LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 226, 18 June 1919, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ad amending regulation regarding lho issue of service chevrons to members of the Expeditionary Force has 'been issued. It stales that "qualifying service for the additional chevrons need not be continuous. It will include periods of leave up to 0110 month where the individual returns to a unit at the conclusion of.such leave. Periods of absence without leave, imprisonment, detention, hospital treatment, or sick leave, due io- avoidable causes, or periods of captivity as a prisoner of war, will be excluded when calculating the twelve months required to qualify for an additional chevron. Wounded officers and soldiers who become prisoners of war will, however, bo pormittfd to count the period spent iu captivity towards the award of additional chevrons."

"I was most sceptical about waterdivining," declared Mr. T.- 0. Fox, ougineeil of the Miramar Borough Council to a Dominion reporter, "until we ivent out ivitli Mr. Clarke the other day. Now I am quite convinced that it is quite all right. I deliberately set traps for him without letting anyone know, but ho beat me every time. At one time I led him over an eight-inch main, where thern was nothing to show that the main was underneath, but as soon as he got over it his nerves began to jump in a most extraordinary manner. Ho located ihren of our mains that way. It convinced me!" The Borough Council is being recommended to sink a well where Air. Clarke located a big flow in Seatoun.

To paraphrase Gilbert, "Tho cily motor Inspector';* TIT© is not a happy one." Before anyone is allowed to drive a motorcar or lorry in Wellington that person must, have a driver's license, and to gSt one the driver has to earn it under the eye orlhe inspector.. It is in that process iiiat trouolo not. infrequently occurs. "Most of them say they canCdrive when they come : here," said the official,' ''Sometimes they can—sometimes' they ■can't. One returned soidior fold me that he was a good driver, and had driven ih France. I was prepared to believe him until he went full tilt into a post opposito the Wellington Club on (he Terrace (after rounding the corner from Woodward Street), and threw me clean out of the car;. When I looked round his head was sticking through a gaping hole in the wind-shield. The radiator was crumpled up liko a paper bag, and the ®gine badly damaged. On another occasion I was testing the driver of a heavy lorry, and lie was just about to charge a shop window in Willis Street when I jerked the wheel round and turned the car's head out into and across tho road, an act which saved the lorry and earned me the torrid abuse of a tramway motorman, who thought I was to blame. Another of my clients was a Chinaman—the Chinamen aro going in a good deal for light lorries. He also Mid he could drive all right. We were going along Courtenay Place on the tram back when tho gong of a following car sounded again and again. I told the Chinaman to puill over, and he did so with such success that we liiado the footpath outside the Gas Company's offices. I shouted to the people on the path to look out, jammed tho wheel round,-and we sailed along tho pavement for a bit until, we could make the road again with safety. I tell you it's not all fun testing for licenses." ;

When in Wellington on Monday Mr. Albert Goldie, a 'commercial emissary from Los Angeles, after discanting on the beauties and up-to-dateness of the live centre of California, was asked how the cost of living there compared witli what it is in New Zealand. Mr. Goldie said as a family man he was interested in the question, and as far as he could jurjjfß home living in Los Angoles was about a third cheaper than it was in New Zealand. 'l'he hotel life in America win expensive, but the home life not- at .ill so. Tho only thing that was dearer in Los Angeles was meat. II: cost a doll alio sit down before a beefsteak, whilst in Cliristclmrch lie was served with

luscious steak, as much bread and butter ;is he liked, three cakes, ami a cup oi tea for eighteenpence'. lie was writing home about it, but knew now that they would not believe him.

