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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 258, 1 May 1912, Page 4

s State aid is being sought for the Auckland Museum. The Prime Minister suggests a Government subsidy. A Wairarapa family, it is understood, are interested in the recovery from Chancery of a sum of money amounting to about £250,000. Mr. E. G. Jellicoe lias been instructed to proceed in the matter. There is at present an abnormal demand for labor ill the (iisborne district. A returned visitor states tha.t men are being paid 14s a day for laboring work, and at that pri' e contractors are finding difficulty in procuring men. Comparing the. values of scrip of Auckland's three largest gold mines, Waihi. Waihi Grand Junction, and 'J'alisinan, with the figures of 'February, ]9lO, it is seen that New Zealand investors' holdings have declined in value to the extent of nearly £ 1,500,000. The forty guests at a freak dinner given in London oil a recent occasion by the Irish Literary Club and Association were all dressed as animals or birds. Lions, tigers, and dogs were among the animals represented. The waiters all appeared as eats, the dining-room was designed as a stable, and candles were the only illuminant. The romance of recovering sunken treasure from the sea is firing the ima--1 ginative faculties of many of the observers of the little steamer Wairoa, now undergoing improvements and repairs at Port Chalmcr*. When arrangements have been completed the Wairoa will sail for the Auckland Islands to attempt to raise the heaps of gold which sank in the wrecked ship General Grant. Sitting in his civil jurisdiction at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. Mr. A. Crooke, P.M., gave judgment for the plaintiffs in the following undefended casesW. Banks v. Harry Autridge, £1 2s 4d, costs (is; Standish and Standisli v. George Oakes, 17s Bd, 6s costs; 11. L. Spence v. John Oliver, £1 ISs 4d, 5s costs; R. Rowe v. Richard O'Donnell, £6 IBs Bd. costs £1 12s fid; T. R. Julian v. Tamaono, £4 17s Gd, costs £1 7s 6d; J. 11. Bagley y. Henry M. Coldwater, 5s lid, 5s costs. - Lieut. Benson Freeman, of 11.M.5. Fis- . guard, Portsmouth, is writing a hook on the Imperial Arm}', embodying particulars of every regiment in the British Empire. In order to obtain the history of the lltli Regiment, Taranaki Rides, he has communicated with Major F. T. Bellringer. The career of the Rides should make interesting reading, seeing j that the company has the proud disj tinction of being the first organised | volunteer corps in the Empire to be in j active service. Lieut. Freeman has sugj gested to Major Bellringer that the corps , should indeavor to get the words "New Zealand, 18G1," inscribed on its colors, in place of "Waireka. 18(11," a privilege which lie holds it is manifestly entitled to. Lieut. Freeman is also of the opinion that in addition to the letters "South Africa," the date. 1001-2, should also be placed on the historical and treasured flag. Apropos of a case in point, Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court I yesterday morning, spoke against the j practice of solicitors in continually apI r. for adjournments of undefended debt cases, with the object of wiping-off the liability in instalments. The court, commented His Worship, was not inI tended for that. If a creditor wished to j recover the debt in the manner referred to, his solicitor should obtain a confessed judgment. lie did not think that it was proper to utilise the court for payment on the instalment system, especially a« j each adjournment of an undefended case i put the officials to a considerable j amount of unnecessary trouble. The I solicitor for the plaintiff, in the parj ticular case under review, accepted the ! Magistrate s ruling, and the case was accordingly finally adjourned for a week to enable confessed judgment to be entered at the next sitting, without anv further delay. I think men who leave here to go to San Francisco looking for work at" the present time, are foolish and idotic, said Mr. G. Wise, who is at present in Sydney as Commissioner of the Panama Canal International Exhibition, to be held in San Francisco in lfllo. Mr. Wise said he had only recently come from San Francisco, and man}- laborers and others from Australia were there looking for work, and he believed others had gone since. But no inducement had been held out to them to go. Preliminary work I in connection with the exhibition was now in hand, but there "was plenty of labor available in San Francisco. He did not know that there were more unemployed in San Francisco than in other large cities, but certainly there were plenty of them. "But, anyhow;" said Mr. Wise, "I reckon a man would do better to stop in Sydney, Pay might not be so high, but neither is the cost of living. If I were a working man, I would rather get 10s' a day in " Sydney than 15s a day in San Francisco." It : s hard enough for a Maori concerned in civil litigation with a European to be unable to read or write in English, but when he is also even unable to perform either function in his own language his case is doubly unfortunate. A Maori defendant found himself in such an awkward predicament yesterday in the Magistrate's Court. He was proceeded against for debt, and when his case was called, counsel for the plaintiff asked for judgment by default as no notice of defence had been filed. The Magistrate was on th® point of making the usual < order, when, through an interpreter, it was explained that the defendant disputed the amount of the claim, alleging that he owed £6 Jess than wa« stated. Owing to his complete lack of education the native had, explained the interpreter, been unable either to read the summons or file his defence. The Maori produced in court a receipt—which he could not read —for £5, for which, he alleged, he had not been credited. Under the peculiar circumstances, His Worship declined to enter up judgment, and granted an adjournment in order to allow defendant, with the aid of an interpreter and a solicitor, to file the necessary notice and prepare his defence. One of the first things which the. newly-elected Mayor (Mr. G. W. Browne) will devote his attention to is the tabling of proposals for the erection of new and up-to-date municipal buildings. The present buildings, which have long since outlived their usefulness, were not. when they were erected in 1865, built to suit the requirements of a borough council. Their original purpose was to house the Supreme Court. At present they are in a dilapidated condition. In an interview with a News reporter, the Mayor described the structure as being more fit for stables than for municipal offices, quite out of keeping with a town of such importance as New Plymouth, and comparing most unfavorably with the council chambers ef many much smaller towns in the Dominion. As it was, great inconvenience was caused through the town clerk having to carry on his work in different parts of the buildings, while the borough engineer had scarcely room to move about. Another point was that at present the council had not sufficient rooms to place at tlio disposal of. the public for meetings and lectures, while the necessity for proper accommodation for a municipal museum was not to be overlooked.