LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 8, 5 October 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Marama, duo from San Francisco at noon to-day, has only two bags of leti *«r mails and 96S packages of parcels, i Uie mail matter is American, The reai son for the unusually small mail is be- , causo the Tofua's departure immediately preceded the Mamma's. I: 1 vVfl ■ P ??- tal ttuthor i ti «s advilse that the Jv.M.S. Niagara sailed from Suva 'hi midnight on October 2 for Auckland. J. no vessel carries 247 bags of English mail for Wellington. One bankruptcy was reported in Wellington last month. During tho nine months ended September 30, seven bankruptcies occurred :in the city'and suburbs. Thero were no bankruptcies, in September of last year. "Sho was a very old woman," remarked counsel in an appeal caso before the Court of Appeal yesterday, when referring to the respondent, "She could sign her name, and that was about all. She had only had nine months' schooling"™ her life, and had worked since she was nine years of age." • .:. Only eighteen months ago the Pest and Telegraph Department found that it was necessary to provide four public telephones at the Courtenay Placia stopping place. So continuous has the business proved from those telephones that the Department has' erected an independent telephone in tho centre of the open space opposite the City Hotel, which makes fi\<e public telephones within a radius of a hundred yards. Mr. Alfred Quaife, examiner to tho Associated Board of the Royal Academy audi Eoyal College of Music, Londoi., will amvc in Wellington on October 18, to conduct tho annual practical examinations Mr, Quaife, Who has not previously visited New Zealand, is connected with the Kensington School of Music and the Metropolitan School, London, where : there are 5000 pupils; his prim, ary occupation being the training-'-of teachers who attend these schools from all parts to absorb the newest methods in pianoforte technique and interpretation. He iB also a pianoforte performer of some note. Mr. Quaife will bo; in Wellington for two or three weeks, and will then continue tho board's examinations through tho South Island, returning to London at tho end of the year. \ The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) was waited on yesterday by a deputation headed by the Hon. W. E. Collins, M.L.C., with the request that he should call a public meeting in connection with an appeal to bo made to the public on bqlialf;>of tho starving people—and particularly tho children of Central Europe, whose plight, is said to bo desperate. His Worship gavo a sympathetic hearing to the deputation, and said that he would dali a meeting.to be held in the council chohiber at 4 p.m. on October 14. >~ I', fe stated that a number of Kotorua residents, European and Maori, intejhd having a case heard in tho Supreme Court to test the question of the admission of the public to tho Pukeora reserve as a matter of right, not a concession.—Press Assri. U A deputation from tho conference/of the New Zealand Drivers' Federation waited on the Minister of Labour 'Hon. Sir William Hcrries) at the conclusion of th> conference, to suggest amendments to the industrial laws of tho Dominiq'h. It was proposed that compensation under the 'Workers' Compensation, Act' should be increased to J2IOOO, in -the case ;' of death, that full pay should be made pfo--aWe from the date of a worker's injlaj for the wholo period of incapacity, mi that all medical expenses should be paid by the employer. In regard to tho Shops and Offices Act, the deputation aaked that the hours be reduced from 52 to 44, and that drivers should be paid for stable work done in excess of these hours. Dealing with the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the Minister was asked Hint provision should ba made for tho registration of Dominion unions. In reply, tho Minister stated' that the Government intended to introduce amendments to the Shops and Offices Act and the Workers' Compensa- ', tiou Act. The Minister also stated that while the Government would do what it could to make provision for Dominion awards it was not in favour of the registration of Dominion unions. The representations of the deputation would receive due consideration. Definite dates have been fixed for the resumption of the wool sales in New Zealand this season. The first sale will open at Christchurch on November 15, and subsequently sales will bo'held ai Timaru and Wellington prior to the openiii(j of the Auckland sales on November 25. Further sales will be held in Auoklcnd in February and March. The representative of a prominent Auckland firm of woolbvokers s&itcd on Friday that it was anticipated that buyers frem the United States, Japan, end the Continent, as well as from Britain, would attend the 6ales>. Tho information that. tho sales were to bo resumed had been widely cir- ' dilated in tho countries mentioned, and it was practically certain that ample shipping space for all wool purchases would he available. "Although the Samoan is accused of be. ing lazy," says Captain Hassell Garland in his recently published book. "Vailirat, Letters," "when one, examines his weekly routine ono is inclined to conclude, that he is not as indolent as ho is supposed to be. His week is divided up in the following way;— Monday, beetle huntings Tuesday, fishing and work on his plantation, whilst thfo women do the house- i work; Wednesday, work in the morning and cricket in thi) afternoon; Thursday,' plantation work and fishing; Friday, gathering food and weeding his plantation; Saturday morning is devoted to cooking and gathering food, etc., and the afternoon to cricket. Sunday' is always a day of ttevotion; services commence at daylight, and are continued at intervals until 11 o'clock at night. When one looks over this weekly programme, one sees that there ie not a great deal of timfc left in which the Samoan could work for anyone else but himself. In any case thero is no Tenson why lv? should work, for he can make enough by a few days labour on his own plantation to keep himself for a year. You will notice that' there aid only two afternoons a week in which, tiiev are allowed by law to play {■ricket. This hnd to bo settled by law, for at ono time tlin natives became so that tUoy would play all day and every day. The players number somotimos throe hundred n-side, so the matches were sometimes somewhat lengthy ones. It was not tho time occupied that was the real trouble, but the fact that the visiting team ate the residents out of house and homo. However, sinco the proclamation prohibiting cricket except on these two afVrnoona has been enforced, famines in keen cricketing towns have censed." A shortage of butter is being reported frouvEomo parts of New Zealand. The trouble may become more serious during the next fortnight. Tho supply of lost season's butter in tho stores is virtually exhausted, and new butter is not being produced in sufficient quantities to meet tho daily requirements of tho Dominion, apart altogether from questions of cost. The uncertainty as to tho price to bo charged in the local market Su tho future may havo tho effect of causing some of tho new butter to bo hold back. This question of price will not be decided until after the Butter Committee has reported to tho House this wt»k. . *

