LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 128, 23 February 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The four bright planets—Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn —are now all visible in the evening sky, nnd form very fine objects in the telescope. The Government Astronomer (Dr. C. E. Adams) states that Saturn is particularly interesting at present as the rings are visible. This phenomenon occurs periodically—about every fifteen years. For the benefit of observations by the public the Astronomical Society’s Observatory is open on the second and fourth Tuesday in each month.

The first personally conducted tour in New Zealand by Thomas Cook and Son since the war is in the hands of Mr. R. A. Bonnett, of the London staff, who left Wellington with .his party on Monday evening for the south. The members of the party, all of whom ai;e from New York, are as follow:—-Misses Ruth Ring and Beatrice Brown, Mesdames Norinan R. M’Glure, John Wallace, and Boardley, and Mr. Horace Keesing. The duty of Cook’s representative is to closely attend to the comfort and 'enjoyment of the party, to Iqok after all matters of business concerning transport, luggage, tickets, .accommodation, and to ensure that those under his care see all there is to bo seen in the countries visited. After the trip through New Zealand the party will visit Australia.

Consequent on lhe holding up of cijal cargoes, the Auckland Gas Company notifies that, there will lie, partial pressure only except between 4.30 and 6.30 p.ni., in the oily area, with further curtailment after Thursday, unless conditions i inprove.—Press Assn.

“At no time have musicians' had more opportunity than at present,” said Mr. H. Temple White, conductor of the Choral Union, at that body’s annual meeting hist evening. “The public are eager for music—good music,” he added. First sopranos and second sopranos, first tenors and second tenors, are full of dignity as to their positions in a choir, and at last night’s meeting of the Wellington Choral Union, members of the female portion of the choir had something to say on the subject of correct occupancy of seats, maintaining that first singers should not sit with second singers, and so on. One lady member stated that there was a “disgraceful scene” at the last concert given by the society, when ladies in ilhe chorus were squabbling about where tfhey were to sit. “There should be proper division among first and second sopranos,” maintained another lady. “We should be numbered, and should take our numbered seats during the concerts. . . .

This need is particularly applicable to new members.” This suggestion was received with loud applause.

Replying to n question during the hearing of a civil case in the Supreme Court yesterday, a witness proceeded to explain a certain point by quoting a legal decision. Counsel for the other side became sarcastic. “Mr. ,” he said to the witness, “you should have been a lawyer. You've missed your vocation!” “Not' necessarily,” answered the witness.

Owing to the trouble on the waterfront and in order to conserve coni supplies the EasiUourne Ferry Board has decided io suspend the ordinary timetable. An amended time-table is published in this issue.

A Press Association telegram from Nelson states that the steamers Kowhai and Flora have been engaged in transferring a blast furnace, plant., and machinery ■for the Onakaka Iron and Steel Uompafiy. It is estimated that iron will be manufactured within eix months. The first notification received by Mr. James Marchbanks that, he was appointed a member of a commission to report on the site question for the new railway station for Palmerston North. was through the newspapers. He, with Messrs. A. H. Miles and AV. M. Hannny, were appointed to the commission by notice in Inst week’s Gazette. The commission has been asked to report by March 1, but in all probability that date will be extended by some weeks in order to allow time for the* work to l>e done thoroughly. The special meeting of the City Council was to have been hold last evening at the request of Councillors L. M‘Kenzie, J. M. Dale, and J. O. Shorland to consider Councillor T. Forsyth’s motion to rescind a motion passed by the council to set up a. committed of inquiry into the management of the city tramways'. The meeting was called ofl at the request of the conveners at 4 p.iu. yesterday. '

