LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2445, 26 April 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A small English mail (via Suez) and Australian mails arrive at Auckland by the Riverina this .morning. The Wellington portion will arrive in town bj the overland express at 6.25 a.m. tomorrow.

The Board of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand, at their meeting on Thursday last, decided to grant the staff, including members serving with the Expeditionary Forces, a bonus of o per cent.

In the course of his sermon at St. Paul's Anglican Pro-Catliedrfti yesterday morning, the Kev. A. JI. Johnson said lie was proud to be able to say that 110 fewer than six members, of St. Paul's Choir have enlisted. He pointed out. that the war was compelling people to revise their idens of usefulness. To illustrate bis meaning, be referred to tho fact that many "brilliant- scholars of Oxford and Cambridge thought that thev could be more useful to their King ami country in t'iie present crisis at the front than at their universities. Three out of England's five greatest cricketers had also joined tho fighting lines.

The foundation stone of the new Masonic Mall in Gloucester Street was laid ott Saturday afternoon, when a Iftrfti* number 61' members of tho craft, gathered at the Provincial Council Chambers. The ceremony was a most picturesque and impressive on«, nn<l »'»« by » Its* ,a«therfnes of tlie aublic.—i'ress AiwWUou.

. At the Auckland Police Court Cyril H, Clevand, of the Aurora Hotel, was lined £'10j aiid his license endorsed, for selling liquor on Good Friday. The evidencfe showed that liquor was supplifeu to two constables off duty, whose names the licensee refused to divulge. A sergeant and a constable knocked while, the other constables were, inside, but they got away before the admission of the sergeant. The Magistrate described the Case as a deliberate aiid inexcusrtble brdacli of the law.—Press Association.

The Secretary of the Labour Departs riient (Ml". R. F. Rowley) visited Cai-tc-rton during last week, alidmado arrangements for the imniedialo commencement of the work of erecting workers' homes on the ground recently purchased in Park Road.

It will never bo truly said of Mr. W. U. GriiUiij the designer of the Fedetal capital in Australia, that ho lacks ideas. Neither Will it ever be correct to say that he embodied all ho had in his plan for the citj. in a letter to the Commonwealth Public Works Committee, Mr. Griffin states that at a certain 6tago of. the city's, growth, by spending £1,000,000, advantage could ho taken of a providentially natural opportunity to secure a iliouiithin lake of constant level, coinciding with the city basins, and extending therefrom continuously 50 miles through rugged gorge and mountain sceiiery. This would make ttvdilttblo directly by steamer,s from the heart of the capital several hundred miles of deep watei frontage, and an iiifiiiitiide of. wtttM view sites, &tb6ljsliing not only a continental attraction, scarcely, if at all, to be matched in the world, but contributing to the .capital teffitory tlife 6116 climatic amelioration and elemental feature needed to raise mere existence there on dry land to full-rounded life, associated with unlimited Water facilities The chairman of the .Public Works Committee stated that Mrs Griffin had asked permission to add his letter to the <x)HimitteeVreport. The cohiiiiittee took lio responsibility for it in any way, in fact, the construction of a lake which would cover practically tho best portion of tlifl Federal territory wiiS not within its functions. —"Age."

In moving a vote of thanks to Mr. S. Abrahams at the latter's meeting oil Friday evening, Mr. E. 0. Hurley gave a resume Of the history of the l'almerston Beautifying Society. The society flourished, at first, but of late years llad lapsfed into oblivion. Tlie Borough Council took up the running and bad spent some, hundreds of pounds on beautifyihg Palmorstoli North. "And a paragraph in the morning paper on Wednesday abotit the airloiirit Spent on reserves (£418) Was the first grumbling I have ever lieard," said Mr. Hurley. "I consider the Square gardens are like a dressed shop window—the biggest advertisement Palmerstoii North has got.

Amended regulations for the control of Native schools have been published in a supplement to the New Zealand Gaaette.

