NELSON HARBOR BOARD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 94, 6 May 1903, Page 3

NELSON HARBOR BOARD.

THE BOULDER BANK CUTTING. FORMER RESOLUTION RESCINDED. | At a special meeting of the Nelson i Harbour Board this afternoon, after a ; long discussion in committee, it was re- ' solved, by 6 votes to 4, that the resolu- ] tion to do the work of cutting through . the Boulder. Bank by day labour be re- . scinded, and that tenders be called forthe , work. The division list was aB follows— j Ayes : Messrs Trask, McKenzie, Best, . Field, Talbot, Graham ; Noes : Messrs Webster, Franklyn, Hanby, Finney. Since the Kia Ora dredge No. 2 Lower i Buckland, started operations, about the i beginning of the year (says the Mcl- <: bourne " Argus ") the buckets have been -j scooping up all sorts of relics of the past generation. These include (writes a local correspondent) gold and silver ' coins, horse-shoe nails, gun shots, circu- „ lar bullets, part of a gold brooch, ear- 1 rings, and a sterling silver toothpick, in ( the best state of preservation, and of a < better quality than those to be seen at 1 the present day. The latest addition to ] the collection of curios is a leg-iron, < which must have been in the wash since j 1854, because it was about that year that f the Buckland diggings broke out, and it j is believed that the police had them in . use-to chain prisoners to logs before a . lockup was provided, or means of trans- . port established. The finding Of this ' relic calls to memory the famous Chinese » drive of 1857, when the diggers massed at the head of the Buckland and hustled ( the Chinese down the valley and out of the goldfield, when it is known that six or seven of the poor wretches were t drowned. a Some detailsjof the working of the New t Zealand Government railways for the J year ended 31st of March appear in the Gazette this year in connection with the • returns for the concluding four-weekly period of the year. There were 2291 miles open for traffic, 56 mo ie than in the a previous year, and the revenue totalled i .£1,974,037 (of which the North Island < contributed £788,557), an increase for the 0 whole colony of nearly £100,000. The ex- c penditure reached £1,343,415, an increase on the previous years of some £91,000. ] The percentage of revenue in 1901-2 was , 66.80, and last year 68.05. More than c seven and a half million passengers were a aarried (an -"increase of nearly a quarter j of a million), exclusive of 118,431 season f I ticket-holders (17,653 more than .last year.) The only decrease was one of T 97,920 second-class passengers. Altoge- , f . ther 3,987,559 stock were carried (exclud- 1 12,737 horses and 34,202 dogs), an in- 1 crease of 1,122,518. The total quantity of I , goods carried reached 3,730,393 tons, some 201,000 tons more than last year. All the separate heads show an increase except grain, which went down from J 813,344 tons to 718,375, a decrease of 94,969 tons. Firewood increased by only - 262 tons, thus reaching 100,498 tons. ' A case raising the question of^the t peculiar liabilities of a ship's captain I came before the Wellington S:M.'s Court recently. Paull and Roberts sued George ] tllman for £94 8s 4d, f or work done in ( Wellington on the steamer Manaroa.gThe work was not disputed— the whole question was one of liability. The work was done at defendant's order when the 1 Sounds and Golden Bay Shipping Company (since gone into k hquidation) owned < the Manaroa, (which vessel has now gone I . into other hands. Defendant's case was I that he ordered the work as agent for the then proprietary company ; and it was i admitted that plaintiffs had at first charged the work to the company. His Worship said he had no doubt that plaintiffs had at first looked to . the company and not to def endant to pay them, but when they found therewas no prospect of getting payment from the .company, and that there was a chance of the captain being personally liable, they took the present action. As a matter of equity, it would be hard to make defendant liable, ! and it would aIBO be hard that plaintiffs > should lose their money; so the case i would have to he decided on dry law. t Mr Gray for plaintiffs stated that a-cap-I I tian had in law a personal authority to 1 j sell or hypothecate his ship and cargo to . raise money in certain cixcumstances, as . for repairs abroad, etc. ; in which case the '. captain was personally liable for debts , contracted, and in turn had recourse r against the owners. He contended that b- the captain was in the.same position here. I Mr Menteath for defendant argued that i ths personal liability existed only in 1 ports and places other than the port of ; registry (which is in this case Welling--1 ton), and that repairs done here carried a no liability of the captain. The case c was adjourned for further argument on s. this interesting point. t Sir W. J. Steward, has written to Mr s- Ell, calling his attention "to the outrage perpetrated in Notice to No. 15 of 1903, whioh appears on page 748 of the 'Gazette' of March i 2." Sir William points out that the hill on which the John McKenzie memorial cairn is erected is c spoken of as " Pukelvitai," despite the d fact that there is neither "1" nor "v" n in the Maori language. "This sort of thing is altogether too bad," is Sir William's oonunent. Mr -Ell wrote on the subject to Mr H. S. Roberts, of Oamaru, asking if he had the correct name of the h\\\ } so that the Minster could be com- , municated with, in order to have the *' error remedid. Mr Roberts, in his reply, 1 says that the name of the hill is y < PaMhiwi-tahi,' meaning 'One-shoulder,' , which had been given in honour of a man bearing that name.

