Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, 7 December 1911, Page 2475

Interprovincial

Some idea of the benefits conferred by the Christchurch City Sanitation Act is indicated by the fact that since the act was passed in 1908 no fewer than 905 applications for loans for sewer connections have been granted to date. Asked how it was that some lads had been summoned for not registering under the military training scheme, the Hon. D. Buddo, speaking at Papanui on Friday night, replied that they had now got sufficient for defence purposes, and no more prosecutions would follow. In the manifest of the Athenic, outward to London, there was listed a shipment of 30 sacks of casein (says the Press). This is the initial shipment from New Zealand as a skim milk by-product, which a New Zealand company has commenced this summer to manufacture in Wanganui. Casein is used largely in the manufacture of celluloid. The final destination is probably Germany. An interesting event took place at the Wainoni Zoo on Saturday (says the Press). The African lioness presented the Zoo with a small family of cubs, numbering four. At least, it is believed that there are four of them. The proud father of the family is the fine African lion which is now at Wainoni. Mrs. Lion is in rather a fretful temper, and shutters have been put up in front of her den until she accommodates ■ herself to her new responsibilities. ‘My experience tells me,’ said Mr, Kettle, S.M., at the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Friday, ‘ that a large number of young women who get married find the marriage ties irksome to them. They prefer the easy life, a life of gaiety and enjoyment. That is true, and as an old magistrate, and knowing what I do, I see a great change that has come over a great number of young men and women. I see this constantly and it weighs heavily upon me. If the homes are to be unhappy and broken up, then the country must go down with them.’ Within the last week (says the Timaru Post), a newly-joined constable from Christchurch has been in Timaru going about in plain clothes making himself acquainted with persons suspected of carrying on bookmaking business. As the result of the Christchurch constable’s investigations four Timaru residents will appear at the Magistrate’s Court to answer charges of making bets with the constable. ' The same policeman was on duty at the Christchurch races, but on that occasion he himself was the victim, for ■ a smart pickpocket succeeded in abstracting £7 from one of the constable’s pockets. At a specially convened meeting of the New. Zealand Competitions Society held in Wellington on Wednesday evening it was decided, after considerable discussion, that the judges for each section of the competitions be changed annually. It was made abundantly clear that the decision arrived at meant no disparagement to those gentlemen who had acted as judges at the last festival in Wellington, but was more in the nature of a concession to those competitors who may imagine that they could not succeed under judges under, whom they had not previously been successful. In the salaries . earned in New Zealand by professional men, there still remains, said Principal Gray to the Wellington Training College students at the breaking-up function on Friday, very much to be desired. A university professor should be paid certainly not less than £IOOO. Contrasting the general conditions of life under which the ordinary laborer and the university professor existed, the laborer at £3 a week was, by comparison, better off than the professor who was getting £7OO a year. He cited the case of the Government Meteorologist, whose work was .of immense value to the country farmers and shipping especially—and who- received something like £4OO a year for services which were commensurately worth £2OOO a year in salary. A trained teacher, certificated, had to begin in a back-country school at a beggarly

£9O a year. In his opinion, he should begin with not less than £l2O a year. The Commandant of the Forces, Major-General Godley, has given instruction that as far as possible, the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Permanent Military Forces should between now and the end of the year take any annual leave they may be entitled to. Their work, it is pointed out, has during the year been practically night and day, in order to bring the new force up to its present stage of organisation, and he does not wish anyone to forfeit his leave for the year. Early in January training will commence in earnest, and all officers and non-commissioned officers will be required to be constantly on duty from tnat time to enable the training to be carried out with every regard to local circumstances and the industries of the country, During the period from now to the end of the year, the work of equipping, arming, and clothing the forces will be gone on with so as to be ready for the training that will be commenced early in January.