LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160735, 23 August 1920, Page 11

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Another resident of the Eketahuna district has been admitted to the Masterton hospital, suffering from diphtheria. This is the fifth member of the same family to be attacked. It is rarely that Dunedin experiences a frost like that of last Sunday morning. The lagoon at Tomahawk was frozen over to a thickness of half an inch. Milk that had been delivered early was a solid block. There is a considerable shortage of flour in bulk, for the use of bakers in Napier. While good stocks of household flour are held, bakers are experiencing considerable difficulty in securing supplies. Agents have had to secure flour from Palmerston North at an increase of £2 on the ruling price, in order to tide over the difficulty. “Decency” writes: Sir, —la it not time our City Fathers came to light with a dressing shed on Virginia Park? I understand they have been approached on this matter, and out of decency' it should he done, for it is not fair for men to change their clothes under the trees in view of the public. “Evil is wrought by want of thought, as well as want of heart.” Tables and chairs for children in schools, instead of desks, was a reform strongly advocated by Mr H. E. Longworth, chief physical instructor of the Education Department, in a lecture to teachers at Wellington. Chairs and tables meant freedom of movement, a most desirable, thing, he said. A teacher remarked that they had school furniture in Wellington which was 35 years old, and they could not get rid of it. Regulations for the training of student teachers in technical schools have been gazetted. It is provided thao such teacher must be employed only in a class under the direct control and regular instruction of a fully qualified instructor. The student-teacher must have at least the standing of a fourthyear student m the course pertaining to the trade or occupation concerned, and the student teacher shall give not more than half the actual instruction in any one class. What the regiments of “brass” hats now in the Dominion will do in the event of a sane policy of defence being promulgated we do not know. Nor do we very much care. The Government can, if it likes, save hundreds of thousands per annum on defence, and retrenchment should be put into force at the earliest possible moment. The out-of-work professional soldiers will then have to take up a civil occupation or emigrate in search of a fighting job.—Christchurch “Sun.” A Supreme Court action which will cause considerable interest in legal and judicial circles has been instituted by Mr P. B. Fitzherhert, barrister and solicitor of New Plymouth, against President Aoheson, of the Aotoa District Maori Land Board. Mr Fitzherbert is claiming £3OOO damages for alleged slandf r, which is said to have _ been uttered by Mr Acheson at a sitting of the Native Land Board at Hawera last month. The action will come on for hearing at the December session of the Supreme Court at New Plymouth. The writ was issued by Messrs Johnstone and Broker, of New Plymouth. A sensation of an extraordinary kind for our city to witness took place in Queen Street during the luncheon hour one day this week (says Friday’s Auckland Star). Tbe centra] figures of the drama were a married woman and a prepossessing young lady of 23 summers. It appears that the young woman emerged from an office in Wyndham street, and walked to the foot of that thoroughfare. There she was confronted by the other party (whip in hand), who administered several blows on the young woman’s face and back. The cause of the incident, it is alleged, was a domestic difference. On Wednesday Mr Appo Hocton, of Dovedale, Nelson, celebrated his 100 th birthday. He is one of Nelson’s earliest settlers, having arrived in the emigrant ship Thomas Harrison in February, 1842. Born in China in 1820, Mr Hocton went to London at the age of 14, and afterwards visited various parts of the world in the capacity of cabin boy and steward. On arriving at Nelson, Mr Hocton gave up the sea. Throughout his long life Mr Hocton has never had an illness, though he has had several accidents. At the present time the aged settler is still able to get about, and up to twelve months ago was able to transact all his own business. “That, for reasons aready urged,” ran a remit adopted by the conference of acclimatisation societies in. Wellington, “and as the fishing for quinnat Salmon for the last three seasons has proved a failure, the Government be requested to withdraw the regulations declafing the Waitaki and the Rangitata ,‘galmon rivers,’ and be asked to legalise the taking of quinnat salmon under the same license and conditions as are in force for the taking of trout.” In a further remit, which was adopted, the Government was urged to acclimatise Atlantic salmon in the most suitable rivers, and to import for this purpose 2,000,000 ova for five successive years. A sharp conflict of opinion was disclosed at the conference in Wellington of acclimatisation societies relative to the destructive tendencies of shags. In opposing a remit that a uniform premium be paid for shag heads, Mr F. Stead (North Canterbury) contended that the association was pursuing a suicidal course in advocating the [ destruction of shags. Fish food in the rivers was becoming scarcer every year, and the wholesale destruction of shags would result in destroying the only remedy that nature had got of preventing the over-stocking of our fishing grounds. Shags were the ideal agency for bringing about the survival of the fittest among trout. In Canterbury no premium had been paid out for shag heads for a number of years, and in consequence the fishing had improved. Another point made by Mr Stead was that shags favoured eels as a food in preference to trout. _ After considerable discussion the remit was withdrawn.