A LARGE TIMBER RAFT.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9735, 25 May 1897, Page 5

A LARGE TIMBER RAFT.

The old Government steamer Stella recently towed into Auckland the largest raft which has ever been brought into that port. It contained 270,000 ft of kauri timber. A MASSIVE STRONG ROOM. The strong room which is to be included »n the extension of the sonth-eastero wing of the Government buildings will be four stories in height, and its foundation will ran 12ft below the surface, or down as far as the bed of the harbour. THE TELEPHONE CHARGES. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce has forwarded a memorandum to the Post-master-General setting out the receipts and expenditure on the telephone service for the past year, and claims that tie expenditure on salaries, linemen, &c., has been extra vacant, and the subscriptions could really oe reduced instead of being raised, *

PROPOSED LIGHT RAILWAY. The New Zealand Time* reports that a Railway League ie being formed in Eltham for the purpose of making an effort to induce the Government to run a light railway into the back country. A public meeting is to be held in about three weeks' time. RAILWAY~EXTENSION. At a mooting of the residents of Whangarei resolutions were carried in favour of the extension of the railway to deep water, GrahanistowQ, and that the scheme be urged for adoption by the Government; also, that the residents co-operate with those in the Bay of Islands district for the extension of the Whangarei railway northward. MARRIAGE REGULATIONS. Amongst the resolutions passed at a recent conference of Waikato clergy was one to the effect that a period of fourteen days should elapse between the date of the notice of intention to marry and the issue of the I Registrar's certificate, and that greater I publicity should be given ai the intention to marry by requiring (a) that the Registrar shall post a copy of the notice of application for the certificate to the parents or guardians of the parties intendiug to marry, and (6) that he shall affix a second copy of the same to some part of his office accessible to the public. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. Ministers and others engaged in religions instruction have petitioned the Nelson Schools Committee for permission to give half-an-hour's religious instruction in the schools on one day a week. They ask the Committee to require the attendance of all children whose parents do not object, and that the children of those who do object be taught a secular lesson while the religious lesson is going on. The Committee has deferred action until it has consulted the teachers as to how far the propositi would interfere w fth present arrangements, INSANITARY ROOMS. Mr Shanagban, Inspector of Factories for the Wellington district, has reminded the City Council of the practice of property owners of building and fitting up small rooms in shops without making any provision for sanitary arrangements. These rooms, he writes, are generally used for confectioners' shops, and young women have to remain in a box of this kind from the morning until the time to leave in the evening, except daring the interval for lunch. WOOD PAVEMENT. At " a meeting of the Wellington City Council last week one of the members said the Council would have to face, in the near future, the question of paving the streets with wood in order to make them permanent and a credit to a city of Wellington's importance. The sooner this was taken into consideration the better it would be for the city's welfare. No other Councillor seemed to consider the time opportune for following up the subject. ANCIENT FOREST TREES. Upon the farm of Mr Kenneth Mclntosh, near the beash, Kaiapoi, two large totara trees have recently been discovered lightly buried in the soil. Aβ it is thirty years since there were any similar trunks of totara trees in the bus& between Woodend and Kaiapoi, whence those in question may have drifted during a flood in the river to where they were found, it ia surprising that they should have been discovered in so perfectly sound a state of preservation that they would, when dug out and split, supply a number of large stockyard posts which would prove serviceable for many years to I come. A first attempt to remove one by the aid of a traction engine has failed, but another effort will be made to recover these valuable ancient forest trunks.