Reduction of Telephone Charges.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 181, 4 June 1891, Page 2

Reduction of Telephone Charges.

Wellington, June 4. The Government have praotioally deoided to reduce telephone oharges tb £5 per instrument, Wellington, Juae 8. The Chief Justice gave his deoiston this afternoon upon an applioation for a speoial jury in the oaae against Ooleman Philips for dummyism. He said that in lpoking »^o what authorities there were he had. oonoluded thit this was a oase iv which a speoial jury might properly be granted on the defendant's application. It was a kind of IState proseoution, and was of an unusual 'oharaoter, and notwithstanding the opposition of the Orown, a special jury would ba allowed, * It must not however, be understood that ho was laying down auy general rule. The trial was provisionally fixed for the 17th inst.

The Fire Brigades Bill, drafted by the Wellington Oity Council for submission to the Municipal Oonferenoe, provides for the establishment Of Fire Brigade Boards and gazetted districts, suoh boards to oonsist of seven members, two appoiuted by the Governor in Oounoil, two by the Borough Oounoil, and two by thS Insuranoe Oompanies, and a President appointed by the Governor. The Board to make regulations for maintaining a thoroughly equipped Brigade and regulate the height of buildings, nature of roofs, and for the conducting of houses of pubiio entertainment and providing escapes therefrom. Owners of uninsured property are to be made liable to the Board for expenses ih protecting the came from fire, such expenses not to exceed one -fifth of the value of the property. Funds foe the maintenance of the Brigade are to be contributed in equal proportions by the Government, Borough Oounoil, and Insurance Companies, the contributions of the latter to be uivided among the Oompanies in proportion to their premier receipts (or the year.

Dr. Hans Meyer, the German traveller, deaqribing his reoent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, iv East Afrioa, to an altitude of 19,700fc, Bays:—" Towards sunset the whole mountain unveiled itself from head to foot, The resemblanoe which KUim.au - jaro bears to Etna, owiug to its long, gradual slope upwards, and apart, of course from ita double peak, is not as apparent, from Moji. From Moji (4600 ft above the sea-leveU to the base Kibo -(14,400ft) the groud rises at the rate of lft in 7. From the base to the summit the ascent is very muoh more rapid, A more sublime apeota* ole oould uot be imagined than that on whioh we gazed entranced as that evening the olouds parted and the mountain stood revealed in all its proud serenity. The south-west Bide of the great ioe dome blushed red in the splendour of the setting sun, while farther to the' east the snows of the summit lay in deep blue shadow. Here aud there the glistening mysterious mantle was pierced by jagged points of dark brown rook, aB spots fleck the ermine of a king, And surely never monaroh wore his royal robes more royally than this monaroh of African . mountains, Kilimanjaro, His. foot rests on a oarpet of velvety tuif, and through the dark-green foreat the steps of hia throne reaoh downward to the earth, where man stands awa-struok bafore the glory of his majesty. Art may have colours rioh enough to fix one moment of this dazzleing splendour, but neither brush nor pencil aau pourtray the uncaaaiug play o( colout — (hj wondrous purples of the summit deepening as in (he Alpine afterglow; the dull greens of the forest aud tha bepia ahadowj in the ravineß and hollows growing ever darker aa evening steels on apaoej and, last, the gradual fading away of all as the Bun sets, and over everything spreads the grey oloudourtain of the night. It is not a pioture, but . a pageant— a king goes to hia rest."

•' We are Jews," said a rabbi, to a New York reporter, "and it is right to oall us Jows, but some of us do not like the word, beoause it his been used in Europe for ages as a term of oontempt or dorision, People often seem to be hissing when they say of a man, 'he is a Jew.' Iv Englieh books, as well as in German books, the word is often used scornfully. In most European oities the Jews were compelled to live by themselves in the meanest quarters, and this also caused them to be spoken of aneeringly, We are oalled Jews beoanse our auoient country was Judea, but we are of the Hebrew raoe, and some of us would rather be called Hebrews than Jews. But we will yet make the word Jew shine in the United States,!'

