LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 179, 24 April 1908, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Customs revenue collected at Wellington yesterday totalled £4379 13s. 3d. Burnett ,Clcine, one of the two patients who recently escaped from Porirua Asylum, has returned to the institution. ■ The foundation-stone of tho Redemptorist Church, Hawker Street,is to be laid by Archbishop Redwood at 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon... •. _ , ' Plans for a new church have been submitted to tho Anglican residents of Miramar. The site will'be .near-the park at Miramar North, and the cost of the ■ building from £400 to £500. The sittings of the Court of Appeal will be resumed at 11 o'clock on Monday morning, when argument relative to the case Phoenix Assuranco Company v. United Insurance Company will be heard. • . On Monday morning, at 10.30 o'clock, Mr; Justice Chapman will deliver reserved decision in the case Hallenstein Bros. v. Dwycr, an appeal from tho decision of the Stipendiary Magistrate at Masterton. Tho City Engineer (Mr. W. H'. Morton) expects Corporation will be able to call for tenders for the Hutt Pipe Bridge and tho new dam at Solomon's Knob, Wainui-o-mata, in June next. The plans; are well advanced. The meeting of the Management Committeo: of tho Now Zealand Rugby Union, . called for last night, lapsed for- want of- a quorum,Several members of the commiteo being on tho sick list, or absent, from the city. The meeting will be held to-night.' The following i appears in 'the Sydney " Telegraph As a result of his investigar tioii of the requirements of .the port of Melbourne, Mr. Wm. . Forguson,. New Zealand Harbour. E,xpert, has decided to recommend tho construction of- a straight cut throughfrom :Port Melbourno | to the Yarra.. Tho second term of the "Wellington Technical' School opened last evening, when about 100 students wero re-enrolled- The-art'jewel-lory,'..enamelling, and copper work classes havo attracted a, satisfactory, number .of students, and their .work so far, although' of an elomentary "character/ is very promising.; ■ A sitting -of the. Bankruptcy Court' will be held by Mr. Justipo Chapman on Monday morning, at. 10.30 o'clock. The business will include consideration of applications for discharges made by John Stevenson Pearson, of Wellington, salesman; Robert Low,' of Wellington, ' builder; and . Carlyle Sydney Free, of Wellington, dentist/ At. last, night's meeting of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council,, thirteen nominations were received for delegates to represent the, local Council at tho conference of Trades Councils, which is to bo held in Wellington next June.' As only seven, delegates are .required, an/ election will bo 1 held/ on Thursday'evening next. . '. .W v- : . The wood-blocking' of Jervois Quay . has been; postponed owing to the decision of the Government to form an; underground conduit for telephone, cables in that thoroughfare, instead of in another street, as previously intended. ,The City, Enginoor is quite ready to put tho work of wood-blocking 'in-hand, but it would be a waste of public money to, put down wood-blocking where it and its concrete, foundations . would ' havo - to bo broken up almost immediately. The'■ postponement, will result in the wood-blocking job being delayed until mid-winter. The German cruiser. Plartet arrived at Sydney on April -14 from German Now Guinea! She has been engaged there for some time in survey and meteorological work, and has gono to Sydney for an' overhauling. She is under the command of Captain-Liou-tenant Nippe, and her principal officers are Captain-Lieutenant Haneinaiw, Lieutenant Mildenberger, Lieutenant Spciss, .Staff-Sur--geon Technau, and Paymaster Wettsch. When the Planet was about 40 miles north of Capo Moreton she passed very close to , several big "waterspouts, which threatened to pass right over her at times., Amongst other well-known people to re-visit Wellington this Easter, after an absence of at leapt a decade, is Captain Chas. Pope, Assistant-Harbourmaster and Pilot of Wangauui. Captain Pope commanded several small craft woll-nish forty years ago,- when the wharf ran right up to where the-Post Office now stands, and remembers two men being " blown over tho ; jetty" where the Queen's statue now stands, and drowned before the eyes of all onlookers. It was " Windy Wellington" those days, " but 1 see very few men holding their hats now," said the Captain yesterday. : At last night's meeting of the Miramar Council, Councillor Chase-Morris dretv attention to the inconvenience caused - through there being no public pound in the borough. He pointed out\that, only tho other day, a resident's horso, which had been let out of the. paddock in which it was grazing, was driven by tho ranger to tho city pound, and that its whereabouts wero not discovered for some time. The Mayor (Mr. C. J. Crawford) stated that it would tako at least from £300 to £400 to establish a pound in the borough, and that the cost of upkeep would be considcrablo. Councillor Chase-Morris then romarkod that, if the ranger notified owners that lie had caught their horses or cattle straying, a large majority, if not all, would prefer to pay the expenses there and then to save time and further expense. In reply, the Town Clerk pointed out that the course wns, its a rttlo, adopted. Mrs. Ethel It. do Costa, LL.B. (neo Miss Ethel Ri Benjamin, of Dunedin), after practising for somo, year# in that, city, lias commenced .practice as a barrister and solicitor in No. 6 Nathan's Buildings! corner Grey, and Foatherston Streets, Wellington.. Mrs. Do Costa has the distinction of being the only lady practising at the Bar in the Dominion. Intending clients can depend on prompt and careful attention at Mm. -De luiuU.'