Il 3. .At ii meeting of the Manawatu Criol;ot i- Association last week it was decided to i- guarantee ,£3OO towards the expenses of d tho English crickot team which is lo i- visit tho Dominion, on tho understandin? Ihut a two-days' match is played at a Palmerslon North--3 In tho course of tho hearing of a case t at tho Supremo Court at Christchurch . last week a question of some interest to the commercial community cropped up ? in connection with tho signature of one * of the parties on a 6alo note (says mi I exchange;. Tho sale note had been . written out in triplicate by means of . carbon paper, aud the copy produced in Court wis not tho top, or original, copy. The questions bein/ put to a, witness by Mr. SI. G. Gresson appeared to indi- " cate that counael was easting doubts 1 upon the authenticity of his client's sig--1 nature. Mr. W. J. Hunter asked if it e was suggested that tho copy of tho note could be regarded only as secondary evidence. Mr.' Justice Sim observed that if that point were raised, he would hold i that it was not secondary evidence—the . act of marking tho top copy having also marked the second and third copies. "Provision is being made in tho new Health Bill enabling the Department to enforce the destruction of rats on ships while lying out in the 6trcam and hefore they are permitted to tie up at tho ' wharves," said the Minister of Public '- Health (Sir. Parr) in the Houso of Ke- >• presentatives. This method, the Slinis- •• ier added, is a more 6«;uro preventive of i- rat immigration than any other measure, y The use of Tat discs is at best a feeble method of excluding rats, as by far tho greater danger is the introduction of ® rats in cases and bales in which thev I are concealed. In the only instance in ■ which the introduction of plague into 1 New Zealand has been traced an infected rat came ashore in a bale of dirty linen. ■ Although discs are still in use, tnore e are many types, and, as the Department - is by no means convinced tfiat the - Worthington trap js the best, no ati tempt will be made to enforce tho use of this particular type. 1 Messrs. Walsh Brothers' Avro aero--3 plane will leave tho Hntt Park at about - 9 o'clock this morning on a non-stop i flight to Wanganui. The route will be b via the sea coast, and is expected to take i about an hour and a half. There will i bo two passengers on board, Jfessrs. E. Going, of Auckland, and H. Wilson, of [ Wellington. 5 Speaking at tlte opening of the East- - bourne Bowling Club's season on Satur- ; day, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, Leader : > of the Liberal Party, said that, despite - • the Labour Party's "challenge," the fol- j t lowing behind him was in its 'teens, j > counting in Mr. Arthur Myers's cabled ', s allegiance to accept 'him (Mr. Wilford) j ) ns the accredited Leader of the Liberal Party in the New Zealand Parliament as < at present constituted. Tfao "oxtrem- , ists" on both. Government and Labour side would meet with considerable and ' solid opposition from himself and col--1 leagues when occasion warranted, but in i all'other lespects his (Mr. Wilford's) ' part)' would in no'way oppose or bin- j , der any measure calculated to further ' the progress of a loyal people. They - ' were determined to maintain the best j traditions of Parliament in constitutional disputes, and to see that the Gov- ' ' ernment of the day got a fair bearing , and a combined backing of; both Liberal and Eefarm members of tie Houso. When it camo to choosing between an eloctive and constitutional, vas against ■a revolutionary, caucus of outsiders holding Soviet views on such an issue, the Liberals nnd Mr. Massey's party would range solidly together in opposing all attempts to wrest from the people the privileges which a Parliamentary franchise granted tliom «s a self-governing and intensely loyal and < law-abiding people. The rank and file ' of the Labour Party's following outsi.le ' tho walls of Parliament would also--;'or 1 the most part-be found holding similar < views when it camo to a question of severing the ties of kinship with tho ' Motherland. 1 "It is not generally known." saya Cap. , tain Hassell Garland, late A.D.C. to Lord ( Liverpool, in his 'Tailima Letters," "but ] I am told on good authority that Samoa 1 is ono of the best cocoa-producing couu- ) tries in the world. The returns per acre j exceed thoso of any other country, while tho quality of the cocoa is proved by the . fact that it always .fetches the highest , prices in the world's markets. The first ( plantation visited , was ono owned and < managed by a widow. This place is only ] 250 acres in extent, and tho owner has i been lucky enough to have, always tho i necessary iS coolies to work the estate. Undoubtedly the placn is in splendid order. On the 250 acres from CO to 100 tons of cocoa are grown a year, and this is sold at from .£9O to .£l3O a ton. Cocoa requires a largo amount of cultivation and almost constant attention to the trees, but after a number of years it pays handsomely. Owing to thio fact that the tree must have a moist tropical climate, and that it cannot be cultivated outiido the fifteenth . degree north and eouth latitude, it is almost certain that <■ the production will never exceed the de- ji mand." Captain Garland then' writes of " another plantation at Tanamapua. "This F plantation was producing about 60 tons i; of cocoa" n year until about tlirfee years c ago, but. owing to lack of labour, due to ;} the repatriation of the Chinese, the crop 1 this year (1920) will be in tho vicinity of J. '8 tons. It has been a beautiful place, l with nic homestead and splendid viow. n It seems a great pity that this and simi- ° lnr valuable properties have gone to ruin. The same Tern arks apply to many n other plantations suffering from a shortage of labour."