WELLINGTON NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13008, 9 January 1908, Page 8

WELLINGTON NOTES.

_ 1 {STECIAI, TO "THB rBKSS.**) WELLINGTON, January 8. Reports received by the Tourist Department state that there are crowds j of visitors at all the holiday resorts, j Rotorua, the southern lakes, and Mount Cook have attracted more people than ever, and tho available accommodation has been overtaxed. At a special meeting of the Harbour Board to-morroWj a motion regarding I increased wharf and ehed accommodation at the Queen's Wharf will be discussed. At the present time, the Board has contracts let for £230,749, as follows:—King's Wharf, £79,440; Clyde Quarry Wharf, £30,755; Petone Wharf, £9412; No. 1 contract for hydraulic cranes, £3702; No. 2 contract, £16,179; graving dock, £196,261; and yet another wharf will be required as soon as the King's Wlrarf (now well advanced) is ready for use. There is a growing feeling, in view of the Evans Bay reclamation scheme, that the site of Mho proposed Wellington dock should be changed, and a motion dealing with the matter will be discussed by the Harbour Board. It is contended that the locality of v the patent slip, ie the proper place for the dock. A repljca in bronze of tho marble bust of the late Sir John Hall, executed by Mr Nelson Illingworth for tho late statesman's family, has been purchased by the Government. The bust will be placed in the Parliamentary Library. At the present time Mr Illingworth is v en--s:aged on busts of his Grace Archbishop fcedwood and Lady Ward, both of which will be executed in marble. Sir Joseph Ward will also give Mr Illincworth sittings when he returns to Wellington. . i Mr .Humphrey Berkeley, well-known in connection with Fiji affairs, Is at present in Wellington. He has come on business connected with his estate of Fanning Island. - The sale of this island to Father Bougier, ho says, was only one as agent. Borne people read into the sale an astute political move by France to secure possession of a place of some strategical importance, bat nothing could be further from fact than that belief. The true position . was that there.had been litigation over the island, and when the courts had ascertained the respective interests of the-parties, and given its judgment, Mr. put the island .up for tale. As he could not very well be buyer and seller, too, he got Father Bougier (an intimate friend of hie) to make the bid/ which secured the island) for Mr Berkeley. There are large deposits of phosphates of lime on Fanning Island, and Mr Berkeley's visit to Wellington is partly due to a desireto establish contracts in New Zealand for the supply of the article to wholesale houses here. He will .leave Wellington again in a few days, and after a short stay at Sydney and Fanning Island, he will go to England for a prolonged stay.