Mr. Robertx Greig, tlie big, jolly actor who was bore last with the Niblo Cotnndy Company, is now playing m tho fiamo repertoire of comedies iiiidei' the Williamson haiinei" iii South Africa. They originally laiklcd at Durban from Alistrtlia, and mado the trip to Cape Town (four davs and three nights) by tram. "It was the first tram through for a month," writes Mr. Greig,.."owing to'the rebellion, and it was a wonderfully interesting trip. Troops everywhere; every bridge guarded,OTd all the eld blockhouses bililt by Kitchener during the Boer War were full of soldiore. Armoured tfaihs, hospital trains, and tfoOps everywhere. And what a cheerful lot I The wounded men appeared to be tlie most* cheerful of tlie lot. The unrest hero is awful—you feel ifc evefywhefe, dn<T t.lie was a Vel'y rnrieh graver affair than _ you m New Zealand would have imagined. / The Island Bay Patriotic Relief Committee continued its Volunteer efforts oil Saturdav, thirty men aiid fifty children turning "otlt to attend the worklUg bee. As a result of their united labours more thaii four - tons of potatoes were dug during the afternoon. The quality of the crop was quite as good as in lota previously clttg. So well lias the public patronised the enterprise that the whole of the four tons dug on Saturday has already been sold, and a quantity of ttrenty sacks in addition which remain as yot ill thd gfotmd.

The Educational Districts Royal Commission meets for the first time at the Parliamentary Buildings at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The Commission consists of Mesfcrsi A. D. Thomson (chairman), Wellington; G. M. Thomson, Dunedm; D. Petrie, Auckland; G. Hogben, Wellington") and J. Strauchon, Wellington. Marine underwriters' rates for war risk insurance have just undergone significant -alterations. The following changes ih the rates have beeii tilade and are now operative Out altd Home, including France, from Australia by all sea routes (except a reduction of 15s. on the former ruling rate. To and-, from Canada and the United States and the Atlantic generally, 15s. per cent-., a reduotion of 58. Out and Home; via the Mediterranean, £2 ss. per cent., an advance in the. rate of 6s.

Tlie rotary boring plant of the Bonithon Petroleum Company has been sold to Mr. P. A. Hadley, of Auckland. It is understood that the plant, which was specially purchased for tho mine in America by the late Ml". William M'Lean, will be erected on one of the properties of the Standard Oil Company (New Zealand), Ltd. The transaction runs into many thousands of pounds, and it is_ believed that it will be the means of infusing new life into the development of the Oil industry in the Taraliaki district. Mr. Hadley leaves here to-night, for New Plymouth to select a suitable site for the erection of the now plant.

The members of the Commission Bet \ir> to; advise the Government as to the allocation of tho ■ additional totalisator permits to be issued- under the Gamin;; Amendment Act of last session have finished their inquiries. They will sit in Wellington to-day to draw Up their report.

There is at the present season no more popular place of spending an hour or so of the Sunday afternoon than the OitT Zoo at Newtown Park. Yesterday afternoon the place was thronged until 6iinaetj many Hundreds of people finding entertainment in the interesting occupants of the various cages, an<3 water enclosures. A big improvement has heen effected to Some of the gamebird enclosures, by conducting the overflow of water from the aquarium down the bank and through the cage in the form of n succession of ponds. Perhaps tlie saddest sight presented yesterday was a congregation of aged horses, which have heen handed over to the Zoo authorities as dainties for the lions. Later <;n it is intended by the Reserves Committee to erect a small slaughter-house near the back boundary of the Zoo grounds.

Under the will of the late Mr. Sidney Diamond, an old and well-known AVellillgton resident who died on April 20 of last year, four public institutions receive bequests. To each of the following a sum ftf £200 lias been paid under tlio provisions of the rill: St. .Tohn Ambulance Association, Church of Encland Cathedral Fund, Home for the Aged and Needy, and Alexandra Home.

Ml'. David Arthur Baxter, manager of tlio Christchuroh branch of tlio Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, died snddeulj from heart fniluro (states a Press Association telegram). He loaves a widow and three daughters.