ROUND THE TOWN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19914, 9 August 1927, Page 6

ROUND THE TOWN

Tho shock of earthquake at 4.10 o’clock yesterday morning was so sharp that it made the bell in the Town Clock ring for fully a half minute. A grant of £l5O towards the formation and metalling of Virginia Roaiii, St. John’s Hill, the work to be carried out under the City Council was decided on yesterday by the Waitotara County Council. The Waitotara County Council yesterday accepted the following tenders: Widening Pukerimu Road, John Hayes £24 10s 7d (four tenders); formation work on Campbell Road, J. Waters £32 7s (only tenderer). The honour of being the first member of Parliament to partake of porridge when it was introduced on the menu of the British House of Commons, is claimed by the Rev. James Barr, 8.D., M.P., who is at the present visiting Wanganui. International peace is growing, says the Rev. James Barr. He has seen in Canada a monument erected to the memory of a man who fell fighting against the United States of America, and now there is not a single fort on the thousands of miles of frontier between these countries. Thefts of electric cycle lamps led to the appearance of two youths at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Detective Walsh stated that there wero other charges pending and another boy was implicated. He asked that tho cases be removed to the Children ’s Court, and this course was agreed to. At the request of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union the Waitotara County Council yesterday decided to give its support to the following resolution: — “Recognising the imperative need for reducing costs of production, and the close bearing that the present protective customs taxation has to such costs, this body urgently calls upon the Government to give relief by immediately commencing a gradual reduction of the protective Customs taxation now levied upon British goods.”

To illustrate his contention that human nature was growing better and more sensitive, the Rev. James Barr made mention in his address before tho Rotary Club yesterday of the changed attitude towards executions. Years ago executions took place in public, then people grew too sensitive to watch a man being killed and a black flag was flown to show them that justice had been satisfied. “At the last execution in Glasgow,” said Mr Bair, ‘ 1 they did not even fly a black flag.” Speaking of educational reform in his address to the Rotary Club yesterday, the Rev. James Barr, 8.D., said that when he entered Glasgow University there was no entrance examination, but any students could enter so long as they could pay the fees. There were many small schools conducted in their own homes by men who had made failures of other businesses —men with no qualifications to teach. One dominie of whom he knew was taxed with giving out more leaving certificates than he had pupils. He had sold them at sixpence each. Reporting on the reception met with by the deputation that waited on the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. K. S. Williams) at Wellington recently, when the Government was asked to contribute £1 for £1 on the cost of giving roaidjing access to the deteirioratci'l lands behind the Wanganui and Taranaki districts the chairman of the Waitotara County Council (Mr W. Morrison) yesteday stated that he was satisfied that the Government was going to do something in the. matter. The Minister had welcome# the deputation and the information which its members 'had been able to give. A recent arrival in Wanganui, Douglas Vernon Denny, who ipeared at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of a breach of his probation anil: obtaining money by false pretences was sentenced by Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., to two months’ imprisonment on the first charge and one month on the second, the periods to be cumulative. Detective Walsh said that accused had obtained £1 from a resident of St. John’s Hill, by way of deposit on a picture, his story being that he represented -an art school. .He had also run up £6 for board. Rubbish dumped on the river bank behind their premises in Taupo Quay caused the City Inspector (Mr G. Fear) to take action at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday against four business men. Mr J. M. Hussey for defendants said that the area concerned had been a sort of no land, and the Council had been asked to carry out a beautifying scheme as the foresnorc was in plain view of the Town Bridge. The road there was a quagmire but the Council had that morning relented and put a grader in use. A fine of 10s and costs was imposed in each case, the defendants being R. G. Bellamy, D. Martin, R. Ronayne and A. Whyman. Advice has been received by the Waitotara County Council that in connection with the annual review of main highways, the Highways Board has decided to recommend; to the Minitser of Public Works (the Hon. K. S. Williams) that the Waitotara Station Road, a distance of one mile and 40 chains be declared a main highwayThe chairman (Mr W. Morrison) states that the announcement comes as a surprise as the Highways Board had agreed that there were too many main highways, and- only in exceptional cases would more be declared. The road in question is only a small one and does not interest the Council generally as the Council only pays 15 per cent, on about three-quarters of a mile.