LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2243, 1 September 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The next sitting of the Bankruptcy Court in Wellington will be held on Monday, November 2, at 10 a.m. 'The evidence was steadily mounting up against a wharf labourer charged in the Magistrate's. Court yesterday with committing a breach of the peace. A constable swore that he had found the accused bending over an unconscioas opponent, and belabouring _ him with his fist. "What position was I in?" inquired accused of,the constable, when question time came. "You were on your knees striking blows," answered the constable. "Why I was peace making," indignantly replied the maligned one. "Pieces making, more likely," interjected Inspector Hendrey.

All the concrete fish-tanks in connection with the aquarium that has been presented by the Marine Department to the City have been erected, and for some time past water has been allowed to run through thorn in order that the cement taint might be completely eliminated before they are stooked, with fish. Mr. L. F. Ayson, the.Government Fisheries Export, has in his keeping a fair variety of fresh-water fish, and these ho intends to make comfortable in the Zoo aquarium some time next week. The aquarium has been arranged in a very attractive manner on a picturesque location about half a ohain above the lions' den, on the opposite side of the path. It is anticipated by Mr. Geo. Frost (the chairman of the Reserves Committee) that the aquarium will prove a big attraction during the coming summer.

Speaking to a Dominion reporter yesterday, the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) stated that the applications for relief that were being received were no more than were usual at this time of the year. The Labour Department had taken in hand the task of finding labour for the unemployed, and the hale and hearty workers were being sent out to public works in different parts of the country. The' difficulty— and it is always a difficulty—is to find work for the out-of-work clerk, whose constitution is not robust enough for nick-and-shovel and bush work.' So far this class of worker does not figure conspicuously among the unemployed, hut if many of that class are knocked out of work through the effect of the war the problem qf how to employ him profitably will not be an easy o'no to solve.

A man was arrested by Detective Mason yesterday under warrant charging him with having deserted, his wife at Eltham. He will appear in Court this morning. No date has yet been fixed for the first sitting of the Commission which is to regulate the price of foodstuffs in New Zealand while the war lasts, The Prime Minister stated •, yesterday that it would meet as soon as possible, and that thereafter it. would meet intermittently as the need arose. . A t Customs duty record has been established for the port of Wellington during the month ending August 81, 1'914. The total sum collected for the period mentioned amounted ■ to. £110,895 2s. 10d., the previous record being for the month of August, 1907, when £96,431 Bs. Id. was collected. Customs duty collected 1 for the corresponding period last year amounted to £80,870 os. 9d. Tho duty collected at .Wellington yesterday amounted to £4116 15s. lOd. The beer duty collected for the month ending August 31 was £1142 9s. 5d,, aB compared with £962 13s. 3d. for the corresponding period last year.

Rumours current that the flaxmills would close down, and that > a large number of men would be thrown, out of work. ; denied rby.v>;tho; -millowners (states a Press Association message from Palmerston North). It was "reported last evening that there is now a steady demand for hemp, and the milU continue as usual.

"During this period of national stress," said the Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt in his sermon on Sunday, "it is a public und patriotio duty to sustain ep far as possible all our ordinary activities." He added that it was poor patriotism for a wealthy man to refrain from painting his house, for a well-to-do woman to 'dismiss her maid, or for one of assured income to cancel a contract for digging his garden. To curtail the circulation ot money was to create and aggravate the distress consequent upon unemployment. Judicious spending would afford work for the industrious " and prevent the need . for charity. It was hotter to spend 20 guineas in building a shed than to give two guineas to a relief fund.

In the course of an address at the annual meeting of the Auckland Provincial Employers' Association, the chairman (Mr. Ernest A. Craig) remarked that as the result of the industrial turmoil of last year■ capitalists were diffident about investing in any concern that employs labour. Trading and manufacturing concerns were being carried: on with little or no profit,, and in many instances at a loss, and it could be readily understood that this state of affairs could not last muoh longer. A report preseuted to Parliament showed that there were only 10,420 income tax payers in New Zealand, including absentees, and of this number only 4827 firms or' persons mado over'£3oo 'per year. It was obvious, therefore, that very few employers were making money, .and that brought them to the question: "Oan wages be continually on the increase P" He Lad no hesitation in answering in Ihe negative, and would go further, and bay that there were industries in New Zealand which could not stand any further increase'in wages, and it had to bo recognised that there must be a limit, whioh, onco past, spelled disaster and ruin.

: A rattlesnake's bite was successfully dealt with at the Middlesex Hospital recently. An under-koeper at the Zoological Gardens, in transferring a, newly arrived rattlesnake from its travel-lhig-box to a cage temporarily exposed his hand, and was bitten on two fingers. After efficient first aid.by the"Zoo" offioials the man was removed to the Middlesex Hospital. For some days he was in a critical state. But active measures were taken to minimiso shook and keep up his vitality, and in lss than ten days he was able to leave for a convalescent home. It "supposed that tho venomous snake failed to inject more thaa a Bmall proportion of the usual doseW poison, because where the bite is successful the victim usually succumbs in less than a quarter of an hour.

Tho'Rev. J. D. Russell, vicar of Oamaru, and late vicar of Petone, is visitag Wellington as organising secretary of the Church of England Men's Society. He has had a very encouraging tour through tho Dioceses of Auckland and Waiapu, and is about to visit the brandies in tho Wellington Diocese. He finds tho movement . generally in a healthy condition, but glad of the stimulus which the visit of tho organiser usually gives. There are now over 2600 membons of the C.E.M.S. in upwards of 150 parishes in Now Zealand, and the numbers nro steadily growing. Tho diocesan secretaries of Dufiediu, Nelson, and Wniapu, with many branch secretaries and members, have joined the Expeditionary Force, but other Churchmen are coming forward to take their places in the work of the Church. A general meeting of tho C.E.M.S; members and other Churchmen is to bo hold in the Sydney Street Schoolroom this evening, at 7.45 o'olook, to meet tho organising secretary, and all Churchmen in Wellington and suburbs are cordially invited. The Bishop will preside over tho meeting.