LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11541, 28 November 1900, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

At a meeting of the Mount Eden Board, with the representatives of the -formed Ratepayers' Association present, the Board agreed to negotiations with the Electric Tramways being reopened, and it is possible some arrangement may yet be made to extend the operations of the company to the Mount Eden and Mount Roskill Roads. The question of furnishing ,a polling booth on the- Mount Roskill Road when elections are held was considered, and it was agreed that the Board should ascertain the cost. The Ratepayers' Association have been granted the use of a room in the fire brigade station on Mount Roskill Road, and given permission to make a copy of the roll of the ratepayers.

A lad named George Jury met with a painful accident at Menzies and Co.'s aerated water factory, at the Thames, yesterday afternoon. He was carrying a bottle of acid, when it exploded and inflicted severe cuts and burns on his head and face, necessitating his being attended to at the hosoitaL.

• A very narrow Escape from drowning occurred Inst evenilat the Ferry Company's coal hulk, at thei&rth Shore, the caretaker of which " is Mi Coleman, who, with his family, lives abo»4 It appears that about half-past . five,;; »sile Mr. ~ Coleman wai away/ his eldest pd fell overboard. Tht mother jumped' «irboard to save it, and cot hold of a rolland held the child up Sir. Roekruge, oltle naval depot, and Mr. J McDougall, v'Siw the accident, and put off in a boat to Kb hulk and rescued the mother and child. >trs. Coleman- was very much exhausted, I'd called out to the men to be quick as »h |ould not hold out any longer. ■■• / | '■ •■■ A man named Atjpiur Metcalf, one of the Ranstead immigrai,s| who recently arrived from England, wat siverely injured at the railway works at Ijfwakawa recently by a fall of earth. He *A removed yesterday by train to the Haht&n Hospital. Steps should be taken tptfovide a medical man within easy distal of Poro-o-tarao. as there are several bndred men at work in the district, some ofihem having their families with them. y.. >| With reference t< |he accident recorded in yesterday's issue it Occurring at Ellerslie, to a man named P. I Gill, who was thrown from a trap near thi;township, Dr. Erson who is attonding him (states that he is in a critical condition, surging from concussion of the brain. He is hi present lying at the Ellerslie Hotel, to wlteh he was taken. He has, however, recovteid consciousness. The managei of tb'Costley Home writes with reference to the *r a graph in the issue of the 22nd inst., deling with tho fact of the Costley Home Cmmittee on Tuesday week ; having to deal >ith a number of cases of drunkenness amonj some of the old age pensioners and othos, . residents of the Home. Mr. Moss esdtiins that there are only two female inmads whom it has been his duty to report the committee for drunkenness, and neitier were old age pensioners. Among the n<jn, five who are, and five who are not, old age pensioners, were dealt with by the comiattee for this offence. In his report, he stat& " that it was simply shocking to witness these old people stagrering to the Horn* drunk." The great majority of the mae, and the whole of the female old age pensioners, Mr. Moss says, have so far dealthvith their old age pension allowances wtfb. very commendable discretion. In faints to those men and women who shoild not inferentially be included in the trunken category, and by whom the r>tnsi<p allowance is looked on as a boon, this sh*ld be known.

