LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2907, 20 October 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal authorities advise that the mails wliich left New Zealand on August 24 arrived in London on the night of October 16. The Minister of Defence was advised by cable last night that the 'Sixteenth Reinforcements are all in excellent health.—Press Association. The award of tho Long Service and Good Service Medal to Staff-Sergeant-Major Charles Pollard, N.Z. Permanent Staff, is approved. The Mayor stated to tho City Council last evening that the various departments of the council had been seriously depleted through the war, and that difficulty was being experienced in filling tho gaps. Wellington has a Jolm Street and a St. John Street, and Councillor L. M'Eonzie remarked at last evening's meeting of tho City Council that steps should bo taken to obviate any confusion. A Wanganui resident who was driving through the Mangawhero district the other day was surprised to see a girl of about 18 handling a doublefurrow plough and a three-horse team with a skill that would have done credit to the most expert ploughman. Wo are enthusiasts for "No Dubbing Laundry Help" for the following reasons: Washes all clothes perfectly clean without rubbing; does not injure hands, or fabrics. Is. carton sufficient for seven weekly washing. .£lO guarantee. Mado in New Zealand. No wonder tho demand is brisk, D. Andorson and Son.-* Ads#.'

At the Otago Education Board meeting yesterday, states a Press Association telegram fronl Duiiedin, a communication was reocived from tho Education Department asking, with a viow to introducing uniformity in school buildings throughout the Dominion, for the board to supply it with approved plans of buildings either, actually adopted or proposed to be adopted. It was resolved to receive tho communication, and to suggest that a conference of architects at Wellington would be a more, desirable method of arriving at uniformity.

The Otago Education Board yesterday decided strongly to protest against the new regulations in reference to the granting of proficiency certificates coming into operation this year, believing tliat to enforce such, drastic changes without notice would bo unfair to teachers and scholars. The board also decided to ask the Department if the statement made by a deputation from the Headmasters' Association (reported yesterday), that only 60 per cent, candidates for proficiency certificates be allowed pass were true. —Press Association!. A proclamation altering the boundaries of the .Daunevirke and Woodville Counties, in accordant® with_ the report of the Commission appointed to inquire into this matter, is gazetted. . Mrs. Thamas, of Petone, died at tlie Wellington Hospital yesterday while under an anaesthetic. An inquest will be lield at 4 o'clock this afternoon at the Hospital touching tho death of Henry Stockbridge, who died at that institution 011 Tuesday while being put under an anaesthetic preparatory to an operation. Mr. R. J. Dickie, of this city, whose auTomatic stamp vendor is in use throughout New Zealand, lias had protection granted him for _an invention applicable to such machines, whereby coins of the Tight denomination, which are slightly out of shape', will be cleared out of the coin channel automatically without blocking it as they are apt to do at present.

The Wellington Hospital Board resolved yesterday that Messrs. Baldwin, Luke, and Smith, together with the aoting-medical superintendent (Dr. C. G. Morice), should interview the Mayor for the purpose of obtaining tho Town Hall, free of charge, for lectures on venereal diseases, and that arrangements should be made with Dr. Pettit and Dr. Platts-Mills to lecture men and women respectively at as early a date as possible. . The adjourned inquest into the cause of death of Sergt. John Woods, who was found dead on board the Pateena on September 23, was held yesterday. The Coroner (Mr. D. G. A. Cooper) returned a verdict- that death resulted from collapse, due to severe sea-sick-ness.

Dr. Frengley, Deputy-Chief Health Officer, visited Mastcrton oil Wednesday, and conferred with members of the Wairarapa Hospital and Charitable Aid Board relative to additional accommodation 'at the Masterton Hospital for infectious disease cases.

A fat owo sold at tho stock sale. in Masterton on Wednesday, in aid of Dr. Barnardo's Homes, realised a sum of £10. . ■

All the cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis at present, under treatment in the military hospitals aro reported to bo showing improvement. A careful examination of recruits is being mado as the drafts for the Twenty-second Reinforcements reach camp, with the objoct of discovering any "carriers" who may have been drawn from the civilian population. Two or three suspected ot being carriers have been given treatment and will bo kept under observation. . i •

The question of extending tho tramway system along Customhouse Quay to the Lyttelton Ferry' Wharf ca'me up for consideration by the City Council last evening. The City Engineer reported that the Harbour Board, had placed no (Ktßculties in tho way _ of carrying out the work, but the requirements to protect tho crossing which the Railway Department stipulated were such that ho could not accept thom. However, tho Department had modified the requirements, 'and tho conditions under which they would now permit the crossing were to tho effcct that in place of installed, signals the council should pay the wages of a railway employee, who would act as signal man. Seeing that it was only proposed to use the orossing when the ferry boats were arriving and leaving, the engineer did not consider the services of a signalman, necessary, and in view of this condition, and also the difficulty of sparing material at present, ho recommended that no further 'notion should bo taken for the time being. Tno council agreed to this course.

"I have been especially interested in the revival in Auckland of the movement in regard to cremation," said the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister for Internal Affairs, in Auckland. "In reply to a letter I received from the Auckland society, I have suggested that it should bring the matter prominently before tho electors at the municipal elections nest April. The statement that I intend to niako cremation compulsory .is incorrect. The . question must bo left entirely to the persons concerned or to their relatives. The' only suggestion 1. have made is that unclaimed bodies from the hospitals and mental hospitals might be cremated. _ In view of the increasing population_ and_ for obvious health reasons, I think it is very desirable that this reform should be speedily introduced." .

It was mentioned at the meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board yesterday that it had been reported in tho Press that there was a possibility of the Government taking control of the Otala Hospital and Sanatorium. The chairman of the board (Mr. H. Baldwin) said that if the Government did so they would take control of the district from the top of Paekakaiiki Hill to the Palmerston North hospital district boundary, so that Horowhenua would then become a separate hospital district. A committee was empowered to watch tho interests of the board in the matter.

■ Mr. Robert M. Watson, LL.B., formerly of the firm of "Watson an 3 Meredith, who left Wellington as a private in tho Samoan Expeditionary Force in 1914, and has for some time occupied an official position- on the island, is visiting Wellington for the 'first time, since Samoa was occupied by New Zealand troops. The law in Samoa is still administered after the German code, which differs vastly from the English. Mr. Watson is the Crown Prosecutor in criminal cases, but there are occasions when he sits as an acting-Judge on civil oases. With regard to {Ho former, it is his duty to perform the function that is allotted to the Grand Jury in New Zealand. That is to say, he goes into each case very carefully, and if he considers that there is not a reasonable ohanco of conviction on tho evidence that he knows will bo forthcoming, the case does not go beforo the Court. Mr. Watson says that tilings are very quiet now in Samoa,_ and the German section of tlie population know exactly whore they stand. No German is allowed out of doors after 6 p.m. without a speoial order, and every German on the island has to report to the British authorities evory Tuesday, so it has come to pass that the word Tuesday has been obliterated from the week, which in Samoa now runs.Sunday, Monday, Hundav, and so on. Mr. Watson is to enjoy two mouths furlough in Now Zealand before resuming his duties at Apia,'