LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18168, 5 November 1930, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The opening of the maternity ward at the Waikato Hospital is tentatively •fixed for December 11. An official visit to the Children’s Camp at Port Waikato will shortly be made by. the Minister of Health, Hon. A. J. Stallworthy. Advice has been received from the Chief Postmaster that a fixed radio station has been opened at Niuatobutabu', Keppel Island, in the Tongan Group. The code call is ZCP. The United Insurance Company, Ltd., shows a surplus of £08,230 for the year ended September 30, compared with £00,802 for the previous year. Dividend is maintained at 10 per cent., absorbing £45,000.

An address on the Education Committee’s report as it affects primary schools' will lie given by Mr J. A. Young, M.P. at the annual meeting of the’ Hamilton West and School Association at the West School to-morrow evening. All persons interested are invited to attend.

. Seven school children had a miraculous escape from drowning at Whangaruru. The boat they were in was swamped, and they were thrown into the sea, one who was wearing a heavy coat having a particularly narrow escape from death. Eventually they all reached the shore.

At the Police Court, Hamilton,. this morning, before Mr' Wyvern Wilson, S.M., a labourer, Alexander Timewell, was convicted and discharged on a charge of attempted suicide. This was- the sequel of the incident reported from Ilorotiu last week.

It is estimated that there 'are approximately 00,000 . males over 20 years of age in Auckland, but sojjfar only 33,200 have registered under the Unemployment Act. Those registered include the employees -o'f 200 firms which consented to send application forms around with the pay envelopes. A last-day rush is anticipated.

St. Helens Hospital, Auckland, is again taxed to its capacity. Accommodation is already booked for November and December, and applications for admission are being refused. No immediate relief is in prospect, as the view of the Health Department is that, overcrowding would only create a dangerous • condition of affairs.

The latest figures of the World's Sunday School Association show that it has now within its organisation a total of 33,751,632 scholars, 3,323,030 officers and teachers, and 320,620 Sunday- schools. By far the largest number is in North America, where the scholars total nearly 22,000,000, and the officers and teachers 2,180,000. Since 1924 there has been an increase of more than 4,500,000 scholars throughout the world. ;

An electric power stand-by plant for Christchurch will be provided in a Diesel engine designed for German submarines. •> The site for the plant has yet to be selected. Plant of the same type is already installed at PenAuckland, and experience in running these. engines on crude oil has enabled them to be adapted effectively for crude oil consumption. The engines were secured from Germany under the terms of the peace treaty.

Mr Lex Miller, travelling organiser for the “Youth Movement Against Alcoholism,” visited Hamilton during the week-end. A social was held to enable local members to meet Mr Miller. On Sunday the various youth organisations assembled at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, when the organiser urged the young people to apply themselves to a study of the liquor problem along educational and scientific lines. On Monday the monthly study -circle was conducted by Mr Miller, during which the question of "Alcohol as a Food” was discusse’d.