GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 24

GENERAL NEWS.

Applications for a number of sections, representing an area of 11,042 acres, were approved by the Land Board on the 31st.

It is anticipated that the intentions of the City Council in the matter of future tramway traction and the extension of existing lines v ill be promulgated in a fortnight's time. Messrs Alfred Tyree and Co v boot, leather and grindery merchants, Christchurch, send us their wall calendar for 1901, which is at once artistic, convenient and original in design.

It is subject of common remark by travellers up the Wairarapa line that here and there are to be found hoteis of quite cosmopolitan size and appointment. Such a one is certainly the Club Hotel, Grey town. This popular house, under the proprietorship of Mr Maurice Lyons, has lately been considerably improved, and visitors to Greytown can rely upon securing at the Club Hotel accommodation with every possible comfort and convenience. A well-kept garden and Jawn, good livery stables, and sample rod ns are features of the hotel.

Mr George Fisher, Italian Consul, has received a communication fro mthe Minister of Marine at Borne, dated 25th November, 1900, announcing that the Italian Government has issued a decree granting amnesty to all sailors of the Italian Mercantile Marine who may have deserted from their ships at any port throughout the world previous to the Ist November, 1900. This, Mr Fisher thiuks, may be regarded _as part of a general amnesty issued in conueeti m with the accession of Victor Emanuel 111. to the Throne of Italy, in succession to Umberto I.

At the City Council meeting last week the use of the Basin Reserve was granted to the St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Committee for the 16th March, on which day it is the intention of the committee to hold a sports gathering. A report was received from the select committee which was set up to report on the matter of a town hail, but consideration of the report' 7 ? as deferred. The next meeting of the Council was fixed for Wednesday, Gth February* as it is anticipated that the Imperial troops will be in Wellington on Thursday. Should it be found later on that Thursday evening will be free from public functions, tin meeting of the Council will be be id on that evening in accordance with custom.

In Aro street, near Pclhill Gully, recently two bicyclists violently collided, with the! result that the frame of one bicycle was badly damaged. The owner of the damaged machine was C. it. Cnuliffe, and the man who ran him down was W. J. Foster, clerk to the Melrose Borough Council, who, mounted on a free-wheel bicycle, was gently “coasting” town wards at duty’s call. Cunliffe billed Foster for £lO, and on failing to obtain that sum invoked the mediation of Dr McArthur, S.M. The case was heard bn the 31st. Mr Young conducted plaintiff’s case, and Mr Skerrett appeared for the defendant. The plaintiff asserted that defendant was on the (right) wrong side of the road; but it was urged for the defence that Cunliffe also was on his wrong side, that the primary cause of the accident Vas an acute swerve which Cunliffe made in order to turn into a contiguous street, and that in consequence thereof it was impossible for defendant to avoid him. A great amount of evidence was taken, and after counsel bad addressed the Court, Dr McArthur expressed the opinion tnat the accident arose through the fault of Cunliffe. Judgment was given for defendant, an application by Mr Young that a nonsuit bo entered being refused. Defendant was allowed £2 Is costs. The return of Customs and excise duties collected at the several ports of the -colony for the quarter ending December 31st, 1900, shows that the total revenue for the colony during the period was £528,875. as compared with £508,831 for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The comparatively small increase is explained by the revision of the tariff ■and the reduction of many of the duties. In this connection the following comparisons of the revenues collected from certain articles for the two periods is interesting. Tea, for last quarter of 1899, £20,072, for same period of 1909, £7705; coffee (raw), 1899 £6Ol, 1900 nil; while under the head of “various” the revenue has fallen from £21,299 to £11,053. Taking this into consideration, the revenue all round shows a healthy increase, amounting in the aggregate to something like £20,000. The amount collected at all the chief ports, with the exception of Dunedin, shows a general improvement. At Dunedin the revenue for the quarter was £92,725, as against £105,968 for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The comparative return of the Customs revenue for the years 1899 and 1900 shows the following figures:—lß99. / £2,042,002; 1900, £2,170,354. For the port of Wellington tlio figures were: —1899, £465,076; 1900, £497,104. Auckland headed the list both vears ,the revenue at that j)ort for 1900 being £525,905. The excise revenue for the last quarter of 1900 amounted to £25,765, as against £24,151 for the corresponding quarter of 1899; and the excise revenues for the two last years as follows : —1899, £82,715; 1900, £89,284.

The veteran Captain Jackson Barry ("82 not cut”) is paying a visit to Wellington. He is still hale and hearty.

