LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume VI, Issue 266, 21 November 1913, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Belfast jeweller named William Gibson has bequeathed £250,000 to provide educational advantages to the sons of farmers in the counties of Autrim and Dawn.

On Wednesday last the heat in Brisbane was intense, the thermometer registering over 106 in the shade in the city, which is a record for November.

The New Plymouth Hospital Board has accepted the tender of Messrs Trevor Bros., of Wellington, for the erection of a new hospital at New Plymouth; costing nearly £30,000. Tenders are invited for the supply of bread, meat, groceries, fodder, and other necessaries for the prison at Waikeria from the Ist clay of January, 1914. An advertisement giving further particulars appears in our advertising columns.

The special constable, Harry Burbush, who was injured through his horse falling on him in the Auckland Domain on Sunday last, died at the Auckland*. Hospital on Tuesday. The body will arrive at Hamilton this evening and the interment will take place on Saturday. The death took place on Wednesday, at Wellington, of Mr Geo. Laurenson, M.P. for Lyttelton. The late Mr Laurenson was fifty-six years of age. He has represented Lyttelton in the House of Representatives for fourteen years, and on one occasion was returned with a majority of 2,100 votes. His death will be particularly mourned by the prohibitionist party, as he was a strong ad vocate of the cause. He held positions on several local bodies, including that of chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board. Among the visitors to Te Awamutu this week have been members of the Dominion Prisons Board. The Hon. Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G., Chief Justice, is chairman, and the other members present at meetings held at the prison camp, Waikeria, were Mr J. R. Blair (Wellington), MiGeorge Fenwick (Dunedin), the Under-Secretary for Justice (Mr C. B. Jordan), and Mr Cook, acting as secretary. The Board inspected the excavations at the site of the gaol buildings, which are eventually to b e erected at Waikeria, and the process of making the concrete blocks, which are to be used in the erection of the buildings, and dealt with the cases of a considerable number of the prisoners who are in camp at Waikeria. They left forßotorua to-day, and are to hold meetings at the tree-planting camps at Waipa and Kaingaroa. While in Te Awamutu the visitors stayed at the Te Awamutu Hotel.

The, Rev. John Craig has received word from the Public Trustee (says the Timaru Herald) that by the will of the late Mr William Fraser, of Fairlie, the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand will benefit to the extent of about £SOOO. After providing for an annuity to his cousin in Scotland, the deceased directs his trustee to stand possessed of the property upon trust for the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand to be applied by the General Assembly in such manner as it shall deem most expedient, with a desire, however, that the said trust property shall be applied in establishing a fund or in augmenting a fuud already established in connection with the said church for the maintenance and education of orphan children of Highland parentage who shall be in needy circumstances, or for the education and maintenance of other orphan children. The late Mr W. Fraser was an old resident of Fairlie, and took a keen interest in the Presbyterian Church.