LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 149, 23 December 1908, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

As the holiday activity increases the serious things of life naturally get less attention, and among them is the Stock Exchange. Business at to-day's meet1 ing was as duH as the grey sky. No scrip changed hands, but a sale of Waihi G.M.s at £8 17s was reported. Talismans were wanted at £2 3s, but holders asked for 6d more, and failed to get it. Buyers desired Big Rivers at £1 15s, but sellers were silent at that price. Enquirers for Waihi Grand Junctions offered £1 6s, but vendors declined to surrender under £1 7s. <ft. telegram was received stating that the board of the Talisman Consolidated had authorised the local management to carry out the Woodstock pumping and development scheme as early as possible. About 3000 cases of fruit arrived from Australia by the Maheno to-day In the excitement of the crowd assembled on the wharf last night to sec the Mararoa off to Lyttelton, lightfingered gentry made some abstractions of property from convenient pockets. One victim of their depredations -is reported to have lost a purse containing money and two or three blank cheques. Two other instances are said to have occurred. Arnst and Fogwell have cdmpleted arrangements with the Wellington Steam Ferry Company to give an exhibition of wager boat sculling in Wellington Harbour on Saturday, 9th January. Fogwell will ba given a start by the champion, and a rao& will be rowed over a tw.o•mile course, to be .arranged according to the weather conditions of the day. The Perry Company's steamers will follow the race. Seasonable greetings have to be acknowledged, with reciprocal feelings, from the Government Printing Office composing staff, the Westport Coal Company's Wellington staff, the officers of the General Post Offics, the^Friendly Societies' Registry Department, and the Feilding Star. Additional calendars are to hand from the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, National Insurance Company, and South (British Insurance Company. Included in the passengers by the Tainui, due here at the beginning of the week from Hobart, there are 193 assisted immigrants. Oi these 32 are farmers, 43 are domestic servants, four are housekeepers, 13 are farm labourers, two fruit farmers, five miners, three gardeners, and one is a dairy farmer. There are also 19 domestic servants under engagement to Hawkes Bay ladies. Of the 438 immigrants by the Wakanui, due ♦at Auckland at ' the end of the month, 339 are assisted. They include 58 farmers, 40 domestic servants, 16 farm labourers, and ,14 wives who are joining their husbands. The lov«ly alpine garden on Mount Holdsworth, the entrancing view from its summit, and the many other attractions attendant on an ascent of this I well-known peak, promise to make the climb as popular as ever this season, says Cu-© Wairarapa Age. Climbers from all parts of the Dominion threaten } to invade the bushy slopes and the- solitude of the summit during the holiday season, while manyi who have previously ascended acknowledge tho spell the mountain casts over its admirers by proposals for further ascents. The good work recently done by the Track Committee and others on the track and around tho Mountain. House "will doubtless be greatly appreciated by climbers. Mr. John Fuller, senr., returned with Mrs. Fuller and Miss May Fuller to New Zealand, to-day, alter a trip round tho world. The party arrived in London on sth May last, exactly nineteen years since Mr. Fuller had left. In London/ 1 Mr Fuller heard Tetrazzini aad Melba on two occasions, and he prefers the former. Madame Tetrazzini got a. tremendous reception. London audiences, according to Mr. Fuller, take tbeir pleasure for pleasure's sake. They go to the theatre to be amused and not to criticise. From London Mr. Fuller and his party journeyed to Scotland, thence to Ireland, over part of the Continent, and then on to America. A visitor from the Thames informed a Post reporter that he was a passenger from Auckland via the Main Trunk Railway, on a crowded train. He found nothing to complain about in the accommodation supplied at Taumarunui. All the pasrengers were put up at the various boardinghouses, though a desire to secure lodgings at one special place necessarily caused refusals in that quarter. Just now the Thames is a bit quiet in regard to mining, but a revival is confidently looked for as a result of the deep level mining scheme that is being given effect to. The Thames fishing industry is becoming extensive and profitable, and a good deal of sawmilling, which is taking place in the neighbouring district of Paeroa, is also benefiting the old goldfields town. Complaints are being made regarding the transit of goods on