LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2218, 3 August 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Australian mails only are doe In Wellington at 4.12 o'clock this afternoon from Sydney, via Auckland.

The next criminal session of the Su-' prcme Court will be opened in Wellington on. Monday,. August. 10.,

Quite confidently, a youth charged with a breach of the Defence Act at' the Magistrate's Court on Saturday proffered' the .Magistrate a small slip of paper in answer to the charge preferred against him. He was nonplussed to havo if returned to him a moment later, along with the intimation that he was fined 10s. The explanation is contained in the 1 following little dialogue:—"The trouble with these boy's is' that tliey wait till they are summoned for not'attending drill, secure a doctor's certificate, and then come here, nnd play it as a trumpicard," were the words of a. military-looking gentleman. "It's too small a card this time," said tlio- Magistrate, as Jio made a little entry in the big book facing him. The third 1 , person, though most intimately concerned in the said entry in the big book, said nothing. . .The Mayor of Carterton, Mr. M. D. Hornsby, lias received a communication from tno Grand Priory of tho Order of tlie of St. John of Jerusalem .in.England, asking him to present tho Order's certificate to Walter Harold Gordon, who at the risk of his life saved a lady from violent death in front of a railway engine, at Hastings,' on May 22/1912. ,

At tho next meeting of tho WelKngton Central Chamber of Commerce the following notice'of motion by air. J. I'. Atkius will be considered: "That this Chamber co-operate with the Napier Chamber of Commerce, and invites all tho local and public bodies- throughout the Dominion to use their best, endeavours to urge the Government to place Mr. T. K. Sidey's Daylight Saving Bill upon the Statute Book,"

The telegraph office advises tkatweekend cable messages for the Continent of Europe, except liolgium, Holland, .and France, to be posted from London,: aro now acoepted at the tame rate as week-end messages to England, with the addition of a mailing fee of od. for each message. ' ..

Yesterday afternoon 'the Wellington Tramways Band rendbred a programme M ■ music at, Newtown: Park.' A collection in aid of the fundgbeing. raised by the Zoological .Society: to purchase a pair of bush turkey's realised £8 10s.

After having been open for nearly five weeks the _ Baillie . Gallery of British 'paintings, in Harbour Shed U, will close jn ';i'uesday. Jlany hundreds of visitors inspected the art collection yesterday .afternoqp.

John Mason, . twenty-two years of fige, was before tho Supremo Court on ■ Saturday mohiitig on- a charge, of having: placed a . blopk of wood across the railway lino at Awapuui 1 recently. Tho -Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout.) expressed the opinion that it was difficult to know quite what to do with the accused, who was reported to be liable to do very stupid things. He said that tho young man was in some respects tnore dangerous than a criminal, and that he would have to bo kept out; of the way of trouble. His Honour sent Mason to Invercargill for tlirco years' reformatory treatment, remarking that the. Prison Board could' look into tho case, -and see what could he done for the accusod. Tjvo other prisoners were dealt ,with by His Honour. Basil Gordon M'Elwain,. convicted of theft, was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment; and John Reni, convicted of theft from a dwelling, was sentenced' to sis months'- imprisonment.

As Professor Laby, the general secretary of the, New. Zealand Science Congress Committee, will probably be leaving _ for Sydney on Friday next, lie is anxious to at once enrol all those wlio wish to,become associates in Wellington*; (which will entitle them to' tickets for all the lectures delivered hore). Ho states that there is almost bound to,be. a rush to enrol at the last moment, and that rush ,ho wishes to minimise as far as possible to prevent any confusion that may possibly arise in'the busv days -immediately preceding the arrival of the. British Association and American party of scientists.

Consequent upon the recent decision given l in the Appeal Court-in regard to public bars in licensed houses, tins police intend in a few days to make an inspection of tho hotels of the city, and seo_ that due compliance with the new decision is carried out by tlie proprietors.'

Mr. Carlyle Smytlie, who is presenting Mr. Alexander' Watson, the gifted dramatic recitalist at the Town Hall, announces that Sir Douglas Mawson will deliver a series of lectures in New Zealand during September. :