GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 30

GENERAL NEWS.

The Sandwich Islands have by proclamation in last week’s “Gazette” been declared to be infected with bubonic plague. Leprosy, bubonic plaguo and small-pox have been declared to bo dangerous infectious diseases. The Wellington Education Board has received applications, in many cases for several positions, from about 200 applicants for the filling of 48 vacancies, caused by the reorganisation of school staffs under the colonial scale. Gold dredges to the number of 145 were in operation in March, 1901, according to a census return. The hands employed numbered 965. In 134 cases the motive power was steam. The total horse-power was 3041. The expenditure during 1900 was as followsLabour, £78,238; coal, plant and repairs, £IBB,046; management. £16,308: total expenditure, £282,592. The value of the gold won was £287.061, and that of machinery and plant in use was £528,600. The canital invested totalled £690.430.

The members of the Christchurch Working Men’s Club recently entertained Mr Joint Atkinson, an old member of the club, on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday. The president, Mr W. H. Young, in proposing the health of “Our Guest,” spoke of the latter’s long connection with the club. and. on behalf of the members, presented hint with a silver-mounted umbrella. Mr Atkinson feelingly replied, and in the course of the evening he gave two Shakespearian recitations. A few days ago a Maori boy at Whakarewarewa, tearing along in wild haste on a bicycle, ran headlong into a telegraph pole. He was picked up, and taken heme as one dead, and elaborate preparations were made for a tangi. Greatly to the joy and astonishment of his family and the chagrin of those who had been invited to the feast, however, the youth rose np on the night before his propo>ed burial, and lit- out for the kai (food) house on his own account . Interrogated on the subject, a dispassionate friend said. "Oh! no. you can't kill a Maori like that, but (confidentially) it stops Ids breath for fifteen hours!”

A Justice story comes from the North. It was at a tourist- resort that an alert policeman captured a charming lady cyclist riding on a footpath. Two J.P.’s, by rota, took their seats on the Bench to try the case, but before they could commence a town councillor, at whose house the lady happened to be boarding. accompanied by an Australian, who is a Justice of the Peace, and a third companion J.P.. climbed up on to the Bench. After a fair and exhaustive trial by these five Magistrates the case was dismissed. Bicycling on footpaths which are used by crippled and decrepit persons, is a more than ordinarily dangerous practice.

There was talk in the Awatere Valley (Marlborough) about a ruinous drought last December, but when the Premier visited that place shortly before Christmas, lie jocularly promised a deputation that, he would make arrangements for giving the district rain. This fell next day. It is now reported that the incipient drought has been changed to a verdant plenitude, and in many places rape and cereal crops which have been thrice sown during the dry season are at present wrestling for existence with their own redundancy. As a result of this the sheep wax fat. and the farmers jovial as day follows day—and a block vote at Seddon for the Ministerial candidate is an assured event of the future.

The member for Wairau (the Hon. C. H. Mills) gives two medels every year—one to the boy and the other'to the gill in the Marlborough Education Board s _ schools who gain the highest mai ks m Standard \I. These prizes are called the M.H.R. medals. This year for the first time they have been won by children from the same school. Mr Mills has just been advised by the Board’s secretary that the winners rne George Gee (363 marks) and Rachel Paul (337 marks), both of Renvick. The possible total was 380 marks. The competition for the medals seems to nave been very keen this year. There were seven other boys and six other girls who gained upwards of 300 marks. The master of the Renwick school is Mr Leslie, t\ ho is well-known in Hawke’s Bay.

Maoris are permitted to net Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti for a license of £1 per annum. They take largo quantities of trout, and sell them. Europeans pay £3 per annum for the same privilege. Thero is considerable feeling against the practice at Rotorua (says our local correspondent), the people there recognising that if itr goes on tlio supply will presently become exhausted. A deputation of local anglers intend to wait on Mr Donne, the Superintendent of Tourist and Health Resorts, as soon as ho is well enough, to seo them, with a view of ascertaining if influences cannot be brought to bear to get this netting stopped. The fact ascertained by Mr O’Callaghan, of Wellington, that Rotorua lake trout can be taken with rod and lino makes their conservation import ant-

