LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9007, 14 August 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

p w The side school at Belfast has been, named " Spencerville." - '' ' A piece of ground at the back of the caretaker's garden at the Normal School will be-used as a school garden, for the children. The Marlborough Land Board has tacitly acknowledged the justice of the settlers' claim to the right to reside off small sections near the Ward township, Flaxbournej pending the completion of the railway, which was promised when the sections were taken up. The Marlborough Education Board has adopted a scheme for holding the examination, of Sixth Standard pupils in the primary schools at Christmas, m addition to the ordinary promotion examinations, which take in that district several months to get through. The idea is to bring ihe pupils to the centres in order to save time and to make the "leaving" certificates synchronise as far as pcssible. The ordinary examinations are to be held as hitherto. , In the bookbinders' dispute heard by the Arbitration Court, the Union demanded that a certain class of work, the making of book covers, should be taken out of the hands of the girls who now do it in Christchurch, and given to journeymen. Mr Pirani, advocate for Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, said ihat he could understand that, if th« girls were being paid 5s or 6s a week as tbey were in England. If the Union insisted upon the clause, the work would almost certainly go io those underpaid women at Home, unless the firm was enterprising enough to spend a thousand pounds on machinery to do the work. i

This morning Mr Justice Chapman nade an order for a special jury in the kase Bradshaw v. Mason, Struthers and Do., which he had heard in Chambers. Of nine applications received by the Dunedin City Council for the position >f electrical engineer, there are four from New Zealand, and one each from Edinburgh, London, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney, The St Albans School Committee Joes not favour the name "Merivale," •jroposed for tlie side school in Leintter Road, which has been made a aain school, and the school has been lamed " Elmwoodi" which is the name >f Captain Rhodes's estate, close to tHe lchool. The Dunedin Trades and Labour Council has received a communication from the Minister of Mines requesting the Council to confer with the' Coal Miners' Union with a view to appointing a miners' representative on the Royal Commission to inquire into the Nightcaps mine disaster-; Mr Pirani commented this morning apon the fact that- the bookbinders sailed as witnesses in the dispute heard at the Arbitration Court Avere, almost without exception, Australians. He said that under such extraordinary circumstances the Union should not endeavour to carry through an award that would have the effect of debarring anj' New Zealanders from work that ilready required Australians to be brought in to do it. *'* Nearly every thief or vagrant," laid a detective, giving evidence atthe Supreme Court, " carries a couponbook for photograph enlargements or tomething else."* The statement was svoked when a rogue and vagabond pleaded his coupon-book as evidence of an honest attempt at work. The same man w,as described by another detective as a "confirmed vagrant," and he was ultima^ly sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour. .The body of the late Mr Robert Anderson was buried in the Teddington lemetery yesterday afternoon, when a large gathering of mourners showed the general respect 'in which he wae neJd. •Among those attending the funeral ' were Messrs A. Kaye and C. Cook (representatives of the Lyttelton Harbour Board), and Messrs. Q. C. Manson, 0. Gebbie and W. Radcliftp, jun. (members of the Mount Herbert County Council). The burial 6erv.ce was conducted by the Rev P. H. Pritcbett. A. large number of wreaths and floral devices were laid on the coffin. The contractor Avho fails to light his hoardings, or to provide footpaths parid hand-rails in front of them, is breaking the City Council's by-laws/ and is liable to a fine. But the framens of the bylaws seem content to honour them in the breach rather than in the observance. In front of the excavations for the tepid bath in the Council's Gloucester Street yard, several feet of the railing and hoarding are non est, and vi the small hours of one morning last iveek one of the lamps which grace either end of the structure was wrapped In impenetrable gloom. The Council has aot been haled before the Magistrate. The differential railway freights be-, fcween Christchurch and Timaru were referred to in the Arbitration Court thi6 morning. A representative of Hutton and Co., Timaru, said his firm could not compete in book-binding with Christchurch or Dunedin, for various reasons, though the city firms competed with Hutton at very severely cut prices. One reason was that goods that cost 8s or 9s to rail from Christchurch to Timaru, Avould cost at least £1 to take irom Timaru to Cliristchurch. When the firm ran out of material, it was under the necessity of railing fresh supplies from Christchurch. When material was imported from London, the freight was at least 10s per ton heavier to Timaru than to either Christchurch or Dunedin, and all these tended to cripple the Timaru book-binding business.