LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXV, Issue 2126, 29 January 1909, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

pA runholder in the Poverty Bay district inserted an advertisement m~an MackiaHd. weekly newspaper a few iooaths ago tor a female cook and a liurse-housemaid. Applications were to 'be sent through a business hrm in Uis■borne. A few days ago a letter was revived from two sisters in Bristol, Lingland. They stated that they were aged 40 and 36 years respectively and had been in their present situations for 27 and 21 years. They-were apparently tired of life in tlie Old Country and ; were desirous of making a fresh start in a new land. "Wellington is the meanest town in New Zealand," said a speaker at the Victoria College Council meeting the other night. "'Our wealthy classes are the absolute incarnation ot selfishness." These remarks were meant to emphasise a statement he had made that the genesis of all the college's troubles was the lack of generosity of the public of Wellington (says the 'New Zealand Times'). In Dunedin they could raise several thousand pounds for the University but when the hat went round in Wellington as many hundreds could not be found. In Auckland and Dunedin the colleges were always getting legacies. Was Victoria College ever so treated? Some mischievously-inclined individual started operations on a newly-painted house near the Royal Oak Hotel, Onehunga, the other night, and left the building in a sorry condition. The house had just been .finished, portions being picked out in green. This latter color was still wet when the culprit smeared it all over the front and sides of the structure. So badly disfigured was the place that it was necessary to repaint it. In connection with the fresh shuffle of the political cards in Victoria, which has resulted in Mr Murray becoming Premier, old Hawera residents recall , that some 25 years ago Mr Murray put ; in a rather long sojourn in that town. I He was recognised to be a man of some 'force of character and never tired of talking politics; but still his friends, and he had many, did not take him seriously as a politician. At a meeting or Cabinet last week [authorities wen. taken ror roacl works amounting to i)l4,buU. a. total expenditure of idl'jOUO on railways, incluuing construction works ana additions to open lines, was authorised; also £23,000 tor material lor tiie Tost and Telegraph and l'ublic V\oiks Departments, it was decided to appoint an engineer in connection with irrigation works in Central Otago.

A well-known Xapier builder in conversation with a 'iiawkeVjiay Herald' reporter emphasised the difficulties under which employers are placed by the Arbitration Court awards, not so much by the rates of wages fixed as by the different hours worked by various classes of workmen. ".Tor instance," he said, "in m'v business I employ men who are under five different awards. The carters work 4S hours a week, the carpenters 47, the machine hands 46, the plumbers 4o and the painters 44. They don't all start at the same time in the morning and they don't all have the same interval for lunch. How to keep the work going satisfactorily when all classes are employed on the same job is something of a poser to the average builder and yet the public innocently wonder how it is we are sometimes dragged before the Arbitration Court for breaches of awards."

The cable received the other day stating that a Liberian gunboat had tired on a German steamer attracts attention to this republic. The belief prevails extensively in Washington, we ire told, that the manifest destiny of ;he Republic is annexation to the British Empire, and it would surprise no one familiar with the facts if within a few years the Union Jack were flying over Monrovia, the capital jf the country. As the situation is tuilerstood in Washington, trouble be;ween Great Britain and Liberia is due ;o the uncivilised condition of the Li3erian interior, bordering Sierra Leone. \ condition of savage chieftainship prevails there, and the Monrovia Governnent is unable to collect any taxes from ;he natives. The country is a wild ex)anse, and attracts the natives of sierra Leone, who are British subjects, ind who cross the border into Liberia ;o avoid taxation, and to live a life of azy indolence. There is trouble, too, iver the administration of the Customs, British supervisors having been apwinted in the interests of the subicribers to a loan secured on the re'enue from Customs. The difficulty •eally arises from the fact that the mpervisors will not wink at corruption, ind the big merchants, who formerly ;ot off 1 lightly, now have to pay import lutics in full. It will startle New Zealanders to earn (says the 'Dominion') concerning he British Board of Agriculture, Board if Trade, and Local Board of Governnent that there is no record of any if these boards ever having met. A tfr T. F. Richards asked a question loncerning a matter in the British louse of Commons recently, and the 'rime Minister admitted that the Joards had never met. The political iead of the Department was responsible 0 Parliament for its proceedings. He lid not think administrative efficiency reuld be gained by dismissing the preent members of the board and appointing a board of representative members 1 Parliament without pay to meet once . week. The present Board of Agriulture consists of eleven members—lamely, a president of the Council, the irincipal Secretaries of State, the First /ord of the Treasury, the Chancellor f the Exchequer, the Chancellor of the )uchy of Lancaster, and the Secretary [>r Scotland. Tourists from overseas are not so umerous in the Dominion this slimier as has been the case for a few ears past. Speaking with a business >an whose duties bring him into conict with the touring public, an explantion was received for the falling away y a Wellington reporter. England, e said, was considerably upset by the idustrial ferment which had followed ie financial panic of a year ago. The ew conditions anticipated as the posble outcome of the proposed licensing igislation at Home have only served to :centuate a, certain anxiety among the loneyed classes. America, which sent good many tourists a couple of years go, had also had its money troubles, acl New Zealand had suffered in its im little way (as London and Paris ad in a very big way) from the slackling in the tourist traffic. New Zea■nd's summer inflow has, in past years, >me from Australia, Even there, howrer, an influence has been at work to leek the number of trippers to the ominiou. This influence is the tourt bureaux which the different States

have instituted.for.the purpose of bringing home to the Australian?public places ot interest and scenic charm within their own gates. Since the establishment of these agencies the tendency of Australians to visit Now Zealand has apparently become less.