PALMERSTON DAY BY DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 785, 7 April 1910, Page 3

PALMERSTON DAY BY DAY.

■ (From Our Sneoial Correspondent.) • . April 6. The only subject of conversation In Palmerston at the present time is the sensational run of fires which took place last night. The destruction .of the High School buildings is'deplored on all hands, and is certainly a calamity to the town. At the meeting'■ of. the Board of Governors, oaily the previous evening, all present were congratulating the 'rector and tho staff on the, splendid progress the school was making and the distinction.it was earning by the marked ability shown by many ex-pupils. The insurance on the building, <£2175. will only go a verj\slio.rt iway to reinstating Hie school, as, besides the building itself, there was a good deal of apparatus, records, etc., and. general furnishings, which cost a large sum of money. However, no time -is to 1 be lost, and the staff will be installed in the Technical School until such time as . a new building is provided, and this can only be managed by a grant from the Government, which will doubtless- see the necessity of. making provision for a new school at an early date. Messrs. W. Pegden, and Millar and Georg«, whoso premises and stock were very much damaged, are great losers, but are covered to some extent by insurance.

' Another robbery was reported to, the polioe this morning. A man'named Martin, working for Mr. Edward Bruce, a dairyman, residing in Boundary Road West, reports that a wliare iii wliich ho and another man sleep, was broken into between 1 and 5 o'clock this morning, and iElo in money and other things stolen, includingj some share certificates. The greater portion of tho money was contained in a cash box, the other amounts being in clothes . hanging on -the walls. The whaTe-was entered after the men had gone out a little before 4 o'clock to get in the cows, and the assumption is that "the theft was perpetrated by someone who knew tho run of the place. .

Last evening a resident of Terrace End, who had been out driving, put his horse in the stable, leaving the harness on, as the animal was a bit warm. After having his tea, he came out to attend to the horse, only to find that it had disappeared. After hunting about a considerable time he found the harness tied up in a sack, and this .morning discovered the horse in a paddock some distance away. Thore has been quite a number of reports of other ■ business places having been broken into, but on inquiry these prove to be incorrect. An inquiry into the recent fire which occurred in King's Chambers, The Square, is to bo held on Saturday by Mr. A. D. Thomson, S.M.

The storm which struck Palmerston last week found weak spots in 'the front wall of the offices of the A. and P. Association, and with a view to stopping the leaks the front is to receive a niueh- . needed coat of paint. Mr. W. R'utiierfurd, secretary of the' Palmerston. Hospital, has performed an exceedingly smart feat in ■ connection with the preparation of the balancesheet. The books were' closed at 5 o'clock on March.3l, and at 9 o'clock the same night the balance-sheet was audited and posted to Wellington. The Borough Council has let a contract for the erection of a bouse for the caretaker at the hospital, to replace the cottage destroyed by fire some time back. Councillor F. Mowlem has been appointed a membsr of, the Palmerston Hospital Board, in room of Councillor Stubbs, who resigned to take up the position of secretary to the hospital. At its meeting last night, the Borough Council rescinded the resolution calling upon the live stock auctioneers to concrete, the new yards which they propose to erect in Grey and Featherston Streets. The Health Department, in reporting on tho question, expressed the opinion that it wa.s not necessary to uso concrete. A largo number of new books have just Jseen added l to the. Palmerston Library,