A return of the gold entered for duty for exportation from New Zealand for last year places the aggegate quantity for the colony at 373,6160 z, and the value at £1,439,602. This is a decrease in quantity of 15,9420 z, and 1 in value of £73,571 on the amount entered for the previous year. The aggregate export was distributed among various districts as follows: —Auckland, 166,3420 z, valued at £605,398 ; Marlborough, 53505, valued at £2147; Nelson, 37180 z, valued at £14,605; West Coast, 73,9230 z, valued at £295,733; Canterbury, 230 z, valued at £9O; Otago, 129,0750 z, valued at £521,629. It is noticeable that the West Coast is the only district in the colony which shows an increase in the export on that of the previous year. The total amount of gold exported from the colony from April, 1857, to date is 14,608,9010 z, and the value £57,406,100. This total was distributed among the districts as follows : —Auckland, value £9,817,315; Wellington, £708: Marlborough, £338,562 ; Nelson, £6,656,221; West Coast, £18.074,276; Canterbury, £297 ; Otago,- £22,517,899 ; unknown, £824.

Regulations governing the issue and redemption of discount stamps, as authorised by the legislation of last session , appear in last week’s “Gazette.” The regulations for the issue and audit _ of adhesive stamps shall as far as possible also govern the creation and issue of discount stamps, which shall he cf one denomination only, namely, one farthing, and shall be printed in sheets of The stamps will be on sale at any post office inquantities of not less chan one complete sheet. Chief postmasters- will obtain supplies of the stamps by requisition from the Secretary of Stamps, and shall distribute them to the various post offices. The stamps will be redeemable at any money-order office if presented in quantities of the ’value of one shilling or of any multiple of one shilling, and affixed to the special forms provided for the purpose by the post office moneyorder office. Stamps which have been obliterated, defaced or mutilated in any way will not be accepted. The proceeds from the sale of discount stamps shall be paid into the pest office, account and shall bo disbursed therefrom for the redemption of stamps presented. A return of the discount stamp business will be published in the "Gazette’’ every quarter. Tho ordinary revenue account of the consolidated revenue! at the end of the year shows a balance of £397,542, as against. £663,626 at the commencement cf the last quarter. The principal items of revenue during the quarter were : Customs, £549,443 ; stamps, £195,676; land tax, £236,012; railways, £424,465 ; and the total revenue amounted to £l,557,865. For the corresponding quarter of the preceding year the revenue to this account was £1,499,647.- The balance on the Treasury bills account is now £870,000, as against £910,000 a year previously. Tho State forests account shows a credit of £29,262, and the local bodies account of £5084 ; the deposits account, £145.190; the'Public Works account, £333,229. The land for settlement account, which now has a credit of £49,258, paid during the quarter for the purchase of estates, £8575, of which £2678 came under the head of incidental expenses. In tiie loans to local bodies account the revenue amounted to £34,600 from the creation of debentures, and the payments, amounting in nil to £35,620, included £5712 in loans to counties, £7161 in loans to road boards, £13,034 in loans to boroughs, and an appropriation of £9653 for roads to open up Crown land. The credit balance. on the account now amounts to £23,490. The only transaction disclosed in the consols account for the quarter is the receipt of £4447, deposits inscribed. The balances on all accounts amount to a credit of £l-,982,597. There was a crowded attendance on the 31st ult. at Messrs .Macdonald, Wilson and Co.’s auction rooms, when Mr Macdonald submitted a lengthy catalogue of landed properties. The Coulter estate _ was first _ offered, the principal lots being for dairy farms situate about twelve miles from Feilding. The bidding commenced at £lO per acre, and rapidly rose to £l3 per acre, at which price Mr J. R. Perry became the purchaser of lots 1 and 2. The two other farms were also sold, subject to confirmation, at £l2 per acre. A cottage and land at Petone was purchased on account of Mr Mexted, the tenant, at £2OO. The Coulter family house and thirteen acres of land excited considerable competition, and was ultimately secured by Mr J. T. Wise at £ISOO. There was a large gathering of Khandallali residents to watch the sale of the Hannah estate, and the bidding was, in some cases, spirited, a few sections realising the reserves. The major portion of the estate was, however, withdrawn for private sale. At the conclusion of the sale quite a number of offers were received for the villa building sections. None of the residences on the estate realised the reserve prices. The residence of Mr Witt, in Woolcombe street, reached £1350, but was withdrawn at £I4OO, the auctioneer expressing the opinion that at that price it was one of the cheapest family reside ucos in the city. The valuable improved town acre No. 873 was bid up to £7OO, butwithdrawn at £750. Several of the smaller properties were sold. The sale altogether realised a sum of over £BOOO.

Sergeant IV. V. Smith, of the Wellington Guards, has received orders to transfer liis quarters to the Christchurch branch of the Union Bank, and will leave for his new quarters this afternoon. His absence will be regretted by his comrades, as he was both energetic and popular.

