LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 35

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A draughts tournament, with prizes totalling £SO, is to be played in Palmerston North shortly. The recent resolution of the City Council, abolishing all wards in the city, will be submitted for confirmation at a special meeting of the Council, to be held on the 29th inst.

The annual meeting of the Pioneer Lodge of Good Templars was held on the sth, Bro. E. A. Drury, Chief Templar, in the chair. Greetings were received from several lodges in New South Wales and Wanganui, and reciprocated. The evening was devoted to impromptu speeches. Sir Richard’s Grand Lodge representative was authorised to submit two important resolutions to the Grand Lodge at Nelson convocation on April Sth.

The abolition of the ward system was discnssed at Tuesday’s meeting of the Ratepayers’ Association. Mr A. Wilson, Newtown, moved, “That the Council be informed that the abolition of the ward system would be a step in the wrong direction, and not conducive to good municipal government.” To this there was an amendment, proposed by Mr R. E. Bannister, “That this meeting approves the action of the City Council in abolishing the wards.” After some discussion, this amendment was carried by a large majority.

A man named James Hart, who, was arrested by Detective Brcberg the previous evening, was charged at the Stipendiary Magistrate’s Court on the sth instant with forging the. name of D. Neave to a cheque for £lO 10s, and uttering the same to Maurice Fruhauf. On the, application of Sub-Inspector Wilson, accused was remanded till 11th Alareh. A first-offender for drunkenness was fined ss, or twenty-four hours’ imprisonment. Norman Campbell was fined £2, or eight days’ imprisonment, for a similar offence. YYalter Strachan, charged with assaulting James Kelly, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour.

The experiment of growing wattle at Rangiriri, Waikato, has proved a complete success. The land which the Agricultural Department assumed for tbe purpose of experimenting was considered unfit for cultivation, but so far from being fit for nothing it has proved almost ideal for wattle-growing. Tlie area under cultivation is now 1800 acres, and a number of other settlors intend setting apart some of their land for wattle. It is expected that the stripping of the department’s trees this year will! yield ai out 100 tons of nai’k, which will he sold at from £6 to £7 10s per ton to New Zealand tanners. To assist the settlers in starting this industry, the department is crushing the hark for them at a nominal rate. Part of the supposed worthless ground at Rangiriri is now laid out as an orchard, and the trees are doing very well.

“Surely a young fellow like you ought to be able to get work/’ protested the chairman of the Benevolent Trustees, when a young man, who looked the picture of health, presented himself at Tuesday’s meeting, and asked for assistance, ance. The applicant merely wanted a passage to Sydney. He had just come from Australia, and had been a steward on board an ocean liner. If lie could cnlv get back to Sydney, he said, he wouhTbe all right. But the Trustees, as one member pointed out, were not granting any holiday trips at present. “Are you dead broke?” queried the Chairman. “Yes, sir,” replied the other. Finally it was agreed to" grant the applicant three days' board and lodging, with an intimation that if somebody ran after him to offer him work in the meantime the Trustees would raise no serious objection.

A minor phase of the litigation between William, F. McLeod and the Manawatu Railway Company, over the subject of compensation due to McLeod on account of injuries received by him while in the company’s service, came before the Magistrate’s Court on the sth. The company sued McLeod for £l3 10s as rent due for the use of a cottage, the property of the company. Tlie defence to the action was that defendant had placed in the cottage a stove, .a boiler, and other articles for which officers of the . company had agreed to pay him one-half the cost. Mr Oilivier appeared for the company, and Mr Dalziell for McLeod. The company called two witnesses to state that no such agreement had been made as that which McLeod alleged, and to further say that the stove was worn out and the boiler worth only five or six shillings. Dr McArthur allowed the defendant 30s on his counterclaim for £4 10s, and entered judgment for the company for £lO and costs (£1 16s). The case of Mrs C. Lindsay v.- John Lindsay, a dispute as to the ownership of a piano, which was adjudicated upon by Dr McArthur, S.M., some weeks ago, before tbe Magistrate’s Court on the oth. Mr Luckie appeader for a, rehearing, on the ground that he was prepared to produce fresh material evidence, Mr Wilfc.rd opposed the application, on the ground-that the evidence indicated by Mr Luckie-was insufficient. The case was set down for rehearing next Tuesday. Haigh and -Morrah recovered £3 from F. J. McDonald as commission on account of a sale of a vehicle effected by plaintiffs for defendant. The defence to the action was that plaintiffs had agreed to sell the conveyance at a price greater than that which it ultimately realised; and, further, that the sale was effected by the principal without the intervention of Haigh and Morrah. It was elicited by plaintiffs that no notice of withdrawal of agency had been served upon them by McDonald. The merits or otherwise of the electric tramway system provoked some debate amongst members of the Ratepayers’ Association on the sth. One member was afraid that a great disappointment was in store for the Wellington public over electric tramways. In Sydney the drivers dare not go fast because they were afraid that the cars would leave the lines, and the system, he declared, was not one whit better than our own. The chairman (Mr Harrell), on the other hand, thought the electric tramways' an unqualified: success. Another member (Mr Drake), who said he had travelled five times round the world, and had seen all traction systems, declared that nothing could surpass the electric trams of New York or San Francisco. There one could ride thirty miles for ten cents., and nothing could equal the cars to travel in. After other members had given personal experiences of rides in tram-cars in various parts of the world, the association decided to support the extension of the tramway system.

