LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 201, 19 May 1908, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Customs' reveriiie collected at Wel-' lingfcori yesterdilv ariiourited to £3022 Ss. Apart from the hotel expenses,'the members of the Anglo-Welsh fbotball tearii receive two shillings a day pocket money. Thursday is pay day. Sorile members of the tearii spirit their week's tiefore nooii yesterday. •. i A deputation froni the. Navy' League Will Wait 6n the Prime Mims'tcr (Sir J. G. Ward) at noon to-dayj to request , him to exert his irifluence tiJ induce the Aihericari Admiral to send cAnfie of the' visiting wanihijjs. fej Wellington.. . TM deputation' will frfesefiti & petition, signed by over a thousand citiiens of Wellington, in stipport of the request. The Official Assignee (Mr. A. Simpson) protested at' a bankruptcy meeting yesterday morning ftgairist the failure of some creditors to presgiit their proofs befofe the meeting began;' Delay was aiwiyi beirig he said, through this'neglect, and in future creditors would not.be admitted to unless they had first filled in their proofs.' The . Wellington Hospital; Trustees were to have resumed their consideration 6f. the Hospitals Bill at an adjourned special meeting yesterday afternoon, but only thr£e members, Messrs. R. 0. Kirkj W. H. Hales, and ; 6. attdlided, arid/the meeting therefore lapsed for want of. a quorum. Most of the clauses Affecting the Wellington Hospital Were dealt with by the Board at the previous meetihg. )■ There will be,no representative Australian riflo tearti at Bisiriy this year, but' 1 seVeral unattached marksmen have decided to ihako the trip. South Australia will be represented by Lieutenant iiromby and the Rev. W. Dowdnoy. Dr. Newmarsh, of New South Wales, is already in London; and. D. Hftttdtsley, (MudgSe), B. Craven (Westorn Sllbnrbs), arid Sergeant Green (Australiaft Itiflcß) will follow at an early date. No Victorian representatives have so far announced themselves, Colo and Miss Collior, morilbfiffl of the OoiiimonWcaltli Ladies' Rifle Ohibj will siioot in tho ladies' evontSj and may porhapS bo encouraged by tho presence of Mrs. Way, of South Africa, a skilled shot with tho service riiloj and other experts, to tako par ( t in the open competition.

Oh the Athenic's /arrival at Hobart, f,n A.B. was handed over to the police on a charge of stealing a rug belonging to a first saloon passenger, and also with cutting canvas off tho hatch-covers to mnko' a bag with. Ho was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.

/ "Rule Britannia; Cymru am byth; hip, hip, hurrah!" The battle-cry of the visiting footballers may well strike awe into tho hearts of their opponents on tho field; It was used to tolling offect at tho conclusion of tho official reception at tho Town Hall last ovening, when the visitors stood on chairs arid gave vent to their fsolings in an expressive, although not altogether euphonious, niAnner. It. may be stated, for the benefit of the uninitiated New Zealander, that the words' Cymru ani bytli are Welsh, arid tho translation is "Wales for everi"

Henrj' Colles, who, through the use of stimulants to keep himsolf up, when hastening down to Melbourne from the Gulf of Carpentaria, to see his mother before she died, arrived at his brothers house in Hawthorn '(Melbourne) in such an excited state that lie shot at his sister-in-law, Ada. Colles, was before the Hawthorn Court last week on a charge' of shooting with intent. Evidence was put in by Colles's brother-in-law that, accused was suffering from mental' disorder when the, shooting took place, and his discharge w'ds asked for. Colles, however, waS GdHnflitted fof trial.

There was fun galore on board the Athenio on the day she crossed The Line. With throe or four exceptions, nolle of the British team had efer Cifcs&d the equator before, so that a particularly sportive father Neptune had more than eiiobgh to do to chfi'steri the new south-bbiind • The ! more sedate passengers .were summoned to witness the operation, 1 ifrKeii it wa3 discovered that many of them were new to the equatorial line, and wero submitted to a summary baptism. The voyage was mads a floating Sports gala'by the presence,of the footballers on board, who SSffiod Wefy'tliing before them; eifcept tho dcck-quoits championship, \Vhi6h was retiiitf Id by the purser (Mr. S. 0: j. FfeemanMattlietfS) arid sUrgeon (Dr. C: J. Linton raider). . , ; ■'-y

It is expected that'the new Diihedin depot of the Stitto Ooal Department will be opened ill i June. The Department ■ will then depots in all ftiiir cities. . It is ntit expfected that; depots wiii. be iii any of the smiller totraS this winter, but several of the siriallef municipalities are considering Hhe question of ihuliicipal coal dealing, aiid if they decide to branch out in this direction, tho Government will supply coal at bedrock prices;.- Mr<. T; Hamer, Under-Secretary'for Mines, is very favourable to this Scheme. He points out that in many smaller towris, where it would not pay the Department to establish depots, the municipalities,; l being already provided with res&ryes and sheds, could take up edal 'dialing! iHtH 'very little outlay, and benefit their ratepayers by reductions in cost. .

