LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 154, 24 March 1908, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

. The. Customs revenue collected'at Wellington yesterday amounted to £3036 os. : id. : Tho sittings of tho Arbitration Court at Wellington, will bo,, resumed this morning. At 10.30 ' o'clock tho Federated Seamen's dispute will ■ be heard, and at 11.30 tho bakers' dispute'will bo taken. Of the oight Chinese who' arrived from .Sydney by tho Maitai on . Sunday, five had proviously resided, in the Dominion, and the remaining three woro called upon to pay the neccssary tax. Thcro aro thirteen Chineso passengers-on tho Maheno, which is duo from Sydney to-morrow. /'lt is understood that a writ has been issued against Pastor Reis, Mayor of Dannevirke, praying! that a mandamus be issued to compel 'Mm' to accept.certain resolutions dealing with the alteration of levels in High Street, in* the, borough of Dahnevirke. There are ' several resolutions which, it is claimed, were incorrectly ruled out of order. The motion' is set down for hearing on April 1. /■'' v Of the 137 passengers who arrived from London by_ the Mamari yesterday to enrich the population of the Dominion, 38 . were assisted immigrants, 40 were nominated (which is to say they were the wives, relatives, or friends qf settlers in the State), and ,59 paid .the ordinary fare. The' destina-. tions of the immigrants are' as follow :— Auckland, 36; Wellington, 63; Lyttelton, 8; Port Chalmers, 15; Timaru, 1; and Masterton, 5. ' ' " It was' reported a few days ago that v a quantity of jewellery had been stolon from tho premises of Messrs. Pierard and : Co., manufacturing jewellers, Lambton Quay. A ! good deal of tho stolen" property has now boon found, and in a strange place. A

citizen, noticed several watches and jowellerp lying among the rocks .at low tido near the Thorndon Esplanade., The articles had apparently ' been -wrapped- in newspapers. Ho informed Detective. Lewis, who recovered . tho goods, ; which were found, to consist principally of watches.: Wliethor tho parcel' was...thrown-.into the harbour or hidden among the rocks during low water is a mattor for conjecture. '

■ In response to an inquiry made at tho Wellington Gas Company yesterday, in respect to the poor . pressure experienced by several users on Saturday evening, the Engineer'(Mr. Birch) states that ho was awaro that there was somo cause for complaint in .Cuba.-and Vivian Streets owing, it was .thought, to some obstruction in the main that seizes:.thoso thoroughfares. .They were trying to locate exactly what it was , that was reducing the pressure, but up to 1 p:m. yesterday had not succeeded." Consumers might' bo. sure that such' lack of pressure was not attributable to any negligence on tho' part of tho company, as such little troubles woro not to its interest, and they ivere always rectified at tho earliest 1 possible moment. .. - ; ■ The gates at each end of the .'road which .skirts the Queen's Park, from GoJdie's Brae bp the intersection :of Featherstoii Terrace and Grant Iload, wore removed yesterday morning by the Corporation workmoil,' When Goldie's Brae, which was formerly a part of tho borough of (Onslow, was added to the City, it: was arranged that this road should be thrown open for vehicular traffic, so as to give a better access to tho houses on tho Brae, as soon as a stronger' fence had been erected along tho top of tho bank. This was done last week when tho picturesquo but , rather fragilo orectiori of interlaced pino branches 'was replaced by something much mono substantial. Tho opening of this road enables vehicles' approaching Goldio's Brae to avoid '< some .very stiff inclines.

•Dr. H. E. Jeffrey, assistant medical .superintendent of the Porirua Mental Hospital, arrived back from a trip' to England by the Mamari yesterday. He acted for six: months as locum tenens in the Manor Hospital and another institution for mental eases. Tlio Manor House is a very large establishment, (conducted under , the auspices of the London County Council) which accommodated 2000 patients. Since the terrible fire of Colnoy Hatch, special precautions have, been .taken against firo' iu tho various mental hospitals, and at Manor House they had a system of detached wards connected only by overhead .galleries, which system of construction would make the rapid removal ,of patients an easy matter were an outbreak of lire to occur. There was a trained fireman always 'on'the premises, arid . each official knew precisely what to do if a fire broke out.' llio mental hospitals of the Dominion compared very favourably with those at Home, .particularly as regards the food, supplied. It was .customary in English mental hospitals for each patient to bo examined once a year by a commission consisting of a doctor and a lawyer, ami all patients were exhaustively examined by a committee prior to their dischargo.

„,¥ r f'T > Et ,l l ° 1 . R '. <le Costa, LL.B. (neo Miss Ethel Iv. Benjamin, of Dunedin), after practising for somo < years in that city, has .com* mcnccd practice as a barrister and solicitor in No. 6 Nathan's Buildings, corner Grej r and Featherston streets, Wellington. Mrs. De Costa has thp; distinction of being the only lady practising at the Bar in ■ the Dominion. Intending flints can depend on prompt and careful attention at Mrs. De Costa's hands.

The annual sports of the Victoria College aro to be held 011 the Basin Reserve on Saturday, April 4.

The postal authorities advise that the Maheno, which left Sydney on Saturday for Wellington, has on board Australian maila for Wellington. The steamer is d-uo here on Wednesday morning. The postal authorities adviso that tho steamer -330n left San Francisco on March 17 - with v a largo American, mail for New Zealand. The steamer's first port of call will bo Auckland, and tho mail is expected hero about April . 9... ■ \ :; . : A supplementary''conference between tho shipping .companies and representatives of the Seamen's Union, Will be held in Wellington to-day, the Hon. J. A. Millar,. Minister for Labour and Marine, presiding. The business'will be to settle the details of tho agreement which was reached at the conference which was held a few days ago. Application was made to the Registrar of tho Supremo Court- yesterday to confirui tho terms of the -'composition* in tho estate' of I hilip Henry Gossc, carrier, of- Lower Hutt, and tho report of tho : Official Assignee in connection.with ;tho bankruptcy. Mr. A. Dunn appeared on behalf of the debtor, and Mr. M. Myers for the Official Assignee. Au order confirming, tho terms *of the composition and annulling tho bankruptcy was made.' '. A New Zeajand engineering' graduate hag just visited the University of, London. In ■ a letter to a friend- lie records his impressions thus:—"ln order to remind uiyseH of what I was - out for L the' University of London, and was shown over tho School of Engineering: Here 1 was Vat-her startled by being asked whether! New Zealand is not a suburb of Sydney. The school itself was-years "behind our own 'at Canterbury College. The. staff, points with pride to antiquated testing apparatus, now worn out, on which past researches have been made. Besides the equipment being considerably inferior to our own, tlio course itself was far easier." - !r -