LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2779, 25 May 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Halfpenny tram fares wore mentioned by the Major last evening, when speaking at tli" furniture trades' dinner. Ho said that in Glasgow the ' halfpenny scheme suited well, and it had been suggested that it should be adopted in New Zealand. The fact was, however, that those responsibly had to make ends meet, and when it was considered that New, Zealand to pay more for material and higlior wages, it would be readily gathered that the penny unit established in New Zealand was as low (is it should be. "A clean sheet again," was yesterday's report from the Wellington Health District respecting infantile paralysis. Amongst the score or so of men who were enrolled as .recruits at the tTown Hall recruiting office yesterday were three men over 50 years of age. One of the trio of veterans Was nearly GO years of ace, and was a particularly "fit" man ill tho ordinary sense of the term, and, as one recruiting officer said, "fitter than many men of forty we have put through." All three were, of course, rejected on the score of the age restriction. . The Prime Minister gave the Government's answer in the House yesterdajto Mr. Fletcher's request that, Civil Servants on active servico should be granted half-pay. Mr. Massey answered as follows:—'.Che Government considers the proposal made by' tho honourable member so far-reaching that it is impracticable.

Both dental hospitals at Trentham and Featherston are being enlarged and tho 6tnfl's doubled to cope with the very great increase in work.

Some days ago a statement was made by a member of the House that a soldier at Jeatherston Camp was charged 3s. at trie canteen for cashing a moneyorder. . The Defence Minister referred the matter to the Camp Commandant, Colonel Adams, and yestorday lie read to the House a letter received by ColonaV Adams from the canteen proprietors, W. P. Evans and Company. Messrs. Evaus wrote that they took strong exception by the statement, and denied its accuracy. The factjvns that no charges were made for cashing money-orders except the ordinary bank charges. They stated in their letter .that they preferred not to cash moiley-irders, and did so only for men. who were known to them, or men who wero recommended by someone known to them.

The Returned Soldiers' Club, Lambton Quay, acknowledge trith thanks the sum of -Jjfi Bs. from Mrs. Simm, part proceeds Df raffle.

The following School Committee lias beon aleeted for Te Rangituiuau •—Messrs. | W...Hopkins (chairman), W. Donovan, J. I\jestnip, S. D. Goff, and p. Matthews. Communications have . passed recently between the Australasian Federated Seamen's Unjon and the New Union respecting a -uniform set of working conihtioiiß to apply throughout Australasia, except in the Isew Zealand coastal trado. Australia has expressed agreement with the proposals made by the New Zealand Union, and has inviteil New Zealand to send representatives to a special session of the Australian Council, to be held about the end of August or tho beginning of September, for the purpose of dealing with the matter. A session o£ tne Jvew Zealand Council has been fixed to open at-Auckland 011 August 3, and *7? n . la Jf er of appointing delegates to attend the Australian session will then bo. brought forward and decided upon Ihe probability is that tho Australian invitation .will bo accepted.

wr I. 8 /I p6r c '• war bonus granted to West Coast coalminers has now been extended to include emploj-ees of the New Zealand Coal and Oil Company at Ifaitangata, including' miners, officials and railway hands. In conscquence of this and of the enhanced cost of stores and materials, the company has decided to ad, vance tlio prico of nonl by 2s. Gd. ncv ton

Ihe Prime Minister stated in answer to a question in Parliament yesterday that the House would be given an opportunity _ this session of dealing with the question of "treating." Reports on the question of early closing were being obtained from tho Police Department.

The Government will consider before the ond of tho session whether any alteration should be made in the provisions of the Legislative Council Act, 1915, which names the date of colnins into operation of the Legislative Council Act, 1914, as September 1, 1917. The effect of the principal Act is to make the Council an elective body.

At last night's meeting at Hataitai of the Rifle Defence Club a letter was read from the QuartermasterGeneral accepting an offer from the club to make pull-throughs for the Forces. The letter stated that the necessary materials would he provided by the Defence Department and instruction in making the articles would be given by a member of the Quartermaster-General's branch.