Petitions areieing largely signed throughout the King Cduntry (writes our Hamilton correspondent)|raying that a third train paweek be run Mween Te Awamutu and the King Country.] The reasons the petitioners give for their Request are that the present service is unipie to deal with the traffic satisfactorily.) as is evidenced by the frequent leaving behind of goods; that settlement his lagely increased of late, and is likely to further increase in the near future; that people;/if they could go to Waikato and return the next day, would use the train service more than they do at present, and the would apply to people visiting the King Country. The petitioners also ask that the trains shall arrive earlier and leave later than they do at present, and they point out that this could be done without extra cost to the Department, by connecting with the express at Frankton instead of with the! slow train. They als) suggest that the \ime of the departure of these two trains should be reversed, the slow train leaving first.] This later departure of the express would remove the cause for the frequent complains of the awkward time at which the expiess leaves Auckland. A very old Waitekauri resident, in tha person of Mr. Rster Prudence, died ,it the Hamilton Hospital on Sunday, and the body was brought down to Paeroa yesterday for interment. Deceased, who was a very old mining'prospector, was the first man to forward down quartz from the old Waitekauri mine. The high esteem in which deceased Wis held was fully evidenced by the large number of Waitekauri residents, who rodi and drove into Paeroa, a distance of about 14 miles, to pay their last tribute of respect. The funeral procession was very long\ and among those present were a large number of representatives of the Thames, Pieroa, and Waitekauri Lodges of Oddfellows. The 59th and 60th appropriation by sale in the first group of the Auckland Co-opera-tive Terminating Building Society, was held last night at St. James' Hall, the premium received for £400 was £80 10s ; also the 3rd and 4th appropriations by sale in the fifth group, the premium received for £400 being £80 10s. In the 57th and 38th appropriation by ballot in tie third group, the number drawn was 718, the holder of which having a second share, was declared the drawer of the £400. There was a fair attendance, and the appropriation was undei the supervision of the chairman (Mr. A. J. Entrican). One of Wellington's earliest settlers, Mr. Charles William Keys, passed quietly away at his residence, Lower Hutt, last Sunday morning. Mr. Keys was born at Tring, Herts., England, in 1818, and arrived in the colony in the surveying vessel Cuba, Captain Newcombe, in December, 1839. In June, 1840, he was married at Petone by the Rev. J. G. Butler, to Maria, eldest daughter of the late Mi. Charles Hunt, a passenger by the Adelaide. This was the first European wedding in the newly-formed Wellington settlement. Mrs. Keys survives her husband, as do also seven children Charles Keys, of Featherston; Mr. George Keys, postmaster, at Waiau, Canterbury; Mr. Leonard Keys, and Mr. Ben Keys, officer in charge of the telegraph department, Napier; Mrs. George Hollard, Mrs. Hug) Ross, and Mrs. Eli Hollard. Mr. Key* leaves 59 grandchildren and 17 great-grand-children. The funeral of the late Mr. John Fathers took place at Coromandel yesterday, the service being conducted by the Rev. C. F. R. Harrison. The vice-president of the Thames Miners' Union (Mr. Haidman) and Mr. Lucas (the secretary) rode from the Thames in order to be present. There has been on exhibition at Messrs. Hellaby's, Shortland-street, a fine bullock, five years old, bred and *ed on Mr. Alfred Kidd's farm at Waiuku. It weighed 12341b. Colonel Gordon, of Adelaide, who recently returned from the South African war, brought three flags, each of which possessor i. peculiar interest. One is an Orange Free State —the last flown in Bloemfontein. Another is a Union flag that was to fly over a united Transvaal and Orange Free State Republic. The third is a miniaturt «ilk flag, red, white, and blue, which was part of the preparations made by the Boera in anticipation of the fall of Ladysmith. Hundreds of these flags were made, and were intended to be used on railway excursions, for which special railway tickets had been printed.

A consignment of no less than five tons ot mutton birds arrived at the Christchurch railway station last week, from Riverton, having come direct from the mutton-bird islands. The person to whom they were consigned was a young lady, who was at her wits' end to know what to do with them. In despair she appealed to the railway officials, who promptly advised her to sell them, and she decided to take the advice. These birds, which sell at about 9d per pair, are said by a Christchurch paper, to bo considered by some persons preferable to spring chicken.

On Friday first (St. Andrew's Day) mixed foursomes will be played under the auspices of the Auckland and Auckland Ladies' Golf Clubs at Green Lane. The committee of the Auckland Golf Club request members to arrange to play with ladies on this day, and urge the necessity of arranging matches beforehand.

The new armorial device of the GovernorGeneral of the Australian Commonwealth, is that of the Order of the Thistle, founded by James 11. in 1687, long almost forgotten, but revived in later years. The insignia represents a star, a collar of gold thistles, and a portrait of St. Andrew, to whom the knighthood is dedicated. The lettering is. the*motto of Scotland, " Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" ("No One Provokes Me With Im-. punity.")