CITY ITEMS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1213, 31 May 1895, Page 33

CITY ITEMS.

A deputation from the journeymen plumbers of Wellington waited on the City Council last week to lay before the Council their objections to the imposition of a license fee. They thought it was quite enough they should be put to the expense of passing an examination, although they thought it was quite right they should be registered. Also it was unfair for them to be held responsible for work done by them for their masters ; and they thought that all journeymen who failed in the recent examination should be granted a provisional license. Another suggestion they made was that journeymen who had been at work for many years were treated unfairly by being asked to undergo an examination, and they thought they should be given a long service certificate. The Mayor promised the deputation that the Council would carefully consider the suggestions made by the deputation, and, the deputation having withdrawn, the matter was relegated to the Public Works Committee.

Mr Heaton, at last week's meeting of the Harbour Board, brought up " a grievance which had been agitating the minds of the ratepayers." He" referred to the shelter sheds. All the blame had been cast upon the City Council, but he thought the Board should take its share of the blame, if there was any blame in the matter. While he was in the Council he was always being- pestered about shelter sheds being erected, and now they were up, people were not satisfied. He suggested that the Board should give the Council its moral I support in accepting the responsibility in 1 connection with their alteration or improvement. The Mayor explained that the delay in finishing the sheds had been caused through the difficulty in getting* wood blocks. He believed there was a great misunderstanding in the minds of the public as to the responsibility in this matter. There were many people who were prepared to sink their opposition to the erection now that they saw they were likely to be of some use. It seemed a pity that some <£2ooo should be wasted in order to satisfy an excited cry of the moment. The secretary said that a prominent cabman had informed him that the sheds would be very useful, and he could not

understand the agitation against their erection. On the other hand, an expressman had informed him that he would be very sorry to go into them. The subject then dropped. The man John Robert M. Curtis, who was arrested, at Akatarawa recently for horse-stealing, has been committed to the Mount View Asylum on the certificates of i Drs Ewart and Mackenzie. A letter was read at the meeting of the Harbour Board last week from the City Council asking the Board to contribute half the cost of repairing the road from the north end of Waterloo quay to Davis street. The Secretary stated that the Board's solicitors advised that the Board had no power to vote the money. The Mayor said the same difficulty would arise with the Corporation. They also had no legal power to vote money for the purpose, but they were willing to waive that and meet the demands of the city by assisting to repair the street. The Secretary stated that he had no idea as to what would be the cost of the work. Further consideration of the matter was postponed until next meeting, and in the meantime the secretary will procure the advice of the Board's solicitors on the subject in . writing. At the meeting of the Harbour Board last week a letter was read from Messrs McKee and Gamble stating that a " Cyclopaedia of New Zealand "was to be published in six volumes, each volume to contain from 400 to 600 pages profusely illustrated with first-class process engravings, and asking the Board to recognise it as an excellent medium for circulating all the world over correct information as to the Board's affairs, &o. The cyclopaedia, the letter stated, would deal with the progress of New Zealand during the past 50 years, and would be a very mirror of the industrial, commercial and professional life of the Colony. The company which wa3 publishing the work guaranteed to print 10,000 copies of each volume. They asked for an article from the secretary and engineer of the Board, to be embellished with from 20 to 30 process engravings. A charge

of 32s 6d per block would be made. The matter was left in the hands of the secretary to expend a sum not exceeding <£3o if everything was satisfactory. The San Francisco mail arrived here by train on Fiiiay. The Southern portion of the mail was taken on by the Penguin, which left at 11 p.m. At the " social" given by the Britannia, and Antipodean Lodges,. 1.0.0. F., M.U., on Friday, Bro. T. W. McKenzie was presented with a P.P.G.M. jewel by the members of the Widow and Orphans' Society. Bro. Bishop Wallis, in making the presentation, said Bro. McKenzie had been hon secretary of the Widow and Orphans' Society ever since its inauguration 45 years ago, and he and the father of Bro. Smith, their vice-chairman, were the only two original members who were still alive. Bro. McKenzie had stood by the Society through prosperity and adversity, and had. administered the trust kindly, lovingly and sympathetically. He felt sure Bro. McKenzie l Avas a man whom they delighted to honour, and that never was a present better bestowed. The jewel bore the following inscription :—" Presented to P.P.G.M. Bro. T. W. McKenzie in recognition of his services as secretary of tne Widow and Orphans' Society of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity, Wellington District, during a period of 45 years." (Applause.) Bro. McKenzie, in reply, said he had done his duty without the hope of any reward, but the reward had come nevertheless, and it would be a heirloom that would be treasured during his life, and possibly when he should have joined the lodge above. (Applause.) The Customs duties collected at this port last week amounted to Is 2d, and the beer duty to .£l4O ss. Instead of repairing the broken threecore cable it has been decided to lay another single core cable across the Strait from Oterangi Bay to White's Bay. The three-core cable was found to be broken in several places, and was absolutely rotten where the breaks occurred. The English and Australian mails, ex Waihora, arrived here by the Tasmania on Sunday. Four boxes of gold, valued at .£7480, shipped by the National Bank at Greymouth, arrived here by the Mawhera on Saturday morning.