ON THE CARS-AND OFF.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1909, Page 8

ON THE CARS-AND OFF.

"WE PARTED ON THE SHORE." "We parted on the shore," and other strains of musical mirth made the night air resonant on Saturday, at about 11 o'clock. The singing was by way of farewell from would-be passengers to Brooklyn, seated in a stationary car, to others who were being moved off in other car*. The trouble was occasioned (according to an x informant who was present), by the action of a conductor, who refused to permit two men to travel on a Hong Kong car, said to be licensed to carry 45 passengers, and on which there were only 38. The two were squeezed in between others, on seats which only seat four with comfort — but they were actually seated. A placard in the cars, which states that " the number of passerfgers carried must not exceed the accommodation provided," was interpreted by the conductor to mean, " carried in comfort " — a decision which, it should be stated, very few of the tram conductors make — and as the whole of the passengeis kept their seats the conductor reversed his car and went back to the terminus, where a stay was made for ten or fifteen minutes, All of the passengers kept their seats, and after about fifteen minutes' delay the car resumed its way without any decrease of passengers having been effected. The name of one of the passengers who formed an alleged overplus was taken, and it is understood that legal proceedings against him are in contemplation. There have been similar occurrences to the one above reported several times of late. One occurred last Saturday week (states another correspondent, "8.P."), when Conductor 219, on a closed-in car, licensed to carry 40, and having only 54 on board, refused to issue tickets to two men who were seated — one actually on the seat, another on a fellow passenger's knee. These two got off the car in preference to making a scene, and in this way time was saved to the remaining 32. Mr. Foster Fraser, the English author and journalist, who arrived in Melbourne from South Australia last week, said he had spent a thoroughly enjoyable and instructive week in Adelaide. He was struck with the evidence of remarkable progress in public life in that city. No other city he had yet visited in any part of the world could compare with Adelaide in regard to public institutions, the vitality of its public life, and as an educational centre. In the Old World, or America, a city would be four or five times the size of Adelaide before it could reach the high standard attained there. v Is grape-growing profitable or likely to be profitable in New Zealand ? A prominent horticulturist answered the question put by a Post reporter this morning in a decided negative. He said that he had been over to Western Australia and seen the conditions there. Growers got only £2 2s a ton for grapes delivered at the factory! At that rate they barely managed to make both ends meet. They had to work from 5 o'clock? in the morning to sundown to do that, too. How could New Zealand compete with Australia where vines grew naturally in the open air with few diseases and little trouble? Another informant, however, held that spring flowers, early tomatoes, and grapes for the table formed a profitable combination. A premium of £41 3s lid is paid by the Wellington Hospital Trustees for insurance against accident of the employees for whom they are liable. A cheque for that amount was passed for payment by the trustees this morning. Ten young sculptors presented groups representing "Helen Saved by Venus at the Sack of Troy" in this year's competition for the Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture, says the Paris Daily Mail The- winnei oi tho famous scholarship is announced to be M. Felix Auguste Beneteau. Ths second Grand Prix was awarded to Mile. Lucienne Antoinette Heuvelmans, said to be the first woman to receive the distinction. She is a Parisian, aged twenty-eight, the daughter of a cabinetmaker. She had already entered three times for the competition, and declares her intention of attempting next year to win the first Grand Prix, which carries with it the right to Hvo for four years at tho Villa. Medici at Rome.