LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1821, 6 August 1913, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tho jKistal authorities advise that Hip s.s. .Maunganui, which sailed trom Sydney on August 2 has <>u hoard an Australian mail, She is due in Wellington to-day. An individual with moi'o appetite than ca-li patronised a Wellington restaurant on Monday and ordered a repast. He insisted on an amplitude of attention, and at the end of the performance informed the waiter that ho tlitl not propose to pay. A little argument followed, and then (lie waiter went nway for a moment. The patron pocketed the cruel, ami quitted, but at the I'olico Court next day lie paid for the meal and the etceterus too. Jll tlio ten years ended October 21, 1012, it has cost the country .£13,720 for the lip-keep of Ministerial residences, and tli3 cost of furniture has been -C 5337. The total amount .spent on public buildings in the Dominion (according to a return laid before the House of Representatives yesterday) during the live years 11)07-12 was .£1,103,171. The sums spent in the four principal centres were as follow: Wellington, .t'204,513; Auckland, .£240,150; Chi'istchurch, .£112,120; Dunedin, .150,850. A bottle picked up in Freeman's Hay, Auckland, on Sunday contained a inossago purporting to be from someone wrecked' on the Great Harrier coast. It rend as follows"Lost, come quick; no hoax. Oil' Great Harrier. No oars, no sail, plenty of food. Come quick.—Tnki Rota.' A postscript stated, "If this is ever found, send to my friend Tomy , and ho know who I am as lie know me and now not sea mo. Come. Come.—Taki." Constable R. Adam, of the Auckland waterfront police, states tile "Star," left in a launch- for the Great Barrier on Sunday, but ho had not returned on Monday afternoon. Tho likelihood of the message being a genuine oho is discounted. A petition bearing 5000 signatures was presented to the House of Representatives yesterday, asking that ail amendment be niudo in (ho Shops nnd Offices Act in regard to tho fixing of the weekly 'halfholiday. The petitioners set forth that following on the change of tho statutory half-holiday from . Wednesday to Saturday great; "inconvenience was occasioned to the public, and loss to the shopkeeper; that tho option of closing either Wednesday or Saturday would romovo the inconvenience and obviate tho loss; nnd that the loss and inconvciiienco ara much accentuated by. districts which are exompt, such as road boards, being separated only by tho width of a road from those in which the compulsory closing on Saturday is enforced. The petitioners therefore ask eitlicr that shopkeepers bo given the option of Wednesday or Saturday, or, failing this, that all exemptions be extinguished, including those for public-house barf, within a radius of ton miles from the ]iost office. Another petition, asking that public-house bars should bo closed on the weekly half-holi-day, this petition bearing 1017 signatures, was presented by Mr. A. 13. Glover. A paper seller, considerably under the influence of liquor, caused some excitement; ii Lambton Quay last night. He iirst adopted an unusual method of offering papers lor sale by (lapping them in the, faces of passers-by. i ailing in his object, he attempted to cross the street ill front of a rnpidly-moving tramcar. Tho driver averted a collision by putting all the brakes on, and bringing the car up with "a jolt. The man, not at all thankful at his narrow escape, exchanged a few pleasantries with the driver, and then unsteadily rolled into a china store, from which he was hastily evicted. Suddenly becoming tired of carrying a bundle of papers, ho walked into a tailor's shop anil deposited the journals on tho counter. Ho then set oft down the quay, an imperfect imitation of a Highland lling. The Arbitration Court award between tho Masters and officers of tho ..Union Company's fleet and the company expires in October next,'(ho two years specified in the agreement being up. It is understood that tho men are already discussing rates of pay and conditions. of employment in view of a new agreement. A return was presented to tho House of Representatives yesterday by tho Hon. A. L. Qerdiuan, giving particulars as to the working of the lejjal branch of the Public Tviist'Uiiico during tlio yenr ended March 111 last. The return showed the classes of work done by the legal stnii for which fees wero charged nnd for which no fees wero charged. Ihe total amount of fees earned 1)J" tho legal branch was iSaM, and tho salaries paid to the legal staff for tho period limned amounted to .