HASTINGS NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 581, 9 August 1909, Page 6

HASTINGS NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) '...'■' ' Hastings, August 7. A meeting of ladies : took place. at the residence of the Mayoress yesterday to make preparations for holding a' plain and faucydress ball in. aid of tho hospital funds. It was-decided that-the ball be held on August 25 in-'the drill hall, and a. strong committee was set up to arrange details.' ' The.Chamber of Commerce some time broutrht under tli'e notice of the Minister for Railways tho inconvenience caused by the overcrowding of the railway platform on the arrival of mail trains, and asked that it should'be closed to the general public ,, .; A reply iust received from the Minister, ,; states that very 'little inconvenience occurs, and it is; consequently not'considered advisable at present to close the platform as suggested'. ■■'•-.'■

The representative hockey match, , Dannevirke v. Hastings, which was to have been played at Dannevirke to-day, was postponed owinc .to bad weather. . . : ...

A card tournajnent,, in which representatives of ■ the Post- and Telegraph played 'the ■Fire Brigade .members', was held last night. The former won by 58 games .to 36. A meeting of sheepfarmers and stockowners was'held -yesterday, (Mr. N.' Kettle in the chair)' to hear a report from Mr. H. G. Warren, president of ; the Employers' Association, in connection with'the drovers' dispute. Mr. Warren explained, that an amicable agreement had been entered into, and that all the-, claims'of the union 'had been abandoned except'that relating to .'wages '.' The minimum wage had been fixed at 12s. 6d. a day, but, considering the fair and conciliatory spirit in which the union had met' the employers, it had been thought only rieht to insert' a- clause .in '.'the agreement asking the"; employers not to. allow that rate t(> interfere with 'the higher wages, which are at present'paid to some of the men. He asked the employers to comply with the ■ request in fairness t6 the drovers of the district.- Mr. L. M'Hardy proposed a vote of thanks to Messrs. Warren' and Wright for the manner in which they had carried on tho fight on behalf of the employers. He thought that farmers take a greater interest iii the, association. The motion was carried.