Local and General.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1029, 13 April 1894, Page 6

Local and General.

Last year Melbourne consumed LBOOO worth of oysters sent from the Bluff. The roar of Niagara has beeu phonographed, and may he heard in any part of America for a small fee. The North Otago times reports thafc Mr P.Patullois to be appointed manager of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company. In the Cape Parliament members get from 20s to 30s per day. But they are not allowed anything while Parliament is out of session. It is stated that- there are at present some 300 children, attending public schools in the Auckland province, who are afflicted with stammering. Messrs John Roberts, W. Patrick, and P. Patnllo have been appointed the Otago Agricultural Association's delegates at the Wellington Conference. The Oamaru Mail says "no liquor " ia the cry of to-day in New Zealand. No human power can stem the torrent of pnblic opinion on the drink question. The directors of the Mosgiel Woollen Factory Company have declared an interim dividend for the half year at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum. For representing themselves as Wellington policeman and relieving a woman of some wearing apparel under a threat of locking her up, two young men were on Saturday sentenced to three months' imprisonment. A decision of the Supreme Court is to be obtained on the point whether informal votes should be counted in order to ascertain whether a local option poll is valid. A member of the legal profession in Wellington is to move for the quashing of the election in the Wairarapa district, ou the ground that the returning officer improperly counted the informal votes, so as to make the poll valid. Speaking at the mayoral luncheon at Williamstown, the Victorian Premier said that unless the colony was prepared to trade with the world, the world would not trade with it. No section of the country really desired prohibitive duties, and there was nothing but mischief in the policy of prohibitive duties, which had begun comparatively recently. To undo the mischief and put an end to the extravagance of the past was the aim and object of the Government. The Auckland Educational Institute has suggested to the Board of Education that the opinion of inspectors should be considered of tirst importance in the selection of teachers for promotion, also that in making nominations for appointments the choice of committees should be limited to the three or four teachers most deserving of promotion. The board decided to inform the institute that applications of teachers for vacancies are forwarded to committees by resolution of the board. Some sensational evidence was recently given during the hearing at Melbourne of the libel action brought by the jockey Hayes against the Australasian, the plaintiff claiming LSOOO damages. The evidence of Tom Pay ten , horse trainer, showed that last year Hayes was guilty of foul riding, and besides preventing a horse winning he endangered the life of another jockey by crushing his mount on to the rails. Huxley, the well-known jockey, gave corroborative evidence. One of the witnesses, who owned a racehorse, disclosed an arrangement entered into with Hayes to ' * pull " a certain horse, but admitted that Hayes ruined him byjlosing the race. Mr A. S. Adams, discussing the late Otago licensing elections in the Evening Star, says it is a noteworthy fact that in four of the seven electorates the votes ca3t for "no license" exceeded threefifths of the total votes polled, while in Bruce the no license vote was 90 38 per cant, of the whole. Yet in this district no reduction of licenses can be made by the people's vote ! The fact of most significance is that the vote throughout Ofago shows 5611 per cent fot* no license — within 3*89 per cent, of a three-fifths majority ! Who will venture now, he asks, to say that public opinion is not on the side of prohibition ? The chairman of Australian Mortgage Agency Company, at the annual meeting at Edinburgh said : "We think things are going to take a turn. I heard the other day that they had never been so short of wool and manufactured woollen goods in America as they are just now. There has been a general hanging back on the part of manufactures in order to see what the Lt*«istature is going to do with regard to the tariff on wool. There must be a great improvement in the sales of wool before many mouths are over, and we will get the benefit of the revised tariff." How many trees, asks the Daily News besides onr steadfast friend the plane, together with the elm, the poplar, and the lim*, are to be seen growing on the borders of our London streets 1 The United States in this regard appears to set us a good example, for it is reckoned that Washington, which stand pre-eminent as a planted city, can boast of no fewer than G4 varieties of trees used in the ornamentation of its avenues. Mr Nicholson has counted there 11 kinds of maples, eight poplars, five elms (including onr two common European species), four oaks, three limes, two willows, two planes, and two gleditschias. Two varieties of the birch are also used extensively. Some of the more striking of the other trees noted are the gingkio, an avenue of which make a beautiful picture, the Kentucky cofl'ee, the tulip tree, ancl the deciduous cypress. In some of the small squares flowering shrubs are stated to do wonderfully well.