LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8226, 26 May 1905, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The. Gazette convenes Parliament for the di&patch of business at. 2.30 on Tuesday, June 27.

The Chief Justice ou Thursday granted a decree nisi in the Wellington suit, Louisa R,-iit v. George Rait, an application for dissolution of marriage on the ground of adultery.

The. position of third inspector to the Wellington Education Board has been given to Mr John S. Tenant, headmaster of the Ashburlon High School. Thcic were thirty applicants.

An ordor-in-couiicil for the extension o the city electric tramways to Kilbirnie Island Bay aud Brooklyn has been issued Tho work of construction will be proceed ed with at once by the Wellington Cit) Council.

During the year ended March 31 tht imports to Wellington amounted to 356,017 tons, a decrease of 938 tons on the pre vious yjar. Outward shipments amounted to 119,559 tons, a decrease of 158 tons. Wool exports amounted to 1064 bales.

Tho Rev. L. M. Isitt was tendered a welcome back to New Zealand at the Wellington Town Hall on Thursday night. There was a large attendance. Mr J. W. Aiken, M.H.R., presided. Mr Jaitt met. with a warm reception from a large gathering.

The Bauffsliire, which left- the Bluff on Tuesday, en route for Africa and West of England ports was to take a record shipment of frozen rabbits from this colony. Wlien her Bluff consignments were bliipijcd, the Banffshire was to havo on board over 60,000 crates, containing about 2,000,000 rabbits.

"One Present" writes : Allow me to correct an error of your correspondent in his report of the meeting of the Opunake Railway League. The motion- put and carried unanimously was "That a Railway League be formed to further the interests of tlio Eltliam-Opunake branch railway'," and not "The Opunako branch railway" as appeared in your issue of 23rd inst.

Replying to a deputation on tho Opunake railway question at Stratford (the Post reports), Sir Joseph Ward said his colleague had promised to have a flying survey made of the thxeo routes, and he promised Uia't Ihe- rep resent a.tiout> would receive consideration. Tlwy could not select Iho routes until the surveys were made. Tho fewer junctions thero Were the better for the travelling public. He recognised the suitability of Stratford, and would consider the matter.

1 The Provincial Conference of the North Canterbury Farmers' Union opened at Christchurch oh Thursday. Mr J. O'Halloran, the retiring president, said the colony had been undoubtedly prosperous during tlie. year. He moved, and it was unanimously agreed, to. send a' telegram lo the Premier, congratula-tiug him on the state of tlie colony, and also on the improvement in, his health. It was decided in 'recommend the Government to prohibit tlio importation of ooutm in order to prevent the spread of anthrax. A remit that auctioneers' commJesiona on sales of wool should not' exceed 2£ per cent! was referred to the executive with power to act. - '

