LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3085, 16 May 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Defence Department announces the death at Wellington Hospital, at 9 p.m. on Monday, of Driver P. H. Hawke, 5/469, the cause of death bemg acute anaemia.

The Govornment has, T>y Order-in-Council, prohibited tho exportation from New Zealand of sapphires and rubies.

A Press Association cablegram from Brisbane states that a firo destroyed tho new pier, jetty, and store at Townsvillo, destroying the cargo of a vessel, and causing damage estimated at between £50,000 and £100,000.

A statement ot affairs filed in the bankrupt estate of the Napier Plumbing Company shows an apparent surplus of £260 (says our Napier correspondent). Among the unsecured creditors are the following Wellington firms: —A. and T. Burt, £75 9s. lOd.; T. Carson, £7 165.; J. Dawson, '£1; Jones and Co., £13 4s. Bd.; Scottish Tube Co., £319 15s. 4d.

Albert M'Gardie, one of the Now Zealand soldiers in Liverpool Camp, (N.S.W.), was knocked down by a t-am in Phillip Street, Sydney, on May 6, and injured severely. His pelvis was fractured, and he suffered from shock. Civil Ambulance took him to Sydney Hospital, and, after treatment there, ho was transferred to the Garrison Hospital. .

By Order-iu-Council, under the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act, the wholesale price of milk for sale in the town of Wanganui, is fixed at lid. per gallon, and tho retail price at sd. per quart.

Maximum prices for bran and. pollard are fixed ly Order-in-Council, gazetted last night. When the nearest port is Lyttelton, Timaru, or Oamaru, the price is to he £3 10s. per ton for hran, and £6 15s. for pollard. When the nearest port is a port other than on© of these three, tho prices are to he as above, with such addition only as is equal to the cost of carnage by sea of a ton of hran or pollard from the "nearest port" to the port of Lyttelton. Matters along the waterfront, both at Duncdin and Port Chalmers, have been extremely quiet during the past fewweeks (says the Dunedin- "Star"). _ So far as can bo gathered, there is-little prospect of much improvement in this direction. ' With the view to assisting as far as practicable in the work of augmenting the food supplv, arrangements bave been made by the Reserves Committee of the Dunedin City Council to p!ant with potatoes all vacant plots in the nursery, and also an adjacent area of the Town Belt, which will be cleared' for the purpose. Tho question of letting portions of the Town Belt for potato growing is .receiving consideration, and will be tho subject of a /further report to another meeting of the council. ' ' i In a judgment summons case at tho Magistrate's Court, Chrißtcmirch, on Saturday morning, before Mr. T. A. B. Bailey. S.M., the debtor stated that ho had enlisted. In the circumstances the Magistrate held that under the Imperial Service Act no order could be made. . The necessity for imposing a tariff on Australian-built vessels coming into New Zealand waters has been placed before the Auckland Chamber of; Commerce by the Ironmasters' Sectiou cf the Auckland Provincial Employers' Association in the form of a resolution that reads as follows:—"That in the opinion of the Ironmasters' Association, while a tariff is imposed by Australia' on vessels built in New Zealand, a similar duty should be imposed on vessels coming into New Zealand waters from Australia, and that tho association is pleased that the Chamber of Commerce is taking action in a matter which has long operated unfavourably to the engineering and shipbuilding industries in this country." The: new Congregational Church in Cambridge Terrace has been completed, ■and tho opening services .will be add this month. The building is a hancl'some one, the design being in the Gothic stvle. The inside measurement of the auditorium is 60ft. by 40ft., and there is accommodation for 421 persons, including 86 in the gallery. The seats are of heart of rinra oded, and a feature of the building is the lighting, which is indirect, tho light beng leflected from the plastered ceiling.. Ihe building covers an area of 130 ft. by 62ft., and room has been left for future extonsion. • .' Along with almost every Labour body in this city and elsewhere, the Trades and Labour Council has made a piotest against the proposal to sell the State coal mines. Tho arguments- put forward against the sale are that if the competition of the State is Temoved from the coal business the way will be open to private coal owners to form rings to force up tho price of coal, that State competition has exercised a wholesome effect in keeping down coal prices to the consumer, and that the ergument that the recurrence of labour troubles iustifios the sale of the State mine is fallacious, because the private employers have been subject to tho same labour troubles as the Stato. The Trades Council urges that the State should rather extend the. enterprise by acquiring Stato colliers.

