ITEMS OF INTEREST

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43221, 29 August 1907, Page 4

ITEMS OF INTEREST

3.. What can be don© to make th© work of the missionaries more efficient and fruitful 1 ? 4. What increase is needed in the way of men and money in order to evangelise the world 1 ? 1. Is the .missionary _ enterprise necessary, or are the religions of the non-Christian nations sufficient for their needs? A!' man named Boyle was arrested on a, charge of wife desertion at Auckland. He was remanded to appear at Auckland, hail being granted and found. Our Matatoke correspondent writes : “There has been a good deal of mortality amongst live stock of late, and 'several cows have died. I regret to learn that amongst the number was a fine pedigree eoW, the property of Mir J. Lloyd, of Thames.” Our Karangahaike correspondent writes: —Mr Hugh Poland, M.H.R., was unable to respond to the invitation of the local Miners’ Union to be present at the last, meeting, as pressing business necessitated him leaving for Wellington on Tuesday morning. A commission of enquiry, composed of fifty laymen, is to go out from America to make a comprehensive and exhaustive investigation of the work in the foreign mission fields. The members are asked to specially report on the following questions: A football match took place on. Saturday at Mackaytown, between the employees of No. 11 level v. No. T2 level, Talisman mine. The proceeds will ibe handed over to Alby O’Brien, who has been ordered by h’is medical adviser to a warmer olaimate. —(Correspondent.) The commission is the outcome of the recent formation of a laymen’s missionary union in New York, created to interest n-rnfessional and business men in mission work, and delegates from the organisation are now in London to explain the objects and aims of the movement.

Aar accident occurred to a child, 13 months old', belonging to Mr J- CCrean, late of Mackniyfowni Hotel. The child, who is just toddling, got in the road of the mother, who had at the time, a pan of boiling fat in her hand, with the result that the child was badly scalded. —.(Correspondent.) The Minister for Agriculture has decided that the best varieties of Phormiunn tenax shall, be secured, seed as well as plants, and cultivated on experimental plots at the several State farms. Mr McGregor, of Wanganui, is to have charge of the work, and will be at the service of flax growers and persons wishing to undertake flax cultivation. Mr A. IF. Harding, one of the best forwards of D. H. Bedell-Sivright’s British team in 1901, has just resigned the captaincy of the London Welsh F.O. Mr A. F TXT:i ßn,ms, another Welsh international, has been elected to the nosition. In the opinion of Mr Cuddie, Chief Dairy Commissioner, 'New Zealand ha® now ai ;g|ood reputation as a cheese producing country, “and so long as the quality is Well maintained We need have little fear in marketing the article to as good an advantage) as other countries engaged ini the same line of business.” In his annual report on the old age pensions the Registrar emphasises the fact that any ben&fiti d'erived from, a friendly society by way of sick or funeral allowance is exempted by law and in actual practice from; application to the reduction: of the amount, of pensions payable to any claimant, and the Old Age Pensions Act is there fore deemed to offer a special inducement to a person, to become a. member of a friendly society, inasmuch as in his old age he will be qualified to receive the old age pension in addition to any benefit that, may accrue, to him as a member of such society.

By August Ist, 1909, the British. Board 1 of Education) estimates that 13,500 new teachers will be required and to produce this number, and allow for those who fall out for one reason or another, some 21,000 hoys and girls should have been brought into the early stages of the profession in 1906. The actual number was only 10,900. ‘The reason for the shortage,’ -said Mr J. H. Yoxall, M.P., the secretary of the National Union of Teachers, to a representative of the Daily Mail, “is that th'e service has- ceased to be attractive. So long as teachers continue to be badly paid, and to ret-' eeive a pension from the State, when they attain the age of 65, after 45 years’ service, of only <£22 a: year, so long will: the shortage exist.” The possibility of Tahuna 1 , as an agricultural settlement, isi considered to be very good, and Mr Poland has asked the Minister of Lands if he would have a sumj of money placed on the Estimates this session for the purpose of snaigging the Piako River. The reply was that the Minister was not aware of the necessity or otherwise for snagging, and therefore would require a report from the marine engineer as to the nature and extent of the work that is required to make the river safe for navigation. Mr Poland, in reply, said that he was in hopes he would have haid) that report, because he '(the (Minister) had visited Tahuna in the recess, and a deputation had waited on him! asked that! he would place a sum on. the estimates this session. He trusted! that it was not too fate for the Minister to make the necessary enquiries. If lie did so he WOuldl find that in the vicinity of Tahuna, which was a Government settlement amdi where the people were not doing too well, the settlers would receive great benefit from the snagging of the river. If it were made navigable for them they would be enabled to get tbeir goods in at a miuch cheaper rat!e than they at present had to pay for darting them from Morrinsville.‘ He sincerely trusted trusted there would' yet ba a sum of money placed; on the Estimates for this necessary work,