Scene, . European fruit shop; enter two young girls with a rush. "Oh!" said one, a "this is not a Chinaman's," and out they r; went. Fact! s Tho Wellington and Auckland teams which took part in tlio inter-University College c Tournament at Dunedin arrived in Welling- j ton yesterday morning'from tho South. The c northern team left yesterday morning for a Auckland. . . t Tho hearing of threo charges of sly grog- b selling • against Mrs. James B. Mowbray, t Lamhton Quay, and two against Mr. Mow- s bray, has been fixed for this morning. It is o probable, however, that a remand will be .J applied for. e Sentence, will bo passed on the follow- 1 irig prisoners by Mr. Justice Chapman/to- a morrow morning:—William Larrabee, incest, Taihape; John Edward Moody, forging and t uttering, Hastings; George Groves, alias 1 Williams, forgery and uttering, Masterton; 1 Alex. Camera,• false pretences, Gisborne; i John M'Cormack, breaking, entering, and i theft at Wellington. ~ ; Speaking at the meeting of the National 1 Defence League on Wednesday, Mr. F. G. ' Kinsey, 'the! Wainui delegate, said, the Gov- ' ernment sold rifles to members of rifle clubs • at £3 15s. each, and when a man could averago throe per shot for seven shots at : 500 ( yards (a score of 21) he received a free gift : of 120 rounds. This grant of 120 rounds was 1 insufficient, and ought to be increased to 500. ' At 11.45 o'clock last night the Fire Brigade turned out in answer to an alarm from Rintoul Street,/ Newtown, and found that' a firo had broken out in. a two-storied shop and dwelling-house in Riddiford Street, owned by Mr.. G. H. Bailey, and occupied by Quong Who Chong and Co., fruiterers. One room/ containing bananas, was damaged by fire, and .the shop was slightly damaged by water. Tho goods were not insured. The occupants of the premises had been ripening bananas with a kerosene lamp. - ' . Mr. G. S. Maben and Mr. H. Montague Smyth, engineers;* returned from England by the Waikare, having completed the ordering of the plant for the Ross Goklfields, Ltd., tho company which is to exploit the big alluvial, claim at Ross, on. the West Coast. The plant, which is to cost about £25,000, will include elcctrically-driven pumps, which are to mako small work. of unwatering the mine. > The 'company,. which has a capital of £80,060,, and is subsidised by.'the.Government up to £15,000, wifl have, first claim on Lake Kanieri a-s. a reservoir. ; The City Engineer, when seen last night, 1 ' said he hoped to have the' repairing of the, break in tho Wainui water supply main completed before this morning-.' The main had been broken in an awkward place, in a tunnel on private property near Wainui, whore there was no room to place a new pipe alongside the broken one. The 'two smaller leakages .in ;other' places had been: remedied. As .a, result of the. city having s to depend wholly on the Karori. reservoir during, the past two days, the residents of the. higher levels, have been cut off from tho supply, i . As soon as the , fire now hotel,. , that is being erected on the corner of Lambton Quay and Ballanco' Street, is completed, the uame and license of the Occidental Hotel are to' be transferred thereto, and 1 , the present Occidental Hotel is to be demolished. On its site wilL arise a jmagnificent warehouse .'addition to the preseiit extensive premises'' of Messrs.- Kirkcaldie 'and. Stains, which will bo a continuation in brick of the new ferroconcrete structure in' Johnston'Street, and of, dimensions 1 that, will dwarf' ,the' .firm's buildings.on-Lambton Quay. Mr.;;W.' Turnbull, .who designed the hotel, is preparing the plans of-the new and - up-to-date 'warehouse. .i. :' - Reference to the risk of injury to which pedestrians, and children in particular,, are exposed through fast motor driving oil tlio Karaka Bay road was made by the Mayor (Mr. C. J. Crawford) at last night's 1 nieet- , ing of the Miramar Borough Council.,. Councillor 'ChasorMorris• pointed 1 out .that,- for their own sake, most drivers proceeded along the road in question at a moderate pace. In his opinion, it was' only a very occasional driver who sped along at a dangerous rate.--Ultimately, it was decided, on ; tho motion i of Councillor Brodie, that notices be erected i in prominent places along the' road warning drivers not to exceed eight miles an hour. Advice-has reached,the Dominion that the National-.