LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3122, 28 June 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

lhe ninth ballot under the Military bemco Act was completed yesterday. The names of tho men who have been drawn will be published next week, probably on Tuesday.

Ono of tho Prime Minister's experiences in London was watching a hospital tram dischargo its load of wounded soldiers at a big railway station. Inferring to the experience yesterday, Mr. Massey said that he had seen careful attendants lift into an ambulance a man who evidently was sorely wounded. A nurse was with tho man. Among the spectators was a 'London "flower girl;" with her armfuil of flowers ready to be sold to those who would buy. But tho woman did not sell her:, flowers that day. She stopped forward and .threw the whole mass of blossoms on to the stretcher occupied by the wounded man.

A Gazette Extraordinary issued last night gives effect to the recent announce-' nicnt of tho Minister of Defence that Maoris were to be made'subject to tho compulsory clauses of the Military Servico Act. The Maori men of military ago are to be enrolled in. a Natdvo Expeditionary;, l r orco Reserve, from which recruits will bo drawn as required by ballot. I

"During the royago across the Pacific the steamer that was bringing me back to Now Zealand struck a ; whale broadside on," said tho Prime Minister at the civic luncheon yesterday. ' The stricken whale stuck to tho sharp bows. We all rushed. on deck, thinking, that we had encountered a submarine. 'The ship was stopped, and then it had to bo backed for some distance before the whale became detached.. Now I hope that when we have finished with Germany she will look as limp and as powerless as that whale looked when it dropped oft' thai bows of tho steamer."

Tho.members of tho National Efficiency Board will meet in Wellington next week. They have a. considerable amount of business to transact, and will be busy here for some days Tho members have been working separately in various districts lately.

The National Headquarters of the Y.M.C.A. received news by tho last Homo mail that several of the association's establishments close up to, the front in France have been recently hit by shells. Ono marquee and ono hut were considerably damaged, but no "very serious" casualty is reported.

Tho loan poll of the ratepayers of Petone yesterday on the- proposal to borrow ,£4OOO to oompleto the sewerage scheme did not excite a great deal of interest. Tho voting was in favour of tho loan.

When a deputation, from the. Wellington Industrial Association waited yesterday upon tho conference of directors and supervisors of technical education, Mr. George George, of Auckland, made a few remarks about night classes at tho technical schools and their effect Upon tho students. • "You must have been struck," said Mr. George to a member of the deputation, "by the number of young men in New Zealand rejected for active service. I don't .think we can pride ourselves as a country upon tho t physical fitness of our young people. I have been connected with technical schools for over twenty years, and you. would bo surprised at the number of boys that I have known to break down absolutely under the strain. At the present time boys not only have to attend evening classes, but have to put in another night of the week at drill. Most of us admit that after we have had eight hours* work a day we don't want to'do much/more. Don't you think that as citizens of New Zealand it is in our interests to consider the physical fitness of our people? Don't you think the evening classes are distinctly detrimental in that respect?" A communication before the Wellington Education Board yesterday was to tho effect that the Wanganui BoaTd considers that all boards should agree to refuse engagement to pupil teachers and probationers who decline to undertake the Training College course. The Wellington Board decided that it would give preference of appointment to those who undertake the Training College course, but did not decide to decline to engage-others.

Tho matter of salaries of school teachers on military service was mentioned at yesterday's sitting of the "Wellington Education Board, when tho Education Department wrote, saying it had no discretion in the matter of allowances to teachers on military service. The board' 6 contention 7s that all teachers on military serves ought to be placed on an equal footing in regard to salary allowances.