The following appointments appear m last weeks "Gazette’:- —-Geo. M. liamson, 3. G. Parker, Alexander _\Xacpherson and Peter Thomson to be inspectors under the Dairy Industry Act, D. L. G. Hodges to be a cadet in the Stamp Department, Horace Gova-n to be a cadet in the Lands and Deeds Department, Jas. S. McLaurin, D.Sc., F.G.S., to be analyst to the Mines Department. At- last week’s meeting of the Wellington City Council a letter was read from Mr John Duthie, senior, stating that he was forwarding from London to his firm in Wellington a consignment of books, which he would, be happy in presenting to the Public Library it the Council would accept the gift. Councillors spoke in felicitous terms of the public spirit displayed by Mr Duthie throughout his career, and made mention of the fact that h© had previously extended his beneficence toward the library. Councillor Tolhurst mentioned that the gift of books just offered comprised upward of 200 volumes. The offer was accepted with thanks, and the fact recorded upon the minutes or the Council. A Haytian student of ebony blackness, .M. Isidore Mendoza, aged 25, recently arrived to study in the Latin quarter of Paris. On Monday ho ventured into a * cafe in accordance with custom in the gay quarter. Hardly was he seated when a woatly-at tired, blonde young person, seemingly attired with grief, sat down beside him, and sobbed silently into a iace handkerchief. The pity of the compassionate coloured gentleman led him to inquire the reason of his neighbour’s sorrow. Reluctantly she confessed all dearth of seamstress’s work, a merciless landlord, the contemplation of suicide as a deliverance. The conversation was long, and at its conclusion Mcllle Jeanne Oharly’s tears were dried, and she and M. Isidore lunched copiously together. After luncheon the benevolent negro lent her a 500 fr. note. It was also arranged that he should call on the merciless landlord in the afternoon and reassure him as to the future financial standing of his lodger, for a solid friendship now united the wev acquaintances. The studentkept the appointment. He found awaiting him not only Mile. Jeanne but a man of rough exterior, who knocked him down and relieved him of his valuables. The assailant even tried on M. Isidore’s overcoat before his eyes, and finding it fitted him concluded to keep it. The Haytian was left tied up and gagged on tho floor, and was only set_ at liberty three hours later. Mile. Jeanne was arrested in the course of the evening. The Standard Oil Company has become one of the largest producers of oil in California. A deal has just been consummated whereby the Standard Oil Company acquires all cf the interests of the Pacific Coast Oil Company. The purchase price is said to be in the neighbourhood of 1,000,000 dollars. For several months it has been known that the Standard had a desire to get into the oil business in this State, and had several representatives here looking over the field and “getting a line” on good propositions. The entrance of the great corporation into the Hern lviver field caused considerable comment among some of the producers there, who thought they could see all sorts of dire happenings as a result. The Gil Storage and Transportation Company was organised and “means of defence” provided, and it gradually became noised about that the latter organisation had “captured all the uroduction and had the Standard on the hip,” although the! work of erecting large storage tanks by the big company continued, and people began to wonder where the Standard would get its oil to fill these tanks. Although it appears that the Kern River field was the first in which the Standard became interested, it also was apparent that there were other section's of the State almost as tempting, and it did not take the representatives of the oil trust a great- -while to discover the fact. From different sections of the State have come- at different times reports that Standard agents were “looking over matters.” The Pacific Coast Oil Company is one of the oldest, largest and most substantial oil companies'in the State. It has been doing business in California for a quarter of a century, and has been reaching out during that period until its interests include valuable oil properties in various sections, the most important being in the Newhall field, where the company is credited with about 100 producing wells. This property is fitted up with machine shops, blacksmitli shops, and all the other adjuncts to a well regulated oil farm, and is connected by a pipe line with Ventura on the coast, whelre the company has erected immense storage tanks. From this point the oil is transported in the steamship Loomis, owned by the! company, to the refining plant at Alameda Point, which has a monthly capacity of 25,000 barrels. The' company also has large interests in Santa Clara and San Benito counties, where a considerable portion of its production is obtained. Th 6 entire holdings, including lands, wells, pipe lines, steamship, and refinery ard embraced in the transfer.

The Rev J. K. Elliott, pastor of the Kent terrace Presbyterian Church, has been presented by Mr David Robertson, one of the ciders, on behalf of the lar dies of the congregation ,with a handsome pulpit gown.