'A monster art union is being promoted in connection with the championship band contest to be held at Sydney on the 25th and 27th inst. The average number of heads and eggs of small birds paid for weekly by the Waimate County Council (South Canterbury) is 20,000, yet the birds appear to be as plentiful as ever. The Newtown branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation has paid a compliment to the youngest son of the Colonial Treasurer, Awarua Pat Ward, who was one year old last Tuesday. They have presented a finely-chased silver spoon to his parents -in trust for him. The spoon was supplied by Messrs Stewart Dawson and Co. The members of the Swifts’ Amateur Swimming Club assembled at Barrett’s Hotel last evening for the purpose of bidding farewell to Mr O. Freyberg, who is leaving with the Eighth Contingent. Mr W. T. Churchward occupied the chair. Songs and recitations were contributed, and added to the cheerfulness of the evening. In the report of his speech at the laying of the foundation stone of the Webb street Church, the Premier was alleged to have declared that he was born a Primitive Methodist. This was not correctly put. What Air Seddon did say was that his mother had belonged to that sect.

Disappointment is felt by the Department of Agriculture at the lack of interest shown by some fruitgrowing and horticultural societies in connection with official requests for information as to the fruit crop. It is probable that next season a new method of obtaining the desired data will be employed.

An English paper asserts that much of that which was alleged as to the unhealthiness of Dreyfus’s prison was purely sensationalism. In proof of this, it is pointed out that Gomez—who attempted the life of Napoleon the Third —has just been released, in good health, after serving forty-three years on Devil's Island.

A few weeks back the prospects of the fruit crop were not very good, butthe recent rains have changed the aspect of things, just as has happened with the grain harvest. In official circles a good average yield of fruit is now counted upon. ' La'te frosts had a detrimental effect in parts of Hawke’s pay. where a large quantity of fruit is grown.

It has been reported to the police that a burglary occurred at Oriental hay on Thursday night. The thief, or thieves, got away, it is said, with £2O or £3O wortli of jewellery and silver plate, as well as 30s in cash from the residence of Air C. F. Drew, Oriental terrace. An entrance Mas effected through a window, llio family .vero out at the time, and on their return, shortly before ten o’clock, they found the house ransacked. Three boys named Gibbons, whose ages are twelve, nine and seven, sons of an old settler at Woodviile. have been arrested for attempting to poison their father. Gibbons made tea for himself on AVednesday morning, and although he noticed a peculiar taste and smell about it. lie continued drinking it. Shortly after he was very ill with* internal pains, and, luckily, very sick. Oil investigation it was found that there was a quantity of aconite amongst the ury tea. Hie boys were discovered camped on the Hon Air Ormond’s property, two miles from Woodviile. Besides other provisions, they had eight gee.so in their possession. 4\ hen arrested the boys admitted that they had put aconite into the tea to poison their father.

In the course of an interesting letter to a Wellington citizen a London business man interested in the shipping trade says:—“The Australian Connnom uealtli has already gone a good way in legislation. Young giants find the necessity for active exercise. I suppose. Our other young giants across the Atlantic (the Americans) are also very actively inclined, e.g., in shoving forward their Shipping Subsidy Bill, for which there appears to be no necessity whatever, as they can apparently build ships as cheaply as we can if they like. They have cheap steel, cheap coal, good la-bour-saving appliances, and first-class artisans, but they prefer to sell their cheap steel to us and keep up the prices of that for home consumption: and tho subsidy seems to bo required solely to compensate for this state of things. All the same, it looks as if there was a good chance of their passing some sortof Subsidy Bill.”

The National Dairy Association is active in its endeavour to secure the benefits of South African markets for New Zealand producers. Pending the State arrangements for a direct service, the secretary of the association is preparing a memorandum to the Union Company, asking that —especially in view of tho present poor freight offeijiig—the rate on butter to Australia of id per pound, gross weight, be reduced to Rl, net. This request, it is hardly necessary to state, is being supported by everyone interested in the trade in tho city. Should tho concession be granted, it would enable New Zealand producers to quote against Australian buyers with some degree of success. The quality of New Zealand butter will undoubtedly tell against tho R 1 advance in freight, and tho drawback of transhipment and carriage to Australia as ordinary carao.

Maggie Papakura, the interesting “Royal” guide, is laid up at Rotorua with an attack of bronchitis and pleurisy.

Mr J. Strauehon, the new Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Wellington district, has arrived from New Plymouth, and took up his duties here on Thursday.