At last evening's meeting of the Wellington. Harbour Board the chairman (Mr. C. E. Daniell) moved to approve the Engineer's plans for a shelter-shed at the Ferry Wharf for the use of suburban passengers, and to authorise that the work be put in hand. Mr. It, A. Wright said that .though lie would not oppose the proposal, he could not help remarking that the board was gradually providing improvements for boroughs adjacent to the city. The question was whether the board should not draw the line somewhere. Should not the ■■ suburban ferry owners erect the shelter? The chairman said that as a business proposition, suburban wharves did not pay, but it was not becoming of the Wellington Harbour Board to. leave these things neglected. The motion was agreed to. ' A serious landslip occurred on the city side of Ngaio, between the third and fourth tunnels, on Monday afternoon, as a result of which tho inward-bound Napier express was held up for some time at Johnsonville. Subsequently! the train from Johnsonville, which left before tho express, was overtaken by the latter, which took the suburban train's passengers aboaTd. The afternoon train from Wellington to Pahnerston just managed to get through before the slip took place. Word of the slip was first received at 4.20 p.m., and by 5.58 a message was to hand stating that the line was clear. At 5.5!) the 5.10 aud 5.25 p.m. suburban trains, which had been delayed by the slide, left together. All traces oi tho slip were removed by 8 o'clock.

"The Arbitration Court does not recognise the technical schools," said MiGeorge George at the conference of directors and snpervisom of technical education yesterday. "A boy, 'however proficient he may be at the technical school, cannot have his apprenticeship shortened. The result is that boys were anxious to get into the trade at once, in cases where the parents would be quite willing to allow them to remain at school for another two or three years."

It was reported at yesterdays meeting of the Wellington Education Board that a site had been purchased at Seatoun on which to erect a school.

Ninety-eight taxi-ears- were licensed during the year ending March 31, 1917, says the City Motor Inspector _ (Mr. Wigkton), in his annual report. Ninetythree taxi-drivers took out licenses and thirty-three motor-van drivers. This number ..does not include drivers of private light vans, who are at present not licensed at.all. "Tho charges (the inspector states) appear to he far too light on heavy vehicles and too heavy on light machines. A private vim to carry scwt. pays «81. The car would .weigh, say, 7 to Bowt., giving a total load of 12 to 13bwt. A heavy lon-y,' to carry 2 tons with a tare. weight of 3 to 3J tons, total loa3 5 to 5j tons, pays tho same rate, ,£l. A man was arrested by Dotective-Ser-Seant Bawle and Constable Bushton yesterday on two onarges of forgory, involving £'M, at Auckland on May 23.. Tho Court of Appeal had to adjourn tho caso fixed for hearing yesterday, as ono of tho counsel was reported to bo ill. Tho Court will sit to-day.

The Minister of Internal Affairs has received a. report from tho National Council of tho Y.M.C.A., stating that .the first screening of tho official war film, "Tho Battle of the Ancre," in the Town Hall, Wellington, has prqvcd an unqualified success. In five days over 18,000 people witnessed the exhibition, including most of the children of the public scho'ols. The net profits amounted to .£SOO, the whole of which is to bo expended in providing additional comforts for our 6oldicr 3 at homo and abroad through, the agency of the'Y.M.C.A., the Bed Cross and Lady Liverpool Funds, and by tho' Minister of Internal Affairs for comforts in the New Zealand hospitals and convalescent horao9 for returned soldiers. Arrangements are now being completed for its exhibition in other centres.

A deputation from tho School Committees' Association submitted the following resolution "to tho Wellington Education Board yesterday :—"That the Education Board bo requested to urge upon the' Education Department tho necessity for lodging appeals in tho cases of all male teachers who may be called up by ballot for military service." Replying to the deputation the chairman (tho Hon. J. G. W. Aitken) said ho was against the proposal. However, if the committees meant that the board should ask that, ho teachers in tho Second Division be sent till tho whole of tho First Division was exhausted lie would agree. The matter was referred to tho executive to Teport en. Something arising out of bad cheese cropt into a Harbour Board discussion last night. Mr. R. A. Wright asked why seventy-fivo crates of cheese in tho board's store had to bo condemned and sent to tho destructor. A long discussion ensued, but the chairman of tho board said the matter was 'one over which - the ' Department of Agriculture had control. Mr. A. 11. Hindmarsh said that from what he had heard tho whole of tho condemned cheese was not'destroyed: some of it was given round to people who did not object to its condition.