MISCELLANEOUS.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 1 August 1919, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A fatal motor accident occurred at Eltham on Wednesday afternoon. Two cars collided, and one containing Mr T. McQueen, Mrs Frances Helen McSweeney and her daughter, Mrs J. Potts, capsized. Mr McQueen and Mrs Potts were thrown clear, but Mrs McSwccney was pinned underneath the car and sustained serious internal injuries, from which she died an hour later. Deceased was aged 65 years. The other car was undamaged.

Ten thousand war workers attended garden party at the invitation of the u_ ..l Family. The occasion provided He liveliest spectacle in the history of • 'ogham Palace. The crowd mingled it i society people, and included .exlunilioa .orkers, nurses, waitresses, ■olieemen, Salvation Army girls, and .nuuicipa’ dignitaries. Some of tho workers were provided with new top hats and tailcoats, and ’i.- women woro the latest fashions.

Tho Taranaki *• Herald’•' says there is something seriously wrong with land valuations. Tho discrepancy between valuations and values is too great. There arc farms in the Taranaki district valued for taxation an. rating purposes at from £lO to .ilo per acre which have ’changed hands a . two. three, or four times as much. In many cases no doubt the price given .'or laud is far too high and is not likely to bo maintained, but there should be some kind of relation between selling prices and taxable values, and above all there should be something like uniformity, so that the burden of taxation may be fairly apportioned. The Land Valuation Department is sadly in arrears with its work.

The Minister of Education states that Cabinet had approved of the appointment of a chief inspector of primary schools whose work, inter alia, [would be the supervision and co- ! ordination of work of the inspectors of the primary schools throughout the I Dominion and tho supervision and adjustment of the syllabus of instruction. There was the important question of schooL books and the need for doing something in tho direction of ensuring uniformity of the text books on certain subjects, such as arithmetic and geography. The school building branch of the Department also needed strengthening, not only to meet the extended building programme not being carried out, but to provide for future needs. Therefore it had been decided to call for applications for an officer having architectural knowledge and experience to assist Mr Spencer.