MrAllan Orr will come out as a candidate at the forthcoming City Council elections, in the character of a. municipal reformer.

Our Palmerston North correspondent writes : —Mr Haydoii, our present Mayor, intends contesting tlie Mayoralty at the next election. The past year has been a most arduous and trying time, and it speaks well for Mr Haydon’s energy that be has been able to bear the whole burden of municipal affairs with sqch satisfaction to himself and others. There is no doubt that under him the pavements, the lighting of the streets, and the general appearance of the Square have beeu greatly improved.—Mr FI. J. Manson has been elected a trustee on the Manawatu Land Drainage Board, by a majority of 53 votes over Mr S. J. Relf.

A wedding, around which a lot of interest centred, took place at the Kent terrace Presbyterian Church on the sth instant, the contracting parties being Mr Thomas. R. Archibald, of tbe firm of McLean and Archibald, and Miss Fanny Archer, third daughter of the late Mr Joseph Archer, of the Lower Hutt. The bride, who was attired in white silk, was given away by her brother-in-law, Air 'C. Brooke Taylor. The bridesmaids were the Misses Maud and Ethel Archer. Messrs C. B. Archibald and A B. Thomson were best men. The Rev J. K. Elliott performed the ceremony, and! Air J. FI. H. Jack, who presided at the organ, played a. wedding march as the party left the church. A reception was afterwards held at Mr Archibald’s residence, Pirie street.

The Rev Richard Harding (England), in an address he delivered, last "week at the Wesley Hall, gave some interesting particulars about Wesleyan Alethodism in the army and navy. It appeared that Dissenters have had a hard fight to win religious liberty in the service during

the last century. In Gibraltar and Malta .the Protestants were all marched to the English Church until the Alethodists revolted and won the privilege for themselves to worship as their consciences directed. The Presbyterians followed suit, the soldiers of that denomination declining to enter an English Church at Malta after having been marched there. Expostulated with by their officers, a canny Highlander pointed out “that the orders only said they were to march to tbe kirk. Nothing was said about going inside.” Nowadays, said Air FXarding, there were four religions and a few etceteras recognised by tbe War Office.

The monthly meeting or the trustees of the Floine for the Aged Needy was held at the 'institution on tbe sth, when there were/-present—Alessrs Thomas AlcKenzie (in the chair), W. Allan, C. E. W. Willesten and C. P. Powles (secretary). A favourable report on a visit to the Horne was conveyed from Mrs Allan, who stated that she received no complaints from any of the inmates. It was decided to call for tenders for the annual contracts for supplies, and to held a meeting on the 19th instant for the consideration of the tenders received. Accounts to the amount of £6l 7s were* passed for payment. The secretary reported that financially the institution was just managing to get on from hand to mouth. There were one or two rooms which had to be kept unoccupied Gn account of lack of funds. It was arranged that Mr Allan and the secretary should endeavour to obtain additional subscribers. The opinion was expressed that there were many persons who did net now subscribe to the Home, hut who would he willing and pleased to do so if its claims on their generosity were directly laid before them. One piece of extra work which the trustees wish to have clone before the winter is the lowering and metalling on the northern side cf the home!. This, however, cannot be carried out unless the funds at the disposal of the trustees are augmented. Owing to the outbreak of plague at Capetown, the steamship Kuma-ra, which arrived in Wellington on the sth via that port, was detained in the stream by the- direction of the Health Commissioner’ for the purposes of fumigation. The mails which the steamer has brought were taken by the tug Duc-o to Somes Island, where they were fumigated. They reached the Post Office at 9 p.m. on the sth. An official of the Customs Department went off to- the steamer to conduct the fumigation of .•he vessel early in the evening., but it was. expected that he would not commence operations till Welfnssiay, in which case the work will not be finished till late in the afternoon. As the xn ecu cal officer will require to inspect the vessel again after the fumigation, it will not be till late in the evening that the vessel will be ready to be berthed. The precautions being taken in regard to the Kumar a would appear to be a little stringent,, as the plague had' not broken out at Capetown when, the vessel touched a-t that port'. It is hardly probable that she was berthed there, but would most likely have anchored in the harbour, and made communication with the shore by means of boats. Under. these circumstances the mails wouldhave been the 1 only means of introducing infection. By the time the vessel reached Hobart —where she was, as is’ the custom, inspected by a medical officer—any plague germs on board would surely have developed. Unfortunately, the Health Commissioner, Dr Alason, is absent from Wellington, and so has, apparently, had to issue his instructions without being fully acquainted’with the. circumstances of the oaise. ■«.