DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1927, Page 1

DOMINION ITEMS.

[by telegraph —per press association.] POWER BOARDS. PALMERSTON X., Feb. 4. Power Boards secretaries resumed their conference this morning, when a paper was read by the town accounthnt of Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department on the subject of depreciation of reservers and sinking fund allowing for a general discussion wherein was stressed the necessity of uniformity action on the part ol different Power Boards. It was decided to recommend the executive of the Power Boards Association to consider in conjunction willi Kissel, the chiel electrical engineer of Public Works, before next conference of the Association. tho advisability of all Boards providing,depreciation and renewal accounts if possible a uniform system. LICENSING ACT. AUCKLAND, Feb. 4. For permitting his hotel to he an habitual resort of reputed prostitutes during December, 1926, the former licensee of the Slum rock Hotel. Walter John Arnold was. lined ten pounds by Mr McKean, S.M.. As Arnold did not hold a license at present, said the magistrate, he could not endorse it.

SAFE .BLOWERS. LEVIN. February 4

At Levin Court this morning three brothers, Lawrence Eginont At incisor, Albert George Windsor, and Joseph Frederick Windsor, were charged with having broken and entered the premises of the Otaki Dairy Factory and stolen stamps of a value ot 20s. Accused were remanded to Wellington mi February 12th. The three men are recent arrivals in M.anakau where thc\ were arrested by Detectives Quirke and Russell yesterday. The Otaki Dairy Coy’s office was broken into on -Monday morning, a charge of gelignite being inserted in the safe keyhole, but the burglars decamped on the approach of the factory motor lorry. On the same morning Levin and Linton railway stations were entered and the sales opened with explosives.

SEAMEN’S ACTION. AUCKLAND. Feb. I

Action alien by the Seamen’s Union in Wellington to remove trom office Young (General Secretary of the Feedrated Seamen’s Union) was endorsed at a meeting of seamen at Auckland. O’Shea (assistant secretary of Auckland Seamen's l nioii) said the 1 attendances at this and similar meetings were: Auckland 289. Wcllintnn 215, Dunedin |oO. making a total ol 654. All members present not only endorsed the action of the Wellington men in removing Vouug from office, but also in favour of the "Wellington branch being registered under the Arbitration Act. These facts formed convincing evidence that the great body of .seamen of all the chief centres was in favour of the removal of Young. It bad been stated a section of the men in Wellington had expressed indignation at the action of certain members in taking possession of the union office and forcibly removing the officers in charge. That statement could go for what it is worth, in the light of resolutions that had been carried, endorsing the action of the Wellington men.

EX AMI NATION SYSTEM. INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS WELLINGTON, February 3. A carefully chosen series of qliestions, selected on lines of intelligence tests, formed half the examination which competitors for the -1 union National Scholarships had to answer in the examinations just past. Candidates were given their position on total marks, hut at a later date this year the Examinations IJraneh ol the Education Department intends collating t'he results and discovering just how children who did well in the series of questions framed under the old method and mainly directed to testing a child’s memory, fared in the other half of the examination, which was designed to find quick, intelligent children with observation and alertness. At the same time the question ol whether the examination suited hoys hotter than girls, which has been raised. is to he looked into. Information gathered from this experiment and from other and much more far-reaching tests which have been carried out in connection with lue matriculation examinations is expected to provide a basis for a possible complete overhaul of the "Dominion’s examination system. Tn the ease of matriculation candidates school principals were asked to go over the list of entries from their schools on the accrediting system and indicate which students they would pass and fail and which were just on the border line. The candidate then were set ordinary papers, and. in addition. did a special intelligence test designed by Professor Shelley, of Canterbury College, who is now in posses sion of the papers.

The comparative results are likely to bo of great value, particularly in the vexed question of accrediting

A CANDID CRITIC. MEDDLING THROUGH WON’T DO.” . AUCKLAND. February A. ■■ The people of the British Empire have lost the habit of work an unpleasant fact, nevertheless true.’ This assertion was made this morning by Major Mncgregor Knox, of the British Rubber-Growers’ Association, who has toured the world several times, having visited practically every country. “So many British people seem to have tlm idea.” said Major Knox, “that because the English have always muddled through in times of crisis they can <r o on muddling through. They seem"to forget that the British Empire to-day is faced with a set of circumstances different from any she has ever had to grapple with before. Great Britain, with her staggering war debt, her industrial unrest and unemployment. has to light competition of a kind undreamed of in the past. Ameiiea is pushing ahead all the time, using every scientific device to become the premier iiniong nntions. “ Muddling through won’t do,” lie added. “Everywhere throughout the Empire we will have to give up tilts business of talking much and doing little. We have our lip service all too hichlv developed. If we worked ns hard in the overcoming of our problems as we do in discussing them, we would be far better off.”