LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 82, 31 December 1907, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

• The Customs revenue collected at Wellington yesterday amounted to £1976. The Government has approved,of a grant of £100 towards the cost of improvements to the drill shed at Napier., Mr. W. Turnbull has been instructed'to prepare plans' for the new workshops and offices that are to be erected for tho Wellington Gas Company in Courtenay, Place. In view of the New Year holiday, there will be a delivery of letters over the counter jn tho public office at tho GoneraJ Post Office between the hours of 8.30 and 9.30 this evening. The Moeraki, which left Sydney for Wellington on Saturday afternoon, has on a board a/large Australian and English mail for this port. The steamer will 'not arrive here .before Wednesday afternoon. Through omitting tho tramways receipts for Monday, December 23, a mistake was made in giving the total revenue .for tho week in yesterday's Dominion. The grand total for the week ended Saturday night was £2&9SMx daily average of £433. Tins morning,' at 10 o'clock, an inquest will bo held at the Morgue by Mr. George Lambert, J;P. (Doputy Coroner) concerning the death of an infant- named John Patrick Barnard, who died at his mother's residence, 90 Cuba Street, at 6.30 yesterday morning. The clrild, who was born on March 15 last, is stated to have been in poor health since birth. The popularity of the Dominion's tourist resorts has been very great this year. The Tourist Department has been receiving cousUut intimation that every scenic spot has had its quota of visitors. In many places, accommodation has been taxed, but preparations provod adequate. Rotorua' has been en fete, and among the visitors there have been crowds from Australia. As a matter of fact, the general influx from Australia this year has been remarkable. In spite of tho extra steamer put on by tho Union Company, several intending holiday makers wero unable, so states the tourist officer in Sydnoy, to obtain a passage over. Apart, howevor, from tho outside traffic, Now Zoalandors themselves are greatly in 'evidence at the resorts this year. Ladies visiting Wellington during tho Christmas holidays would do well to pay C. Adams and Co.'b millinery establishment a visit baforo going further. The millinery rooms upstairs will ho found extensive, and afford tho best selection at reasonable prices in tho city. Costumes and blouses will bo sold at a reduction durinjt, December. Only address, 35 Cuba .JO***. C&H

• The municipal offices this week are occupied by plasterors instead of civic officials and clerks. The unsightly places where the plaster has fallen oft' the ceilings, owing to the expansion or contraction of the girdbrs, aro being patched, and it is hoped that the trouble will not recur. >' '''"■• A call was received by the Fire Brigade yesterday afternoon to a five-roomed cottage in Drummond's Lane, owned by Mr. George Drummond, Rona Bay, and occupied by Mrs. Laurence Ruddy. The house and furniture' were severely damaged by fire. The cause of the outbreak is a mystery, as there was no one at homo at the time. There was no insurance on the furniture. At the conference of professional musicians to bo held in 'Wellington on January 22 and 23, the Auckland, Dunedin, Invercargill, Napior, Oamaru; and Wellington Societies will be represented. Invitations havo also boon issued to several musicians of standing in New Zealand who arc not attached to any Society. Mr. Horace Hunt is acting as secretary pro teni. A meeting of head-mistresses of secondary schools throughout the Dominion was hold at the Girls' College on Friday, and was well attended.: It was decided to submit to the Minister for Education; a number of recommendations • which; if adopted, would, in their opinion, have the effect of lessening the pressure of work and popularising domestic instruction. Miss Marchant, principal of the Girls' High School;., Dunedin, was convener and chairwoman. The trustees of Wangamii College havo decided to have the site of tlioir proposed new school buildings prepared and planted with trees by noxt winter. ' The block iii question contains forty-five acres, and lies towards the upper part of the Colloga estate, the main entrance being over the line on a continuation of Liverpool Street. Special provisiol; will'bo made for football and cricket grounds. Tho new buildings with the grounds are estimated to cost close on £30,000.' The Bakers' Union, at its annual Meeting on Saturday evening, appointed the following .officers:—President, Mr. J. Harland (reelected); vice-president, Mr. T.'W. Brewer; secretary, Mr. 