JOTTINGS FROM WANGANUI.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 806, 2 May 1910, Page 6

JOTTINGS FROM WANGANUI.

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS. (By Telegraph.—Special OorrenDondeat.i Wanganui, April 30. Mr. Holmes, Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, will confer on Tuesday with the Wanganni and the Wanganui' East Borough Councils regarding a new traffic bridge to be erected across the river to connect the two boroughs. The Wanganni Education Board returns show 428 teachers in the board's. employ l —lß4 men and 244 women. It is remarked that it is especially- difficult to get certificated teachers for remote schools. Proof of the substantial progress of ■ Oonville' is found .in the valuation of new' buildings erected during the last twelve months which number 62, valued 'at £23,768: ■ It is computed that this will add at least £100 per year to the Town Board's fate income. The Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Railways, will visit Wanganui shortly in connection with various suggested improvements to the railway yards'and appointments. Referring to holidays, the chairman of the Wanganui Education Board (Mr. F. Pirani) says that though the board's scale of holidays errs perhaps on the side of liberality, it does not appear to Satisfy all'the teachers, committees, or parents, and, of course, none of the children. The general tendency oil the part of somo teachers' and committees is to play fast and looso" with the board's regulations on the subject. Mr. Pirani thinks it would be a good thing if the school holidays for the whole of the Dominion were fixed, and all adventitious holidays abolished, leaving only th(i date of tho' annual school treat to be fixed locally. .He believes it must come to this sooner or later, as interruptions in school work do not make for increased efficiency.

Recent soundings in the bar channel show that the severe weather of about ten days ago had no effect whatever in silting up, and the unproved conditions still continue. Work.at the entrance still goes steadily on: The North Mole is now stoned out as far as the staging extends, and it will soon be necessary to extend the piling furthei seaward, in accordance with the plans, to take the stone which is coming forward. The South Mole is now out 1850 feet, practically as far out as the north wall, and from the present uxtroine points its line will be straightened up so as to take the rest of its length directly outwards. Repair work on the training walls in the river is also in hand, and everywhere the state of the channel appears to be highly satisfactory.

An inquest on Mr. M'Grath, the fireman who was killed in the Fordell Railway Yard on. Thursday evening, showed that he got off an engine to assist iu shunting, and when he jumped on a. brake-handle to stop a wagon he slipped and fell on the track, the wagon then going over him. The verdict was "Death from shock and . hemorrhage, caused by accidentally slipping from a brake."