WELLINGTON NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14097, 26 June 1906, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[From Our Cobsesfondent.] WELLINGTON, June 25. Wellington has been ‘ having some days of very mild springy weather. The temperature has been so genial that apricot trees at Pc tone have been tempted to burst into full bloom. ’People had commenced to congratulate one another that winter this year was merely a convenient name for bracketing a few months. This afternoon a disillusionment came. A large surprise packet of hail rattled over the city, and in a,few minutes there was a cold, white carpet on the streets. , From a balloon the spectacle would have boon, exceedingly exhilarating. The inhabitants bad scarcely anticipated the bombardment, for the morning was line and tho barometer was reported to bo rising. When tho frozen pellets were shot down, persons out of doors made all possible speed for shelter, and, elderly gentlemen suddenly found that oven lumbago or rheumatism did not prevent them from recovering sorno of the pace of their youth. Small boys welcomed the hail, because it brought them ammunition to throw down one another’s necks. Some adults indoors did nob find tho visitation equally agreeable, for the hail blocked up waterways on roofs, with the result that_ disconcerting blobs of water intruded inside. Deports from the outskirts of the city show that tho storm seems to havepicked tho centre of the city as its principal target. Andrew Tait, aged twenty-nine, who jumped overboard from the Kahn on Saturday, when tho steamer was on hexway from Napier to Wellington, was a single man, and so far as can be ascertained, he had' no relatives in the colony. He had been depressed over a love affair. After he had finished his dinner with the other 'members of tho crew, he jumped over the rail and was drowned before a boat lowered from the vessel could reach him. Tho work of repairixig the daxnaged cable between Lyell Bay and White's Bay has been considerably delayed through unfavoxii-ablo weather. The Tutanekai left Wellington on Saturday to pick up tho ends,, which she had buoyed earlier in tho week, but owing to a lumpy ,sea she was obliged to return to port. She is to go out into the straits again to-night. After a brief stay in port to replenish her stores, the Eastern Extension Cable Company’s steamer Recorder left for tbo high seas this morning. The vessel has completed the splicing of one cable and has picked up the Sydney end of the duplicate lino, which was buoyed, white the steamer made for Wellington, about a day and a half’s journey from ths scene of the -fracture. It is expected that if the weather is favourable the Recorder will have little difficulty in picking up the Nelson end, and will'bo able to return to Wellington by Saturday. -|