Interproviiicial

New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1909, Page 17

Interproviiicial

The Labor .Department is advised that a settlement oi the Otira trouble has been arrived at through the intervention of Mr. P. .Hally, Conciliation Commissioner. The members of the Dargaville Borough Council are in a unique position. They have held their seats for some time, and a fresh election should have taken place in April last. However, no one thought about it, so it did not -come off. The result is that the present members haye a new lease of two years. ' Eggs is eggs,' is the opinion of the Wellington Hospital trustees, and with a view to making provision against the time when the price becomes ► more or less prohibitive, the trustees have adopted the recommendation of the house steward at the hospital that 12,000 eggs should be pickled. The Dairy Commissioner is establishing a milk-testing scheme in the Carterton district on model lines for the purpose of testing the individual cows in dairy herds. This is to provide an object-lesson, with a view to the general extension of the method by the means of co-operative testing • associations. Its cost to the department will be about £100 for the year. There is a society in Auckland composed of ordinary • workers and wage-earners who give their time and talent 3 in providing benefit concerts and performances for-.deseiwing cases of stress and unemployment. The- society is now known as the Auckland Benevolent Concert Company, and has during the last three years distributed no less than £800. Monday being the fifth anniversary of the death of the Rev. Father Fauvel (first parish priest of Temuka), a Requiem Mass was celebrated in Sb. Joseph's, Temuka, by the Yen. Archpriest Le Menant des Chesnais, the Rev. Fathers O'Connell, Kimbell, and Le Floch assisting at the ceremonies (says the Press). There was a large attendance of the congregation. „ The Mayor of Napier has given notice to move as follows at the next meeting of the Borough Council : ' That in future no plans of any dwelling house proposed to be erected in the borough of- Napier be passed by the Council unless a bath at least 4f 6in long by 2ft 6in broad, with water laid on, be erected in one of the rooms of the said house or some room attached thereto.' A deputation representing the surviving passengers and crew of the Penguin waited on Mr. W. McMenamin, at Island Bay, on Sunday, and presented him- with an address and a silver-mounted pipe in recognitioji of his kindness on the night of the wreck. It may be remembered that it was at his station, near Terawhiti, that.-the survivors were welcomed and cared for. The idea that prices in the retail grocery trade are * c\it so fine as to leave but a small margin for profit, \vould seem to be incorrect (says the Press). A grocer giving evidence at the Supreme Court recently stated that by careful buying and paying cash for all he got, he made a profit of 20 per cent. It was suggested to him that the retail price of sugar was subject to severe cutting. This, however, he denied, and declared that he made 25 per , cent, on handling that commodity. Addressing the Natives at Niihaka after the bridgeopening ceremony, the Hon. James Carroll spoke plainly and strongly, declaring that the time had come when their lands must be made liable to rating the same as European lands are. He also stated he would be willing to help the Natives by providing £50,0 towards the purchase of cows, so long as they left the question of purchasing the stock

in the hands of the Nuhaka Dairy Company, to ensure selection of a good. class of cows. He would be glad to give them any- reasonable time to repay the- amount. .Although the date" of Parliament's re-assembling has not tin ally been fixed, it is now generally linderstood that the session' will commence on October 7, when the formalities )Vill take place, and that business^ will begin .on the following Tuesday. The Prime Minister (Sir' Joseph' Ward) will leave Vancouver on September 10,' and under ordinary circumstances would reach Brisbane <m October 2, but owing to the special arrangement for continuing, his journey from Suva direct to New Zealand by a warship, he .will' be able to arrive in Axickland- nearly a week before the formal opening of Parliament. - ■ A Gisborne telegram states that a case of interest to farmers was included in the local" sittings of the Assessment Court, which was called on to hear the protest of Peter Wright, of Motu, a farmer, against being assessed for. "the timber standing on Jus land.. . If- is- generally admitted that when the railway reaches Motu/ which may" be in five years' time, any timber then standing will be worth a considerable amount, and this fact apparently- actuated the Government valuer, who seemed to think that the farmer was refraining from clearing part of his land because ,of the speculative ''value of the timber. The court ruled that as the timber, was of no value at present, there being no means to get it to market, the valuation must be reduced by £390.