WELLINGTON NOTES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9364, 13 March 1896, Page 5

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[By Telegkaph.] (from ottb special corrk3pondlnt.) \VBLLINGTON, March 12. Although yet some time off, the ooming general election is beginning to make itself felt here. The Committees of candidates of previous experience are working, and rumour is busy with the names of probable contestants. It is pretty certain that the , present representatives of the city, Sir Robert Stoat, Mr H. D. Bell, and Mr J. Duthie, will seek re-election, and there will be no lack of candidates to oppose them. Mc George Fisher, Mayor of tuo city, Mr A. Warburion, brother of the Public Trustee, and Managing Director of the Ministerial journal, Mr F. H. Fraser, of the temperance party, and an ex-member of Parliament, Mr 0. M. Luke, au ex-Mayor of the city, are all spoken of with some degree of certainty, and there are macy others lingering in the background. For the. suburbs Dr. Newman will again offer himself, and Mr Jellicoe, the well-known lawyer, and Mr R. C. Kirk, nlso a lawyer, and Mayor of Petone, are both spoken of as probable Government candidates. An applicant for charitable aid at a meeting of the Benevolent Institution Trustees the other afternoon informed the Trustees that at the present time there were about 500 men oud of employment in the Wellington district. Questioned as to his source of information thia gentleman stated he had been tramping round looking for work for the past six weeks, and added, further, that he had ape ken to the officers of the Labour Bureau on the subject. Upon enquiry at the Labour Bureau I learn that at the present time there are some 60 or 70 men on what is kuown as their visiting liat for Wellington City. These men call' at the Bureau every other day to see if work of any kiud is open to them. Most of the men are of the l&bouriug class, and, in addition to them, there are no doubt many tradesmen and clerks, particularly the latter, seeking work, who do not register at the Bureau. I have it on excellent authority that the unemployed question is the cause of very much auxiety at headquarters just now.

It was expected ttiat the Government would to-day have been able to gazette the employers' representatives on che Boards of Conciliation for the Canterbury and Otago, Southland districts, the Employers' Unions for-those districts having tailed to elect representatives. A hitch has occurred, however, in connection with the suggested representatives for Canterbury, and at the last minute the appointment of the Canterbury represent atives had to be postponed for a week. I understand that owing to a misunderstanding two gentlemen were chosen to represent the employers upon the Can. terbury Conciliation Board, both of whom belong to the aame firm. Messrs G. P. Farquhar and Size, however, have been gazetted as the employers' representatives for Ocago and Southland, and a meeting of that Board can now be at once convened and any needed enquiry immediately instituted.

The vacant Attorney Generalship is not going a-begging, and the Government cannot attribute the delay in making the appointment to any lack of candidates for the office. As a matter of fact, there has been an extraordinary demand for the position, quite a number of persons altogether outside the pale of active politics appearing to think the time opportune for making a bid for political fame. The aspirants to the position are not only numerous, but if the stories current headquarters are to be believed, are of most varied qualifications i while the lack of modesty displayed, and the startling nature of some of the claims are said to have upset even the iron front of the Premier himself. The latest offer to take up the duties of the office was received yesterday from a well-known South Island lawyer, who I am told modestly remarked that he was quite as capable of filling the position as any lawyer in the colony. The offer has not yet been accepted. The work of surveying and subdividing the Ardgowan block at Oamaru, recently acquired by the Government under the coiapulsory clauses of the Lands for Settlement Act, is being pushed on by the Department, and the first part of the survey is now completed. Ie is expected that the land will be placed on the market about the end of May.