The name of the man found in the Wellington harbor is David Thompson, a tailor. His wife is supposed to have been living in Dunedin. The Hawera Caledonian Society held • their annual meeting on Thursday night, Uil a report of which will appear to-morrow. {v, John Charles Abbott, aged about 7<Q, a Gc recent arrival from South Africa, was kMi knocked down by an electric car in. Wcl- • lington on Thursday and seriously injured. 1 Mr Cruickshanks, S.M., has given hia 'UPU P reserved decision in tho case in which Gco. mi Ottaway was charged with keeping Uquor »P for 6alo at his boarding-hous© at Nuggets, j 9* Glut ha district. A fine of £25 and costs jo was inflicted. ' J "* A ten-roomed unoccupied house in Royal -m Terrace, Dunedin, owned by G. Esther, w was destroyed by fire on Thursday morning. g0 Carpenters were at work on the previous p t day, and left at 2 p.m. The house was {o insured for £800 with the United Com- C£ pany, «nd Mr Esther estimates his loss at £300 above that. },- Tho Premier leaves Duuedia to-day for a "tour of Central Otago. Ho spcaka this evening at Naseby, on Saturday at w Ophir, on Monday at Roxburgh, on Tu«s- pi day at Lawrence, and on Wednesday a* > b; lvaitaugata. The, tour is likely to be a m cold one. As the ice at Bough.. Ridge m is now thick enough for curling the Pre- w mier will visit the pond on Saturday. P At the Fciiding Police Court on Thuxs- J 1 day, before Mr Thomson, S.M., William " Lcat was charged with making a. false declaration in order to obtain- a marriage * license. Accused had nofc resided in the * I district three- days, but- at a. neighboring * township adjoining the district. He was " remanded to the Supreme Court at Pal- | J merston North. Bail was fixed at £50. j A crowded and enthusiastic meeting \va6 lveld in the Auckland Federal Hall on Thursday evening, under the auspices oi tha Piblc-in-Rchools League. Addresses b in favor of the objects of tlie league were * delivered by the Anglican Bishop of Auck- £ land (Dr Neligan), the Hon. E. Mitchel- J ton and others. Resolutions were carried in favor of a Biblc-in-Schools referendum, and generally approving of the League's policy.. It was also resolved that ca-ndi- , «laUfi for Parliament be questioned a 6 to their views on the referendum. - } Members of the Nornianby Horticultural f Society are a^nm reminded that tho.au- ( 1 jnial general meet ing lakes place, at the , ■ Reading-room, Nornianby, tonight, at 8 | ; o'clock. Apart from the. usual business i i of receiving the animal report and bal- ; anco (sheet for the past twelve months, | 1 ami electing officers for the forthcoming , 1 year, there will be other ina.tters of im- ; ' portance placed before the meeting for j r its consideration, aud it is earnestly de- \ sired that all members who can. possibly < ' attend will do bo. i 1 "I am satisfied that much of ihe land ] ' sold both publicly and privute'y iv this i colony is disposed of at double its value. ; ) Thero has 'been land sold in Wellington ' . and elsewhere at prices which, if any ; 5 change comes in our financial position, k may spell ruin. liven now we see in the i West- Coast compensation cases that Mr - Justices Cooper and the assessors have awarded a. little as one-fifth, and, in one case I think, one-tenth of the amount P asked for."—The Chief Justice, i At one time it was thought that the b telegraph would be' superseded for many r purposes of railway working by the tele3 phone (remarks & writer in the Windsor Magazine), but. notwithstanding the great utility of the latter the use of the te!c- - graph has continued to increase propors tionately with tho growth of railway business. It has been found that, the tcle0 plume cannot be safely substituted for tho " block telegraph, on double lines, nor for c tho train staff or tablet on single lines; 0 but it may be, and is, used as &a auxiliary lo those appliances in, place of the 0 "conversing" telegraph, and so permits 8 the employment of signalmen who are nol n trained telegraphists. Nevertheless, some c of the principal railway companies stij] twin their signalmen in telegraphy beforo entrusting them with tho working " of cabiiiis controlling running lines. In c tlie hands of expert operators, the tele- ;. graph is a more, trustworthy instrument of conversation than- the telephone, as sibilant, sounds cannot always be • clearly ' transmit ted by the latter agency. Tlie ii telegraph is also the moro expeditions V means of communication for railway mes- _ sages, and less costly lo install, especially when worked in. the duplex principle, '" whereby messages can be sent in both dili rectious simultaneously over one wire. At the bottom of the sea', on the coast ii of Alaska, divers working in a diving i. bell have been, engaged hi recovering the 1 gold from sunken ships. Since the first great- rush to the Klondike no fewer than v five large steamers and (several snialT vesy Sfls laden with gold have btvn lost near t that coast. Many ingenious schemes were devised to recover the treasure, but they wore nil found, for one reason or other, IJ to be impracticable. A formidable diffiy culty, says a. writer in CasseU's ' Satur0 il:iy Journal, was the enormous pressure of tho water, a fact which was tragically * i'lustrated in the case of a daring diver '' v.h-i went down in a specially-constructed cl diving dress but was crushed to death i, wlwn at a depth of a hundred feet. The problem was at lust solved by the conotruction of an. immensely strong divhi" >" (-hani'ber. iv which two* divers descend II f»om a ship to the sea bottom. Hero, ] 4 pojring through windows of tin; .stoutestplate gloss, they operate-long levers aud clutches, by which they scitfe and attach " hooks and other apparatus to the bags and boxes of gold iv the sunken vessels, so as to 'liable the treasure to be drawn to the «nrf,ue. go successfully has the diving ll chamber worked that it- is thought vast c treasure in other parts of the ocean may 1# bo. recovered by its use. Acceptances for the first day's handicaps f and entries for the Maiden Fiat and Final 11 Hack Scurry at the Otaki winter meeting >f close en Monday next. L. An assembly wiJl lie held iv (lie To Roli „ Hall on Muy 31. J. R. Stewart and Co., Opunake, will c hold an unreserved clearing sale on bpt half of Mr John Scanlon, at. tho farm, v To Kiri, on June 1. The samo firm will , hold a clearing sale at the residence of Mrs Wagstaff, Pihama, on May 31. 8 Newton King will sell btock at Stratford c on Tuesday. |- W. H. and A. McGarry will hold a mart sale at Elthtun to-morrow. r ' ' L < ' ' I 1 I i 1 r I f 1 1 , ' j I r 1 . { < t