LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 899, 19 August 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Additional railway facilities to enahle residents to travel into AVellington at an earlier hour every day are lieinj; sought by about 200 residents of Taiva and Ponriia, who have, through Mr. Luke, M.P., petitioned the Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister for Kailways) on-the subject.

A- "I>ickie" stamp-vending niayhine has been erected in the "vestibule of the General Post Office for the permanent convenience of the pnblic.

Most trade's unionists-would probably be grievously offended if thfj were told that thev could, with advai<iute to themselves, take stock oft a code i f "honour" amongst prisoners in England. In the Legislative Council yesterday, however, the" Hon. H. A. Loughnan was bold enough to suggest such a tiling. "Thou shalt not exert thyself unduly, lest the standard of work be raised; but thou shalt not, however, shirk lest thy fellows he required to do thy work." This, said Mr. Loughnan, was one of the prisoners' unwritten rules, and it was one, he added jocularly, which unionists might foliow. ■ I

Although nothing definite has yet been decided,' it is said' to bo very probable that, the Trades and Labour Council will'nominate a candidate to contest the scat on the City Council, rendered vacant by the death of the late Mr. J. J. Devine. • - '

It is reported (says our tFanganui correspondent) that a ; local syndicate has been formed to promote a musical and elocution carnival at Wanganui on the sitae lines as the Napier and Dunedin competitions.

The open season for shooting godwits has been fixed, by Order-iii-Couhcil, as from February 1 to April 30, inclusive. The birds'may not be trapped, netted, snared, , or., taken by any other means prohibited by the Animals' Protection Act, 1908. - ' .

The tender of Messrs. J.Duthie and Co., Ltd., at .£9352 ISs. 9d„ has lieen accepted by Ihe City Council for the supply of 1200 tons of pipes, required mainly for the reticulation of the suburbs. The unsuccessful tenderers were Messrs. ■ Briscoe, M'Neil, and Co., Ltd., at ,£9927 Ss. lOd.

It is understood that the .Government is about to start another, sawmill the Main Trunk railway. ••'■' '"'■'.

Some of the rolling stock on the Wairarapa lino is evidently not as good as it ought to' bb (says an Eketahuna correspondent). On Monday . evening , the engine attached to the passenger train froini'Masterton broke down near Mangamahoe, and Eketahuna was at'once ranmunieated with. An engine which earlier in the day. had blown out some part of its economy at Eketahuna, and had been detained for. repair,' was the only locomotive available for dispatch to the scene. A delay of an hour and a half was occasioned by the breakdown.

"For the use, convenience, and enjoyment of the Polhill Gully Eiile runs an announcement in this weeks Gazette, 2 roods of land, Section 10 of tho Ohiro registration district, l'.ava been taken over by the Government.

The services of the Palmerston North' Technical School Cadets have been accepted by the Government

The periodical examinations held by the examiners of the Inspection,, of' Machinery Department took place at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne, Hamilton, Invercargill, Napier, Nelson, 'Palmerston North, Timaru, Wanganui, and' Wellington. . The certificates .for which examinations 'were held were as follow:—First-class " marine second-class marine engineer, third-class marine engineer,, river engineer and engineers of auxiliary-powered vessels other than steam (both for sea-going and river trade), extra first-class engineer,- firstclass stationary ongino-diivor, secondclass stationary engine-driver, locomotive and traction, engine-driver, and- winding engine-driver (for mining certificates). Of the two hundred and six candidates, one hundred and. thirty-eight were successful.

In the course of a reply to Mr. Pearco in the House of Representatives, the Hon. E. M'Kenzie (Minister for Public Works) stated that the necessary moneys for the Mount Egmont branch railway were now. nearly completed, but owing to the nature of the climate the work had to be stopped during the middle of the winter. Operations were to'be resumed as soon as the weather becomes suitable for carrying onwork at such a high altitude. Mr. Pearce pointed in particular to the small amount which had of late been spent on the railway out of tho amount appropriated. The position was, ho declared, very unsatisfactory. The Hon." E. M'Kenzie, in reply, admitted that less money was expended on the railway than was appro-, priated, but on an adjoining line tin, vote was over-spent.

Fjxtensivo inquiries have been made by the Government into the housing problem in the four centres of tho Dominion, and the Secretary of labour' will submit a report shortly giving full information, including particulars as to the classes of houses, locality, number of occupants, sanitation, rents paid, and general housekeeping conditions.

