LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 104, 25 January 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

■The Customs rey.enuo collected'at Welling. ton yesterday amounted to £3332 lis., 9d. ..... At a special. meeting hold yesterday, the Hutt County Council decided' -that the statutory weekly. hajf-lioliiday Tvithin its jurisdiction should be on AYcdnesday. : A Gazette Extraordinary! further prorogues Parliament until March 26. This is.tljp orr dinary tl|fit is made from,'tin)ji to'time, owing to the limitation of tho period affecting any such prorogation'.. $ ' ' At a meeting of delegates to the Wellington Cricket Association, held last night, it. ivas decided that the majtches in the senii? filial round .'should occupy throo ' days, t and that, if possible, the final match should be played to a finish.. ' ; A sitting of tho Native Land Court will bo opened by, Chief Judge Palmer, in the Magistrate's Court '-to-day.;. Four nunarea and two cases, of'a general nature, have to be decided, so that it is probable, that the Court will jast some time." ' Judge Rawson, who was to have presided, is still occupied with % Court at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, wjbich commenced sittijig'before Christmas., - A man named William Hamilton had.'a narrow, cs.capo from seri<ju? "(ipcident at 5.15; p.m. yestorday.,' The motorman of tram car,-No,' 62 nptic.cd him apprpaphjng tho tram-line just Opposite, jthe entrance to the Queen's Wharf,' and slowed; down. Hamijton, however, lurched towards the car, and, in consequence, was knocked down. . Dr. Henry, who was summoned, found that Hamilton had escaped with a shaking. Subsequently, Hamilton was arrested on p cjbarge of ..drunkenness., Tho Dumgree Prison Camp, Marlborough, is .to bo closed, and tho prisoners, numbering at, present twenty-five, will be removed' to Hanpier. Tho area taken up by the Government is now practically all planted with trees, and any further work that may bo decided on will bo dono by free'labour.,. Tho Department is convinced that the dry climate and porous soil about Dumgree make tho place unsuitable, for tree-planting. 1 ,

" Wo are delighted at tho high .standard of music out here," said Mr. Kennprley Rumford at tho presentation of musical students' prizes last •evening. l "In making up our programmes, ,as myVife and I havo to do, to please the audiences, it is impossible to keep to one kind of music. We have to please overyone, and it has been a pleasure and delight to find out here that.it,is the splendid thing in music that is most appreciated."

Mr. J. D. Avery,, secretary; of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, informed a Dominion representative yesterday that theEnglish Rugby football team was timed to leave London for Wellington on April' 16, 011 which date the Papanui is due to sail. An itinerary has been arranged by a committee sot up for the purpose, but as it is not definite, and may bo much altered Jater 011, it has boen decided not to publish it at present. The English footballers will leavo New Zealand . for Sydney in August, and after playing fixtures in New South Wales and Queensland, they will leave for Home again. The new halfpenny post-cards that aro being issued by the Postal Department for circulation within the Dominion are finding favour with the public, and the number sold sinco tho beginning of the year is considerably in excess of'the number of penny cards that would have been solo within the same period. Another postal convenience that is not being appreciated by the public, as it should is the stamp-emlipssed enyqlope. .'inis is a good quality envelope, beautifully embossed with a penny stamp, iquite different from the ordinary, gum-backed variety that wo all lick in ill-considered moments. The stamp-embossed'envelopes may be purchased the General Post Office for Is. 2d. a dozen —meaning that the cost of the envelopes is only the odd twopence. A simple device has been invented by Mr. P. J. Rafferty, of this city, for shielding tho electric car trolly-heads from any possiblo injury which may bo sustained through the trplly-head of a car coming in contact with straight and forked span-wires and other obstacles when it leaves tho cable wire. This trolly-head shield, it is claimed, has undergone a satisfactory running test, and since then its inventor has materially reduced tho weight of the contrivance. Mr. Rafferty has also devised a simple non-pulling lead terminfil, which, ho says, will prevent the main electric lead of tho car from boing pulled out or damaged.. The device is properly insulated, and can bo fixed in position on any disabled car in two minutes, thus bringing all " contact points " into position, and reestablishing tho current. Mr. Rafforty has placed his inventions in tho hands of Mossrs. W. H. Turnbull and Co., Panama Street, for dotation, and it is understood that a syndicate will, be formod to exploit them. Tho inventions have been protected. Mrs. Ethel R. De Costa, IjL.K. (nee Miss Ethel B. Benjamin, of Duuedin), after practising for some vears in that city, has commenced practice as a barrister and solicitor in No. 6 Nathan's Bnildihgrf, cornet Grey and Featherston Street, Wellington. Mrs. De Costa hn.-i the distinction of, being tho .only lady prnctiaing at the Bar in the Dominion. InIcadinß clients can depend on prompt and

The postal authorities . advise that n steamer - left - San Francisco, for New. Zealand on January 18 with a mail, which |s expected to arrive hero about. Fobruary.l3. 1 The tenders sent in. for tho con\crfiion of the old post officoatl'almcrston North into offices for tho Agricultural and other, Departments havo ibeen declined .on tho ground of a slight technical, irregularity in tondenng. Fresh tenders'on the same plans i will be invited almost immediately. - : election of two representatives of tho Wellington City ratepayers as members of tho Harbour Board talfcs; pjaco oil Monday, Feb---ruary. 10. Nominations' will be: receivedby. Mr. James Ames! .the returning officer, at tho Tqwp, Hall,-before noon on Monday, Febru-. ary 3. ■:i i; i.V;';v."' ■ V.^.' The Woodvillo. people have ail idea that tho- Manawatu Gorge 'road is the propr •means of - vehicular communication which' )s to conjieot the Wairarapa and Hawse's Bay. with tho. West Coast. No 'doubt-:thero; is. a ; - great deal to bo said'in favour of this opinion; .(writes' our. Wairarapa: correspondent), but', somobofjy appearsto sleeping ; oyer tho .husmoss, bccause the Manawatu Gorgo road is just now 'an . unpicturesquo ruin. Thor.e .iaroi in all'fully twenty-fivo slips on' this road; m. some parts the pathway, is wholly obliterated by tons of earth,. and ■pieces;,.pf :fal)en'. trees ;4jein, all. OnV;pr,twfl a'fe*y broken fridges)and hillsides browned vnth the fires add a littlo mor.o to tbo desolation of tho scene. : At ono time the Gorge road' iyus '-one 'of \fche sights which had to be ''.done " hy al) travellers,, now it is a f'No Man's Land;": fallen into decay