-Rifle Association, with ' the. approval of Mr. Haldane and Lord Elgin, have; accepted a one-hundred guinea l challenge trophy from Lieut; : Colonel Raymond Schunpher, ■of . tho -Witwatersrand Rifles, . to ' be competed for throughout'the British Eihpire ' annually on. Empire Day,' eommencing this year on Saturday, May 23; .open to teams of forty'men from any regiment of cavalry, battalion of infantry, brigade of-, artillery, j . or regular ..volunteer.' and auxiliary .forces, . also any of His Majesty's ships. The various . district- commanders ,o£ tho Dominion have ■ been circularised by the Defence Departi ment on the matter.' ' < Mr. S. Standen, who judged Ayrshircs at ■ ithe.Sydney sho.w, said yesterday that. as .a class this; breed was- better than the best, representatives iij New Zealand, except in > regard to the" tail " .of the exhibit.' This > /"tail" was a ; very big oiie, as many of the entries were sent there solely for Vsalq 'purj. poses. \Tlie' same applied to other breeds, p Jerseys, Mr. Standen stated, were superior as a olass to the best New Zealand exhibits, and.'showed great improvement since his I visit two years ago. Mr. Standen saw the ( secretary'of tho Sydney Association regard- . ing the matter of judges' expenses, some ( correspondence about which passed between t the Sydney 1 Association and the Manawatij' j Association last year,- and there is every ! probability of a satisfactory , arrangement resulting. At present the Sydney Association ' pays. steamer expenses only, whereas the Manawatu'Association on each occasion Australian judges have boon imported has paid ' full expenses amounting to £30 and over. In order to connect (jpvernment House, ' while used to , accommodate, the Houses of Parliament, with the Parliamentary Library,' ! the Public Works Department > proposes to erect a temporary covered wooden footbridge ' over Sydney Street. The City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton), after examining the plans, considered that tho structure would present a rather unattractivo appearance. The distance from the , under sido to tho roadway would bo 17ft. 6in., quite sufficient for purposes of traffic. Mr. Morton suggested that gutters should be provided on tho bridge to prevent water dropping on the footpath, and that it should bo made quite clear that the bridgo was- purely a • structure. The matter was before tho City Council last night-, when Councillor Luke (in tho chair) said that tho Council should be ready to * facilitate in any reasonable . way the work of Parliament, and the -bridge was clearly..*, necessity for the use of members, officials, and messengers. He moved that permission' be granted to erect the proposed footbridge subject to the City Engineer's recommendations being oomplied with. This was agreed ,toV ■

The Miramar Council decided last night to affix the seal of the borough to the agree- V mont with the City Corporation for the supply of water., The action of some unregistered racing . clubs in granting bookmakers' licenses to doubtful characters is likely to react on the clubs in question. During its brief existence an unregistered club which holds meetings in this district is stated'to have .issued between.' seventy and eighty licenses, and it is alleged that close upon half the number of the persons who were granted permits was made up of undesirable characters upon whom the .police'are in-the habit of casting a suspicious eye. Unless more care is exercised in such matters,-the club may find itself faced with' an unpleasant situation. ■ ■ -.. The Port Nich6lson Yacht Club luus: do- ■ cided to approach the Wellington Harbour, Board with a request that it be allowed to rent, at a nominal figure, one of the large . : untenanted sheds in the Boat Harbour. This is with a view of educating young and old yachtsmen in simple navigation, the rule of the road, tho uses _of various knots, how to splico, and, in fact, everything .that is so r essential in tho making of a good sailor. The yachtsmen and motor boat men are anxious to fcrpi themselves into a body, which can. be of service to their coiintiy, if need be.-. The launches have already proved how they can bo of service, as throughout the Easter manoeuvres they acted as dispatch boats in fair weather and foul. The following paragraph appears in the "Investors' Review" of March 7 YVhy is it! that the area of land, is declining so rapidly 'in. New Zealand? .Since 1001-s'the reduction in the area has been no less that 65,331 acres,'and. the total under wheat in the season now closing was only 192,684 acres. As it was a dry season in the • grain-growing area, the probability is that .; New Zealand will not this year have enough' ; grain to feed its .own population, and, although its other agricultural products, but-;, ter, cheese, and tho like,. seem to, be in'creasing, the Dominion cannot ibenefit at all in its existing circumstances by the necessity laid upon it to import cereals. Othor facts seem to indicate that the long swell of our stimulated prosperity is now suffering a pause, for'tho declining price of wool has hit the Dominion badly, as may be judged by thev statement that every penny of decline in the prico'per lb. means a' loss of nearly £700,000;. to the! pastoral interests. . We fear 'Sir Joseph Ward; will have tbbo'rrbw a good deal more than that £1,000,000, and to borrow it ■ ebon." ; ■