LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 June 1931, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Niagara, from Auckland, arrived at Sydney at 6.45 o’clock this morn-

A further contribution is to be made to the Mount Holds worth Club by the Wairarapa Automobile Association to enable the acquisition of the campingsite at Mount -Holds',vorth to be completed.

Remits to the annual meeting of the North Island Motor Union are to be forwarded by the Wairarapa Automobile Association, suggesting that the question re age in the application for motor drivers’ licenses be altered to read:— "Are you over the age set down as the minimum for -which a license can be issued?” A further remit advocating that it be made an offence for persons riding a cycle to lead a horse at the time, it being contended that in such circumstances the horse had charge of the man, not the man of the horse, and that such a practice was dangerous both to the man himself and the travelling public. The obstacle to the reopening of the Government Savings Bank "(says tlie "Sydney Morning Herald”) is the want of liquid assets. The want led to the closing of the bank. Assets that it could put on the market in the week previous to the closing could only be disposed of at a -substantial discount, and that would have entailed heavy losses. That Mr Scullin, Mr Lang and Mr Hill have been appointed a committee by the conference in Melbourne to enquire into the possibilities of reopening the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales implies that there is now some hope of assets f becoming more liquid. The committee? would regard the conversion loan as giving opportunities for bringing Government stock nearer to par when the- operation is completed, and perhaps in that case it might be possible to make realisations on a basis which would not result in loss, and which would at the ■-Same time provide sufficient cash to reopen. The Public Works Department notified the Opotiki County that it will be expected to take over the new highway from Matawai via Waioeka to Opotiki in September. When the matter was mentioned at the Bay of Plenty Licensing Committee yesterday comment was made that soon the present route via Motu would no longer be used. Consequently the Motu Hotel, one of the finest on the East Coast, would be more useful at Matawai, nine miles nearer Gisborne than at Motu, but the law restricted the removal of a. hotel license in the county more than one mile. The committee unanimously decided that it be a recommendation for consideration by the proper authorities that the necessary amendments be made in - the Licensing Act to authorise the Licensing Committee to permit the removal of any class of license granted in respect to premises within its district to any other premises in the district, without restriction as to distance. The police inspector and the Magistrate spoke in support of the recommendation.

The Masterton Harrier Club will hold a dance in the Municipal Social Hall to-night.

A euchre tournament will be held in St. Patrick’s Assembly Hall tonight. Good prizes will be given. The monthly aggregate will start tonight.

Miss Florence Waterhouse, of Onepu Road, who was knocked down by a tram at Miramar on Wednesday night has not yet regained consciousness.

“I think that persons who make statements predicting earthquakes -should be locked up until they cool down,” said Mr R. Semple at yesterday’s meeting of the Wellington Errc Board.

Local authorities in the district are to be written to by the Wairarapa Automobile Association, asking that the carrying of lights by cyclists after dark, and the painting of rear mudguards white, be strictly enforced, and that their traffic officers devote particular attention to delinquent cyclists.

Exports of New Brunswick products to New Zealand .have been seriously curtailed as the result of the -withdrawal of British preference, states a cable from St. John. Manufacturers and exporters claim that the commodities particularly affected are fishery products, confectionery and brushes.

In connection with the figures recently published as showing the public securities held by various life insurance companies the Wellington office of the Australian Mutual Provident Society states that the total held by it amounts to £43,852,925. Or this Australian Government securities amount to £21,163,332 and the balance comprised of securities of public bodies and municipalities in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and other Dominions.

Sittings of the Hawke’s Bay Adjustment Court, constituted under the provisions of the special earthquake legislation, commenced in Napier yesterday. Associated with the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, were Messrs H. D. Vickery and C. von Haast. The desirability of an amicable settlement, between the interested persons was emphasised by his Honour in his opening address. The court, he said, would be quite willing to hear any matter which the parties wished to bring before its notice, but at the same time it was highly desirable that, wherever possible, the parties should settle their affairs out of court. So far only eleven applications for hearing have been filed with the registrar of the court, and his Honour hoped that, the parties would file their applications as early as possible. Forgetfulness or carelessness were the main reasons advanced in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday when six men were charged before Mr E. Page, S.M., with failure to pay one or more instalments of the unemployment levy. They were cached fined 10/-. Mr P. 11. Kinsman, of the Labour Department, said he did not allege that there had been any deliberate evasion on the part of the defendants. So far as l the excuse of forgetfulness was concerned it was hardly possible, he said, for anybody not to be impressed with the seriousness of the unemployment position. 1 Particularly was this so in Wellington. Prompt payment of the levy was essential, he added. Delay meant, additional work on the part of the police and the department. All this added to the cost of administration.

