LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 220, 11 June 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Postal authorities have received advice from Vancouver that tho It.M.S. Alakura, which left A ancouver on June 4 for Auckland, has on board 611 bags of mail for New Zealand.

“A message in the newspapers the other day stated that fifty-two women Justices of the Peace had been appointed in New South Wales,” said Mr. IT. Holland at a social held by the Canterbury Justices of the Peace Association,” states the “Press.” “As 1. have mentioned before, our association would hail with pleasure the appointment of women Justices of the Peace in New Zealand.” Subsequently the Mayor (Dr. Thacker, ALP.). said: “It will be a great day for New Zealand when we have some of our clear-thinking ladies as Justices cf the Peace.”

T. Gault, a lad aged 15 years, who resides at Victoria Road. Khandallah, "Was admitted to the hospital yesterday suffering from a fracture of the right arm. The injury was sustained through a. motor-car back-firing while the lad was spinning the crank handle. Objection having been taken to Labour propaganda being preached in the licensed halls of Palmerston North on Sunday evenings, the Public Works Committee of tho Borough Council (which i» a committee of the whole) has recommended tho council not to allow the halls io 1» used for that, purpose, writes our Manawatu correspondent from Palmerston North. This is causing consternation in the Labour camp, as Mr. P. Fraser, ALP.. was to have given an address here on Sunday evening. In the course of a reply to a question at a meeting, our correspondent adds. Mr. Moses Ayrton, national secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party, said that Mr. H. E. Holland was not the leader of that, party. He was merely a private member, and held no official position in tho party. He was certainly chairman of the Labour group in the House of Representatives, but. not their leader in the House, which was quite a different matter. No one particular member of the party could dictate its policy, which was decided upon (by /the reasoned judgment of all (he members.

"This man is an ex-jockey and has joined the ranks of well-dressed mon. who knock about the country doing nothing but attend race meetings,” was the comment of Chief Detective Ward in respect to George Clark, who was yesterday convicted- in the Magistrate’s Court by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., of playing poker in a railway carriage on February 9, while fbe train was travelling between Frankton and Taihape. Clark was fined £5, and ordered to pay costs. Ths benefits of superannuation, were very impressively set out in a report io the Lyttelton Harbour Board on Wednesday, in which it was stated that the widow and children of one. of the board’s firemen would receive £7O per year as a. result of his death. The fireman had died on. May 14, after being in the board's service, for about four year*. He had been paying into the superannuation fund for only nineteen months, and his total contributions were only £l9, which had been subsidised to the extent of J3ll.

Until further notice all full-rateJtnd deferred cable messages for United Kingdom are to be forwarded via Pacific, owing to interruption of the Eastern route.

H. Landos, while engaged on electrical fittings «it the Hamilton Hotel, fell from tho roof to the footpath, a. distance of 25 feet. He was only slightly injured. —Press Assn.

Discussing the decrease in population in Central Otago the secretary of the Otago Expansion League told a Dunedin "Star" reporter that there were belter days ahead of the province. "I am quite sure.” he said, “that the fruitgrowing industry will expand, that before long our Central farmers will realise the enormous possibilities in lucerne, that the district will become famous for the raising of agricultural, vegetable, and flower seeds, and that the Central will also become a great dairying district. The two needs in the bringing about of prosperity in these directions are to dear off the rabbits and to provide abundant irrigation. The subdividing of. the land into smaller allotments will do much to settle the rabbit nuisance, and irrigation is. so plainly required that it must become general. I*m fully persuaded that our sons will value the Otago land, and that, thev and their descendants will settle here permanently and make Central Otago one of the closest-populated districts in New Zealand. Even in our day there will be a forward step of that sort.”

The Royal Musical Society's plin for improving the singing in primary schools is not yet complete, according to Mr. R. B. Owen, the society’s -director, who stated to the committee, that information was being sought, and the advice of experts was lieing obtained. It was hoped, that a thoroughly-eflicient scheme would shortly be laid before the Canterbury Education Board whereby correct instruction in voice production and singing would be given, to every child, so that be could, grow up possessing ihe priceless gift of the love of music and the ability La produce it. A letter was lead from the Canterbury Education Board, expressing approval of the society’s efforts in this direction. A small sub-committee was set up to deal with the matter and to report.—“ Sup."

Mr. IL B. Sorensen, Danish Consul at Christchurch, has just received from King Christian of Denmark the insignia of the order of knighthood .of the Dannebrog, which was conferred on him on March 5 in recognition of his services as consul. The cross of the order IS beautiful in design, being of gold inlaid with white enamel. The order was in- ' stilulsd in 1219, and is very highly valued 'in Denmark. There is a. legend (hat in ; 1219. when the Danes were hard press- ' cd in battle, n flag was sent down from i Heaven into their midst, and by its in- ! spirat.ion they were able to carry the day. The order was instituted in commemoration of the miracle. Mr. Sorensen now wears (wo orders of knighthood, the first being Ilia I. of St. Olnv, which wa» conferred on him some years ago bv King Haakon in recognition of his* services to Norway.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Wellington Cricket Association it was decided to ask the New Zealand Cricket Council to urge that an English team be sent to play New Zealand next year. Members were emphatic on this point. The Tramways Band will play at Central Park to-morrow' afternoon. “It has often been said that fast traction in our streets has come to stay, but those responsible for the administration of the law must see that it has not come to stay,” said Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court when inflicting a fine of £5, in default one month’s imprisonment, on a man who pleaded guilty to a ■ charge of being drunk whilst in charge of a licensed taxi-cab in Cashel Street on Monday evening. The Magistrate added that a man who was drunk whilst in charge of a motor-ear, whether on a country or a city road, was a potential murderer and a menace, not only to himself, but to other people. Therefore, the penalty for the offence must be a substantial cue.

The novel sight of a driverless motorcar proceeding along the street in quite an orderly manner, and keeping carefully to its right side, 1 astonished , a number of people in the lower end of Queen Street, Auckland, on a. recent evening. When opposite the Thames Hotel the runaway swerved suddenly and launched itself against a passing tramcar. This brought its career to an end without any damage being done. The performance had been witnessed by the 6.5 p.m. crowd on the corner of the street, and the final act evoked a mild cheer when it was seen that no damage had been done. The crowd surged round the runaway, and pushed it to the side of the street to await an owner. A policeman appeared with - a notebook, but nobody seemed to know' who the car belonged to. nor where it had come from until eventually the owner put iu an appearance about fifteen minutes later. It appeared that the owner had gone into the post office, leaving the engine running, and by some unexplained means its gear lever had been moved, with the above results.

The properties on Wellington. Terrace in the .estate, of the late AV. S. Reid, offered at auction yesterday by Messrs. A. L. Wilson and Co., failed to reach the reserve prices, and were passed in.