LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 146, 17 December 1897, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

♦ Lord HampJen, Governor of New South Wales, presented the prizes at the Wanganui Girls' College this week. Bishop Wallis was present at the ceremony, and at his request an extra day was added to the holidays. The Patea Press publishes a report that a number of Parihaka natives are to arrive in that town this week ostensibly to perform a poi dance, but probably to discuss the advisableness of starting promiscuous ploughing. The Defence Department recently informed the merchants of the city that it could not accept any more explosives for storage in the Kaiwarra magazine, owing to want of accommodation. The Harbour Board was thereupon asked to provide some accommodation, and it has accordingly decided that, in the interests of public safety, it is desirable that the Defence Department should take sole charge of all explosives. The Department is to be asked to take tha custody of all that is offered it. The question of water supply to the high levels was again referred to at the meeting of the City Council last evening. Councillor Devine said that if the Council neglected the high levels it might fiud itself in a serious position should a great fire take place. The people on the hillsides ought to receive a proper supply of water. If the dry weather continued and the Karori supply ran out there would be no water for the high levels. He moved that as the Council, would not meet again for a month the City Surveyor should be allowed to cut off the supply for machinery if at any time during that period such a course was found desirable. The Mayor ruled that the motion could not be put -without notice, and the subject was dropped. The Government Poultry Expert cites a case of profitable poultry-keeping which ho met with while cisiting Nelson. The local! Hospital Trustees authorised the expenditure of £22 odd in the purchase of fowls and in providing accommodation for them. In three months the birds yielded 407 egga, which, calculated at the contract prica of lOd per dozen, represented a total value of £16 19s 2d. About 140 chicks have also been hatched out, valued (at 6d each) at £3 lOi. The fowls cost £4 17s to keep in food, and the profit on the undertaking in three months is stated to have been £7 Os 4d. In another month the poultry will have paid for itself and the cost of housing out of profits. ' Amongst the correspondence laid before the City Counoil last night was a letter from the Hospital Trustees asking for permission to construct a right-of-way 40ft wide from Be vans-street to the grounds of the Hospital — an alternative means of access. Councillor Fraser pointed out that such a right-of-way would be of great convenience to the public living at the Newtown end. Councillor Devine said that if the Council graoted the I permission asked the owner of the land could not be prevented from building along both sides of the right-of-way. Councillor Fraser said it would be cruel of the Council to refuse the permission, as the Hospital drainage works could not be proceeded with until the question of forming a right-of-way had been decided. After some discussion the matter was allowed to stand over, as the standing orders had not been complied with. Among the appointments notified in the Gazette are those of J. M. Rodgers as a cadet in the Magistrate's Court at Palmerston North; F. T. Sandford as a cadet in the Lands and Survey Department; and Constables Hastings and- Cahill as Inspectors of Factories in the South Island and North Island respectively., Mr. Cederholm, the electrical expert of the City Council, has recommended that body to urge the Electric Light Company ; to push on with the readjustment of the | transformer sections without delay, so as to remedy a great variation which exists in the illuminating power of the street lamps. Major-General Schaw and Messrs. S. Percy Smith and J. M'Kerrow have been elected Governors of the New Zealand Institute to represent the incorporated societies for the ensuing year. The tender of Mr. J. P. Elliot has been accepted by the Railway Department for bookstalls at Wellington and Masterton railway stations at £22 10s and £4 12s per annum respectively. The amount of tht accepted tender of Mr. F. Fairhurst for the refreshment rooms at the Woodville Station is £338 per annum. Major Baddeley, who is serering his connection with the Government Insurance staff in Wellington for the purpose of taking up his residence in Taranaki, was presented yesterday with a purse of sovereigns by the staffs of the various departments in the Insurance Buildings. At the conclusion of the ceremony three ringing cheers were given for him. A special meeting of the City Council will be held on Thursday, 27th January, to dfcide on the statutory half - holdiday for next year. Two scholarships at St. Patrick's College, tenable for two years and of the annual value of 40 guineas, are being competed for during the Christmas holidays. They are open to the lads attending any Catholio parochial school in the colony. The Wanganui Education Boa^i has decided to re-open the enquiry into somewhat serious charges made Borne time ago against the head master of the Hawera School. The enquiry is to take place next week. The recent decision of the banks doing business in the colony to make a charge for keeping open small current accounts will involve a yearly cost of nearly £100 on the various school" committees in the Nelson districts. St. Patrick's College is abonjt to be fitted with electric light appliances. The installation will be complete before the return of the students from their holidays When the City Counoil was last evening considering the recommendation of the Public Works Committee that the City Brass Band should be allowed to take up a collection on the Basin Reserve next Sunday in aid of the uniform fund, Councillor M'Gill said he' objected to the Council giving permission to any band thrusting a collecting box in the face of every person entering the Basin Reserve or Newtown Park. To take up a collection in aid of a charitable object was quite reasonable, but the Council ought to pause before allowing a collection to be takeu up when the money was for a uniform fund or something of the sort. Councillor Anderson said the. City Brass Band was a band of which the public should be proud, and it should not be prevented from playing on the Reserve. The Committee's recommendation was agreed to, and it was decided that the Committee should consider whether bands should ouly be allowed to play on the Reserve on certain Sundays in each year. That home of music and musioians in Wellington, the Dresden Piano Company, has just been brought into an up-to-date condition by interior decoration and the installation of the electric light throughout the premises. The piano an! music departments, the windows, and the various offices are all efficiently lighted, while the practiceroom above has been quite transformed by the decorative treatment of the walls and the introduction of 16 electric lights. The various teachers' rooms also have been takeu in hand, and the general result is highly artistic. Mr. Martin had charge of the decorations, and Messrs. Cederholm and Tolley the electrio arrangements-.