LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1108, 22 April 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Already two candidates are- men ■ tioned for the Pahiatua scat in tin e Opposition interest, namely, Mr. J. C - Cooper, who put up a ' good figh against Mr. Ross at the last election r and Mr. H. T. Ellinghani, a membe: e of the Land Board. A meeting of tin lieform Party delegates will be held a Uio Borough Council Chambers, Pallia a . tua, on April 29, for the purpose o * choosing a candidate to represent tin ; party at the election to be held tin: a Kar. i' One of the Wellington municipal can e dictates claimed a "record mceir.tp;" las n evening. At one period there wen fifty persons in his audience, e The Boy Scout Senior Cadets parad c ed at the Garrison Hall last evening 1 and were nut through company drill b; e a Torritorip.l officer. They showed : « readiness and smartness which augur; :l well for the'future of the cops. Bur ing the evening ten new members wen D " enrolled, making the total strength o £ the corps 97. • The Hutt Borough Council on Mon ' day evening will consider tenderG fo ■ tho work of completing the drainag< system, and as soon as that has beei s settled, the work will be proceeded with The system will, it is expected, bo com pleted within the next 12 or 14 mouths ' At the meeting of the Petone Bor ' ouglr Council on Monday evening next j Councillor Brocklebank will move 1 "That the Petone Borough Council' ; share of rates owing on leasehold por . tion of Hutt Park be paid." ; Monday next (St. George's Day) wil , b.i observed as a holiday by the lega 1 profession in Wellington. ' A Maori, who was placed in tin ! dock yesterday, charged with drunken : ness, was asked if he could speak Eng : lish and replied: "Not verv well." _ "Yoi ; were found drunk yesterday," said tin I Clerk of the Court. The Maori lookec i dazed, but, when a constable close bi . remarked: "Too much tho waipiro yes . terday,"'the accused nodded pleasantly , and was convicted and discharged. Tin: | incident afforded those in the Cour i some little--amusement. A petition for leave to sell certah L lands in re Bullor and Madocks will bi . heard this morning by tho Chief Justice ' (Sir Robert Stout).* An originating summons case, tho Public Trustee v ' Wallis, will also be dealt with. Hop-picking in the Nelson district ! is Hearing completion, and the cror. , has been much better than was anticipated. Prices have been very good— : froni Is. to Is. 2d. per it is stated growers will receive hand- , some returns. . Reports from the doer country in tho Hunter Valley and Makarora districts show that the season is a record one for big heads. Ranger Johns, writing to Mr. D. Russell, secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, reports the following kills:—J. Faulk's, a 19-pointer; J. Forbes, an 18-pointci 40in. long, and a 10-pointer 42Jin. long; C. Williams, a 14-pointcr 41in. long, a 12-pointer 43in. long, and an 11-pointer 42} in. long; A. Muir, a 13pointer 43iin. long; G. Hardcastle, a 12-pointer -llin. long; and A. Millburn, a 14-pointer 42in. long. In addition to tho foregoing, a number of excellent heads less than 40in. long have been taken. Yesterday Detective Abbott arrested a man, who will appear at the Magistrate's Court this morning, on a charge of failing to provide for his wife at Christchurch. A meeting of the Wellington East residents was hold i'n the Courteiiay Pl.;ee Congregational Church Schoolroom last evening. The outcome of the meeting was the formation of a No-License Committee to conduct a campaign in that electorate, for tho forthcoming general election. In a spirited address the Rev. J. Dan-son, secretary of the New Zealand Alliance, warmly commended ilio Electoral Amendment Act of last session embodying provision for still further guarding tho secrecy of ballot. At the close of the address a committee of between -10 and 50 electors was formed, the Rev. J. J. North being elected chairman, Mr. W. B. Strong secretary, and Mr. R. A. Parton treasurer. An executive of 12 was elected to arrange for future works. Something in tho value of a record .belongs to Mr. W. F. England, clerk of the Karori Borough Council, according to a statement made by the Mayor of the borough, last evening. Mr. Dasent remarked that, although Mr. England had held his position for 16 years, ho had never missed a council meeting. Greater interest than usual is being manifested in tho Wairarapa in tho ap*proaching Harbour Board election (says our correspondent), and tho