LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1697, 13 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The big Town Hall has been renovated' throughout recently—the work is jist completed—and the interior is now niuch less dingy than it has been of recent years. The hall has been, built for nine years, and this is the first occasion on which the interior has been 'choroughly cleaned and distempered. The cdi-urs chosen are brighter than formerly, and also they are much better matched than were the old tints. The Concert Chamber is also to bo renovated at once.

By a. Gazette extraordinary, dated March 11, Parliament is further prorogued to April 10. A commission lias been, given to Mr. Colley, the artist, who has done excellent work on some of the older pictures in the Art Gallery, to restore the oil paintings which hang in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall.

Captain Henry HacNab, of Nelson, and Captain Felix Black, of Wellington, have been appointed nautical assessors at the magisterial inquiry into the wreck of ithe s.s. Red Pine in Cook Strait on Friday evening. The inquiry is to bo held at Nelson on Friday. Captain Black leaves Wellington by llio Nikau to-day. It is a long-standing grievance with Rugby referees that they have very few opportunities of witnessing as spectators the game over which they are appointed to rule. At the meeting of 'the Wellington Keferees' Association last evening Mr. Sievers advanced as an argument for strengthening the association that it would enable the present members to

have an occasional off-day. "As tilings now stand, members never have a clianco of seeing a decent match," declared Mr. Sievers. "Last year, if they did see one, it was by strategy!" The Wellington branch o£ the Seamen's Union has granted Ithe sum of ,£5 as a bonus to financial members of the Union wlio were wrecked on. the steamer Red Pine.

Police Inspector O'Uonovnu has (says tho Napier "Herald") received a report of a iiro at Gisbornc to which is attached more than ordinary interest, in view of the fact that valuable curios were lost ill tho conflagration. The liouso was one of five rooms, and was occupied by Itlirec Maoris. The owner, James Wilson, says he had a lpt of Maori curios and a large book of ancient records relating to tho first arrival of tho Maoris in New Zealand. Amongst tho curios was a large carved bucket which was used in the big canoe, which came to New Zealand from Hawniki. Tho house was insured in tho National Ofileo for .£250, but tho furniture and curios were uninsured. The owner, when seen by a constable, said, "I wouldn t haro lost those curios and records for any money."

,j® rumoured in shipping ciroles (says tho Christchurch "Press") that negotiations are 111 progress for the purchase of ii- A- 0 Coal Company's well-known collier Canopus by the Union Steam Ship Company of Now Zealand. The Canopus is a fast-working collier of 1337 tons gro<-s wl Ui a carrying capacity of about IGoO tons. On the above paragraph being shown to the local officers of tho Westport Coal Company and Union Company it was given « positive denial.

Although it has been refused a subsidy 9 0UI ) cl i Wellington ateiside Workers Band is receiving a certain amount ot support from other quarters. ' lor example, Dr. C. 11. Begg has undertaken to give the members ot tUe band medical advice gratis, and Mr. J. Castle, chemist, Newtown, has undertaken to provide them with free medioine. w'v ITT I ', nd > secretary of the j nt ";sKle Workers' Union, stated yesterday that although the band now carries a considerable debt upon its instruments, its members hope to build it up into a highly-successful organisation of its class, iao band has already assisted the hospital and other public institutions by contributing its services free of oharge, and the bandsmen look forward to com{est"" " 1 ° ea ' ttn( l band conSome complaint is being made by (the .trades and Labour Council about \tlie eutnbersomeness of the form for claim lor enrolment on the municipal electoral roll. Ihe document an applicant is req"'i ui to 611 in is - in fact - a rather formidable one. There are four grounds 011 which an elector may claim enrolment, and an applicant is required to'ptrikc out J thi*.ee on which ho does not at. ply. And the form is such that any person, even an intelligent person, might lind it very puzzling indeed if he could not obtain direction from one, more experienced. iMirther, one essential' is omitted from the form—the applicant is not required to doc/are that he has attained the of 21 years, and there is nothing whatever to prevent persons below that age sif.ning the form. Other simpler forms aro in use in other boroughs and cities. Another complaint which the Trades Council make is that although' the poll will be in about six weeks, and the roll will be open for only about two weeks lrnger, the main roll is not- yet available. All residential voters who voted two years ago at the general municipal election, at last year's mayoral election, or, at the by-election at which Councillor Tt-egt-ar was returned, will be left on the roll. Those who_ did not vote at any r,f these three elections must apply again for enrolment.

Loud cries for help were heard from the water near tho rifle range, Onehunga, last Friday." liiglit, and several boats from tho slioVe pushed oil to investigate, At last a young man named Beswick reached the place whence the cries wero coming, and rescued Mr. Dano and- two boys. It appears that the boys and their father had gone out flounder spearing 011 the uneven mud Bats, and after operating on an elevated spot for a timo they began to retreat, owing to tho water rising. To their dismay they then found that no matter which way they went they were faced with deep water, while t!ip' place they were on was all the time becoming more dangerous. Then camo the cries for assistance, which were answered in time.

The canine cottages in the City Corporation's yards are all (to let at present, and in their tenantless state look wonneat and , clean. This array of orderliness, and ithe absence of.yelning in the Oriental Bay neighbourhood", has been the vogue for some days past, and, perhaps, the nomadic dog may continue in unmolested vagabondage for a few days longer, as the duties of the official dogcatcher do not allow him to pavthat general respectful heed to the adage "to let sleeping dogs lie," and in tho course of his catching recently he was badly bitten by a resentful dog. He is now laid aside, and doubtless the offending animal has been so also. The official who gave this information further vouchsafed the statement that it was "hard to get anyone else to take up the job." Mayhap, as stray dog-catching lias orobably more adtlre dangers than most other oallings.

• "Jh® referee is the most unpopular chap in Rugby, said Mr. S. Brown, speaking at the annual meeting of tho Wellington Keferees Association last evening. He is cursed up hill and down dale, 'and from both sides,

Referring editorially to the scheme of reorganisation of the Department of Agriculture, suggested by the Secretary ot the Department (Hr.<F. S. Pope), who proposed in the annual report of the Department the establishment of, say, twenty Government farms for demonstrations, 6tud breeding, experiments, and the instruction of learners, and who incidontally_ criticised severely the system at present in vogue on the experiment farms, the Hawera "Star" says:—"The proposed revolution is estimated to cost from .£250,000 to <£500,000, spread over at least ton years. Altogether th© case, as mado out by the Agricultural Department's' own Secretary, stands as a lurid indictment of every Minister of Agriculture the country has ever had, and of the Departmental staff, too, including the Secretary himself. There are, however, practical farmers who state that the work which lias been done, and is being done, on the country's experimental farms, decisively discounts the Secretary's criticisms. But charges have been made 'as from within tlio Department itself, and the country is entitled to a formal and very full statement on the subject from the 'Minister for Agriculture. It should be categorical, and to the utmost possible extent nonpartisan, for the thing at stake is tho efficiency of a Department, which has nothing to' do with politics, but a direct and practical bearing on the industrial prosperity of the country. If the Secretary is right, then the remedy he suggests should he considered without delay and with the utmost seriousness; if ho is wrong, it should be shown to the satisfaction of Parliament and the country how, why, and where he is so, and to what extent in every particular. The matter does not concern the Department alone, but all New Zealand."