LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1351, 31 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tho postal authorities advise that the s.s. Manuka, which sailed from Sydney at noon on Saturday, has on board an Australian mail. She is due to arrive hero to-day.

A meeting of Cabinet, held yesterday, was attended by Sir James Carroll, the Hon. D. Buddo, and the Hon. R. M'Kenzie. Orilv routino Departmental business was dealt with.

Some reference was made by Mr. A. H. Vile, at the mooting of the Wellington Education ■ Board yesterday, to tho disabilities which, in his opinion, children attending back-blocks schools suffered with regard to competition for the board's scholarships. These disabilities suggested some compensatory provisions, as for ex.iriiple, the. relaxing of the ago limit. Mr. T. R. Fleming, the board's chief inspector, said, that the matter had received the attention of tlio inspectors. The system as it at present stood provide ed that the children in these small schools competed among themselves, arid not against children in the. lnnre schools. He deprecated any relaxation of the conditions which might tend to lower the standard of scholarship fitness, and efficiency. The matter then dropped.''

A DoMisiox reporter was shown yesterday an imitation half-sovereign which had been paid oijt by a lecal bank to a city firm. The imitation vrns an excellent one. It was a worn sixpence, very •ninothly nnd naturally (jilt to tho colour yf an Australian ffo'd half-sovereign. Tho v.-crds "six pence" on the one side had been carefully emery-papered Out of existence, and the centre of the coin was a smooth, blank surface, for ali the world like a ninch-handled gold coin. Tho public, is warned against accepting halfsovereigns without careful examination, u> there are said to be many ''Vrong-'uns" in circulation.

Mr. Kerr, S.M., of 'Wanganui, has been appointed to act. with Mr. Broad (board's representative) nnd Mr. E. M'X.ib (appellants' representative) as a Board of Appeal in tli3 case of i-tajpoole v. tt.fi lV.inganui Education Board. Ihe Appeal BmjiJ is to sit afe Wangnnui, nnd probably at Pakaersten, to take evidencA

The fifth annual picnir and sports of tho local letter-carriers will take place at Day's Day on Saturday next. The Post and Telegraph Handicap and the Lettercarriei'j' cup.- will be competed for. A good programme has liaon arranged, and, given a fine day, the, Carriers' Club hope to excel all previous gatherings. The Inspector of Post Offices Olr. Dall) and Assistant-Secretary (Mr. "W. R. Morris) have consented to act as judges.

The Wellington Education Board, at its meeting yesterday, made an appointment to the principalship of the Teachers' Training College, but as the appointment, in terms of the Education Act, must be approved by the Minister, publication of the name of the appointee has been withheld in the meantime.

An indication of the fact that tho free place accommodation at the "Wellington Boys' College and Girls' High School has now ceased to present any difficulty—additions havine been provided after a memorable agitation—is the disestablishment of the secondary classes at tho Xcwtown District High School as from December 31. The Terrace District High School was disestablished last year, but the secondary classes at Ncwtown were continued, to provide jiccr"vnn(l , it : '" l f"i" free-place girls, pending the completion of addition to the Girls' High School.

Students attending the Teachers' Training Colleges have been exempted from service in the territorials, according to a memorandum received by the Wellington Education Board from tho Junior Cadet Department yesterday.

Is a hawker a shopkeeper P This vras tho problem the Pukekohe constable put to himself 0:1 Saturday (says tho Auckland "Herald"), and he decided in the affirmative. Two hawkers from tovrn had selected a stand at the sports ground of the Pukekohe Volunteer Fire Brigade. Quite ignorant of the fact that Saturday afternoon is a general holiday in Pukekohe, they were doing a great trade until tho constable came on the scene and ordered them to put up their shutters, at the same time telling them they had no business to bo selling goods when the local shops had to be closed.

Statistics printed here (says the New York correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph") show that the number of students who work their way through American universities tends rather to increase than decline; and there is confirmation also that the social status of the students is uot handicapped, because in fiome cases—indeed, in most—the parents pay for their 50ns' education, and in others the boys pay for, themselves. The Students in one great university, Columbia, earned over ,£15,000 in the academic year, and they tried every form of employment imaginable, from secretarial work to bricklaying. Numbers of young men worked as waiters in hotels during the summer holidays, and some as bus conductors—a fact which, so far from stimulating the snobbishness "inherent in some hoys with paying parents," seems rather to linve had the reverse effect. Columbia fell-help .students made one-half of the total earnings during the summer holidays. One maii earned over .taOD during the academic year. He was a senior, and made this big sum by acting as press agent for an actress nnd by tutoring, and writing librettos.

Miss Ethel Irving, the English actress, figured in an exciting scene on Sydney harbour on last Sunday week. A yacht, containing twenty-six people, capsized, and Miss Ethel Irving and a party of theatricals, in a motor launch, helped in the work of rescue. T!ie ivonwn and children were picked up, and it looked as if tome of tho men, who were in difficulties, would be lost. However, ultimately, the whole party was got on board. This is the third time Miss Irving has taken part iii a rescue under sensational circumstances on Sydney Harbour.