polling will in all probability bo much heavier than at any previous contest. Mr. 0. E. Danioll, who has clone goad service on the board as representative for tho district for some years past, is confident of being returned. Trades unionism has made very little progress in the Argentino Republic. Referring to the industrial aspect of tho country, Mr. F. K. Cassclls, of Buenos Ayrcs, told an Auckland "Herald" reporter recently that there had been littlo combination of labour; and what thero had been, had, unfortunately, been accompanied by violence. "There have been labour troubles," ho continued, "but for tho time being tho Italian and Spanish workmen find the conditions of living and tho wages so much better in the Argentine than in their own countries that they seem to have settled down to a period of content. Tho statistics issued by the Ministry' of Agriculture apparently show a disproportionately high wage compared with the cost of living, but it must be known that the cost of living is that- of people from Southern Europe, who live in conditions that would be absolutely impossible for a British workman." Commenitng last evening upon the traliio management of the city tramways, Mr. 8; Moran estimated that on tho oiarori lino alone a sum considerably in excess of £2000 a year was wasted. From his own observation ho was able to state, ho said, that at practically all times tin Sunday afternoon and evening thero wore two cars standing idle at tho Karori terminus. Friends resident in the suburb informed him that the same state of affairs obtained on week days. Thus tho city was required to pay continuously tho wages of four men, two motormen and two conductors, who rendered no service in return. Mr. Moran said lie would leavo it to his auditors to judge the extent to which the sum he had named would ho augmented if similar instances of waste, occurring in other parts of the city, were taken into account. The Thorndon lino was also mentioned by Mr. Moran as one in which a great deal of "dead" running occurred, particularly during the evening. "I recogniso that in certain matters the small person must suffer," said Mr. S. Moran last evening, in announcing that he favoured the closing of shops on Saturday afternoon. He added that any '' niporary inconvenience caused to shopkeepers by tho institution of Saturday closing would be outweighed by the benefits conferred on shop assistants, many of whom were girls. To these people a week-end holiday would "bo a great boon. Tho Newcastle strike, according to the figures of union officials, cost the men no less than £1,000,000 in wages. What it has cost tho employers cannot very well bo figured up, hut this much is certain (says tho "Australasian Heview"), where the weekly export of coal was then 120,000 tons, it is now about 50,000 tons. Further, the extent of tho loes over foreign orders may take years to make up.

The trouble that the. harem skirt brings is not all of one kind. As a rule the disturbances of which news has been circulated have been due to the unkind attentions of the vulgar, but at Kalgoorlie a sensation was caused in quite a different way. A young barmaid was charged with having' been drunk whilo wearing a harem skirt. It was thought that her harem skirt of crimson hue would be worn in the Court, and a large number of spectators attended in expectation, but she appeared in a skirt concealed by a long grey coat. Her counsel attributed her position to over-indulgence in champagne. She was a much humiliated woman, and wont bitterly. The Bench agreed that the night's incarceration was sufficient punishment. "A remarkable speech was delivered in Sydney during March by Mr. Peter Bowling, the strike loader whom Mr. Hughes 'dethroned' after a fierco contest for personal supremacy. Mr. Bowling," according to the "Australasian Review," "said that the workers pretended to believe that arbitration was a panacea for all their ills. But they knew that it was really of no use. It might help a weak union in its early stages, but no strong union would submit to an arbitration award if its members were not satisfied with its conditions. He advocated unionism on industrial lines, when the wago-earnors, who were 70 per cent, of tho community, could govern, and say what proportion of profit tho capitalists should get. Apparently arbitration is accepted by the unionists and by the Labour Party only when its awards ;yro strongly in favour of the men. 'They como into (Court with professions of peace, but tho strike is in the background all the time.' "