Replying yesterday to a question by Mr. E. A. Wright, the Minister of Kailways said that the provision of an overhead bridge or subway at Ngaio Railway Station involved the expenditure of a considerable sum. Apart from tho necessity that exists at the present juncture for the exercise of rigid economy in regard to all expenditure, there were many othor places where such expenditure is more urgently required, in the opinion of the Department, than at Ngaio.

Commercial travellers are hauling in storekeepers' orders for No Rubbing Laundry Help with commendable zeal, because it lightens woman's toil on washJoe days.—Advt. i

In a statement yesterday regarding tho supply of ships, tho Primp Minister pointed out that the lmperinl Government had commandeered at least half a dozen of our coastal vessels, as well as some intercolonial vessels. lie agreed that tho freight rates were exorbitant) but lie said wo had either to pay these rates or (o do without tho ships. If tho Imperial Government hod not commandeered all tho insulaSed space a largo proportion of our produce probably would have been left on our hands. When the exporting season closed last year, all the butter and oheese was away, and he did not think there was enough meat left to fill one ,ship. This was very satisfactory. 'J'ho Government was doing its best, to maintain the supply of ships, buthe was afraid that it would be a long '■ time before things in" this respect returned to normal. Members of the newly-formed Hataitai Rifle Defence Club have decided to offer their services to the Mayoress (Mrs. J. P. Luke) for the purpose of making cases to send goods to the New Zealand troops at the front. ( At au. early hour on Tuesday morning a burglary was committed at the bookstall at the Carterton Railway Station, entrance being gained by breaking the window with a stone, and then opening the slide by means of the lock. The thiof then devoted his attention to the till, removing some J2, and pocketing a quantiy of cigarettes. The statement filed in the estato 'of Thomas Harris, of Martinborough, bankrupt, shows unsecured creditors amounting to illi)71 Is. 5d., and secured creditors J33920. The estimated value of the securities is J!61i32, leaving a surplus of •62712. The surplus on the whole estate is valued at .£l2Bl 18s. 7d. Up till yesterday the Wellington Recruiting Committee had received only 2201 replies to the 13,000 recruiting cards sent'out a fortnight ago—a very disappointing return for the amount of enthusiastic work which had been put into the 6cheme by tho committee." It is, however, thought that, though the number of cards returned of those issued is small, the indirect result of tho postal canvass has had an effect on "recruiting in Wellington which, on the whole, is very satisfac- : tory. Moreover, tho cards are still com- | ing in. Over thirty were received by yesterday's posts, and tho average number rc-ceived daily far the past week has been about fifty. The cards that have been returned are now being sorted alphabetically by the secretary (Mr. Martin). The total number of cases o£ infantile paralysis reported in tho district under the control of tho Wairarapa Hospital and Charitable Aid Board is twentyseven. Of these, nineteen are from the Borough of Masterton. "I have always boen a strong supporter of local industry, and during my short Btay in Parliament I did my best to induce tho Government to develop tho iron industry, and set up small-arms factries," remarked ho Mayor at the furniture trades' dinner last evening. "If • these things had been done, we would not torday be dependent on oversea markets." The Wairarapa Eacing Club yesterday voted JIIOOO to various patriotic funds. It was decided, on the recommendation of tho Wharves and Accounts Committee of the Harbour Board, last evening, that the Harbour Boards Associations' Conference be not held this year, and that matters in hand bo dealt with by "the executive. During the discussion, on the motion, Mr. J. G. Cobbc raised tho question of tho housing of' tho Harbour Board's casual workers. When he moved that the matter be considered, he haa been defeated by one vote, and subsequently it was a recommendation to the Harbour Boards' Association. The chairman reported that the matter had been considered by. tho executive, which had considered tho matter too important to bo dealt with other than by a full m fitting of' the association. • Thereupon Mr. Cobbe gave notice that he would bring the matter on again at n future meeting, so ,tliat tho board could deal with, the question on its own. . An instance of the heavy Imperial detaaiul upon manufacturing firms in England wa's given at Monday's meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board, ? when a letter was read from a well-known company expressing regret at delay in delivery to the board of a quantity of hose. The letter stated that owing to the Government demands upon resources, together with the shortage of flax yarns, it was impossible to give a definite date for delivery. It had only been possible for them to . obtain material in quantities barely sufficient to keep pace with Government contracts.