The Court of Survey uphold the appeal of the Grcymouth Harbour Hoard against the Chief Surveyor of Ships, who refused to allow a reduction valve to be fitted between the boiler and engine of the Westland. with costs against the Department.—Press Assn. It has been decided by the Defence Department that in future all blouses, shorts, hats, belts, and puttee hose en issue to members of Senior Cadet companies will bo withdrawn from such cadets when ceasing to be membors of Senior Cadet companies through transfer to tho Territorial Force, or for avy other reason. If, however/a cadet is transferred from one Senior Cadet company to another his uniform will be transferred with him'. Tho names of Mr, James M'Kenzie, well known as a trade union secretary, was mentioned at yesterday's sitting; of the Third 'Wellington Military Service Board. M'Kenzie had lodged an appeal after being drawn in the ballot, bnt ho did not appear to support it, and the case was dismissed by the board. i

Of tho sevonty-eight reservists examined in Mastcrton last weok bv tho Military Medical Hoard, only eighteen were accepted for active service.

Tho Wellington Tramway Employees' Union, in accordance with its previous decision, has given three months' notice to the City Council of its intention to terminate the present agreement under which the men are working, and to sock a new award. At a meeting of tho union on Sunday arrangements were made for drawing up new proposals fcr submission to the council.

Challenged by he Mayor of the Hutt (Mr. H. Baldwin) to produce- potatoes grown in Miramar better than certain weighty specimens grown in the Hutt Valley, Mr. V. Townsend (Mayor of Miramar) yesterday produced tbreo giant tubers, which individually beat Mr. Baldwin's exhibit, but wore not shown in quantity, as was the case with the Hutt potatoes. Tho Miramar potatoes weighed lib. 3{07.., 31b. 2&0z., and 31b. 3oz. respectively, and wero of tho "Up-to-Dato" variety.

At tho first ordinary meeting of the newly-elected City Council to be hold to-morrow evening, Councillor George Frost will move:—"That in view of the extra fares charged by the Karori Borough Council over its lines on Sundays, which addition materially affects the large number of citizens visiting Northland and the cemetery on that day, and whereas the borough reaps an undue advantage thereby, the city making no extra charge for the running, although paying time and a half to tho employees, the borough be informed that the running rates for Sunday will be increased to double the present rate of Is. Id. per car mile unloss the extra fares be at once discontinued."

Among the passengers to arrive from Australia recently was Mr. A. L. Grey (a brother of Mr. D. W. Griffith, picture-producer, who conceived "The Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance". Mr. Grey lias come to New Zealand in connection with the exhibition. of "Intolerance," which is to be shown for the first time in New Zealand on May 26. The Wellington dates are from June 4. Mr. _ Grey says that his .brother went to inconceivable trouble to get the proper set-, tings for "Intolerance." He had replicas made of the ancient walls of Babylon, and tho hall in which the feast of Belshazzar is held is half a. mile in length. His settings of Paris in the days of the revolution were also built on a masterly scale.

A young man who had been born in New Zealand, but whose father was, an nnnaturalised German, came before the Third Wellington Military Service Board yesterday. He explained with some feeling that he had made repeated attempts to enlist, but had been told emphatically by the military authorities that they . did not want him. Then he had asked that his nanie should be removed from the roll of the reserve, in order that, he might not be summoned'in the ballot, b~ut>he had received no reply on that point. He had been born and raised in New Zealand, lie added, and it was not his fault that lie bore a- Gorman name. The board adjourned the case for inquiry.

In the annual estimates brought down by the late Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, and approved, was an amount for the installation of an internal telephonio system between the different wards anddepartments of the Wellington Hospital. At present each of the institutions can be communicated with through the exchange, but in order to improve the telephone service plans have been'prepared for a 36-point exchange (which may be extended to 60-point as the need arises), and as soon as the board has formallly approved the work it will be put to hand. When such a service is available, the medical superintendent, matron, and secretary of the board will be in direct touch with all departments, and a great deal of time will be saved.

"The Church simply could not continue as it was to-day," said the Rev. Johu Paterson, of Sydney, in an .address delivered on May. 8. " 'We advance by oppositions,' said Goethe, and many of our differences were due to conscientious endeavours after truth. Those efforts had resulted in such a consensus of opinion among Christian men that there seemed to be no insuperable difficulty to union at. least between the Congregational,- Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches in this land. The fearful waste of energy entailed by the' present divisions alone called _ for change. Thero were no denominations in the wards of a military hospital and in heaven. Why should there be any liere? But they were here, and could not all be removed at once. Whatever would belp towards the building up of a great Australian Church, which would minister adequately to the needs of Australia, would be welcomed by the Presbyterian Church. With a Church strengthened by union, purified by suffering, quickened by love, there should be no fear for the future, but for the present there was sweat of brain and ache of heart. The war had not yet brought that change which was expected, and we must labour and wait, and pray for the return of those days of earnest Christian service of which the fathers spoke." .

On May 25 and 26, £25 .will be given away in sums of 55., or 10s. to _those who on request can produce a Crippled Soldjers' Hostel Art Union t-oket stamped "Suratura D."*