LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 127, 22 February 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The secretary of the 'Wellington General Carriers’ and Customhouse and Forwarding Agents’ Industrial Union of Employers states that owing to the cessation of work on die waterfront, employers of drivers are compelled to minimise their expenses by a reduction of their staffs, and accordingly have given all drivers one week’s provisional notice from to-day. Every effort will bo made to keep as many of the drivers employed as circumstances will permit. Yesterday morning, on observing a yacht, from 15 to 18ft. long, painted blue with a red deck, drifting about the Heads, fhe lighthouse-keeper swam out and brought her safe to moorings. Inquiries are being made as to who owns the yacht, which evidently broke away from her moorings.

For the thirteenth year in succession, the Raglan County Council has collected all its European rates before March 31 in each year. For the present year the European rates amounted to A 18.268 os. 7d., and the whole ameunt has been collected. As to Native rates for the present year, these amounted to ,£1574, and to date only £4O has been paid.

Bunting was flowing from the Harbour Board's offices yesterday in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the board.

The amount of damage occasioned by fire, which broke out at the residence of Mr. R. C. Kirk, of Petone, on AVednesday last, is estimated at £750. The house was insured with the South British Company for £750, and the contents in the same office for £6OO.

Good reports continue to lie received concerning the fishing in Lake Rotorua and the neighbouring lakes (remarks the Auckland "Herald”). Several largo catches have been made recently. On Wednesday Mr. P. Scott secured fiftythree good fish, including a brown trout weighing 81b. Two other anglers caught forty-one fish the same day. Alost of these were hooked near Awahou and Waiteti.

Usually the Post Office Savings Bank year closed on December 31. It will close this year and henceforward on March 31. Depositors will therefore receive interest for fifteen months for 1920-21. Under provisions of section 2 of the Post and Telegraph Amendment Act, 1920, interest will be paid to depositors at tho rate of 4 per cent, (form-' erly 3J per cent.) on deposits of any amount up to ,£s(k) (formerly up to .£3OO only), from January 1 last; also the interest will be per cent., and will be payable on amounts, exceeding ,£5OO and not exceeding .£5OOO. Formerly XlOOO was the limit of interest-bearing deposits. In the case of deposits exceeding .£5OOO, the rates of interest abovementioned will apply only to so much of the balance of such accounts as does not exceed ,£5OOO.

Speaking of his future movements on Friday evening, when addressing members of the Auckland Officers’ Club, Lieu-tenant-Colonel J. L. Sleeman, 1.G.5., director of military training, who is returning to Britain shortly, stated that strong as were the ties binding him to Britain, he doubted .whether they would prove firm enough to keep him there. He felt sure the call of Aotea Roa would prove insistent to both Mrs. Sleeman and himself. After 25 yeJTrs of soldiering. 19 of which had been spent outside Britain, ho could honestly say he had never met a more loyal and hospitable people than the New Zealanders. He had travelled 100,000 miles in this country, and liad not seen one case of genuine poverty. AVhat other country in the world, he asked, could equal such a record? The anxiety of the politicians and of the people to do the "fair thing” was characteristic of New Zealand, resulting in the solution of certain social problems that ’had baffled older countries.

A number of Auckland shopkeepers have formed an association for the primary purpose of conducting a campaign for the repeal of the new clause in the Shops and Offices Act making the closing of certain shops at 6 o’clock compulsory. At a meeting presided over by Mr. E. R. Dann, it. was decided that the title of the association ho "The Auckland Provincial Shopkeepers’ Association. It was stated bv Mr. E. Brafthwaite, who convened the meeting, that a similar association had 'been formed in Christchurch. He said the now clause would have a very detrimental effect on the smaller shopkeepers, as many depended upon their takings at night. The hardship would be particularly severe on returned soldiers who had purchased their businesses through the Repatriation Department, and who had to refund the principal and interest in monthly instalments.

Messrs. C. M. Luke (chairman), A. J. Maxwell, and M, J. Reardon, members of the Wellington Price Investigation Tribunal, will (leave Wellington tomorrow to visit Hastings, to hear complaints and make inquiries concerning prices in that district, returning to Wellington on Saturday night. According to a statement furnished on Saturday io the Arbitration Court at Auckland by Mr. R. F. Barter, representing the Engineers, Boilermakers, and Iron and Brass Moulders’ Unions, there are in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, the United States, South Africa, India, Spain, and other leading industrial countries throughout the world (including New Zealand) approximately only 19,676 unemployed in the engineering trade —a figure which is much less than that shown, in the years preceding the war. Mr. Barter presented detailed figures to the Court from which it appeared that in England there were 5222 turners, 8269 fitters, and 2222 machinists idle. In New Zealand, India, Gibraltar, Malta, and Spain there were none out of work, and in Canada and the United States only a couple of dozen. The total figures included 4425 unemployed owing to strikes or lockouts In oilier industries. The total membership to which the statistics related was given as 460,297, the percentage of unemployed being, therefore, approximately 23. —Auckland "Star.”

Mr. E. F. Andrews, late secretary of i'he Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association, is now residing in Wellington, and has been transferred to the Wellington Association.

The principle of the abolition of credit by bakers, whteh was discussed at the recent Dominion conference in Auckland, has been affirmed by the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association (says an Auckland paper). It is anticipated that at an early date the coupon system of payment of cash on delivery will be inaugurated throughout the city and suburbs.

Some interesting remarks on education were made by the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, Dr. A. AV. Averill, in opening the Cheltenham Collegiate School.. Addressing the parents, ho said: I think people are beginning to realise more and more that we are going to have no real and true education unless it is based upon a religious foundation. We do not want to bring tip our children merely to be good money-makers, but to bring them up to be good men and women and Christians and citizens, and unless we have a foundation of religious instruction, we are not going to make a real success of their education. Education is not merely cramming a child with a certain number of facts, nor preparing it in a way for getting thiough life merely; it is really to bring our the whole personality, the whole character, the whole child, and make the very best of that child; and without religion you cannot do it. It is not the real thing unless it is based upon religion; it is only a caricature. Therefore we want the support of the parents; we want them to realise very fully that they desire their children to have a real education, and therefore we look to the parents, not only now, but at all times, to back up this school as much. as possible. ... I believe the one thing, the greatest thing of all, at the present time, is to have a really sound education, and I am perfectly certain that to get a really sound education it has to be based on religion. We do not want to develop two-thirds of a child. We want to develop the whole lot—body, soul, and spirit in the same place and at the s,"~'e time.”