In the space of five years the tonnage of vessels visiting New' Plymouth has doubled. The passenger traffic has also doubled, while the imports have increased 71 per cent, and the exports 43 per cent.

In order to further test the British market for raspberry pulp, the Government has agreed to pay the freight from Nelson to London for a ton of that, product-, the proceeds to go to the shipper. A dilapidated clock, placarded “Made in Germany,” and exposed on the footpath in Alolesworth street yesterday, is one of the tilings which goes to show Low feeling on international relations run in Wellington just now. The Garrison Band lias received permission from the City Council to play a programme of music on the Basin Reserve next Sunday, and to take up a collection in aid of a comrade who has been seriously ill. The Tourist- Department has been advised from Rotorua that during the four weeks ended the 4th instant- tickets were issued which represented 9478 baths, a record number for a four-week-ly period at that resort. The Minister of Lands was delighted with his tour of the Nelson district, which took in Takaka, Collingwood and Alotueka. He was greatly impressed by the capabilities of Nelson in the production of fruit and hops. As the repairs and alterations required to be carried out to the Government steamer Hinemoa on the present occasion are somewhat extensive, the Minister of Marine Las decided to call tenders in the four centres for the work. The vessel is to be provided with a new deck, a house for steam-steering gear, a bridge, new bulkheads in the forecabin, and a new winch.

A representative meeting of dairyfarmers lias decided on the establishment of a co-operative butter factory, with Brightwater as the centre. A communication was read from the Department of Agriculture with reference to organisation. It was stated that the department hoped to have an instructor in the district shortly.

Private letters were received from Air E. AI. Smith, M.H.R., by the San Francisco mail, in which he said he was hopeful of the ultimate success of the Ironsand Company. When Messrs Cadman and Smith arrive in New Zealand they will see about getting certain concessions, etc., placed on a satisfactory footing. Census tables dealing with the ages of the people have been issued from the Registrar-General’s office. They are of interest, among other tilings, for their bearing on tho subject of old age pensions. Following is a comparison of centesimal increases of persons of both sexes of 65 years and upwards:—From 1874 to 1878, 46.12: 1878 to 1881. 29.24; 1881 to 1886.' 51.31: 1886 to 1891. 37.47; 1891 to 1896, 44.72: and 1886 to 1901, 51.06. Mines and quarries, in the industrial statistics of the colony, include gold quartz mining and crushing works, hydraulic gold mining works, gold-dredg-ing works, collieries and quarries. Their number increased from 313 in 1891 to 484 in 1896. and again to 548 in 1901. The number of hands employed in the respective years was 4156, *5674 and 8778, and the approximate value of the output £636,870, £1,052,704 and £1 - 771.818.

The body of the young man, Bruce Munroe, who was drowned in the Huttnver on Tuesday evening, has been recovered. Air R. Mothes, of Petone yesterday sent into Wellington for a uivcr. i\ho went out by the Wairarapa tram at 4 p.m. The diver was at- the river at 5.10, and he found the body ten minutes later, at the spot- where the young fellow was supposed to have gone down. The body was resting on sand, without any debris about it. A slight scratch seemed to indicate that a grapnel had just missed it. The lad’s tather arrived on the scene from Nelson 3ust- as the body was taken out of the '\ n int l ue st will be held at 10 o clock this morning.

An inquest was held at Petone on Friday on the body of the young man Liuce Munro. who was drowned in the Hutt river on Tuesday evening. Collins, the companion of Munro at the time of the fatality, stated that when he was nearing the bank of the river he for'” w:'‘ r 0 “’I ®“ t , t . hat he was “done tor Witness told him not to be excited ana when lie reached the bankwinch he did with difficulty—Munro had disappeared Collins called for ancc, and Air M. Sharp, who lived in the neighbourhood, was quickly on the scene, and dived for the body, but unsuccessfully. Donald Alunro, father of the deceased, said his son was sixteen years of age. He did not blame anyone in the matter. Duncan Mclvor, uncle of the deceased, thanked Mr Mowbray, the police, and others, who had assisted to recover the body. A verdict of accidental death was returned. The remains of the deceased will be taken to Blenheim for interment.