A clock that may be relied upon ' tb sound dn aMriri aiid wakeh a sleeper, and in addition strikes a [■ match, lights a methylated spirit t fire, heats the water in a kettle, ahd, when boiling feint is reached [ tips it into a cup, is indeed, same [ thing of a novelty. That is what > the latest automatic timepiece, , whioh has been placed upon i market by Mr, Frank Clarke', Gothic arcade, Showhill, Birmingham, Is capable of doing. Tije whole arrangement is decidedly ingenious; yet simple>— that is to say, - r it care be taken in adjusting . the requisite parts, the clock may be relied upon to fulfil' these numerous functions. In the first place we have an ordinary alarm clock. Like similar timepieces, it could be set to call the sleeper at any hour. The moment the alarm starts ringing it releases a spring, whioh. by a clever device strikes a match. This lights the methylated spirit. The moment the vettle, immediately poised above the fire boils, it is made to tip and lour its contents into a cup. Immediately the kettle tips, a spring is released, which passes a shutter over the fire, instantly extinguishing it. A gong is then sounded to notify that the tea is made. Waiter can be heated ifl. this waiy for shaving purposes, while the automatic clock may be found useful for warm ing infants' food during the flight.

A peculiar complication has arisen in Wellington in a case iv which John Beauchamp' appealed against a conviction recorded against him by the Magistrate, of selling liquor after hours at the Tramway Hotel, of which he was licensee. Since the appeal was heard by the Chief Justice, and before judgment, the appellant has died. Dr Findlay, who represented the appellant, submitted that judgment could not be given as intended. Further, that the conviction, in consequence of the death, was permanently, suspended and amounted to an abatement. There could therefore be no endorsement of the license, and the fine and security ,given must be returned The Justices "of the Peace Act provided that where an appeal was lodged execution under 'the conviction shall be suspended, and Dr Findlay contended that if these proceedings! were abated it must follow that tine execution must be permanently suspended because no cti-.i-ficate could now be gives by the Supreme Court. Mr -Myers, ffor the polite, replied to this contention, and mentioned that there was apparently no direct authority on the point. It was the firs<t case of the kind on record in New Zealand or Victoria. In the course of the argument an old case of the Attor-ney-General v. Buckley, heard m 1898 C) wa(9 referred to. In tha* case a verdict had been given against defendant for -£2000 for forfeiture under a Customs Act. But the defendant died before judgment was formally entered. It was held that judgment could not be entered up owing to the man s death, because the information was abated The Chief Justice reserved his decision. During the first quarter of this year the Telegraph Department handled 93 831 Press telegrams, for a revenue of .£3706. The number of messages sent to the Paess during the first quarter of last year was 58,107, valued at £3651. »«^»"—^m — I I