LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 138, 6 March 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

! Six.-hundred and fifty-five cases of influenza were reported betwen uoon on Monday and noon on- Thursday. They weredistributed as follow—North Auckland health district, Auckland, -JO; TTaw,lie's 13ay, 72; "Welliiißton, 232; Canterbury, 151;Otago, 157. Of the total 630 cases were mild, S were pneumonic, and 17 were severe. ■ • Very fen* undischarged New Zealand ■soldiers remain abroad, at the present time. . A'statement dated February 25 'srivcii tlm total as 159, of whom 132 are in the United Kingdom, 8 in France, and 19 in hospital. Included in the 132 in the United Kingdom are 30 men with ivives and . families, and 20 men . who have been granted permission to receive their'"discharges in England. Since the armistice 40,013 men have been evacuated. "It is no part of the task of the Workers' Educational Association (o settle industrial troubles or como between 'Capital and Labour," said a member at the annual meeting last night. "The association offers education for its own sake, and that, point should bo sfrossed. The assoehtion simply offers knowledge to the peoplo who want lo possess' it."' The Reserves Committer of Die City Council is proposing lo convert the big hockey ground, on the rise immediately ,to the north of the pavilion ;iL ] Jay's Hay, into tennis courts. The committee favours the idea, too, of laying down 'eight or. ten courts in Central I'nrk. The ITutt Park Committee decided at its meeting on Thursday evening to ask the three controlling councils for grants, as its funds have been depleted by'the expenditure on buildings during tile year. The following amounts are to bo asked tor: -ClO from the l'ctone 'Borough Council 1 and Hutt Borough Council, and ,£3 from (ho Eastbourne Borough Couuoil.

Tho Canterbury Education Board decided .yesterday to forward a strong protest to the Education 'Department against its decision that tho marriage of a lady teacher, would not relieve .her guarantor from obligations entered into undel the' Training College .bond. Government offices throughout New Zealand will be cldsed for tho Easter holidays from April 2 tc. Apr.l 5, both days inclusive. Negotiations for the erection of a number of dwellings in Christchurch are being conducted hy tho Labour Department. The Christchurch City. Council applied to the Government for a lobli of .£!!0l),00() for housing, under the provisions of the Housing Act,' hut no part of this money has b?en made available. The Labour Department is prepared to build a considerable number of houses in Christchurch, if contracts can be''.arranged, but hitherto thero have been difficulties about arranging with builders who were Willing to undertako the work.oil terms approved by tlie Department.

"The workers nro the beat-informed section of. the community as. far as economic and social problems nre -concerned,said the organiser of the U orkers' Educational Association (Mr. D. J. B. Seymour) last night. "I have-met many business men who admit that fact, ami I believe that in the futuro we shall have more business men studying with tho association's classes. Experience ■has shown that the men who study these problems betome Radicals."

TJ-- Canterbury Education Board yesterday endorsed a resolution of the Auckland Board expressing to tho Education department a strong objection to national scholarships being tenable at private secondary schools.

Dr. A. W. Averill, the Anglican Bisliop of Auckland, who is in Wellington, en route to England, to attend tho Lambeth Conference, will be the special preacher in St. Mark's Church to-morrow evening on behalf of tho Melanesian Mission. The new block of the King George Hospital at Eotorua is just about complet. ed. and will be handed over by the contractor to the Defence Department' -within the next few days. A start has already been mado to equip and furnish tho wards, and everything 6hould be in running order within a fortnight.

Mrs. Lucas, wife of Andrew Lucas, a. miner, of Hamilton, gave' birth to four children, three boys and a girl, recently.. There are two other children, aged three years and fifteen' months respectively.

The conference arranged by the Board of Trade between representatives of the Boroughs of Ketone and Lower Butt, in connection with the gas dispute, - and which wns to have been held yesterday morning, was postponed until Thursday next.

The chairman of the Petone Labour Representation Committee (Mr. Scliofield) Breaking at Petone last' night_ said they had converted many to their way of thinking, although they had not voted for Mr. Pritchard. A good deal of spado work' had been put in, which would stand them in good stead. Their secretarial expenses for the election were Bs. 2d.— a labour of love. '

A world's record, it is stated,, was broken by the dividend that resulted from Wairoa Bell's performance in the Wakefield Handicap at the Nelson Trots yesterday. Thero was one ticket 011 tho mare, and that ticket was not her owner's. Tho biggest dividend paid by.tip machine before yesterday is believed to have been an Australian on?. What the machine handed out 011 account of Wairoa Bell is mbro tliaii threo limes tho amount ,of the Australian' dividend.

In reply to tho letter of "Disgusted Enthusiast" in ' yesterday's Dominion;, Mr. Dick, the caretaker of the municipal tennis courts at Day's Bay, states Hint in his judgment the grounds were too soft to stand preparation for play on Wednesday. Although the weather .was then fine the ground was so soft that it the horse (to draw tho roller) had been taken on the courts its hoofs ,woud, have made holes all over the green. The City Council authorities place every reliance in Mr. Dick's judgment as to the condition of the Day's Bay courts for piny.

According, to Mr. ,T. Churchouse, of Petone, "any ,Labour Par.ty p which arose' and was not a true reflex, of, the. industrial Labour unions of vap a spurious cUss of Labour Party.;