City councillors who have been making a close inspection of Miramar, now part of the citv, are particularly pleased with the lay-out of streel corners and functions. For .a long time ,the City Council has found it necessary to acquire properties lor fhe purpose of rounding off corners for the easement of tram tracks. This will never be necessary in Miramar, where each corner has been sliced off on the oblique, so as not, to admit of any right-angle corners. The streets at MiTamar are all of a serviceable width. None are less I han a chain wide, and the main thoroughfare on the flat at Miramar is 90ft. in width, permitting of a plantation for a considerable portion of its length. A meeting of the small shopkeepers or Wellington South has been convened for this evening in the Newtown Public Library to form a deputation to the Minister concerned that will present to him a petition protesting against the, new regulation providing for the 6 o’clock closing of all stores. Mr M. C. Barnett, Assistant Public Trustee, and Mr. J. Snell, Secretary to the Public Trust Office, have left for the south on a special visit of inspection to all branches and agencies of the Public Trust Office in the South Island. They will be absent till April. A. boy named Jack Grayndler, 12 vears of age, residing at 30 College Street was knocked down by- a motorcar at the corner of Tory Street and Courtenay Place last, night. His left lc” was fractured above lhe ankle, and he also received serious 'njuries to the head. He was admitted to the hospital at" 8.30- p.ui.

Injuries to three fingers wore sustained by a youth named William Cunnimore, Ifi years of age, while working at the Gas Company’s workshops yesterdayafternoon. He caught his right haild in a guillotine, and three of his fingers were badly cut, necessitating his removal fo the hospital for treatment.

The New Zealand Labour Party is continuing its organising campaign and meetings in various pprts of the country are being arranged. On Monday night Mr. Moses Ayrton (general secretary of the party) hold a meeting at Marton Junction, where a branch was formed, twenty persons each taking a miembcrship (ticket. The Rev. H. 1. Po.it was appointed president. Mr. J. M'Combs, M.P., has been touring the Hast Coast and Hawke’s Bay districts, delivering addresses on the aims ajid objects of the party, and on Sunday next he will speak at Napier.

I Consequent upon the timely action of the City Council in securing the threestory brick block of offices in Mercer Street, recently owned by the New Zealand Consolidated Dental Company, the long-contemplated additions to the Town Hall are rendered unnecessary. The new offices are now occupied by the city engineer's department. Fhe public oilice is on the ground floor, the city engineer and his assistants are located on the first floor, and the draughtsmen enjoy pirv, well-lighted rooms" on the second’ floor. The sanitary department is located on the ground floor of this block. The departure of the engineer find his office staff from the Town. Hall has greatly, relieved the pressure on office space in that building. The city treasurer and city solicitor •Tre to divide the offices lately occupied by the city engineer, and the rates clerk' is to take possession of the room now occupied by the- treasurer. Tflie aceoniuiodation at present required by the city treasurer’s pay staff will probably bo made available for the overcrowded staff of the Town Clerk. If the Town Clerk makes No. 1 committee room his office, the relief afforded to the staff will be all the greater. The Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association’s executive, after hearing Messrs. Andrews and Long, endorsed their action in resigning from the Dominion Executive.—Press Assn. The cost of electrical fittings was the subject of a report to the Christchurch City Council by its electricity committee.' “In connection with electrical installations, a consumer is sometimes confronted, upon obtaining quotations, with a very wide range of prices for a given installation,” the report stated. “In order to explain in some measure ibis apparent anomaly, samples of English and Japanese electrical equipment were submitted to the committee with information on the comparative prices as follows:—Holders, English Is. 9d., Japanese Is. 2d.; tumbler switch, 2s. 5d., Is. 3d.; ceiling rose, Is., 9d.;’ flexible cord, 2d. per foot, l{d. per foot. The result of adhering to high-grade English .material in all vital equipment sometimes places the council -at a disadvantage in quoting against firms offering Japanese material. It is, however, apparently recognised by the bulk of the public tha? in°sucli matters a consumer obtains just about what he pays for. This is borne out by the report of the number of installations connected during Hie last two months, of which the city has carried out approximately one-fourth.” “I happen to be, for the time being, Minister of Mines,” Mr. Massey said in fhe course of his speech at Hokitika' last Wednesday. “A number of newspaper editors, who think they know all about it. say that 'Mi;. Massey has overloaded himself, and cannot do justice to the work m hand. But if a man at the head of affairs wants to get the run of the different Departments, and the knowledge he ought to possess, there is only one way to do it—and that is to take over the Department and run it himself, then he will get the necessary detail knowledge. I took our finance, and as a result I got much information on the subject. lam prepared to say this: That whoever the Prime Minister may be, the one Department that he should control, besides the ordinary work of the 'Prime Minister's Department, is that of Finance. He cannot do his iwork nor his duty to the country unless he is conversant with the details of finance. Judgment has 'been delivered by the Court D of Appeal in the ease of Peter M’Donald v. Elizabeth Valentine and others The appeal was from the ruling of His Honour Mr. JusHee Sim, in an action by the appellant to obtain probate of an insti-uiffent purporting to be the last will of one Archibald M’Donald, in which the appellant, Peter M'Donald, was named- as sole executor, 'lhe respondents, in answer to the claims ot the •appellant, alleged that at Hie time of making the will the testator was not of sound'mind or memory, and Unit the execution of the instrument, was obtained by means of undue influence. The Court of Appeal (ths members being Their Honours the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout , Mr Justice Herdman, Sir Bassett Edwards, and Mr. Justice Chapman) was equally divided on the matter, and therefore the appeal of the original p.aintiu was dismissed.

