LOCAL AND GENERAL,

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 84, 6 October 1910, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL,

Unfair competition on the part of the Electric Lighting Department was alleged by a recent deputation of private electrical supply firms to the Tramways Committee. Mr. T. Ballinger, who acted as chief representative of the firms in question has received the following reply from the Town Clerk : "Referring to the deputation representing electrical firms carrying on business in the city, which waited on the Tramways Committee at its last meeting, protesting against the council carrying on the sale of electric lamps and fittings and undertaking the wiring of houses, I am directed by the council to inform you that it cannot see its way to change its present policy. With respect to the request of the deputation that electricity be supplied at a cheaper rate foi- demonstration purposes, I have to inform you that the council has decided to charge power rate for this supply—3d per unit net." , At a meeting of the Wellington School Commissioners yesterday, the following payments were allocated : —Wellington Education Board, £323 6s 8d; Wanetnui Board, £176 13s 4d; Wellington Boys' S?l lei e'o^ B7i 2s *** Girls> BGgn School, £37 8s 8d; Wanganuj College, £37 16s 8d; Palmerston North High School, £37 2s 4d. A list of leases and transfers was approved, and an application for an exchange of land at Makuri was not entertained, nor a request from the school committee at Lansdowne for permission to lease some land near the site of the school. It was resolved to take certain action in regard to the removal of some fencing on the land recently granted to the Lansdowne School. Special arrangements are being made at Day's Bay for the entertainment of picnic parties on Labour Day. The water-chute and side shows will be open to the public, and the ferry steamers will ply to and from the Bay at short intervals all day long. "Substantial injury," "sensible injury," 'material injury" were phrases bandied about before the Court of Appeal to-day when the question of an infringement of water on adjoining property as the result j of a mill dam's operations on a suburban watercourse was being argued. During the hearing it wag mentioned that several apparently negligible acts might reasonably be actionable if the one properly . irascible and quarrelsome individual were j concerned. For instance a counsel mentioned one case —the Wimbledon Common Case—where it was held to be trespaes to fire over a farm. Again, when an impudent equine put his head over a boundary fence and cropped his neighbour's herbage, >an action for trespass could lie, though the horse was only metaphorically on the adjoining landCounsel suggested that if the animal, bicoming frivolous, had kicked up and deposited a clod on the next section there would be done damage of a kind. Treea protruding branches, the overhanging eaves from a house, dripping water, were cases mentioned, when cause of action might lie, and too, the driving in of a pile into the bed of a stream could be actionable. An appropriation of a loan of £300 free of interest was held at a meeting of shareholders in the City and Suburban Co-operative Building Society last evening. Miss Emily Preston drew the winning number. Mansel Knocks, who was fined last week on a police information for having assaulted a player in a football match at Otaki, at which Knocks was a spectator, has been warned off all grounds ander the jurisdiction of the Horowhenua Rugby Union, states a Press Association message from Levin. • At a meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce Committee on Tuesday a letter was received from a firm of importers drawing attention to the most unsatisfactory manner in which parcels ex mail steamers were transmitted from Wellington. The letter asked the chamber to protest to the Post-master-General against the delay resulting. It was resolved to invite mcx-- i chants in the city to communicate any similar complaints with a view to representations being made on the, matter to the Postmaster-General. Some rather caustic comment in regard to the apathy of clergymen to the objects of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was made by the chairman of the Christchurch Society at a recent meeting. He complained that there were no clergymen on the committee; they had not helped the society, and none of them would devote a Sunday to sermons on the aims of the organisation. One clergyman had failed to reply to a letter expressing regret at his absence from the annual meeting, and another one, "who seemed go about in goggles," had stated that there was no cruelty to animals in Christchurch. Regiments of legal tomes, clad in khaki with scarlet and black facings have during the past two days directed a fierce fire of opinion on the Court of Appeal bench, which, so far, is weathering the attack hopefully. The dispute is no doubt shaking business: merely one affecting the legal entente cordiale between two landowners on the gentle Waiwetu Stream, one owner having % mill dam and the other certain property which the Supreme Court recently considered suffered 40s worth of injury as the result of the mill dam's operation. The court awarded damage and an injunction, and the mill owners appealed. Counsel admitted the matter small materially, but the principle (as usiual) one of extensive application. Appellant's counsel gathered art army of authorities about him to support the attack on the Supreme Court's decision. The court library was (apparently) severely depleted to provide the ammunition, and the books made a formidable array within reach of counsel's hand. All day yesterday counsel relentlessly kept up a fusilade which threatened to dislodge the enemy. This morning he resumed with about two score references (i.c books) still to be made. Respondent's advocate unmasked a vigorous looking battery of some two score of tomes this morning. When the court resumed today the time of the conclusion of the argument was sought hintingly, for there are other appeals waiting, and the court doesjiot sit to-morrow. But the end is in sight. The case is an illustration of how much law might be necessary to poultice a splinter of principle. ,