'A. Collins (re-cltetcd); treasurer, Mr. A. A: Godfrey' (re-elected); committee, Messrs. J. Dallis, H.,Undenrorth, C. Ellis, W. M'Farlano,. Minister,, and Taiugy; delegates to the Trades Council, Messrs. [ Hnrland and Collins;,., |f ustces, Messrs. Newman, J. Harrison (senior), and W. Cooper. ' i .. ..,. The fpllowing, paragraph appeared ' re-; cently in a Leicester paper:—Mr. J; Lemmon has been the recipient of a postcard which bears | the, postmark " Kaimaumau, July 26, 1907, N.Z." The card^had; been enclosed in a bottle and thrown overboard. Tho only writing legible is " 19 Oct., j.906. On board Corinthic, from' England, b'ound for Now Zealand," and the names, "Frederick C. Brown, Leicester; Charles Greaves, Leicester. To Joseph Lommon, Enderby, Leicestershire, or Wia. 1 Taplin." Messrs. J. Lemmon,'jun.,'and W. Taylor, jun., wpre both on board tho Corinthic, which experienced terriblo weather in the latter part of her voyage. Unfortunately," much of the writing has been obliterated, but it is believed that it was driring the storm ,the mjsr sivo was consigned to the seoi. • , • It is devoutly! to be hoped 1 that the ret numbering of city houses now in progresi will bo prosecuted with the utmost, possible system and despatch. In some streets where (i^few;.honsp?_/ L rfi..,displaying, their new numbers, while, others have beenJeft alone, the, old confusion has been worse confounded, so that 1 the individual who,desires to find'a special number is inclined >tpask, '" Are visions, about? " From the.foot of Bolton Street, for example, on the left-hand side, the numbers now run as follow:—7, 3)'5, 7, 17, 85,' 43. pf-'fehese numbers corresponds to.the..Directory's'lfjaP Directories will apparently be a misleading guide in certain streets for seme time to come, and.it might be advisable for houses that are re-numbered to display y temporarily, both their numbers, provided some distjnc: tion can he devised between the new and bid, Yesterday was one of Wellington's ugliesl days. Under an even grey dome that archec in {he city swept a violent north-westerlj gale that took charge of any lposo-lyinf matter, and. whirled-it into.the, air, to th< utter .exasperation of those.whp had to 'bi out and about. Over the hills to the north, v/est the grey shaddd down to a black; banl of rain-cloud that threatened to. materialis* into rain the whole day lor.g, but which desirable change did not take 'place. ' People wore a pained expression quite'out of joint with tho season, and many visitors went'sc far as to say that Welliugtpn was-not a very desirable'place in which to spend a holiday. One visitor from Sydney was discovered counting the hours that'must elapse before the boat sails for that port oil Friday,' and another was found in a state of puzzled wondorment relating how a piece of blue metal had boonblpwn right into his eye by one gust of wind and had been ejected by the Tho gale addcel several unwilling meiubors to tho hatless brigade, and added revenuo to the tramways; which engenders the passing thought that everything... that happens seems to benefit the tramways. The meteorological outlopk for tno New Year holidays is; exceedingly gloomy. ■It is now definitely settled that the new battleship to be laid down in February at Pevpnpprt will be : named tho Collingwood, the Admiralty correspondence with the .dockyard on the subject having finally given instiuctions for tho use of that name (says tiio " Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette"). The sister ship at' Portsmouth has already been listed as the St. Vincent, and tho third of the type, which is to be built as a result of the failure of the Hague Conference to approve reductions, will bo tlin Rodney, : although unofficially she will never be anything else than "Tho Hague." .Sho will be built by, contract. A comparison twecu these latest British ships and those now building for Brazil at Elswick and Barrow is interesting. When complete the latter will take rank as tho most powerful warshipa afloat. At Ebswick the monster on tho'slips dwarfs the Supprb, lying in, the waterway,, oven at this unfinished stago of construction, and the displacement will be about 20,000 tons. They aro to bo named the Minas Gordas and San Paolo. They are to mount four 13.5 in. guns, so arranged that tb6 fire can be directed fere, aft, pr broadside. Fire of this kind, if it gets heme, would sink anything that new floats, including the Dreadnoughts. The weight of e.ach gun is 67 tons, and tho projectile is 12501b., which will pierce 25in. of iron at 3000 yards. . It remains to be seen whothor " Tho Hague" ship will not bo altered to confprm to this now Elswick type. Mrs. Ethel Tt, Do Costa, ■ LL.B. (noo : MiM Ethol K. Benjamin, of Duncdin), after practicing for oomo yeans in - that city, has eomniencod practice as a barrister and solicitor in No. 6 Nathan's Buildings, corner Grey *n<l Featheistdn Streets, Wellington. Mra. Do Costtt has the distinction of being tho only lady practising at tho Bar in the Dominion. Intendibj) clients can depend on prompt and carafai m tention At Mrs, Da. Costa's 1 hud*