Tho Minister for Publid Health (the Hon. Giebrgo Fdwlds),' accompanied by Dr; Gaw, inst)Efdfcor-C}eriefal of Mental 1 Hospitals, aiid 1 the Hon. C. M. Luke,! chairmaii of the" Hospital Trustees, went over the. grounds of the Mount yiew Mfentai Hospital yesterday morning, and' was shown the site ' which-the Trustees w'ish to obtain, 1 by trihsfer for/Some, land, oii Adelaide Road, for the purposes of aii infectious'diseases/hospital; 1 Speaking after-, wards 'td a Dominion representative, the Minister said ihiif, the position epveted Was riot,'the one which'• lie : had thought; th<s Trustees;had in vieW, bi.it the ground wotild be, survpyed,. in order .t-lie. Department might seo how its disposal would .affect' the rest *of'the estate ill. future, and the' Department Would endeavour to have an exchange: made as soon as possible. ' ' ;

Mr. Jdseph Grimmorid,, chainriari of directors of 'tie R6&s Goid-Fieldfc Company," Ltd;; wliich jia§ received from tile GoVerhmetit, a subsidy of £15,000 on an • expenditure. - of, £50jd66 for uriwateririg ;the deep lovels ; iit RdsSj afid dfainirig tli6 surrounding dittrictj is'it present ill tdtfHi The gold-fiqldS 66nc&ned ivere giving rich yields of g6ld liifciiy yedrs^go/.whferi tlwiy.were flooded out lij? An itirush of water, arid although the ment kept open' for several years the effei 1 of - : & subsidy, i rio dempariy Would . uhdmako the .work of clearance until; the Ross . CJ6m- ; pany recently undertook 1 the scheme. They will obtain the necessary electrical power supply from Lake Eanieri,' over 22 dis-' tant. The Cdnipaliy's erigirieer, Mr. Smythe, has returned from England, where he went to order the machinery, arid- tho plant orderfed will arrive iii tho Dominion in due course. If the work of tho Iloss Com parly is successful, it opto lip th<S whole Ross Flat to mining tho entire disr trict should be.benefited;

Mr; L; -P: Aysdfi, irispector of Fisheries;' who has returned to Wellirigfconj informed'a Dominion /representative Yesterday that' the Government's 'oyster .farming experiment 6t Auckland is now priteeedifag very satisfactorily. It, was' found difficult at firSt to gauge accurately the demand, which proved greater thftli h&d beell expected, arid is even liow slightly larger than the supply; The d&riarid is now , estimated .At'. aboUt 1200 sacks per week) and the State is at present providing over iOOO. ' The wholesale prices at the oysters are being sold, moreover, is less thaii half ,tli<s rate of devious seasons. Mr. Aysori hag no doubt that very soon the Department will be able, to provide a larger supply of bivalves than has been forth6orhiilg for feeveral seasons, though it/is probable tnat the present demand will diminish as theseasori advances*.arid the oysters lose their .first attraction of novelty; Th& careful methods of tho State pickers are, he says, plainly evident in the appearance of tho beds. Everything is being done how to .'conserve thd stipply fot filtUre years.'

Apropos of the recent escapes of desperate cjimin&teifrom the Waiotapu Prison Camp; and the comments that have been made on the class of prisoners, sent there, the Minister for Justice (the Hon, J; M'Gowan) stated yesterday that the impression which had got abroad that tree-planting work. had been intended ■ only for first offenders was not correct. The Department wjshed to give any man a ohande to reform, whose record of good conduct over a considerable period appeared to indicate a desire for reformation. The men sent to Waiotapu wefo all men whose prisoii conduct had been reported on in sfieoiAlly favourable terms. It was inevitable! that tlloDepftrtment niuSt SomotiirioS inaico a mistake, and, acting on i prison officer's report of continued good conduct, send a man to a prison camp who had no intention to reform. Rccent events ivould cause the Department to curtail the application of this privilege. In tho case of moii who&o oonduct proved oxetiiplary in tho pristm catrlp, arrangements aro made with tho Lahd Department,. Mr. M'Gownii stated,, for their paid employment at tho expiration of their terms of sentence.

Football scribes will have to be particularly 1 careful in writing reports of the matches to be played hy the British (or, as somo call it, tho Anglo-Welsli) team, owing to the number of "repeats" iu the team. The circumstance is reminiscent of the man Who tried to locate a particular Mr. Jones in a Welsh directory, and who died from brain fag in the attempt. The Welshmen are again the source of trouble ■ in this case. There are the Jones brothers (" Guy'sand "Polity"), Messrs; W. L. and E. Morgan, who are not related, and Messrs. G. L,; J; F.,- and J. Ij. Williams, who are also strangers in blood, if not in nationality, if. Mr. Harnett had evinced any consideration for the Dominion press, he would have insisted on only one of each narao, even if the change of nomenclature had to be effected on board ; ship; when crossing the line, with Father Neptune as the officiating minister.