the Manawatu section of the Government railways, A leading firm of auctioneers in the city states that since the Government took over the line from the company, it ami others have been put to great inconvenience owing to delay in the for warding of fruit and vegetables from country districts. The company, it says, made a point of rushing perishable freight into the city, but unfortunately there has been a departure from tbat practice under the State regime. The firm have given us an instance of tho delays which are occurring on the section. On Monday last a quantity of fruit and vegetables was sent from Waikanae, but it only reached the city to-day. A meeting of creditors in the bankrupt estate of Robert Yarrow, restaurant keeper, of Lambton-quay, was < ailed for this morning, at the office of the Official Assignee. Only one creditor was represented, so the meeting lapsed. The bankrupt, for whom Mr. .Neilson appeared, put in a statement, which showed ithat he commenced , business in Wanganui in 1899. He left there in 1907, and went to England. He then owned two houses on the Wanganui River bank. He gave a solicitor a power of attorney to collect tlie rents and to effect a sale of the properties. He made over ito his then wife the business and oome freehold land at Castlecliff. Bankrupt contends that there is money still due to him from the solicitor on account of these transactions, but this is denied by the solicitor. On 28th February last Yarrow took over a restaurant business in Lambtou-'quay, at a cost of £160. Th© expense of trying to Ayork it up was considerable, lip had given a bill of sale over the furniture and elfects to P Ilayman, for goods supplied. The j business, comprising the lease, stock, furniture, etc., he made over to Mrs. E. j M". Stewart, to whom he was then intending to bo married, as a means to | make provision for her. His debts were chiefly of old standing, contracted out ! of Wellington. Bankrupt's statement of assets and liabilities showed a surplus of £227 16s lOd, made up of £59 18s book debts (estimated to produce £56 10s), book debts already collected, £40; balance proceeds sals of houses, etc., £205 10s. The only Wellington creditor i<? the New Zealand Times Company, £14 6s 6d. To-morrow (Thursday) the premises of Kirkcaldie and Stain's, Ltd., will be open continuously from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Life and merriment in Toyland. — Advt.

Christinas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day will be observed as full holidays by tho Wellington Free Public Libiariftp. ' A 'arge party of ladies and gentlemen belonging to Wellington left for D'Urville Island to-day, and will camp there ior three weeks. The boy, Alexander Armstrong, enn ployed as a messenger by Messrs. John; Duthie and Co., and reported missing on Saturday hist, has, according to information received by the police, arrived at Masterlon. It is proposed by the various swim* ming clubs to bold their annual carnivals as follows : Swifts, 23rd January jj V.M.C.A., 6th February; Wellington, 20th February; Thorndon, 6th March j Centre, 20th March. An inquest was held last night by the Deputy Coroner (Mr. A. Simpson) into the death of Frederick Rolfe Will son, a' child about two years old, whof was drowned at Seatoun yesterday morjn« ing. The coroner found that the de-« ceased met his death through accidental drowning in a tank of water. At the conclusion of the business of the Wellington District Land Board yesterday, Mr. James Mackenzie, District Commissioner, took the opportunity to thank the board and the staff for the assistance given to him during tha first six months (just ended) of his chairmanship. Mr. G. Wright, on behalf oB the staff, thanked the commissioner for; his kindly references to the staff. Donations to the S.P.C.A. funds wera yesterday acknowledged from • the " following : Messrs. George and Kersley, ' Mrs. W. P. Rawson, and Mr. W. 35. Gotch, £1 Is each ; Mrs. J. P. Campi bell and W. M. Bannatyne and Co., 10s each; Messrs. H. Shepherd, Potter and Sons, A. Macdiarmid, J. B. Heywood, E. Anderson, and D.1.C., 5s each ; Mr. L. M'Kenzie and "Friend,"2s 6d each— a total of £5 17s. "A confirmed loafer" was the description applied by Chief-Detective M'Gratb. to a wild, unkempt man, named Frederick Cook, charged before the Justices of the Peace this morning with being an idle and disorderly person, having insufficient lawful means of support. Cook, who had just come out of, gaol after serving a sentence of three months for vagrancy, was found sleeping out on certain premises, Avhich were subsequently discovered to have been enter--ed. Their Worships imposed a sentence of three months' imprisonment. "Before Messrs. George Lambert, J. G. W. Dalrymple, and James Embury, Justices of the