The scarcity' of teachers is at present acute, and, according to Mr. F. Pirani, chairman of the 'Wanganui Education Board, the present is a record month for that board, there being no fewer than 12 relieving teachers employed at the present time. "It is surprising," says Mr. Pirani, "how.we manage to unearth temporary teachers when the need is pressing. 'Tho Act stipulates that a relieving teacher mu9t receive a salary equal to the salary attached to the position he is filling. The result is that the board has in the majority of cases to cut down leave of absence on pay. to one month. Even so, the relieving teachers' account at the end of last year was .£862 10s. to the bad. The grant for the year was -CH7 lGs. Bd. less than the expenditure." At a meeting of tho Auckland branch of the Australasian Federated Seamen's Union (says the "Herald"), strong exception was taken to he attitude adopted by the president, Mr. A. Nixon, at the recent, conference of the ■ Fish Curors' Union at the Conciliation Council. Ultimately it was decided to inquest the president to tender his resignation from his official capacity by.noon on May 25, and failing his resignation being received by that date, he to be suspended aiid the matter reported to the executive council of the union, which in turn will cause a plebiscite vote to be.tajcen. to decide the position. Considerable dissatisI action had existed among the seamen uwing to Mr. Nixon's attitude when appearing as one of the assessors, and it was contended that several statements made by him were not in the general interests Of the seamen.

Professor Prince, the Canadian Cominis. bioner of Fisheries, lecturing at Ilegina, Saskatchewan, last month, described New Zealand as a laud of paradoxes. The people were cultured and .aristocratic, but at tho same time they were very radical. The scenery of tho country was remarkably beautiful, and Prpfessor Princo predicted that Now Zealand would eventually become a great pleasure resort.' It will bo remembered that Professor Prince visited the Dominion in 1914 in order to report on the fisheries of this country.

One of the medical officers at tlio Auckland Recruiting "Station had 'a surprise while examining a recruit the other day. The usual method employed by the doctors in making the eye-sight test is to hold a card over one eye and to ask the recruit to read with the other from a letter-chart on tho wall at the other end of tho room. One man protested that he could not see out of one eye, and, turning his head aside, dropped it into the palm of his hand—a glass one.

An interesting, decision was given by Mr. 1 ? . V.. I'razer, S.M., in Auckland in ii maintenance case. The defendant, Frederick W. Nees, had been imprisoned in default of payment ol' maintenance respettiug some children at an industrial school, thb order for imprisonment being mado in the man's absence as he did not comply with the summons to attend Court. The man's wife subsequently represented to the Magistrate that her husband's imprisonment had left her and the children at home in distress. She was advieed to get her husband to apply for a variation of the maintenance order and cancellation of arrears, and' on his doing so he was brought before the Court to prosecute his application. Nees explained that he did not appear to defend the prosecution previously on account of difficulty to get away from his work, and he gave evidence as to means which satisfied His Worship that the man had not been wasting his money, and that his earnings were not sufficient to enable him to comply with the maintenance order respecting the children at the industrial school. His Worship informed defendant that if ho had taken the trouble to appear to put his position before the Court when first summoned, ■he would have escaped imprisonment. As the original sentence could not be reversed on the present application, recourse would be had to Section G1 of the Act, and an order would bo made that defendant be released on payment of the sum of ono shilling in satisfaction of the arrears. "And I'll lend you tho shilling in the meantime," concluded His Worship when defendant intimated that he coula not pay, oven that amount-.