LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2617, 12 November 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tlie Defence authorities advise that next-of-kin may visit Trentham Camp to-day. No passes will be required, as all will be admitted. Flowor thieves have been at work in the gardens on the City side of Mount Victoria. One lady, whoso front garden was despoiled by tlie vandals, put the case vory aptly. "Wellington is not a pretty place," slio said, "and the people are not much inclined • to beautify the little land available for gardens, but when a person does try to brighten up the front of the place it is very liard to see one's labour go to waste." This lady had grown a lot of foxglove plants as shelter for some good roses, hut on visiting lier garden yesterday morning she found i tho whole of her foxgloves picked right down. The g-arden thief is the mostdifficult of all to catch, but tho police are keeping an alert watch for offenders. . Writing to his sister in Wellington ,a New Zealand trooper says: —"After having all details taken at the hospital clearing station on tho beach, I was, with a couple of hundred more, taken out in launches to a hospital ship lying in the bay. And what ship do you think' it was? It was our own ship the Maheno. I oan tell you I was pleased to be aboard her after hearing from you about her and reading.about her in the papers you sent. It was a link with dear old Wellington right enough. . _. . There was also our old Presbyterian minister on board) tho Rev. Dutton. . . We were given some tea and bread and butter, which was most acceptable, especially the 1 latter, which was something' I had not seen for close on two months. ... I first had a hot bath and got into clean pyjamas, then led. It was heavenly after sleeping in one's clothes on the ground for seven weeks, and without a wash at that." By Regulation Gazetted it is provided that the Mortgage Extension Act shall not apply to "agreements to purchase" entered into under tho Workers' Dwellings Act, 1910. Councillor. Barber asked the Mayor at the council meeting last night if the City bakery had been lost sight of. The .Mayor said that tlie engineer had been very busy, and had not been able to report on the matter. It had not been lost sight of, however, and such an important matter would' be discussed by tho council as soon as the report was available. Anglican ohaplains in the Christchurch diocese who are-accepted for seivice at the front resign their cures on leaving. Bishop Julius explained to a reporter that this course was being followed with the consent of all parties concerned. It was not absolutely necessary for the clergymen to resign, but, owing to the difficulties involved In procuring new mori to fill a position for a term which was quite indefinite, it was felt that the better plan would.be for the men to resign on leaving. Personally, he would have liked to have seen all the places kept open, but that could not be done. Other euroa would, however, be found for all the chaplains who returned. There had been "no trouble or friction over the matter at all, and both Canon Burton and the Rev. MaeKenzie Gibson, who liad been accepted from Obristcli'irch. had freely resigned in order to pause no difficulty in tho way of procuring a successor. A public waiting shed and latrines aro to be erected by the City Council on tho Lyall Bay Esplanade, opposite tho terminus. Regulations under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act aTO gazetted. | The City Council last night accepted the tender of P. R. Baillie and Co. for. meters. The tenders for tip-up seats for the Town Hall gallery were referred to tho Finance Committee. Amended regulations under the Fisheries Act make it unlawful for any person to "take, .buy, soil, expose for sale, or have in possession" any sclmapper of less weight than 12 ounces. The penalty is a fine of not loss than £1, or moro than £'20. That the spirit of generosity is not always evident at the entertainments organised for patriotic purposes, and at which collections are mado in lieu of an admission charge, was illustrated by tho experience of the Waitemata Queen Committee on tho occasion of a fireworks display at Cheltenham Beach (says the Auckland "Herald"). It was estimated that at least 10,000 people attended the demonstration. The beach could not be roped off. and a charge for admission made, but 60 collection-boxes were used for the purpose of receiving subscriptions. When tho collections were totalled up it was found that they amounted to only £40. The disappointment felt by the committee at the small result of the weeks of labour that had been expended in making preparations for the entertainment was increased when it was found that many of the boxes contained buttons, metal , discs, brass coin and other rubbish. The conimitteo expected to realise at least sixpence per head, or £250. Tho Mayor of Auckland, Mr. J. H. Giinson, at the conference of delegates from provincial patriotic associations held at the Town Hall this week, mado the statement that the administration of the Auckland Patriotic Fund does not amount to as much as £500 per annum. He explained that this was made possible by the amount of voluntary service that had been forthcoming. Tho Mayor added that thero was no rent for offices, and only the salaries of the secretary and two women assistants had to be paid. .■ The stability of the tramway system was favourably commented on by the Mayor at the meeting of the City Council last night, and he said this reflected credit on the manager and the staff. W'hilo they could not altogether prevent overcrowding, new cars were constantly being built. He could not say whether the Constable Street extension material had yet been shipped from Homo, but sometimes the goods arrived before the iidvict. "It appears to me to be an extraordinary tiling that local bodies do not insist upon having a record of all drains and house connections made in their respective districts. If tho authorities had this information it would be' possible, when disease occurs, for them to at once trace the person who laid the drains." The foregoing remarks were mado by Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M.. at tho Magistrate's Court, Auckland, and tlie statement was occasioned by the evidence of a witness in a caso 'in which a sum of 7s. 6d. was claimed by ono neighbour froiii another as a contribution towards tho cost of clearing a blockage from a drain. ,Tho witness stated that it was impossible to find out the person who had constructed the drain.

'Hie City Council desires that the oustodians of the various gardens and parks should bo appointed special constables, and at last night's council meeting it was decided to approach the Government to have this done. On account of tho parade of the Eighth Reinforcements to-morrow afternoon, it has been decided by the committee of the Outsido Cricket Association that all fixtures set down for that day bo postponed. Tho Mayor annoiinced at tho City Conncil meeting last night that the rates collected to date amounted to £73,358, as compared with £36,347 for the corresponding period last year. It was true that they had the notices out seven or eight weeks earlier, but the result was a tribute .to the people of Wellington in responding to their liabilities, and was indicative of the prosperity despite the times. Dealing with tho financial position, he said that the council Hhotilcl concentrate their minds on keeping down expenditure unless the work was absolutely necessary. Mr. A. I. Masters, librarian of the Wellington Working Men's Club, yesterday morning received a letter from his son, Private C. S. Masters, No. 10/22-34, who left Wellington with the sth Reinforcements for the Dardanelles. In a chatty epistles Mr. Masters's son recounts some of his experiences on the Gallipoli -Peninsula, where his father was located in 1872. Private Masters contracted enteritis after a severe attack of dysentery, while he was in the trenches for two months without'taking his boots off. He was invalided to Malta, whither he proceeded on the New Zealand hospital ship Maheno, and at present ho is an inmate of the Havana Hospital. Private Masters met many Wellingtonians on the Maheno, amongst the rnimber being several members of the Wellington Working Men's Club, who were attached to the staff. The writer speaks in glowing terni6 of tho kindness extended to him by the nurses. Private Masters advises all young men to enlist, and ho himself states that ho would not have missed his experience for all tho wealth of tho world. Tho City Council last night granted j to the Corporation Staff Club the use of a disused cloakroom in the Tern Hall -as a club-room, and decided that necessary alterations should bo carried out in accordance with the engineer's plan.