LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 201, 20 May 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

His Excellency the Governor-General (Viscount Jellieoe) has accepted election as patron of th® New Zealand Rugby Union. A communication received at last night’s meeting of the union from His Excellency intimated his intention of attending the South Africa-New Zealand matches.

Unemployment in the city is making itself manifest in several directions. As 'a rule the Mayor of Wellington has a good many callers who are on the lookout for work, but during the past, week the number of such callers has increased, and very little can be done for them owing to the state of the city’s finances and the curtailment of work on that account.

Regulations providing for tile registration by local authorities of premises used as lodging-houses or eating-houses, or for the conduct of offensive trades, or us cattle saleyards, arc published in the Gazette. Registration is to be renewed annually, and the local authorities are given power to insist upon sanitary requirements being observed.

There was another slight manifestation of the Aurora Australis just about dusk on Wednesday evening, says our Palmerston North correspondent, tjhe light being much more subdued than was the case when it appeared last week.

The tender of Mr. W. Wilson. (-£240) has been accepted by the Education Board for the building on Clifton Terrace which has to be demolished mid removed from the section of land destined te provide a playing area immediately ladiind the Terrace School. It was resolved at the meeting of the Education Board on Wednesday that tho School C'onnnittces’ Association be informed that the buildings included in the list mentioned in the letter recently received are included iq the list, of urgent works presented for favourable consideration.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, reports our Palmerston North correspondent.. a fire broke out in a garage in Rangitikei Street, Palmerston North, and as the building was a wooden one, and much of the stock was of an inflammable nature, the place was gutted in a very short time, and the building practically destroyed. The premises, which belonged to Mr. Andrew Guy, 'wore leased to Messrs. Patton and Kearns, two returned soldiers. The building and contents were insured in the Commercial Union office for .£650, and the lessees will be considerable losers. Two motor cycles were got out before the fire reached them. The plant, consisting mostly of machinery, was badly damaged. Under the Housing Act a local body may borrow up tc £lO,OOO from the State Advances Office for house-building in territory under its jurisdiction. Last year tho Wellington City Council took advantage of the Act, and borrowed £lO,OOO to prosecute its house-building scheme. On Thursday evening next a special meeting of the council, will be held to pass a resolution authorising the raising of a further £lO,OOO for the same purpose this year.

The Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright) informed a Dominion reporter yesterday that the £70,000 deposit made, on account of the electric light department is now free. Of that sum £lO,OOO has been allocated already for the Orongprongo tunnel contract, and the remaining £60,000 is to be placed to the credit of tjie waterworks loan account for use in the same direction. By this means a considerable saving will be made, as tho interest which would ordinarily have t to be paid for on overdraft for such a sum will bo saved to the city.

The Education Department is to be approached by the Wellington Education Board to make provision for a new infant department of five rooms in the Petone West School.

A Press Association message states that the Auckland Cricket Association has decided to play Otago on January 1 and subsequent dates. At the meeting' of t'ho Hutt River Board on Wednesday evening the chairman (Mr. W. T. Strand) stated that tho report that the board had granted the Hutt Shingle Company a lease of a beach was not quite correct. Actually, he explained, the board had given tho company a license for three years, but the price at which they would purchase their shingle. would be periodically fixed bj tho board on terms similar to those for shingle purchased by the holders of other licenses.

James Paddon, the Australian sculling champion, says that he has no plans for the future (states the Casino correspondent of the Sydney "Sun”). He will wait for a challenge to come along. There is only one man whom he is anxious to meet, and that is Arnst. I dot. t know why," said Paddon, "but I have tried my best to get a match with Arnst, but for some reason or other he won’t come up to the scratch He is as slippery as an eel.’’ Notwithstanding Paddon’s statement that he had a hard race against M'Devitt, good judges who saw the race hold the view that Paddon had plenty to spare, and was capable of a ' uuc '‘ greater effort had he been naked tor it. Paddon has shown that he can come back, and the world’s championship may not be beyond him. He is only 34, or three years older than M'Devitt. In a note t'ho “Sun" says:—"Dick Arnst called at the 'Sun’ office on July ( 19-0, and lodged a backer’s cheque for £-5 as a deposit for a match with Padaon for tho Australian championship title, tne money is still held by the Sun.

4 special fixture was made for yesterday for the hearing of the charges against Andrew G. Paylor (Mi. H.. • O’Leary), Alexander J- Chisholm (Mr A. Stovwright), and George Churchill (Mr. O’Leary), of conspiring with some, person or persons unknown to defraud the Union S.S. Company of certain sums of money. When the cases were called Chief Detective Ward said that Mr. Macassey, who was to have appeared for the prosecution, was engaged: m the Supreme Court, and asked for a remand! for a week. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M, granted the remand, and renewed the previous bail. The period allowed the Hospitals Commission for the presentation of report has been extended until May 31. The .unemployment question in Christchurch city is being aggravated on account of the reduction of operations at freezing works, states the "Press. One or two of the works in the province have already closed their killing season, while in the others only half of the slaughteiinv boards are being kept engaged. Jt is "anticipated that there will be a general closing down on freezing for export in a fortnight’s time. Several of the slaughtermen who have practised shearing a remunerative means of filling up the off-season have, in accordance with past custom, sought contracts for crutching on sheep stations, but the lowering of wool values -and the general financial restrictions necessitating a reduction of up to 4s. per hundred for crutching, have, it is understood, caused a deadlock. By arrangement with the. Minister of Education the Education Board has reinvited tenders for the construction ot the Technical School at Lower Hutt. At the meeting of the Hutt Rivei Board' on Wednesday evening, an account was received from Messrs Jenkins and Co. for the sum of £165 Ils. 8d , inainlv for labour on tho dredge. It was pointed out by th© chairman (Mr. W T Strand) that the liability had been incurred by the old lioard and that the rate of pay for overtime-bs. Gd. per hour—seemed’ to hi™ to be astonishingly hi-fi. The chairman made mention of tile fact that, the cost of labour in re-erecting the still uncompleted dredge had been £lOOO. remarking that similar dredges had been built, including tho labour and material, for from £3.>o to .£5OO The chairman mid Mr. Mitcneu were’ authorised to interview the contractors with a view to obtaining a reduction.

“What relation is this man of yours-’ asked counsel of a young woman m a separation case at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court. Witness demurred, saving that he was a very distant relation. When pressed for a more definite answer, witness stated that young man in question was her sis ; tor’s husband's brothers wife s brother The question of relationship was not investigated further by counsel. “I know quite well that the pooplo of Auckland say that Auckland is tho one citv in the Dominion said the Governor-General at the Auckland I own Hall. "Indeed 1 , I will let yon into a secret. You me not ihe only people who think that. I was looking into a book called ihe ’Cluldren s Encyclopedia’ a Short time ago published in England. In it T read that Auckland was the finest, city in the Dominion. (Appla’ve.)

A resident of Samoa, writing to a friend in Christchurch, steles that Dt. O’Connor, who has been sent io do research work in Samoa by the London School of Tropical Medicine, has found that a verv large proportion of ihe natives he had examined are suffering from hookworm. The correspondent adds: “It reduces their vitality, and leaves them no power of resistance to other diseases. This, no doubt, accounts for the terribly high death-rate in the influenza epidemic of 1918.”