LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 212, 2 June 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

To-morrow is the King’s Birthday, and will be observed as a fairly close holiday throughout the city, and in commercial, legal, and banking circles. It will lie marked by the firing of a Royal salute (21 guns) from tho Mount Cook (Alexandra Barracks) battery. The Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright) has ordered that the Town Hall shall be decorated with bunting, and ho cordially invites all citizens who aro able to display national flags in honour of His Majesty the King. The hours of attendance at tho Chief Telegraph Office to-morrow will be as follow: —9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. to midnight. Smaller offices throughout Wellington, such as Karori, ’etc., will be closed all day. The pen and seal, used by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hou. W. F. Massey) at the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty, have been mounted by the Government to preserve them for posterity. The casket containing thorn is beautifully made of Burmese rosewood, inlaid with Now Zealand timbers, and is covered with a glass leadlightdome, surmounted by a "dovo of peace.” On the front is a gold inscription-plate, mounted on a slab of polished- New Zealand greenstone. The casket stands on a fancy rosewood and inlaid pillar pedestal, the base of which is of wood, from the old Endeavour. The work has been carried out by the mecnanicians’ branch, of the Telegraph Department, and- the dove, gold, and greenstone plate have been supplied by Messrs. W. Littlejohn .anil Son, Ltd., jewellers, who are exhibiting the historic trophy in their window to give the public the opportunity of viewing it before it is placed in the Parliamentary Library. ~

Many complaints are being made by residents of Worser and Karaka Bays about the irregularity of tho motor-bus which conveys them to and from the Seatoun trams. The chassis of the bus, which has now been running some four years, was originally that of a five-seater ear, and was then fitted with a big bus body capable of carrying about 16 people. Naturally there are times when tho engine reYtises duty, so that tho residents have to "foot it” to their homes, he the weather foul or fair. It is being suggested that with a proper motor-bus this service could be maintained more economically than is done by the conveyance that now keeps tho residents guessing. The matter is to be brought under the notice of the City Council by the Seatoun and Bays Progressive Association in the near future. Tho second session of the twenty-second Synod of the Diocese of Wellington will be opened at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. July 5, in the Masonic Hall, Boulcott Street. There will be a service on the same evening in St. Paul’s Cathedral, at which the Ven. Archdeacon Johnson will preach. Holy Communion will be celebrated in St. Paul’s on. Wednesday, July 6, at 7.30 a.m.

On Tuesday next the Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P.) will tender a civic welcome in the Concert Chamber to Major James R. Boose, an accredited representative of the Royal Colonial Institute, who has been touring the Dominion for the past few weeks. The Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright) has been notified of the death at the Trentham Military Hospital on Tuesday of Roland Osmond M'Oarthy (No. 27,679). It was also mentioned that the deceased soldier had been an intense sufferer ever since he sustained his casualty in tho Great War. The funeral will take place to-day. To-morrow, being the King’s Birthday, will bo observed as a holiday by the City Council staff. The news and reference departments of the public libraries will ba open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 7 p.m. till 10 p.m. The lending department will be closed throughout the day. Some 10,000 boxes of butter salvaged from the fire at the Patea Freezing Works have been disposed of lay tho underwriters at what arc considered satisfactory prices. The greater part of tho butter that was sold brought Id. to 2d. per pound under market rate. Much of it was disposed of in the South Island at Is. 9Sd, per pound. At assembly on Tuesday morning at Wellington College, the headmaster, Mr. T. R. Cresswell, M.A., read a letter from the Govqrnor-General covering a cheque which His Excellency desired to be expended in helping to replace the material destroyed by the recent fire in the cricket pavilion. I,ord Jellicoe's thoughtfulness was much appreciated by the boys, who on the call of the head prefect (E. P. Spencer) gave three hearty cheers for His Excellency.

Some motorists are ardent “safety first” campaigners, whilst others hold the envious belief that the nublie is invariably to blame when a street, accident occurs. One of the nmsf reckless feats seen for some time in 'Wellington was the action of a motor-car driver in rounding the corner from Victoria Street info Harbour Street on Monday afternoon. Ho was in such a hurry that the car wheels obtruded two feet on the pavement, so that had anyone been standing on the corner (on tho pavement) they would probaldv ere this bo the. subject of a Coroner’s inquirv or plaint ill in a suit for damages. Naturally flic drives- felt, tho bump, as one. side of his car rose and fell from Ihe pavement, but ho merely laughed, and wont on his wav.

A luncheon to celebrate the Auckland Harbour Board’s jubilee was held yesterday, when speeches were made by various ex-chairmen and the lion. C. J. Parr. —Press Assn.

The revised time-table of the Eastbourne Ferry Company is advertised in this issue.

As a result of the fire-blight menace, the hawthorn hedges in some portions of till' Nelson district are being cut down. At Mahana, in the Moutere district last: week a long length of hawthorn was cut to within a short, distance of the ground level. It is proposed to cover ihe stumps with branches, and burn them next autumn, in the hope that the fire will kill th* hawthorn*.

