TO-DAY'S TELEGRAMS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 201, 19 December 1896, Page 2

TO-DAY'S TELEGRAMS.

GENERAL ITEMS (By Telegraph.) (/'('/■ I'rcsx Awciation.) "Wellington, This day. The Court which conducted the enquiry into the alleged touching on a reef by the Takapuna has held that there w T as nothing in the evidence to give jurisdiction under the Act, and consequently the Court bad no authority. The Government has decided to take steps to prevent the introduction of the Bubonic plague prevalent in India and the East, and instructions are to be issued to the Boards of Health and Customs Officers by way of precaution. A new pass on the railways has been issued to members of Parliament. The old passes can be retained on payment of £l, but will only be of value as souveniers. Two thousand pounds have been passed for the Motueka section of the Midland Railway, and £1,500 for additions to the Stamp Office. Mr Ferguson, chief clerk of the Dunedin Post Office, will be retired at the end of the year. Mr Foster, chief clerk of the S.M. Court, Dunedin, will also be retired on account of failing eyesight. The colony will be represented at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. The Government propose to join with the Imperial authorities and other colonies in providing one large building for the general exhibition of British products and manufactures. Dunedin, This day. The Union Company have purchased from Donald and Edenborough, of Auckland, their island steamer, Richmond, which for some years has been running in the Auckland-Raratonga-Tahiti trade. It is the intention of the Union Company to extend facilities for trading with these islands,