dental department the purchase of an apparatus for giving treatment under prolonged gas had been authorised. The cost will be about £l7. The Education Board has been asked to allow school children to attend for dental treatment during sehool hours without regarding such attendance as absence from school.

The t "following programme will be played, by ; Berry 's Private Band on the Victoria Square Rotunda to-morrow: —March, "Avondale" (Verner); selection, •*' '■ Dinorah " (Meyerbeer); valse, '' Velvet of the Bose" (Barmard) ; piccolo solo, "The Wren" (Damare), soloist, A. Hutton; descriptive fantasia, "The Village Blacksmith" (Gaetas); polonaise '' Militaire'' (Chopin); selection, " The Balkan Princess" (Eubensj ; march, '' Punchinello'' (Eimmer).

."We ought not to have such a law that prevents us from doing our duty to the people we declared Mr H. B. Sorensen at the North Canterbury Hospital Board's meeting this morning. Mr Sorensen, as- chairman of the Hospital Committee, was explaining to the In;spectorrGeneral of. Hospitals that the lowest tender received for the supply of groceries to the hospital could not be ac-

■ cepted because it came from the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association, and some members of the board "Were directors of that association, while others were shareholders. '' We are not -able to accept the lowest tender," continued Mr Sorensen, "because once there was a rogue somewhere and a law was made preventing people sitting on public |bodies doing business with companies in which they are interested. So honest men are< kept out of honest trade." Other members of the board also criticised the law; j A Press Association cable states that Australian submarines have left Suez in continuation of their voyage. The Municipal Offieers Cricket Club •will leave Christchurch on April 9 to play a match against their Wellington confreres. The annual "farmers' day" at the Belfast Freezing Works has been fixed for April 23. The invitation was accepted on behalf of the branches by the executive of the North Canterbury Farmers' Union. A somewhat unusual experience was ~ reported by those on board the steamer Clan Matheson, while on the voyage from Bunbury to Auckland last week. The vessel (according to the Auckland "Herald")' 'was steaming in fine weather on Sunday, Ma»?h 15, but when about 150 miles south-east of Cape Howe those on watch were astonished when *A\e ran into a high confused swell', which was all the more remarkable owing to the otherwise calm conditions then prevailing. The Clan Matheson is a well-found, seaworthy steamer,- but* the sudden disturbance caused her to pitch and roll in an alarming manner. The seas were what are termed ' 'three-cornered,," and the Clan Matheson snipped great quantities of water,; : .the' decks being frequently flooded. The vessel continued to labour in the troubled waters for an hour and a-half,»and at 10.3 p.m. she steamed clear of the swell as unexpectedly as she had run into it. The officers of the Clan Matheson consider that the .J*- phenomenon was no doubt due to one of those seismic disturbances which are occasionally met with at sea. '''"'-* - '■'■.■■■'■