Several lots of poultry are in * awaiting shipment to South ** the first opportunity. nca o» Air James Tawse, a member nf „ Wanganui Caledonian Societykas sented a handsome new Scotch ctE,? 1 * flag to that body. stands For the extraordinary vacanov ~ Lower Hutt Borough Council 7 Af tl ® Emanuel De Rosa and A. R. y’ rTiff 3 have been nominated. * * At the instigation of Councillor T~i the City Council officials have been fe structed to make an inspection o \Z back yards and premises of the 01,;,, fruiterers of this city. 111659

, T ], e value of the manufactures of the lime and cement works in h colony for 1900 was £R> 150 ' £15,881 for 1895. The „umb e 7 „f W employed rose from 79 to 184. ds Monster trout-, taken front La’-™ Rotorua and Rotoiti. are beino- snlf i 5 Rotorua daily at 2d per lb.° lL" quantities are sent to Auckland are taken in nets. Eight to twfe pounders are quite common. A boy.” weighing 18>lb was taken f ro m Lake Rotorua recently. m

The Wellington Gas Company i s K0 ; n „ to give local enterprise a fair trial in the matter of the construction of r« stoves. It has placed a trial order apt, Alessrs S. Luke and Co., and that 3m intends to demonstrate that it can make stoves better than they can be made in Germany—or anywhere else.

The Rotorua Brass Band plays in tho Government Sanatorium Gardens twico a week. The gardens are well-lighted with electricity, and a handsome rotunda lias been provided for the musicians' These performances are much appreciated by visitors, as are the concerts pro. rnoted from time to time by the resident officials of the Tourist Department and others.

Advice has been received from the Agent-General that 50,000 sarnon ova presented by the Duke of Richmond and 150,000 to be obtained from the Tay Fishery Board, are to be forwarded from London by the steamer Gothic, which sailed on the 16th instant. The latter shipment is regarded as among the best that can be procured. Everything will be in readiness at the Hakataramea hatchery on the arrival of the ova in the colony. . The Premier received by the San Francisco mail a letter and cheque from Air AY. T. Stead, of the “Review of Reviews.” The cheque, as reported the other day, was a refund of money paid for a special article on New Zealand which appeared in the Australasian issue of the magazine and for copies of the publication. In reply to a question put to him last week, Mr Seddon laughing said he had not decided whether hi should devote the £260 towards “swelling the surplus” or for some other purpose.

it has leaked out that three or four of the passengers by the steamer Eastern, which recently arrived in Melbourne with smallpox on board, came over to this colony (says the correspondent of a southern paper). The Health Department got on their track as soon as the fact became known, and insisted upon their submitting themselves to examination and giving their addresses, so that they can be watched. These precautions are deemed sufficient, but- the incident indicates carelessness on the part of the health authorities on the other side.

Mr Richard Alonk, ALTER., recently went over the construction works on the North Auckland railway. He states that- progress is very slow. There are some sixty men at work, where double the number might be employed. The tunnel just beyond Takekeroa is nearly completed, but a few miles beyond this another small tunnel will have to be undertaken, which will retard progress. There are plenty of bricks available, and Air Monk states that if the Government really meant to push on the railway to Kaipara Flats, and so make it a payable undertaking, it would have had this small tunnel in band some time ago. After delivering the award of the Arbitration Court at Auckland on the 13th instant- in the bakers’ dispute, Mr Justice Cooper stated that under the Factories Act, 1901, it was’enacted that in certain trades, of which the baking trade was one, the maximum working hours should be forty-eight per week. The Court-, in their award, had, however, fixed the hours in the baking trade at fifty-four per week. They had had to consider whether, in the face of tho Act-, they could award these hours, to which both parties to the dispute were' agreeable. Section 18, sub-section 3, of the Act, read as follows: —“Where in any award of the Arbitration Court) whether made before or after the passing of this Act, provision i_s made for limiting the working hours in any trade, this section (fixing the maxi* mum hours of work) shall, in respect to such trade, and so long as such award continues in force, be read and construed subject to the award.” Bis Honor said lie had, after consideration) come to the conclusion that the word “limiting” here meant “defining to limits of,” and that tho Arbitration Court had the power to define the nod of labour in any one day or wee > and that the Legislature intended give the Court that power, and also free hand in defining hours of laßour all cases where the trades were wit the Act, subject to the exception named therein.

