LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, 2 March 1927, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Walter Hamer, aged 11, died from a seizure while bathing in tho baths at Aramoho yesterday.—(P.A.). A lorry driver working at Alfred ton in the employ of a Pahiatua contractor had the misfortune to fall from a motor cycle and fracture a leg, writes our Mauriceville correspondent. The North Island. Croquet Tournament opened at Auckland yesterday in fine weather. Several matches'in the handicap doubles were decided, but no championship events have started yet. --(P.A.). A Wellington Press Association message states that February was. a record month in that city for fires. Ninetyeight outbreaks occurred in Wellington in 28 days. No such number has been icached for the last 12 or 15 years. Apart from these 98 fires, many false alarms were given.

An application for increased wages and improved working conditions has been lodged by the Wellington Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union. The union recommends that six assessors sit with the Commissioner at the hearing of the case, which is ■expected to come before the Conciliation Council shortly.—(P.A.).

Citizens of Masterton are asked to note that the local committee of the Bible, in State Schools League of New Zealand has arranged for a public meeting to be held to-morrow (Thursday) evening in St. Matthew’s Parish Hall. Mr. E. Philpot-Crowther, Dominion Organising Secretary, will attend and address the mooting. The meeting will commence at 8 o’clock.

When on duty in Hustings in the early hours of yesterday morning, Constable Horne was attracted by noises from a butcher’s shop. On entering the place from the back, he surprised two men in the act or* parcelling up meat. Andrew Thow was secured by the policeman, but the other man escaped. Thow appeared in Court yesterday and was remanded, —(P,A.), On Monday morning tho infant son qf Mrs. B, F. Dyson, of Cashmere, was found dead in his cot. Artificial respiration was tried without avail. A dotcor could not be obtained for an hour and when one arrived the child was dead. The evidence at the in•’quest was that the child, a healthy baby, was put in a cot on the verandah as usual, and later, when the mpther went to the cot, the baby was. lying with its face on the pillow. The body was warm, but although the mother tried artificial respiration tho child never breathed again.—(P.A.). At the local Magistrate's Court yesterday, Henry Walker, a Maori, pleaded guilty to stealing clothes and other articles, and £2l 14s 9d in money, the property of Frank Milne. Accused pleaded guilty to stealing a bicycle at Dannevirke on February 21, the property of Brian Gardner. In the course of a statement, Sergeant Duke said that nothing was known of accused, who said he was born near Dunedin and left homo when ho was thirteen years of age. He said his father was dead and he did not know where his mother was. After obtaining the Probation Officer’s report, the Magistrate (Mr. S. L. P. Free) convicted Walker and sentenced him on each charge to reformative detention for a period not exceeding two years, the sentences to be concurrent.

As the result of interviews between the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Parr, and Mr. Gerald Loder, President of the Royal English Arboricultural Society and a member of the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society, a silver challenge cup has been presented to New Zealand, with the object of encouraging the preservation and cultivation of the native flora of ‘New Zealand. The Prime Minister (Mr. Coates) brought the cup into this country and it will be competed for at the principal shows, both in the North and South Islands. Commenting on the presentation of the cup, the London “Times” observed recently: “The flora of New Zealand is not only of extreme interest to botanists, on account of its long isolation and consequent distinctiveness, but, owing tn similarity of climate, especially in the Southern Island, with that of the western and southern parts of the British Isles, it is capable of furnishing British gardens with many more shrubs and flowers than is generally supposed. For instance, something like 100 species of Veronicaj are to be found in New Zealand, nearly half of which are hardy enough to be grown in the open at Kew, and, of course, many more can be grown elsewhere.”

A Dunedin message states that very soon after the leases were let by the Kawarau Goldmining Company, the claim-holders realised that independent working would be disadvantageous, hence the coming together of what is known as 'the Kawarau Consolidated Company. More recently two of the Wellington-owned companies have become one, and now another amalgamation on a large scale is being favourably considered by claimholders who are at present independent, and if all the proposals for union are given effect to there will be only three bodies to have a say as to the control of the water, the deposit of silt, and so on—the original company and the two ce*tsolidateds. Some such amalgamation seems likely before long. Meanwhile the hindrance comes from the holders ef claims in the gorges to which Cromwell is the link. These claim-owners see the special value in their holdings, and encouraged by the prospecting that was made possible by the first closing of the gates at the dam, they would like to have a further trial when the rivers arc low, as they are just now. For the present, theefore, the various schemes for uniting are just in the air, but they are seriously talked about, and something important may happen before long. The advocates for amalgamation argue that a liberal expenditure on plant will be the cheapest way of getting at the gold.