"With a land area of 3,603,000 square miles (about equal to that of the Continent of Europe), tho Dominion of Canada had a population at the census of ,lune, 1!)I1, of 7,200,600, showing an increase over the census of 1001 of 1.835,000, or over 31 per cent.,'" says tho "Economist." "In the same decade New Zealand had an increase of 30.;") per cent., and the United States of 21. per cent. No other country showed an increase nearly equal to these percentages,"

In connect ion with the controversy, as to tho relative cost ot wooden and concrete buildings, a gravel contractor with a lot of experience in Wellington states that the statement that the chief conKideration in building a concrete house was the cost of ma to rial was entirely misleading. In support of his contention our informant states that for an ordinary six-roomed house only sixty yards of gravel (river gravel which needed 110 Bimd added, as it was partly sand) were required, and as this material could he obtained, delivered to almost any part of Wellington, for 12s. a yard, the total cost of the material would only amount to .£35. For places 011 the hills the cost (for cartage) would be a _ little more. His point is that even if the material were obtained for nothing, arid only cartage at both ends and railage were charged, the cost would be only a few pounds less than the figure quoted, fio it was not (he cost of the material which made building in concrete dearer than building in wood, or dear at all.

Several applications from architects prepared to execute working plans for the new Technical College 011 draft plans prepared by Mr. W. S. La Trobe (Government Director of Technical SchoXlsj have been considered by the board, and a decision has been arrived at. The name of the architect selected by the board will not be divulged until nexl Tuesday's meeting.

As no agreement could bo arrived at before the Conciliation Commissioner (Mr. W. Newton), the drapers' dispute lias been referred to the Arbitration Court. The points of disagreement concern hours of work, (in certain cases), overtime, classification of workers, holidays, and dress allowance.

The members of the Fire Brigade Committee of the City Council paid a visit yesterday to the new Firo Brigade Station, on the Town Belt at the. head of Constable Street, now in tho final stages of completion. The committee'expressed satisfaction at the spaciousness and convenience of the new station which commands the whole of Wellington South on the ono side of the hill, and h'ilbiriiie, Ilataitui, and Lyall Hay on the other. It was pointed out that as the areas named are nlinost w'jolly residential. there would not be the need of the big heavy ladder motors so essential to firo fighting in the city. As tho character of such districts changed tlie plant, could bo added to as necessity demanded. The rear of the new fire brigade station property adjoins the Newtown Tennis Club's leased property, where the conimitteo noted with pleasure the improvements that had been rcado. At one corner a rise in tho hill (on the Tennis Club's grounds), at prosent planted in the form of a littlo reserve, obscures the outlook from tho lower quarters of the brigado station, and it was .suggested that an. arrangement could be come to with the club for the top of tlio riso to be levelled oft' in ordor that tho outlook from some of the station windows should bo improved.

The Auckland "Star" reports; Our travelling correspondent telegraphs with referenco to a statement made before tho Arbitration Court in Auckland that fiveroomed brick cottages recently erected at tlio Mfltangi milk factory cost nearly .£llOO each: "Matangi people resent Mr. Julian's statement that houses cost ,£llOO. Tlio architect snys they aro not concrete houses, but built of hollow brick tiles, and cost about .£BOO. He considers Jlr. Julian must be referring to proposed houses at ILnitapu for the Cambridgo factory, for which lenders have been called."

The punishment which he proposes to inflict for the use. of obscenc language was mentioned by Mr. .T. E. Wilson, S.M., in tho Auckland Police Court on Saturday (says the "'Now Zealand Horald"). "I thought when I gavo it out that offenders would be imprisoned that the How of indecent language would bo checked, but the warning seems to have had little effect," tho Magistrate said. "In future I intend to impose stiff lines, and tho penalty for non-payment will l)e the term of imprisonment fixed by the Justices of the Peace Act, so that an offender who is lined J35 may bo imprisoned for a; couplo of months, if ho docs not pay."

Tho "Southland Times" states that at least one local business man is iv loser through the similarity between the Bank of New Zealand ten-shilling nolo and tho Commercial Bank of Australia ten-pound article. On Monday the man mentioned gave chango to a lady, included in which was what ho took to lie a ten-shilling note, lie discovered that he was deficient to the extent of .£!) 10s. in his cash. Investigations were made, but the money was not located, although payment had been stopped on the note, which had been issued by the local branch of the bank on Monday morning.

