LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 67, 12 December 1907, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The postal authorities advise that the Delphic is expected to arrive hero on Monday, December 16, with an English mail. The Customs revenue collected at Wellington yesterday amounted to £1912 12s. 9d. A meeting of creditors in the estate of D. A Taylor, of Wellington, will be held before the Official Assignee (Mr. Jas. Asheroft), at 11 o'clock this morning. The defence forces in the Wellington military district, according to a departmental return, totalled 3191 at the end of November, being an increase of 35 for the month. The "breaking-up" ceremony in cipimcction with the midsummer vacation of tlio students attending the Wellington Technical School \yill take place at St.' Peter's schoolroom on Tuesday, December 17, at 8 p.m. The school will re-assemblo on February 7, 190 S. The recent epidemic of scarlet fever in tho city, though it has not been conspicuous since the end of - August, is not expiring without a final flutter. Twelve cases of tlio diseaso in the' city were notified to tho flSalth Department last week. This is an

unusually large number, but the Department does not attach any special significance thereto, in view of the previous steady abatement of the epidemic.

In our correspondent's report of the "Lyttelton Times" interview with the Rev. J. J. North, a misprint' occurred, ; making. Mr. North "to . say.' that' in;. 15 .years; the.-;.capital values ajt-Miramar■ had. risen 'from. £50,000 to £80,000, instead of to £800,000. . : Mr.' North says that he quoted the Miramar case

from memory, and now finds, that he understated the figures. In ten years the increase

was from £30,000 to £800,000. No more glaring case of unearned increment, he adds, could be discovered.

Tho officer in charge of tho Wellington telegraph office states: —"In order to acord facilities for tho transmission by telegraph of Christmas and New Year's greetings, between December 18 and 24, and between December 27 and 31, special printed forms may be obtained at this office. Such messages will bo delivered at tho office of destination 011 cards bearing views of New Zealand scenery, etc. A uniform charge of sixpence for each such message will be made, provided tho address and signature do not contain more than eloven words. If, however, the text, as printed, is varied in any way, or other words added thereto, the message will bo treated as an ordinary one and charged for adcord!i' n s'y-"

Tho Tourist Department is not the only Government office that receives incomprehensible letters from abroad. The following letter addressed to "Messrs. Office of Arms, Wellington, New Zealand," establishes a new record for. incomprehensibility. Tho letter, which reached Captain James o'Sullivan, Dofence Storekeeper, reads as follows: —" S. Jones, 23, Belle Vuo, Treeynon, Aberdare, Wales, England. Arms Pursuivants. Messrs.—Please allow me to ask you secrotly if there is at yours established electric machineries cable can speak a person. Somo gentleman has got me to this cable very strange when I was not been told. Explanation not given to mo wliero to apply. Welsh spoakers in chargo of aro doing wrong duty purposely on mo every minute day and night for a long while past, and other pcoplo. I am doing applications in search with hope to find for to look over cable lock and stop' persons." Tho letter bore tho Aberdaro postmark. A few months ago the story was current that a well-known Wellington lady discharged 0110 of her maids. The girl, so it was said, had become intoxicated by the fiery sentiments' she had .been listening to at a meeting of the then just-formed Domestic Workers' Union, and, upon returningto her mistress's house, had said: "Now we'll make you sit up, Mrs. ." But-the fable of the rebellious maid is an adaptation of a story told by Lady Dorothy Nevill in tho just published "Leaves from My Notebooks." This is tho story: "Long before tho days of advanced femalo politicians, in the year 1832, an elderly couple, peacefully sleeping in thoir four-poster, were 0110 morning roughly aroused at an early hour by their excited maid-servant, who, bursting into tho bed-room, bawled out: 'It's passed I It's passed!' Extremely annoyed, tho old lady called out from inside the bed : curtains, 'What's passed, you fool?' 'The Reform liill,' shouted the girl, 'and we're all equal nowl' alter which she marched out Of the room, purposely leaving the door wide open to show her ' equaity.l'"

Mrs. Ethel I\. De Costa, LL.B. (nee Miss Ethel R. Bonjamin, of Dunedin), after practising for • somo_ years in that city, has commenced practico as a barrister and solicitor in No G Nathan's Buildings, corner Grey and Feat! cist Oil Streets, Wellington. Mrs. De Costa has tho distinction of being tho only lady practising at the Bar in tho Dominion, lntoudinji clients can'depend on prompt and careful at tention at Mrs. De Costa's hands.

Ladies visiting Wollington during tho Christinas holidays would do well to pay C. Adams and Co.'s millinery establishment a visit before going further. Tho millinery rooms upstairs will lie found extensive, and afford the best selection at reasonable prices in tho city. Costumes and blouses will bo sold at a reduction during December. Only address, 35 Cuba Street. < £6^

'lho Government has sold lOOOlbs. of guncotton to the Bluff Harbour Board, to be used in blowing up the rocks in the har-bour-deepening scheme now in progress. Tho gun-cotton went forward by the Aniokura frast week.

Tho continued spoil of dry weather which has lately been experienced in this district, coupled with a pardonable curiosity as to whether tho enormous quantity of water spilt over tho conflagration at Parliamentary Buildings yesterday had seriously reduced the city's water supply, moved a Dominion reporter to institute onqniries as to the stato of tho Wainui-o-mata and Karori reservoirs. It appears that for the last three days tho Karori reservoir has fallen four inches daily, the present level being 48 feet 4 inches. The top level of this reservoir stands at 54 feet. The total fall, therefore, is 5 feet 8 inches. There is no appreciable difference iu till big reservoir at Wainui-o-mata, as' the engineer's department reports that there is a steady flow into the basin. The supply of water for the big blaze at Parliamentary Buildings yesterday was drawn from - the Waiuui mains.