At the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch yesterday, Mr. S. E. M’Carthy, S.M., imposed lines Of Jll5 on Stacey and Hawker and JMO on John Gilmore, bakers, for selling under-weight leaves, ’lhe Magistrate said loaves were seldom found to be over-weight, but were frequently under-weight. Consumers were buying high-priced bread, and must be protected .--Press Assn. The Prime’ Minister was asked by representatives of the 'Westland Timber Workers’ Union at Greymouth on Thursday’ to prevent an American company from carrying- out ita intention to acquire a large area of forest land at Jackson’s, South Westland l Mr. Massey replied ’that the company proposed to acquire 10,1X10 acres, but the proposal was opposed by the Forestry Department, and had been dealt with. He would take precious good care that Government forest 'land would not be disposed of unless there was good reason for taking that Step. He wished to secure tl'.e whole of the timber of this country for the people of this country. The Patriotic Society band will play at Oriental Bay at 8 o'clock to-night. The West Coast is at present “suffering” from an unusually long spell of dry weather, and from the mild resentment that ’West Coasters show when visitors comment on it—they eithe"donot like the dry weather, or are annoyed at the insinuation that in ordinary circumstances it is always raining on the Coast (states a Christchurch paper). The present spell has lasted almost without “a decent drop of rain,” as some observers put it, since about the middle of. December; one exception was Boxing Day, but it is pointed out by Vi est Coasters that on that day Jt rained practically all over the Dominion. Mining operations and gardens have felt the effect of the dry spell, but it is perhaps in Greymouth that the absence of the normal rainfall is being most felt. In order to ensure the necessary supply of water for the town, pumping operations have hod to be continuous for the past six wCeks..

A Palmerston North solicitor has shown the "Manawatu Daily Times” official correspondence in which the misuse of the academic, though frequently used terms ultimo and proximo, in reference to the date of repayment of a large sum of money, had caused his client a loss of about .£125. This, said he, in a public department is inexcusable; but unfortunately, in this instance, without recourse against the .Crown. Mhy people do not use the name of Hie month intended instead of such foreign del natives as instant, ultimo, and proximo he does not understand. The term ultimo (last month) as in this instance is quite frequently confused with the word ultimate, which is really represented by “proximo” (next month). The following resolution has been passed without dissent by the Unitarian congregation at Christchurch, with roleience to the. death sentence pm’-s’e on Reginald Matthews for the murder of Clarence Edward Wagstaffe at Timaru: —“ln view of the fact that modern science teaches that criminality is the resul of heredity and environment (chiefly the former), and victims predisposed to crime are usually mentally inferior; also that statistics prove that mental defect is hound up with criminology; we, the Unitarian congregation of Christchurch, ask for the reconsideration of the capital sentence passed upon Reginald Ihcws.” petition to the Prime Minister protesting against the death sentence being given effect io has been circulated by the Labour Representation Committee, the executive of which will consider taking further action in the matter during the week.