Before Messrs. 11. G. Carter and J. Kiernan, J’s.P., .at the Greytown S.M. Court yesterday, T. E. Mabey was charged with having driven a motor car at a dangerous speed, and also with having failed to give way to a car approaching an intersection. Constable Dyer, of Masterton, who prosecuted, stated the ease was the outcome of a collision which took place at the Post Office intersection some time back between cars driven by defendant and Constable Gregor. Mabey had stated after the accident that owing to a glaring son ho had not seen Constable Gregor’s car approaching, and in order to avoid an .accident he had accelerated. He understood that defendant had paid for the damage done to the constable’s car. Mr Turton, who pleaded guilty on behalf of defendant, said he would like to see one of the charges withdrawn, seeing that Ms client had paid the damages. Sergeant Dyer said that if defendant was convicted and discharged on one charge it would meet the case. Air Turton thanked the Sergeant for his consideration, Defendant was convicted and fined £1 and costs on the charge of having failed to. give way to a car approaching an intersection, and on the other charge ho was convicted.

The possibility of the slump having some beneficial results so far as the dairying industry is ‘concerned was mentioned by the Director of the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture (Air W. Al. Singleton), when speaking at the Alanawatu A. and P. Association’s 'Smoke concert. Air Singleton remarked that New Zealand had achieved yet another record in the matter of production. So regularly were these increases being made that the rest of the world was wondering how New Zealand did it. The economic conditions through which they were passing were very difficult, but they had to remember that it was in times of adversity that they looked for ways and means of improving the quality of their produce. Out of the slump of the SO’s had come the separator, which had been responsible for such progress in the dairying industry. He was wondering what advantages New Zealand was going to receive from the present slump. There was one direction in which he thought .economy could be effected, and that was in respect of the delivery of supplies to the factories. The loss of unnecessary cream haulage would pay the whole cost of dairy instruction in New Zealand.

To-morrow will be the shortest clay of the year. In Masterton the .sun will rise at 7.16 a.m. and set at 4.28

Frequently in cablegrams one reads of cheers greeting a division or a speech in the House of Commons, and one wonders if they are the conventional British cheers. Actually they are no such thing, and herein is indicated the survival of a wide meaning in a word that has been narrowed by use. Cheers in Parliamentary parlauco may mean shouts of applause, cries of encouragement or approbation, such as “hear hears,” or “hurrahs,” or “huzzas.” But in colonial practice a cheer is limited to what one hears after a football match. The modern pronunciation, “hooray,” was once regarded as very vulgar. ■ When Mrs Mabel Harvey, caniiie nurse, trading under the name of Miss Christmas, saw a dog belonging to Victor Ernest Larcomb, of Karori, chained up, and “looking miserable,” she “just saw red,” and took the dog off to her hospital, to teach its owner a lesson. Thi,s was the defence she raised in the Wellington S.M. Court, when, with Mrs Martha Stevenson, she was charged with obtaining £2 from Larcomb by false pretences. The money represented a reward for the return of the dog. Mrs Harvey was fined £5, and Mrs Stevenson, who told the detectives she had found the dog, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within twelve months.

The decision of the Joint Oommitee of the Three Metliodi&t Churches at Home that women should not be disqualified from the ministry merely on account of sex, gives point to the argument of Miss Helen Marion W odehouse, the newly appointed mistress of Girton College, Cambridge. “If a boy wanted to learn to cook, I would tc-ach him; if a girl wanted to learn engineering, I would teach her.” Miss Wodehouse, who is Professor of Education in the University of Bristol, had many congratulations when she received the appointment as mistress of Girton, one of the highest academic positions that can come to women in England. She will take up her appointment in October. “I could never have done tire things I am doing if Girton .had not existed,” said Miss Wodehouse, who was once a scholar at the college of which she is to become mistress. “Women to-day,” she said, ■ “are taking' advantage of tho wonderful opportunities given to them. There are more alternatives, more subjects foe- both sexes. There is much more of a mixture of men and women to-day than there used to be at Cambridge, but the intellectual life has not altered. ” 1 ! '