It was claimed by several speakers nt the annual meeting of the Wellington Early Settlers’ Association last night that the Government should assist the association to acquire a site for a memorial hall. Mr. M. Maxton (Greytown) pointed out what valuable gifts of land certain other societies had received from the Provincial Government, and were still holding in Wellington to-day. What body had a. better right, he asked, than tho Early Settlers’ Association to receive Government help in this matter? Mr. L. M'Kenzie thought that tho City Council could hardly refuse the grant of a piece of land to the association, and one of the ladies present expressed the opinion that

the association should make a request to the council.

“I wish to make a very emphatic statement,” said Mr. J. A. Frostick in n lecture in Christchurch. "I make it after very careful consideration of the question from every point of view from which I can regard it. 1 am strongly in favour of national control of prices. It is coming the world-over as sure as we are alive.’’

Although there aro two returns still to come in, the votes already counted in the Now Zealand Miners’ Federation ballot assure the return of the following candidates to official positions: — Vice-president, Mr. J. M'Briil;; secre-tary-treasurer, Mr. J. Arbuckle; executive member for Buller, Mr. F. Giant; executive member for gold mines, Mr. M. A. Reilly; executive member for southern district, Mr. M. Hammill. Th« contest for the presidency, between Mr. P. O’Rourke (last year’s president) and Mr. B. Davidson, is very close.

Local sportsmen who read the announcement made at the annual meeting of the Acclimatisation Society to the effect that pheasants "are fairly plentiful in Wilton’s Bush” should be in a position to estimate the value of the accompanying endorsement forwarded by a oorrospondcnt:—"In order ‘to remove tho übubts of any person who may possibly be inclined to question the correctness of the statement may I, as one who , has long and intimately been familiar with 'this delectable spot, be permitted to bear testimony to its correctness? From my own personal knowledge I am also able to say that quite a number of other birds, e.g., nioas, huias, site., many of them long popularly supposed to be almost, if not quite, extinct, arc also fairly plentiful in the same reserve, though, perhaps not to the same extent as the pheasants. Trusting that space may be found l in your columns for this short letter as possibly of some little interest to some of your readers.” Tuesday was 'the nineteenth anniversary of the signing of the Vcreeniging peace treaty, which brought the South African war io a close. The war broke out on October 12, 18119.

Writing from Dunedin to an Auckland friend, a petty officer on H.M.S. Chatham speaks in appreciative terms of the warm welcomes which the ship’s company have received at tho various ports. "Life has been one round of pleasure since we left Auckland,” he writes. "The people cannot do enough for us. especially the Navy League, at the different places at which the ship has called. 1 never saw so many people aboard a ship at cue time as I did last Sunday.”

A Bress Association telegram from Hokitika states that the streets of the town were electrically lit last night for the first time by arrangement between the Borough Council and Kanieri Electric, Limited.

"It is a danger not only to the pedestrian. but also to the motorist,” stated Mr. E. Page. S.M., at the Lower Hutt Court yesterday in dealing with the vase of "a cyclist riding without a light.

The following resolution has been passed by the Pctone Small Shopkeepers’ Association: “That this association places on record its strong disapproval of the action of the Labour Department in compelling shopkeepers (in consequence of the faulty, construction of a clause in the Shops and Offices Act) to forgo our usual late night owing to the King’s Birthday falling on a Friday.” A copy of the resolution is to bo forwarded to the Minister of Labour.

The provincial president of the. Farmers’ Union, Mr. A. A. Ross, waited upon the conference of the North Auckland Dairy Association on Tuesday and urged the various companies to join the co-opera-tive scheme being organised by the union with a view to strengthening the position of farmers in regard to political issues. It was decided that tho executive circularise the associated companies with a view to obtaining unanimous support for the scheme, and that in the event of a majority of the companies supporting it (ho conference {igree to fall in with the scheme.

"There seems to bo an impression that there is no real poverty in Auckland,” states the annual report of the Auckland Ladies’ Benevolent Society, "but this, unfortunately, is very far from being the case. While admitting that intemperance, lack of thrift, and improvidwnee are the cause of much of the poverty, there still remains a great deal of sad poverty among a deserving class. Among those the society assists are old people, struggling to exist with nothing but their pensions to meet increasing room rent, etc., sick and worn-out mothers, and perhaps, saddest class of all, elderly spinsters with no one belonging to them to make their lives easier.' This is where the society steps in, and it would be impossible to describe in detail all the good work which is being done.” A. Press Association telegram from Auckland states that tho Auckland University College Council has selected the design for its arts building submitted by Messrs. Lippincott ,aud AVilson, of Melbourne, and estimated to cost £97,<K)O. The competitors, who submitted five other designs, will receive an honorarium of £lOO each.

A suggestion was made at the annual meeting of the Wellington Early Settlers’ Association that serious attention should be given in the schools to the. teaching of local history and topography. Several speakers, including Mr. F. P. Wilson, of Victoria College staff, strongly supported the suggestion, and Mr. Wilson thought that there was a valuable lesson of self-help to be. learned by young people from the early history of Wellington.