One of the captnins who has been mine-sweeping in a trawler and who was one of tlio chief witnesses at tho recent Fisheries Commission says that lie can provp that the leal herring, so prevalent in Home waters, is to bo found around New Zealand in small quantities (reports the Auckland ."Star"). Whenever ho has been able to catch any he has sent them to those who know the characteristics of tho Homo. fish, and they have agreed with him that they are the' same species, with tho same flavour. He says that this particular kind of fish needs a special net, unprocurable in the Dominion, and lie has sent Homo to Aberdeen for tlio right kind of net, and wiil (hen prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that tho true herring has found its way out here.

Until the war came, the present used to be described as the age of ra/pid transit. But forwarding delays, whilst ofteji admitting of excuse when the transit- is overseas are hard to explain Fatisfactorily when they occur in .the Dominion. As an instance, a parcel of books in connection with the Braille system for.: the blind was dispatched from Auckland for the Canterbury Public Library early in April. It has just been received. A letter posted in Auckland on March 12— the postmark confirms this—has just been delivered to the addressee. This delay in transit is exactly three months.— Christchurch "Hun."

A Zeehan (Tasmania) telegram to the Melbourne napers • states that medical evidence at the inquest on the death of John Macrill, a West Coast hermit, who lived alone in the biish, and who fell down a shallow cutting on the Emu Bay railway, was that deceased was extremely emaciated from starvaiton, and the fall fractuired the cervical vertebrae, crushing the-spinal cord. For over 20 years Macrill's only companions were two dozen cats. At one time he had 80 cats in his camp. When the police removed the body to the railway station at Five Mile, where it remained for some time, cat 9 came to the place from near and far.

Notwithstanding the different paragraphs that have appeared regarding the appearanco of the rare white',crane in various places, we regret to say that one of these birds was recently shot at l'atearoa, Otago Central (states the Dunedin "Star"). The bird was mistaken for a goose, and tho person who did the shooting has expressed contrition and has sent the bird on to thu secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society. It is to be hoped that no other person will make tho same mistake, but that everyone> will do his best to protect the birds. There is a heavy penalty for shooting or killing them. .

Evidence of stimulated internet in tho higher branches of education in Auckland is shown by the fact that there has been a considerable increaso in the number of matriculated students who have entered the University College this year (says the "Herald"). The annual addition is usually about 100. but the number has risen this rear to 110, moro than half of. the new students 'being men. It is considered that there are three contributing factors to this increase-the cessation of war conditions, increased interest in higher education, and natural growth of population.

A public meeliiig was held at Taumarunui on Monday night to take action on tho tenure question, when a Property Owners' Association was formed, and an executive appointed to improve the conditions under which leasehold property is held in the borough (slates a l'l-ess Association message). The mooting pasied a motion: "That owners of property view with alarm the extraordinary increases in the valuations of unimproved values to township property as made by the Department." A copy of tho resolution is to he sent to the Acting Prime Minister with a request that the ValuerGeneral 'be asked to come to Taumnriinui personally at the earliest possible moment to meet tho executive of luo Owners' Association,

The members of the Petone Division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade met in tho Mayor's room last evening to witness (he ceremony of unveiling a portrait of the late Mrs. Collett, who had been a staunch worker in the district. Mr. Seed (Assistant Hod Cross Commissioner) referred in glowing terms to the work of tho lato Mrs. Collett during the recent epidemic. During tho war the deceased lady had ever been to the fore in any Red Cross work in the district, and her loss would 1)0 felt keenly by a largo circlo of friends. The Mayor of Petone (Mr. ,T. W. M'Ewan), in performing the unveling ceremony, also spoko feelingly of tho work of the late Mrs. Collett. He hoped that all who visited lite rOom r.nd saw the portrait would remember and honour the memory of Mrs. Collett. Tho portrait, which is a remarkably good likeness, was copied from a small photograph.

There is at present an acute shortage of coal in Wellington, and unless the strictest. economy is observed _ tho position is liable to become very serious. By using coal only for cocking purposes consumero will greatly help to alleviate the position. The authorities sfate that tho severest penalties will be inflicted ujion hoarders of coal, and householders aro warned against accumulating stocks by obtaining from different merchants. All official advertisement dealing with the matter appears in this issue.