The Railway Department has provid- . A special carriage for the conveyance of invalids from Auckland to Rotorua. The Anglican Church at Taihape, the , .relation stone of which has just oeen S by the Bishop of Wellington, null stand on an eminence to the eastward 0 f the town In the estimates iii connection with Lincoln Agricultural College for the ensuin» year, the receipts are put down n; and the expenditure at £3435, ,7-hile those for the farm are, receipts £1(375 and expenditure £IBO9.

c. W. McMurran, of New York rjty t-.5.A., is overwhelmed with the wonders of Rotorua, says our correspondent. “His adjectives tumble over one another like a crowd stampeding from a fire.” Our Rotorua correspondent writes: jlr “Jim” Shaw, J.P., of Londonderry mine fame, has again arrived here from Adelaide for the season for about the tenth time. He is very popular. the Maoris turned out in force and gave him a big welcome at the railway station. The death took place at “ The Olives,” Belfast, Ireland, on the 24th November, at the age of seventy-nine years, of Raunv Ann, the wife of the Very Rev Charles Seavcr, D.D., Dean of Connor. Mr C. R. Seaver, of the Valuation Office, Wellington, is their youngest son.

The wedding of Miss Janet M. Greenfield, of Vernon, and Mr W. H. Rose, of Wellington, took place near Blenheim on Wednesday. The ceremony was solemnised at the Vernon estate, where a numerous company of guests were entertained. including several friends from Wellington. “The present accommodation at the Wellington Hospital is not sufficient lor infectious diseases,” said the Mayor at the meeting of the City Council on Thursday. His Worship went on to say that the Health Department was constantly coining to the City Council to provide accommodation for cases of this kind. The Council paid tiie Hospital Trustees a very largo sum annually to undertake these things for it, and yet now the Council was put to the additional expense of accommodating infectious cases in the plague hospital. This was work that the Hospital Trustees had undertaken to do, and which the Council looked to them to do. Councillor Evans pointed to the anomalous position existing by which the City Council paid largo sums over to the Charitable Aid Board as an intermediary body on demand, and had practically no control over the money. At tiie suggestion of the Mayor, it was decided to remit the matter for consideration to the Municipal Association, and in the meantime to call upon the Hospital Trustees to nroride the necessary accommodation. w . Though Mr O’Keeffe (president of i lie Thames Miners’ L'nion) made an attack on Judge Cooper, in consequence of rbe latter’s judgment in the recent mining dispute, and asked the Minister for Justice to remove him from the position of President of the Arbitration Court, Mr O Keeffo’s remarks have iot been received with favour at Waihi! A deputation from the Waihi branch waited on the Minister for Justice, and said that the local branch did not concur in the views expressed at the Thames by Mr O’Keeffe, touching the qualifications, etc., of Mr Justice Cooper. The Minister expressed himself very pleased to hear that the members of such a lari'o district did not concur in ilie opinion expressed by Air O’Keeffe; in fact, it was very satisfactory to learn that the authority of the Waihi branch or .lie union had not been given. IJe thought that in this particular instance, feeling tiie soreness of defeat, 1 i Heeffe had been carried away, and had made statements which on eonsideration would never have been made. Mr McGowan added that lie was gratified to learn that the local branch was not m sympathy with the views expressed at. the J names.

This is what the Church organ, “The wutiook, has to say about Mr C. M. Luke of this city, the newly-elected pre<.TTUn • °j, * ie ,Methodist Conference:— ±io is tno tiurd soil of the late Mr LJV ,e Luke, and is a Cornishman by of l.;’ in" act ’ t,e eighteen years ot ln s ]ffe were spent there. From hi* earliest days ho was associated with Sunday school life, Mount street Primitive Methodist being the school from which ho graduated. At sixteen he became a teacher, and during the same year connected himself with the Church Hns was, indeed, the crisis of his™ AllThc v? h % if 8 • lleyer looked back- - the years following have been strei Wl,e 1 n tlie fami, y came to New Zealand and selected Wellington for h J ..'“’r hon f ■ "Tt. str “‘ Church nocamo the centre of Ins religious acaiu ids rT’ Kl t r ° - he has served God nor For oi em 11 in a , no mean »anScliool L G lenI en yearS lle was Sunday yoarsl,o y ’ . aild then f °r some years he was superintendent. He lias also served the Church for fifteen years as a society steward, and four years as hJ ir m\ st r vard - To these dutfes he nearly tldrtv at ° f a K*® 1 P roache r for b e SHt a « er - V W n VQ years a S° was elected to Conference, he gift of lS rn t i h,ghest office in the 'JaasfijLSr*»«*■

Since the New Year the Departments of Marine and Customs have been separated. The Inspection of Machinery Department has now been separated | from that of Marine. The Post Office officials have received advice that the colonial mails which j left Melbourne on December 11th arI rived in London on January 13th, one : day late.