£1543. The Minister in Charge of Hospitals is to be asked by Mr. Crnigic, M.l\, whether lie has considered tho question of estnblishing maternity hospitals in. fill towns with a population of fivo thousand or over, and providing the right of free treatment in the ease of tlio wives of all men earning not moro than 10s. per day; mid, if not, will he favourably consider this question. Tho decision of the Admiralty that merchant liners traversing certain routes should Lo armed for purposes of defenoo in case of attack by hostile vessels was applied for the first time, as far as the Australian trade is concerned, U> tine Aberdeen liner Th'inistoclos, wlucli av- I rived ill Melbourne last week, with two 4.7 in. guns protruding somewhat menacingly over her stem. As tlio object of this innovation is strictly defensive, the guiis are fitted aft, so as to enable tho liner to uso theni wliilo running away from au attacking foe. Each gun was effectively.tested by tho Admiralty before being installed on the Th'ennstoclcs, and ' a specially selected "gun" Crew is m charge of tho weapons. During tho oourso of a judgment in tho Industrial Court in Sydney last week, Mr. Justice Heydon remarked that the time worked bv certain men in the Railway Department could not bo "daugcrouslv strenuous." Referring to bonus work. Mr. Justice Heydon said that tlio increase of tho men's production when thev wero on bonus was remarkable. One mail concerned in the case now before tho Court admitted that his average on bonus work was between six and seven times as fast as when he was on simple day work. That seemed a" good deal, but it was nothing to othor cases. Counsel for tho commissioner had told him of increases up to 12 times as fast, and counsel for tho men spoke of increases up to 20 times as fast. That a jman should at task-work earn Is., and then on bouus cam (if paid at tho sanw rnto for his output) JCI, seemed incredible. It meant that a worker on tho standard rato earned £2 14s. a week for, say, ten articles. On tho bonus rate, if ho kept up his speed, and was paid at the same rate per article, ho would earn .£54 per week of 200 articles. The Government is being asked by Mr. Craigio (Tima.ru) whether they ,will tako steps immediately to establish a ecliool for feeble-minded girls on the same lines as the Otokaike institution for boys.

A protest against certain provisions of the Now Zealand Jnstituto of Architects Hill, recently introduced in the House of Representatives, was made on behalf of City yesterday in the shape of a petition to Iho House presented by Mr. A. If. llindmarsh. The petitioner.-! ask in conclusion t.hat the Hill be amended so as to define dearly "tiie business of an architect" ns distinguished from civil engineering, that the Bill bo amended po thai local Iwdies in New Zraland, and persons employed by them, shall not l,e affected by the Hill, that persons who have been employed by local iwdies in New Zealand or elsewhere in doing architectural work for a period of not less than live years shall be entitled to register as memliers of the institute, and that representatives of the City Council bo heard in support of the petition, and in opposition to the Hill. A two-light window in St. Mary's Cathedral, Auckland, to bo filled with stained glass in 'memory of Mrs. Selwyn, wife of tho first Liishop of New Zealand, and mother of tho second Bishop of Melanesia, will bo unveiled on the afternoon of August 19. The window, which' is to 1W erected over the «mth door of tho church, states the "Star," is from a design by the Veil. Archdeacon Walsh, and represents the presentation of the Child Christ in tho Temple. Tho cost has been subscribed ontirely l>y personal friends o£ Mrs. Selwyn. The Hon. Thomas Mackenzie is effecting. important changcs in tho organisation and control of tho Produce Department of t'ho High Commissioner's Oliice, says the London correspondent of the Auckland "Star." Mr. H. C. Cameron, who for many years has filled tho position of produce commissioner, has relinquished the charge, and his duties will in l'uluro 1m discharged by the Government veterinary officer in London, Mr. Alexander Crabu, M.R.C.V.S., and Mr. Wright, the recently-appointed Government produce inspector. At present those gentlemen have thieir offices in ITolborn, but they will shortly reinovo them to the head office in Victoria Street. Mr. Cameron, it is understood, will devote his time to lecturing in the country on tho advantages offered by New Zealand to settlers and otlici'B.' A return presented to the House of Representatives yesterday; on tho motion of' Mr. G. W. Russell (Avon), shows that tho number of men employed on road and railway works on August 1, 1912, was 4854,' and that on October 10 tile number had deoreased to 4224, Tho railways, on which reductions were made, wero the ICawa-kawa-Hokianga, Kawakawa-Grahamstown, North Auckland Main Trunk, Tanrangal J aengaroa, Gi shorn c-Motu, Nap'er-Gis-borne; Mount Kgmont, South Island Main Trunk, Midland, Catlins-Waimahaka, and Lawrence-Roxburgh. • At the monthly meeting of tho Mount Cook School Committee, held last >evcu- - ingr, the following resolution, moved by the chairman, Mr. W. !!■ Fuller, was carried unanimously:—"That the Mount Cook Scliool Committee rccords its sympathy with ' tho teachers of the State schools in their efforts to obtain from the Government increased salary and better condition:-:, and hopes that tho Minister for Education may see his way to deal with the question this^session. "By using our own brains and muscle and other people's capital, we aro doing very well," romarked Mr. D. Buick, M.P., when, the Local Bodies' Loans Bill was before Parliament yesterday.