LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2220, 5 August 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

ji^ 6 ' stel authorities adriso that the ss. Moeraki, which.left Sydney on' Saturday for .Wellington, is. bringing Australian mails only, and ,is due this morning. . . I 'Fire broke out on the Wanaka on tlio voyage _from Timaru to Napier, near the surface of the hold, but was subdued after considerable damage had been done to the cargo by water.—Press Association. • . ■ A return presented to Parliament yesterday showed that on March 31, 1913, there were 39 coin-in-the-slot telephones installed in New Zealand. On March 31, 1914, tho number had in-' creased to 93. The total revenue received for the year ending March, 1913, was £1192 ss. 9d., and for the year up to March 31, 1914, £2633 9s. sd, • The sittings of the Public Service Appeal Beam for the revision of .the classification of the Service have concluded, after extending over about twelve months, during which time the board has sat in all' the principal cities of the Dominion. Some 145Q- appeals • have been considered, and of .these about 80 per cent, have been allowed. In about three weeks the Post and Telegraph Appeal Board will commence its sittin'gs for a like purpose. Under this heading about 750 appeals are to be dealt with. A dog was the cause of an outbreak' of fire at 10.45 a.m. yesterday in the shop of Mr. J. M'llwraitli, grocer, in Upper _ "Willi s Street; Th© Tbuilding, which is an an old two-storied,:wooden structure, of eight living rooms and I the shop, is situated a few doors above tho Albert Hotel. A clothes-horse, standing in front, of the kitchen fireplace, was accidentally knocked'over by a dog,, with the result that the clothes caught fire. Mr. M'llwraith was unable to put out the blaze with! a patent extinguisher, and the brigade was called up. The fire was cot under with ease, although a great deal of damage was done to the rear of the premises. The fire police, under Captain J. Wright, were also in attendance. , The build- , ing, which is owned .by Miss Carter, Petone, is insured with'the London, ;-Liverpool, and Globe Co. for £700. Tho Norwich Union office has a risk of £120 on the'furniture, and another £280 on the stock. The contents of tho shop and storeroom are covered by the Guaidjan office for £250. An engine, to which was attached a goods train from Upper Hutt, was derailed at Petone at about 9.15 last evening, during shunting operations. The 9.34 p.m. passenger train cleared her safely, and an engine was telephoned for from Wellington, to take tho goods train to its destination. The en(gino Was subsequently "jacked" on to tho rails again. ■; A certificate of the Auditor-Qeneral laid before Parliament yesterday showed that tho public debt of Now Zealand amounted to £75,469,780 on March 31, 1914. Tlie sum required to be invested annually, at compound interest at 4 percent, per annum, which would in seventy-fivo years amount to £76,000,000, is £169,404. . . , A woman named Ellen Hawthorne pleaded not guilty at Christclvurcb. yesterday to a.charge of bigamy in that, being married to James Hawthorne, she, on November 21, 1913, at Cliristchurch,' went through the form of marriage with George Lake. Her defence was that Mio believed that her husband ha«l divorced her. The jury accepted the statement, and the woman was formally discharged on a law point reserved for the Court of Appeal.,

A return was laid before: Parliament yesterday showing-tho number of persons who have, been declared bankrupt m each year sinco 1908. Tho following were the figures :—I9OB, 406; 1909, 471; 1910, 393; 1911, 344; 1912, 312; 1913, 343* ■ ■

A man named Francis Charles, alias Atkinson, was convicted, and sentenced to three'years'■imprisonment, at Christchurch, yesterday (states a Press Association telegram), oh a charge that "on May 15, 1914, knowing a document to bo- a forgery, he attempted to cause one K H. Hiley to act upon it as if Jt were genuine." The case for the prosecution, as detailed by Mr. Kayniond, was that the prisoner, in order to seouro permanent employment on the New Zealand Railways, had presented a. certificate purporting to bo signed bv J. C. Adams, that he had passed the 1' nth Standard at tho Normal Sjhool in 1891, • whereas Mr. Adams denied that lie had signed such a certificate. A case of alleged assault and robbery against Frank Malcolm and David Lambert was heard in Christchiirc'h yesterday, when each accused pleaded not guilty to a chargo of assaulting James Carf and robbing him of various articles, and were convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Jameß Bartley, alias Fulton, who was-convicted on a chargo of assaulting Philip Metz on June 2-1 by hitting him on the head with a spanner, was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment;—Kress Association. Tho annual report of tho Tourist Department presented to tho Houso of Representatives yesterday shows that in. spite of all drawbacks the year was a_ good one for tho Department.' "In viewof the outbreak of smallpox and tho. industrial uwest during the early part of last 6<?ason, and the fact that there was uo Easter traffic in tho past financial year, it was reasonable to expect that the financial .returns at the various resorts under the control of the Tourist Department ehould fail to maintain the high standard reached last season," says tho General Manager of the Department iu his report. !'l ami pleased to be able to report, however/ that in spite of these drawbacks the actual revenue shows a slight increase over the previous year. The actual figures are: 1912-13, £29,711; 1913-14, £30,107, an increase of £396, which may, I think, bo regarded' as satisfactory proof cf the growing popularity of our tourist resorts rnd of the value of the work ; cf the Department."