A deputation from the Labour Federation Conference 'waited ;on the Trades and Labour Council last night, and the latter body accepted an invitation from the conference' to attend a meeting to bo held at His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday night to discuss amendments to the Workers' Compensation Act.

No date has yet been fixed for tho election of a member of the City Council to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. J. J. Devine. The Act requires that a poll shall be taken for this purpose not less than twenty and not more than twenty-five days from tho occurrence of the vacancy. '

In the Supremo Court' yesterday -the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. H. H. Ostler, stated that with his Honour's permission he proposed, to take cases in the followin;; order:—Charles Nodino (alleged perjurv),. on Friday; George Brown, (alleged sexual offence), on Saturday; and Francis Edwin Tier and Michael Tier (alleged breaking and entering and theft), on M'nndav. The only case on the list to which a da to has not yet been assigned is that of Wm. Plain, charged with committing an indecent act.

The public notifications of intention to raise a special loan of .£71,000 for public works !»t Miramar, which were slightly informal under the .Act, have been validated by Order-in-Council.

Over 33,000 tons of obsolete naval shipping were offered for solo at Portsmouth Dockyard recently. The five vessels to come under the hammer were the battleships Centurion and Barileur, each of 10,800 tons displacement; the armoured cruiser Nelson, the second-class cruiser Melampus, and the old hulk Pique. It is worthy of not) that the Melampus was at one time uuder the command of the present King.

A half-caste woman named Alice Cootcs was yestordny arrested by Detective Cnssells, and will this morning be charged with the theft at Otaki on July 31 of two gold rings, and n fur necklet, value .6 12s. Gd., the property of Samuel Robinson.

In a case in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, where the Inspector of .i wards-was prosecuting a tradesman for a breach of the preierence-to-unionists clause, the inspector stated that employers did not gs to sufficient trouble to .ind out whether a man belonged to a union before they employed him. _ Cases of the kind were frequently cropping up, and therefore he-asked that a conviction be recorded even if the case did not merit a fine. A conviction was not recorded, however, the Magistrate (Mr. W. R. Haselden) remarking that the employer had put the question bona fide and received the answer bona fide. Mr. Haselden made it clear that this, would not allow employers to regularly make use of this, defence. If he found that employers were resting satisfied with merely a perfunctory inquiry as to whether the men they employed were members of the union, penalties would be imposed. "Writing from Shannon, Mr." J. E. Stansell, sen., says:—"ln to-day's issue of The Dominion- you report a public mooting that was held at the Druids' Hall, Shannon, on Saturday, August 13. The report is a very good condensed report of what I said, considering. 1 spoke for nearly three hours. But, with your permission, I wish to correct two mistakes, one that 'Mr. Gunning moved,' should be 'Mr. J. R. Stansell moved, ' that the Government be respectfully requested to grant a bonus on the invention of machinery that will improve, the quality of hemp that is manufactured in New Zealand,' seconded by Mr. Logan, and carried unanimously, whereas in the report it says I voted against it. The other mistake.is that I intend to stand for Otaki, whereas I said as distinctly as I could I intended at the next general election I would stand for Manawaw electorate."

The tender of Messrs. Lawrence and ilansou, at .£lsSi, has been accepted by the City Council for the supply of three electrically■■driven multi-stage turbine pumps foi the high-levels water supply scheme. The contract price includes duty and the cost of landing the plant .where it is required. The pumps are for the Wadestown, Melrose, and Koseneath highlevel reservoirs, which will be similar to thoso at Brooklyn and Kolburne. The electro-turbine pumps which operate these reservoirs are both manufactured by Messrs. Mather and Watt, of Manchester. The new pumps will be of the Wortkingtou patent, and the plant will be of the .General Electric Company's manufacture. The unsuccessful tenderers were:—Anderson, Ltd. (Christchurch), JE1460; Booth, Macdouald, and Co. (Christchurch), .£16011; J. J. Nivon and Co. (Napier), .EI9SB; A. and T. Burt, Ltd., £2025; Turubull and Jones, £2171: and A. D. Riley and' Co., Ltd., JSOSI). Though alternative tenders were ; called for, only single tenders' were forwarded in some cases, which partly accounts for the disparity in the amounts.

The directors of the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company, Limited, have decided to recommend a dividend of •1 per cent, for the half-year. ended July 31. The interim dividend was 3 ner cent., so that the dividend-for the year will amount to 7 per cent, or 1 per cent, more than was distributed last year. , The annual meeting will be held about September. 6.