AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9055, 14 February 1908, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Associaiion—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.

HIDE MARKET

Received February 13, 11.55 p.m. MELBOURNE, February 13. At the hide sale there was keen competition and prices were very firm. The supply is only moderate.

FEDERAL CAPITAL SITE

Received February 13, 11.55 p.m MELBOURNE, February 13.

Senator Best informed the Senate that the Government intended to introduce a bill during this session or at the beginning of the next and press it forward to a conclusion dealing with the Federal capital site. STRIKE OF TIMBER YARD HANDS. WRITS TO BE ISSUED AGAINST UNION. Received February 13, 11.55 p.m. SYDNEY, February 13. The timber owners intend to issue writs against the Union for breaches of the Arbitration Court awards. (There is a general strike of timber yard hands in Sydney, and 2,000 men are idle).

MASTERTON TECHNICAL SCHOOL. ANNUAL MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS. The annual meeting of subscribers to the Masterton Technical School was held last evening. Mr J. M. Coradine, chairman of the managers, presided, and there were also present —Messrs VV. H. Jackson, E. H. Waddington, A. Haughcy, A. W. Hogg, M.P., and G. Irvine. The annual report and balance sheet, which have already been published, were taken as read. The : chairman moved their adoption and in"doing so. said the comprehensiveness of the report did not warrant his giving details of the past year's work.

In seconding the motion Mr Hogg said the school had not made much advance last year, but that was due to the unsuitability of the buildings in which the classes had had to be carried on. However, taking the past five years, for the purposes of comparison, the school had made wonderful strides both in the matter of the number of classes and the amount of the receipts .year by year. The school had suffered to some extent by the loss of such capable

teachers as Messrs A. B. Charters

and S. E. Wright during the past year, but the managers had secured a competent successor tu Mr Charters in the person of Mr C. N. Haslam. The present staff, and notably Mr Irvine, had stuck to their work tenaciously, and had assisted materially in the advancement of the school. When the new building was erected they would have a steady increase iu the number of pupils, as greater facilities for the proper government of the school would be offered. He considered that where a youth could not attend a secondary school he should be provided with means of following up his studies at night classes, and facilities for this would be provided in the new school. Mr Hogg went on to say that in Great Britain the technical'education movement had advanced immensely, and its advantages were keenly recognised by. manufacturers and employers of labour who gave their apprentices every opportunity to attend technical classes. But for the facilities offered for the use of technical schools the steel industry would have been lost to England and gone over to Germany and America. The speaker proceeded to bestow honour where, he said, honour was clue —on the directors of the school and the Mayor of the town. The latter had taken a very warm interest in the .success of the school, and it was largely through his efforts that they were shortly to have a new technical school erected to the memory of the late Mr Seddon, which would not only be a credit to Masterton, but to the whole dominion. Mr Bunting, the popular secretary, of the school, said Mr Hogg, had laboured incessantly, and undoubtedly his labour had been a labour of love. "If he were not an enthusiast," said the speaker, "he would not have stuck to the school as he had done."

The motion was unanimously agreed to. On the motion of Mr Hogg, seconded by Mr Irvine, the retiring managers, Messrs E. Feist, J. M. Coradine, J. B. Keith, E. H. Waddington, and W. H. Jackson, were re-elected forjjthe current year.

The managers present (Messrs Coradine, Waddington and Jackson) returned thanks on behalf of themselves and the absent managers for their re-election.

The meeting terminated with votes of thanks to the directors and the secretary for their past year's work.