NEWS NOTES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 208, 30 June 1914, Page 4

NEWS NOTES.

In reply to a question corcerning the rektuctiona at present imposed upon t'e travtllirg of natives, the Minister for Public Health (the Hon. R. H. Rhodes) stated on Wednesday that he hoped to be in a position to remove the embargo after the end of the preeent rconth. "It is now over two months," he paid, "since th; la«t ca:e ot the epidemic was reported, and as June is regarded as a month in which intection is very liable to occur, the position will be regardsd as very satisfactory if no cafe is reported by the first of July." If suh is the case, the Minister proposes to remove the restriction after that date. Officers of the Department a.-e still travelling through the outlying portion of the North and vaccinating the Maoris who have not yet submitted themselves to that operation.

A correspondent writes: "A large meeting of delegates, has just been held at Papakura to discuss the unwarrantable delay in making a survey of Hunua route. In Novem ber, 1912, a very large deputation (led by Mr C. J. Parr, Mayor of Auckland) presented a petition from 1169 petitioners to the Prime Minister aid t-e Minister for Railways, askirg for a survey; and this was in effect promised. 'I he delegates speke waimly in criticising (he policy ty which the settlers are left in a state of uncertainty. It was emphasised that, if there is a genuine desire to shorten the East Coast line, this route is shorter by twelve miles than any other; ard, at the same time, serve the requirements of many hundreds of present settlers, and thousands of prospective ones. The meeting appointed Mr C. Munro and Mr T. Lock wood as a deputation to Wellington, to lay the wl.ole business before the Hon. W. Eraser, Minister for Public Works."

The Railway Review states that the Railway Department broke a castiron precedent recently which will earn for it the gratitude of the whole eervice. Two employees committed a breach of the trainrunning regulations for which the invariable penalty in the past had been dismissal. In this case the men. both of whom had excellent records, admitted their fault and asked for another chance. It was shown that there had been no risk of damage to life and property. After consideration by. the general manager, the usual penalty of dismissal was waived, and the men were disrated for 18 months. "They go back to work," the Review remarks, "heartened by this lenient treatment, and every man in the railway service will also take courage from this experience, which ohows that a good record is of value in a crisis, and that the Department is not in future goirg to sacrifice promising men just because it was always the custom to do so under similar circumstances. Mr Hiley appears to be a thorough railway man, capable of taking a courageous and enlightened course when his railway instinct prompts him."