WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9398, 27 April 1891, Page 5

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[FBOMOUBI -OWN COBBBaPONDBNT.]

0/ELLINGTON, Aprils 26. TTTTO g HELL? BA? DISASTER, The man slaughter case baa collapsed.. Nobody ia (sorry, because the Coroner's verdict hasgiven general satisfaction as far as Oapt a in Falconer is concerned. TB 31 AGENT-GENERALSHIP. Tou hr re doubtless beard that Mr Lamaoh »a to be Agent-General, one of several A g ents-General who, if all etoriea are true, s*ro all going to be appointed in a batch the present Government. Last night M t Lamach took the opportunity of a speed j, he was making at a public dinner to deny ijhe story in toto. He has not been appointed, he said, and he did not aspire to be. TIHB NEW DIRECT BTEAM BBRVICB. Mr J.B. M. Thompson, the guest of the even! n<g on the occasion, who is going to Yictcmia, told the company that he has wesson to believe that a new line of steamers is about to be star bid for running direct between Wellington and Melbourne, and Wellington and. Sydney, seventeen knot boats, to do the. voyage in three days, carrying a large number of passengers. The new departure is in consequence of the violent pwqudice which Australian travellers have fcaj.-en to the Bluff and its vicinity, where they think all the high winds and all the bsd weather that afflict New Zealand are m anufactured, Mr Thompson did not say w hat Company would put on these steamers, but he said that the Union Company could '.not afford to let anyone else doit. The (interprovincial service will, when the new service is established, be centred in Wellington, with the view of transhipments. I presume Mr Thompson was referring simply to the passenger trade; the produce trade is, of course, independent of this centre to a large extent. THE RAILWAY REVENUE. The railway accounts, I leam, are nearly ready, and they look very much better than the anticipations I sent you some weeks ago. The net profit is £421,000, instead of £410,000 as was then expected; and the general result stands at a shade over 3 per cent.

[Per Press Association.]

WELLINGTON, April 25. THE CENSUS.

The work of compiling the census is proceeding very slowly, chiefly in consequence of the difficulty of getting the papers returned. In Wellington the enumerators themselves have to fill iu some 30 per cent of the papers, and it will be a considerable time before even an approximate result is obtained. It will be at least a month before any returns relating to the whole Colony will be available. April 26. EE TURNING MINISTERS. The Premier and Minister for Lands returned from the Pahiatua settlement last night, and the Minister for Justice from the South to-day.