Mrs Annie Besant, carrying her New York auditors through Londou'a povertystricken distriot, brings them to this scene : " You must be at the dock' gates between 2 or 3 o'olook iv the morning, There are 20,000 to 25,000 men gathered around the gates, for the earliest there gets the first ohanoe, A mau appears aud oalls out for so many. Then begins a literal fight for life. Arms and ribs have been broken in the struggle. For what? For work that until a few montha ago paid four or four and a-half penae per hour. Surgeons any that more than 60 per oent, of these men are injured by aooidents. The work needs strength, and many are faint from hunger. They often fall into the water oa aooount of imperfeot applianoes, and are struok by the swinging bales. One-third are always turned away without employment to go baok to hungry wives and ohildren orying for laok of f ood."

The Registrar-general (writes a Wellington correspondent) is still unable to aocount fully for that "leakage" of over 8000 peraons-i.e., the difference bat ween the excess of emigration over immigration, and tiis excess of natural inorease over the census inorease, bat he suspects that the true explanation is to ba found in the faot that outgoing steamers often have mors than the permitted number of passengers, while naturally the pursers on their return would be reluotant to admit the fact, and consequently would report only the numbar their vusßele were authorised to carry. No feasible method of oheoking this excess of passengers or of preventing the ovecorowding has yet been devised, and until this oan be effeoted, the Registrar-general Bees no hope of arriving with exaotitude at the number of departures or of computing the progress of population during intervals between quinquennial takings of the census.

The London correspondent of the Argus writes :— Lord Randolph Ohurohill ia just starting for Mashonaland, He is a considerable shareholder iv the Chartered British South Afrioa Oompany, and he is going out as representative of a syndioate, in whioh he interested to the extent of £15,000. He is doing the thing en prince, having enrolled a small standing army of ten men aad two officers, with sixty . head of Jive Stock, inoluding eight do ikeys; He has aIBO with him an Amerioan mining expert, to whom a fee of 2000 guineas is to be paid for advising the syndioate what olaima to buy up, Aa there ia no mining maohinery in the country, this Amerioan is to judge of the ore by smelting it, or in any other way he oan Bhort of orushing it. The expressions of hope are frequent among tho Tories that Lord Randolph will leave his bones in Afrioa, 'Why he is going it ia diffioult to say. Mr Rhodes has apparently hypnotised him like other people, and he professes to regard the great South Afrioan as " the ablest man whom the Euglish raoe has produoed" (that's one for you, Sir Henry Parkes). Probably he was also anxious to get out of Euglaud for the present, apart from any question of enriohing himself. Hia house iv Oonnaught-plaoe ia besieged by all sorts of people wanting to go out with him, many of them brawny Australian miners, or persons describing themselves as j suoh,

The following is from Ottawa, April 24 : Parliament will be asked during the ooming session to adopt a polioy promoting trade aud oommeroe with foreign countries by means of fast steamship lines. This step has been deoided upon, aa the Government does nob regard the prospect of negotiating trade arrangements with the United States as encouraging. .The proposed arrangements inolude an Atlantic service, to be subsidised to the extent. Qf. 5,000,000 dollars per annum, for a weekly eervioe for ten years ; a projeoted fortnightly service to Australia and New Zealaud from a' tfrjtjeh Columbia pqrt, tv a subsidy of 76,000 dollars, in addition to what may ba offered in lhe other oolonies i a monthly service to Ohina and Japan, for whioh 80,000. dollars per annum has been promised by Oauada, and 225,000 dollars by Great Britain. . Should the Imperial Parliament prefer, tp raise its grant to 875000 dollars, td order to provide for a fortnightly eervice Canada's .contribution will be in' ore«ep\ to 12j5,000 d011ar5.,/.' '■[.-■>. •..,,.' It is reported that Jfe%n JBtotfcers are about to absorb the retail butchering busi»**:&i W in ??.' -•■. they, have already largely done ia Napier, / *<¥".-■