Page 6 Advertisements Column 4

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1913, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL m City improvement works are proceeding steadily po far as the municipal finances will adiuit. The largo scheme of suburban drainage ib now witljin sight of completion.' Wadestown is practically fully equipped, but Lyall Bay, Maranui, and parts of .Alelrase still remain to be done. The storm-water culvert at Island Bay is being pushed pn, and tho work of completing the sea-wall round Oriental Bay from Fitzgerald's Point will bo resumed in all probability early next year. I Certain authorised tramway extensions J are at present held up by non-arrival of material, These are chiefly the two loops at Newtown Park and tyall Bay respectively. The Newtown pai- workshops are well advanced. The Postal authorities advise tha,t the s.s. Indrapura, which sa(led from Syd. ney for Auckland on the 12, th instant, has on board Austijajian mails, also Jing- i lish mails via Suez. The Wellington portion is due on Thursday next per i Main Trunk express. The 8.3H.5. ! Niagara, which sailed from Suva for ; Auckland on the 13th inst.. is bringing English and American mails via Vancouver. The Wellington portion is expected to arrive by the Main Trunk express on Thursday morning. The Arbitration Court is sitting in Dunedin to-day to take the general labourers^ dispute. This (says The Post's Dunedin correspondent) will probably be the last sitting of His Honour Mr. Justice Sim on the Arbitration Court. A sitting of the Supreme Court in bankruptcy on Friday will mark the last occasion on which Mr. Justice Williams will preside on the Bench in Dunedin. The Committee clerks of the House of Representatives made a presentation to Mr. Walter Collins, one of their number, who has been promoted to the position of record clerk. Reference v was made to Mr. Collins's unfailing courtesy and consideration towards those with whom lilb duties for some sixteen years have brought him in contact, and the gathering wished him every auccess in his new position, A writ, claiming £3000 damages for alleged libel, was served at the office of the Dominion newspaper yesterday, at tho instance of. the New Zealand Timos Company. The ground of action is an article published on 11th December in the Dominion, criticising the attitude of the Now Zealand Times towards tho Red Federation, and more particularly its attitude in advising Liberals to support tho candidate of the Federation in the second ballot of the Lyttelton election. Members of th© State Departments which como under the operations of tho Public Borvico Act are disappointed (advises our Dunedin correspondent) at the decision of the Public Servi.ee Commiv «ionors in the matter of accumulated holiday*. It is reported that tho Commieeioners have circulated a holiday schedule which contains the information that accumulations of holidays will only ho allowed in veiy special circumstances. The docision has caused keen disappointment, which is accentuated' by the fact that when representations were made in September last for permission to allow holidays to accumulate bo that servants could defer a trip until they had earned a long holiday, the Commissioners were, it was understood, favourable to the servants' request. Exception is taken by the City Reserves Committee Chqirman (Councillor Frost) to theicriticism of the committee by "Tenor Trombone" in The Poet, with respect to benefit band performances in the Park. Tho committee is charged with describing the collections made at such performances as a nuisance to the public, and that, said the Chairman, is quite correct. The public is weary of these collections. Permission could not be given, as "Tenor Trombone" suggests, for a band performance in aid of St. Joseph's, Upper Hutt, because collections for institutions or causes outside of Wellington City are not" permitted at Newtown Park. St. Joseph's Orphanage is at Uppor Hutt. Again, no permission has been granted to other local religious bodies, as none as over been asked for by them. With regard to a recent collection in aid of the Zoo, the sum of £20 was required to add to the. collection, and as the Zoological Society gives its services free, presents all animals to the Zoo free, and aa the collection is the property ot the public, an exception was certainly made in the case of the Zoo. Jupp's Band was to have taken up a collection at Newtown Park next Sunday in aid of St. Joseph's, Upper Hutt. The Town Clerk regrets that permission cannot be granted. The dullness of tho weather is disappointing to the farmers, tho groat majority of whom aro looking forward to the earliest possible opportunity of saving their crops. Considerable quantities of the grass and clover cut for hay have been so badly blackened that they have been disposed of as refuse, and tho great bulk of the fodder that is going to stack has had much of its quality washed out of it, reports the Marfborough Express. Tho situation so far as the cereal crops are concerned 'is not so bad as might be supposed by town dwellers, who have been entertaining visions of a drenched and sunless countryside. In all directions there aro wellgrown crops, which should yield profitably, though their quality is not what it would havo been under ordinary conditions. Tho worst feature is that the fattening of the crops will add greatly to the cost of harvesting. Scything will have to bo resorted to to a large extents and as, owing to the enforced delay, there will be a general rush for tho fields when the weather affords the opportunity, the problem of finding a sufficient amount of labour for all purposes at tho one time 16 likely .to arise. The pens, which are specially susceptible to extraordinary wetness, will suffer more than the cereals; and tho potatoes have been subjected in quite an oxcoptional degreo to the risk of extensive blight. The total value of buildings erected at Petone during the last month was £39, while fees collected amounted to 16s. Ihe value of buildings erected during the year was £35,222, £44 10s being collected 8b fees. Customs entries made and passed by men. Goods forwarded or eorted. bhipping and forwarding agents to all parte of the world. The Colonial Carrying Company, Ltd., 107- 10&, Custombovm»ftuW r , i _Advt.