Anzac Ave width tussle

The Works Committee of the City Council will present a report on Wednesday evening stating that the matter of the Harbour Board's offer to provide land for increasing the width of the highway has been the subject of negotiations with the Harbour Board. The offer was a conditional one in that the council was required to pay full compensation for both land and buildings for that section of the highway between Frederick street and Station street. It was pointed out to the board that since the inception of the negotiations no question of compensation for land had ever been raised and that, as a matter of fact, the survey plan which provides for the giving of the land for the 75-foot road without any compensation had already been executed by the board. The board has now replied to the effect that its decision is adhered to, and that the land required must be paid for by the council if Station street is to be widened beyond 66 feet.

Worthy is the lamb

The New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board received a report from its London manager that delivery of carcases of prime New Zealand lamb for the Easter season were completed, and several hundred letters have reached him testifying to the quality and splendid condition in which the lambs arrived.

New street names

The City Council Works Committee proposes that the under-mentioned names for new streets be adopted. New street off Sunbury street, Wilson’s subdivision, Anderson’s Bay: Woodside terrace. New street in McFadden’s subdivision at Opoho: Grandview crescent. New street of workers’ homes, Mill Reserve: Leithbank street.

On a roll

Of the 21,749 pupils on the roll at the close of the year (states the annual report of the Otago Education Board), 6073 (28 percent) were under eight years of age, 4928 (23 percent) were between eight and 10 years, 4944 (23 percent) were between 10 and 12 years, 4555 (21 percent) were between 12 and 14 years, and 1249 (5 percent) were over 14 years. There were on the rolls at the end of the year 11,306 boys and 10,443 girls, the percentages being boys 53, girls 48. The average attendance for the year was 20,210. 61 females and 36 males entered the teaching profession in this district. There were 837 teachers, compared with 823 for the previous year; 633 adult teachers, 204 pupil teachers and probationers and special teachers (needlework, manual training, etc).  There were 258 schools in operation — the same as in the previous year. 

Dickens for Dunedin

The Library Committee states that a special letter of thanks has been sent to Miss Smith, of Roslyn, for a very valuable donation, which includes an incomplete set of Dickens, amongst which are 13 first editions with the well-known illustrations by Phiz, R. Seymour, H.K. Browne, George Cattermole, and H. Browne. The volume containing the "Christmas Carol" has the original illustration in colour by John Leech. 

These volumes are the first editions of the work© of Charles Dickens to be issued in book form. The donation also includes a first edition set of Macaulay’s "History of England," in five volumes, and the first six years of the Cornhill Magazine, 1860-1865. — ODT, 15.6.1925

Compiled by Peter Dowden