Last- week Mr T. H. Brown, on behalf of the employees of the Gear Meat Company. Limited, Lambton quay, presented a silver-mounted walking-stick and pipe to Mr J. J. King, who for a number of years had been in the employ of the company. Messrs Murray, Roberts and Co. have, received the following wool market cablegram from their London house, Messrs Sanderson, Murray and Co., dated 2Sth ult., with reference to the wool sales: —Market weak and irregular. Competition limited. Compared with closing rates of last London sales, market shows no material change.

“ Answers ” recently asked certain celebrities what they aid when tired, and! published two columns of their replies under the headings “That- Tired heeling: What Certain Celebrities Play at When Jaded.” The answer of New Zealand’s Agent-General is characteristic: <• When I am tired, I make a point, as far as possible, oi avoiding answering any questions. 1 am very tired now.

Our Carterton correspondent writes as follows : —Four cows, suffering from tuberculosis have been destroyed b.y Lie Stock Inspector during tho last few days. Mr J. Darroch, Belvedere, road, has been appointed custodian of the Wairarapa Pastoral Society’s grounds.— The various religious denominations will hold a united funeral service at rte Pastoral Society’s grounds on Satnrdm-.

A four teen-year-old schoolboy who was recently examined in the Magistrates Court, constantly made use or the phrase “I seen him coming.’ Expressions cf this description are becoming engrained in the colonial mode of speech. The fact proves that many teachers might with advantage aevc-ce more attention than they do to the utterances of their pupils, with a view to checking such ungrammatical phrases as the one above indicated and the equally popular “yous”—an alleged plural of the word you.

The death by drowning of Lady Katharine Manners on December 1/tlil gives a. tragic association to Belvoir Castle, hitherto tenanted only, in the minus of the present generation, by gay and lLsraelian memories. The Duke of Rutland celebrated his eighty-second birtoday only the day before the tragic death of 'his daughter. Lady Katharine Manners was thirty-four years old, and was devoted to her father and her family. It. is said that there carte little doubt the deceased lady committed suicide, during a fit of mental depression. The Railway Department has arranged that Mr G. A." Piper, traffic manager at Greymouth, shall take the vacant traffic managership at- Wanganui, caused by Mr Buxton being transferred to Auckland on the occasion of Mr Donne being made Secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce. Mr W. Crombio, statiomnaster at Dunedin, will fill Mr Piper’s place a-s traffic manager at Greymouth. The follow-ing other changes will be made among stationmasters: Mr A. Duncan, from Oamaru to Dunedin; Mr P. A. Duncan, from Gore to Oamaru; Mr H. J. Day, from Hawera to Gore; Mr J. May, from Rakaia to Hawera.

The bon. treasurer of th© Rowing Regatta, to be held in Wellington on Saturday "week, acknowledges receipt of tho following subscriptions: —Shaw, Saviil and Albion Company, New Zealand Shipping Company, Union Steam Ship Company, Messrs Bell, Gully, Bell and Myers, £3 3s each; Messrs H. D. Bell, Johnston and Co., John McLean and Sons, A. H. Turnbull, Stafford, Treadv t ell and Field, Brandon, His!op and Johnston, each £2 2s ; Messrs Chapman and Tripp, G. E. Tolhurst-, H. K. Be-t-hune, A. Macintosh, J. Danks and Son, Blundell Brothers, E. Wilson, Orr and Le-dder, Banna-tyne and Co., A. I. Masters, W. King, “Anonymous,” T. B. Dwan, New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Age’ncy Company, Dresden Piano Company, Star Bicycle Company, each Al Is; E. C. Mills, £1; J. 11. Price, IP. Price, E. Pearce, W. R. Symons, E. D. Barber, J. J. Preston, R. C. Renner, A. M. Gow J. Mandel each 10s 6d,

The soldiers who returned last week by the Westralia. were entertained at a luncheon at the Empire Hotel by the Acting-Premier (the Hon J. G. Ward). The Acting-Premier presided,and among those present were the Hons W. C. Walker, W. Hall-Jones, Jas. Carroll and C. H. Mills, Mr W. Fraser, M.H.R., Mr A. R. Atkinson, M.H.R., Mr A. L. D. Fraser, M.H.R., Mr J. G. W. Aitken. (Mayor of Wellington), Mr Harold Beauchamp (chairman cf the Harbour Board). Colonel Pole Pent-on (Commandant of the Forces), Major Madocks, Lieutenant Walker, Messrs Gresley Lukin and J. L. Kelly. The health of the returned troopers ivas proposed by the ActingPremier, who referred in suitable terms to the high reputation won by New Zealanders in South Africa. He coupled the toast wfith the names of Major Madocks and Lieutenant Walker, who replied. Major Madocks, in the course of his modest speech, said bis chief pride lay in having bad the command of the finest mounted infantry in the Imperial service. Colonel Pent-on also briefly spoke in appropriate terms.