LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18533, 15 July 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Overseas Club, in London, tendered a reception to Sir James and Lady Allen. The whole of the old stocks of Australian beef which clogged the Engish market have been disposed of. While Moslems were attending morning prayer in the famous six. hundred-year-old Alleia Mosque in the heart of Cairo, the roof fell in. Fourteen were crushed to death and many injured. A proposal is on foot to convert the N.S.W. State Orchestra into a symphony orchestra, which will be self-supporting, with Mr Skalski as organiser and conductor without remuneration till it is a financial success. Mr Skalski outlined a scheme by which he invites subscriptions for two lengthy seasons of concerts of both popular and classical music. The subscription for the former is £4 per annum, and the latter £3. The raising of the basin wall at Castlecliff is credited with much of the improvement which has taken place at the river entrance. The engineer- was instructed to proceed with this work with all speed, for It is considered 'that the work will not only increase the depth between the moles but will-hasten the day when dredging of the basin can be seriously undertaken. It is little use doing the dredging here until the wall is erected. The engineer said the first 800 ft. would be completed in six months. The remaining 800 ft. would in the meantime be a low submerged wall, which would divert the current and take with it the heavier silt. Representatives of the Beautfying Society and the Gonville Town Board yesterday completed arrangements for starting a number of the local unemployed to work on the Gonville Park on Monday morning. A limited number of men will be kept employed for as long a period as possible in preparing the ground for its ultimate beautification. Mr Jas. McGregor, whose zeal and enthus- ■ iasm and his wide experience are invaluable assets 'to the community, has kindly undertaken to provide plans for the complete layout of the park. Mr McGregor has also volunteered to arrange for the planting of the face of tie hill in front of the Durie Hill Elevator.

San Francisco reports that it Is probable the Ventura wil sail for | Australia, the Government having offered to renew the mail contract for £20,000 for the next six months. Hope has been abandoned of the Norwegian barque Janua, which left Sydney In December last for Falmouth, wheat laden. She carried a crew of Scandinavians.

The death sentence on Jeanne, the betrayer of Miss Cavell, has been commuted to penal servitude, says a Brussells cable. The sentence was that the Belgian Judas should be publicly guillotined.

Messrs Hill and Co. estimate that 5000 bales of wool will be imported into Casttiecliff and treated year. “That’s an industry which should be encouraged,” said a member of the Harbour Board last even-

“Some of the pegs are not half a chain wrong, and some are 11 chains out,’’ said the engineer of the Wanganui County Council yesterday, when referring to the way mile stones had been sprinkled along the roads.

According to an account presented to the Wanganui County Council yesterday, the cost of the Taylorville bank protective work was £17,170 12/2 up to 31st March last. The County has had to pay’2 5 per cent, of this. The original estimate was something like £ll,OOO.

Further drastic curtailments have been ordered by the N.S.W. Government Meteorologist to discontinue forenoon reports from country observers respecting the rainfall and the weather. The -absence of such information it is considered will severely handicap the bureau in its forecasts. A councillor reported at the Wanganui County Council meeting yesterday that it was time a new horse was obtained in one of the ridings. It took this horse till 11 o’clock (3 hours) to get to the scbne of work. The engineer said the horse had one time fallen over a cliff and nearly broken its back. Since then it could sit down like a 'dog. Another member suggested that the next sphere of usefulness should be a side-show or a museum. It was decided to pension oft the horse. Some of the Government Departments seem to be imbued with the “Find a Job" idea, and local bodies are now being requested to supply all manner of statistics, much of them evidently being of no use

other than for “making work.” and that does not appeal to local bodyclerks, who already have as much as they can do. Three such requests came before the Wanganui County Council yesterday. The Clerk said there was nothing to show j for the labour which was entailed in preparing these certificates. “A clerk has to put in days and days of work on statistics which are absolutely useless to .the country,” he said. Cr. D. McGregor said: "It is absurd. The country is overrun with statistics which are of no use.”

Extract from Captain Mclntyre’s report to the Harbour Board last evening: “I am pleased to state that we have now a berth at Castlecliff [wharf about 350 ft. in length extending to 100 feet in. width, and not less than 20 feet at low water spring tides.” Answering a question as to what size steamer could turn round at Castlecliff wharf, the engineer, Mr H-aszard, said that a steamer drawing 19ft. could easily berth at. neap tides and a steamer drawing 16ft. could turn round, also at neap tides. The statement was also made that the latest recorded depih on the bar was 25ft. 6in at high water spring tides. “When we have 25ft. 6in. of water on the bar we should let everybody know about it as soon as possible,” said Mr Morrison, evidently thinking that the Board did not advertise its attainments enough. The committee of the Sarjeant Gallery wish to call the attention of the public to two very generous gifts that have been made to the Gallery, one a collection of water colour sketches of English scenery and views of Oxford made by the late Mrs Larden, and given to the Gallery by her daughter, Mrs W. ifirch. of Thoresby, Marton; the other is a valuable series of engravings presented by the French Minister of Fine Arts from the studio craftroom of the Muscir du Louvre, in Paris. It has taken some time to prepare and arrange for the mournings and framing of these works, but some of them have now been completed and have been hung on the walls of the Gallery. A grateful acknowledgement of these generous gifts has been sent to Mrs Birch and to the Minister of Fine Arts, Paris. The Robertson Ijbau, too. has some exceptionally fine works of the greatest beauty and interest. It is hoped to give more detailed accounts of the collections in 'later issues.

“Anxious” writes as follows:—“I shall be obliged if you can inform me what the Memorial Committee intends doing. My reason for asking is that I have been approached and given to understand that the Durie Hill scheme is to be dropped. Some of my friends have been similarly informed. I strongly favour the Hill scheme, and I find it hard to believe that the committee would abandon it." We submitted this inquiry to all available members of the Memorial Committee, and we are authorised by those gentlemen to give the statement that the committee intended to drop the Hill scheme a flat and unqualified contradiction. “The committee has not met. since the last meeting of the Borough Council, owing to the chairman's absence from town,” said one of the members, "but we have informally discussed the position, and when we meet on Wednesday next our intention will be clearly stated. I am disclosing no secret when I predict that our decision will be to continue to withhold our hand until the Central Committee has had its three months, on the distinct understanding that at the expiration of that time we shall be ready to go right ahead with the original scheme, as we have been all along.”

It is expected that the British Pa: liament will rise for the vacation ou the 4th Augusi.

Mr A. Gilbert, president of >be , Nelson Chamber of Commerce, hasl been unanimously elected Reform T candidate for the Nelson seat.

One of the exhibits of the Wanganui Poultry Show yesterday was a canary, which six weeks ago got first prize in its class at tb<>Sydney show from 38 competitors. Yeslet day it was placed third in its das

the winner being a bird bred at Ka