: The directors of Reuter's Telegram Gompany, Limited, have declared the i usual interim dividend for the half-year ended 30th June, 1910, at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum. Next week practically all the shearers in South Canterbury will be engaged, states the Timaru correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, and it is not expected that men will be employed anywhere at a rate below 20s per 100. At' Baling, where shearing has begun, machin shearers are getting 20s per 100. The Court of Appeal decided this morning, in reply to a query by counsel, that' the cases of Mullan v. Day (an Ashburton suit), and Christchurch City Council v. Bolland and another, shoufd be the first cases taken next week, without the order of precedence being made so far. The couTt will not sit to-morrow? some cases standing over from last sitting requiring attention. The Minister in charge of the Industries Department (the Hon. T. Mackenzie) stated in Parliament yesterday that the Government has an agent at Vancouver for the purpose of disseminating information in Western Canada. The Government has also in hand measures which it is hoped may result in an extension of the trade with tho Dominion of Canada. "We as citizens of Wellington can never forget how much we are in debt to the lady (Mrs. W. R. Williams) who gave this association its first start in this city," remarked Mr. Aitken, at the V.M.C.A. aniversary last evening, amidst a thunder of applause. She had been present, he added, at each of the eight anniversaries, and all' hoped and trusted that she "would be witte us for a great many more." In addressing the committee of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon, Mr. W. C. Beddoe, Canadian. Trade Commissioner, touched upon the mail question. The chief difficulty, he said, was that the mails from Canada had to go such a roundabout way toreach New Zealand. He was glad to sea that the Canadian Government was in-, sisting in the negotiations for the latest contract on New Zealand being made a port of call. Yesterday the Hutt Valley Gun Club's' clay-pigeon match, 21 "birds," for Mr. J. F. Atkins's trophy, -was won by H. Hancock. Details : — H. Hancock (14yds), 20 breaks; P. Philps (15yds). 17; S. Edwards (15yds), 17; S. Sebit (11yds), 17; W. Tullock (16yds), 14 j A. Scott (10yds), jls; J. Braseli (11yds), 15; J: V. Sanderson (lly y ds), 14; W! Kilminster (12yds), 11. An eight-bird sweepstake was won by H. Hancock, with seven breaks. . The resolution recently passed by the, Wellington Chamber of Commerce and endorsed by the Dunedin Chamber, expressing the opinion that it was highly undesirable that sharebrokers should act as auditors of companies, was considered by the Dunedin Stock Exchange yesterday. Strong exception was taken to thY attitude of both chambers, and it was decided to write to the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce for information, and that the secretary make enquiries as to whether any amendment of tie Act waa in contemplation so that they could take/ steps to combat it. "Bather" writes: —"ln the article in yesterday's Post with reference to the opening of the Thorndon Baths to men during the luncheon hours, the point is not made quite clear. The Thorndon Baths are not closed from 12 to 2 p.m., as the Te Aro ones axe. They are open all day, but the luncheon hours are set aside for ladies, who U6e the baths very little at this time of day, the ladies' hours being from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on most days. What is desired is that, the ladies' . hours should be from 10 a.m.- to noon, I and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This would be a boon to both sexes, and would not mean extra hours or extra work for anybody." Letters posted in Christchurch for Lower Hutt on Friday reach Wellington too late on Saturday morning for despatch by the train leaving at 7.45 a.m., and, therefore, miss the letter-carriers' delivery, which starts at 8.30 a.m. As Saturday is the letter-carriers' halfholiday at the Hutt, there is no means of delivery unless the addressee calls at the office. Enquiries are being made with a view to ascertaining whether it would not be more convenient to fix the letter-carriers' half-holiday on another day tlyai Saturday. ' This information was given Mr. Wilford, M.P., by the Postmaster-General in Parliament yesterday. "You will find that it will assist materially in shortening the case if you will pronounce the proper names (reference ta precedent cases) moreelowly," —Mr. Justice Edwards to counsel this morning during the hearing of a case that is dragging its slow and uninteresting length along before the Court of Appeal. Hi 6 Honour hastened to add that he intended no reflection on counsel's enunciation, as he considered that this advocate's manner of speech was more distinct than the majority. Mr.' Justice Chapman followed with: "I find that proper names do not reach the Bench at nil distinctly." He added that he mads more mistakes in proper names than in anything else. The acoustics of the building were not all they should be. Mr. Justice Cooper mentioned an echo »t the back of the courtroom. In a general judicial conversation it was agreed that the local Supreme Court was a' much superior building to that of Dunedin, which, it was suggested, was low down in the scale of satisfactory court buildings. The returns supplied from time to time by the Valuation Department came in for some criticism by the Mayor of Christchurch at the publiq meeting there this week. Mr. Allison objected to the adoption of the grcsß rateable value as a factor in amving at representation on the Lyttelton Harbour Board, and pointed out that tha gross value included railway and other buildings on which rates were not paid* He said that the Lyttelton Borough Council were objecting to pay the amount demanded by the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, on the ground that it had been assessed on the gross value of £800,000, instead of on the rateable value of £350,000. Apparently the Valuation Department, which supplied the figures, had taken the gross values, and included the railway properties. He added that the City Council frequently met with very serious discrepancies in the returns supplied by the Department, and that considerable reductions had to be made when it was discovered that non-rateable property had been included in the rateable properties. The council were continually altering the valuation roll, because properties were included which should not have been put down. Never travel without checking you* baggage through us. It costs no more; saves all trouble. We collect, check, daliver immediately at other end. The N.Z. Express Co.. Ltd.—Advt-