Peace, William Stevens was to-day charged with insobriety and also with the use of obscene language in a public place. The prisoner said he knew nothing about it. He was convicted and discharged on the- first charge, end on the second sentenced to three months' imprisonmentHerbert Thomas Cluff was remanded to the 30th December on a charge of wifedesertion at Nanowire, New South Wales. For insobriety one first offender was fined 10s, with the alternative of 48 hours' imprisonment, and another was convicted and discharged. Th 3 unemployed question in England has reached a very acute stage, says Mr. A. Lindsay, who has just returned from an extended visit to the Old Country. Ths distress is appalling, and, apart from the "professional unemployed, "' there are euch large numbers out of work that it is difficult to know how | the proDlem is to be solved. The works started by different municipalities are merely a palliative, and when they are finished the same trouble will recur. Mr. Lindsay considers that the root of the difficulty is what is known as the "department store," the big establishment which combines under one roof and ono proprietary a large number of businesses more or less closely connected -with ono another. Backed by a large amount of capital, these establishments squeeze the lesser businesses out of existence, and by the concentration which is the essence- of their being, are able to run with much fewer hands tHan would be required were all the . businesses conducted as separate shops. The public may gain on the one hand by reduction in prices, but on the other hand the unemployed problem clamours for solution, and, the end is difficult to foresee. Further, the big department stores are beginning to find that even, in their case the biggest purse .wing out in the long run. They are now competing with one another as keenly as they in the commencement competed with the smaller concerns, and already some have gone down in the contest.' Another unfortunate feature as that in many cases these department stores ar« financed from America, and the profits go out of- the country. In his own trade, however, Mr. Lindsay reports that he found the condition of things very satisfactory. On arrival of the steamer Eastern at Sydney from Hongkong this' month, tho usual search was made for stowaways. Amongst the cargo in the forward par'b of the ship the searchers found some fresh orange peel, and later on vessels holding drinking water wero discovered. The mystery was solved only after ioma forty or fifty tons of cargo had bean removed, and the "find" was as unexpected as it was remarkable. Out oE two small chambers on the port and starboard sides of the hold twenty Chinese were drawn — mean, pitiTullooking specimens of their race, be. grimed with dust and filth, weak an-1 helpless, many of them seemingly diseased, and somo little more than skelstons. d The unfortunate aliens were in a state of complete collapse when discovered, and it seemed doubtful if one of their number would survive thedreadful ordeal he had underg6ne in an atmosphere which, as one of the Customs officers declared, was "enough to give you a headache for tlie rest of your •*• ,f an S e d on deck, they presented a pitiable spectacle. Most of them wero suffering from skin eruptions, and ill were more or less emaciated. The ship s doctor, who first examined them, inclined to the opinion that the skin trouble was due to the fact that the hold contained some two hundred tons of sulphur. The fumes from this and the vitiated atmosphere of the space in which the stowaways were found, together with insufficiency of food anJ exercise, would amply account for their condition. Before tho men were brought on deck Mr. Dono<?hue had finger impressions taken for identification purposes. The Chinese were subsequently given over to the charge of the ship's officers, who are held responsible for their safe-keeping until they can be returned to Hongkong. The penalty for permitting any one" of their mimbpi* to liind is £100, consequently the full crntingtyiti represents a li^-bilit.v of £2000. Thoy will be returned to llonq.> kong on the next trip made by tha Eastern. The New Zealand Express Co.. 8$ Customhouse-quay, pack, store, and remove furniture at specially low rates. Only careful, corur-efent men employed. Goods sent to any part of the world. Tel. 1333.— Advt. Wanganui residents are doubtless re« KrettinK thp defeat of their champion, and many people in other centres the loss of their cash over tho same event. Inhabitants of the Wollinplon district can pasiby obtain compensation for their misfortunon by visiting the store of C. Smith, Ltd.. Cuba-street, whorp they will find a special line of ladies' kid prlovoe in pastel beaver and brown shades, at 2s lid iicr pair. — Advt.