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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2714, 8 March 1916, Page 5

Comment was made at the Auokland Oity Council meeting last week on the fact that a licensed driver in the city had piled up a record of over 30 convictions for breaches of the driving regulations and for drunkenness before his driving license was oventually can"1 hold that it is the duty of the Council," stated the' Mayor, apropos of the subject, "to have before it tho record of the character and reputation of every man who applies' for a license) and I undertake, as chairman of the Financo and Legal Committee, to see that this is done in the granting of future licenses." Hie Mayor's undertaking in this respect was made in reply to Mr. D. W. Oarr's criticism that if a man with 30 odd conviotions could continue to hold, a license . the sooner the license system was done away with the better. Tile Tate Mr. Thomas Cawtliorn left £15,000 towards the ereotion of a new hospital in Nolson on tho understanding that the Government would subsidise that amount. The Hospital Board objects to expend Mr. Cawthorn's money unless the Government will promise to assist with a subsidy, and it is anxiously waiting to see what Cabinet is prepared to do in the matter. In a letter which he wrote in January the Minister of Public Health expressed the hope that the board* would ereot the hospital without calling upon the Government for any subsidy, or at any rate any subsidy'until tho war was over. Consideration mil bo given by the Wellington Soulli Progressive Society this week to the following motions by die of the members: —(1) "That the Wellington Soutii Progressive Socioty holds the opinion that a customs union uf representatives of all parts of the liritisli Empire should be formed, ayd l.hat an Imperial preferential tariff should be established, but it would adVisii the Government of Dominion not to commit itself to,any permanent trade policy or agreement before peace has been ■ declared between the nations of the world, and the future relations of the British Empire to other nations are. oleariy indicated." (2) "That the Wellington South Progressive Sooiety holds that although tho Bociety should not attempt to' redivide tho Oity of Wellington into nards nor countenanco liny, narrow parochial, policy, it must try to break tho power of the persons, clique, party, or whatever it may bo, bv which t'lio Newtown Museum and Municipal Hall are being mis-managed, itnd also it must try to defeat the proposal to separateHho Dominion Museum and Academy of Fine Arte from the Technical School, and locate the Museum' at Thoriidon instead of Mount . Ooolc." On Saturday next a kinematograpb picture of tho principal places of interest in Petone will be taken by the N.Z. Picture Supplies, Ltd. The muni-' cipal bowling green will he opened, tennis will be played on the courts, and swimming races aro to be held on the foreshore. In respect to the Saturday half-holi-3ay now in force at Petone and Hutt, ji business man at Petone states that the first closing (last Saturday) was a qreat failure to the business people. Be adds:,"We were told that the' Friday night would be even better than the . srdinary Saturday, and that the weekly takings would not show a falling off. My own takings gave me a shock. On Wednesday I took about the same ' imount as on tho Wednesday halfholiday ; on Friday the takings after S. o'clock hardly paid_ the gas. Saturday morhing was a little better, but I wound up the week about £8 short,, and' I believe this will be the experience of most of the business people." . . . At the Lower Hutt Court on Monday, before Messrs. G. A. Chapman and W. C. James, J.P.'s, Ernest J. Matthews was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, for using obscene language in a pub'ic place.