A new cottage is being built in the Sanatorium .grounds, Rotorua, by the Tourist Department for the accommodation of one cf the gardeners; another cottage at Okere Falls for the electric light engineers; and a rotunda at Whakarewarewa for protection from the weather of visitors.

Tourist inquiry offices are being built by the Government in the Sanatorium grounds at Rotorua, and are nearing completion. They will prove of great convenience to visitors, who will be able to get reliable information respecting the sights, baths, hotel accommodation, fares, etc., without charge. The Feilding Athletic Club made a profit of £79 on its last meeting, which is to be placed on fixed deposit. The committee is considering the advisableness of including in next year’s programme a series of competitions for school children similar to those held m Lancaster Park, Christchurch. At a meeting of the Pharmacy Board of New Zealand, Mr Geo. Mee was reelected president for the ensuing year. The Registrar reported that he had received one nomination—that of Mr T. A. Crawford, of Auckland—to fiil the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr J. A. ITaslett, who has left the colony with the object of studying medicine. He therefore declared Air Crawford to be an elected member for the Auckland district during the remainder of Mr Haslett’s term of membership. Air E. H. Leigh, of Hast ings, was registered as a pharmaceutical chemist by examination, and Air A. J. Graham was enrolled as manager of the business of the late Air Richard Leary, of Palmerston North.

I The signs and portents of the times I seem to indicate that there still remain ' some dregs of bitterness for the New Zealand sheep-farmers to drain. A letter from one of the best-informed shipping magnates in London addressed to a prominent local merchant gives an indication of the manner in which matters are operating in regard to the -L. on don meat market. The communication, which is dated December 12th. . 1900, contains the following interesting excerpts:—-“Your growers cf meat cannot always expect to be raking in big prices for their produce. I ‘hope they will face the music and be wise. Fresh ; features have developed, and developed • with rapidity. I refer to River Plate meat. By vigorous grading they have greatly improved the quality of their mutton, and with the natural advantages the country possesses for sheepgrowing, they can increase the quantity practically without I do not know any trade or business where the operators can afford to neglect these signs of the times. To-day River Plate meat is worth in London somewhere about 2fd to 2Jd a lb, a little more than Australian and the same as New Zealand North Island. South Island is at about 3d per lb. But that is not all; perhaps I had better say it is not the worst part of it. The butchers have been driven by the high prices of the New Zealand commodity to try River Plate mutton, and they have discovered that it suits their trade, and they don’t seem to care to go back. A gentleman intimately connected with the trade told me recently that a friend of his—a wellinformed man—had said that he could name a thousand butchers who hold chat view and acted upon it. The River Plato organisation is, I believe, ideal. There is no competition. Three large companies handle the meat, and they operate on a systematic and regular method with the object of getting the best out of the market that it can give them; and push steadily forward to increase and consolidate their position here. The circumstances affecting wool are, I should think, not materially different from those affecting meat, and I think your growers of sheep have got very live men gradually creeping up—and not even now very far short of having articles of equal quality—with whom they , have got to continue a keen competition for the future. It is not an easy 1 matter for men who live on the land and who have been thoroughly saturated for years with the idea of the superiority of their produce to realise this altered state of things, but everything, in my opinion, depends upon their doing so, and doing so quickly. The shipping trade of New Zealand is doing its share —holding up its end of the stick. Our freights are very moderate, and have decreased in inverse proportion to the larger capital represented in each newlvbuilt steamer. They cost more aiid more, because they are better and better, safer and safer, and the freighters reaii the benefit. Y'our port charges amount to so much on the larger steamers which have become a necessity of trade that I really doubt if the owners get much benefit. The daily cost of running these big steamers is enormous. I wonder if you are taking due note of the twin screws, the extra safety for which we spend thousands of pounds more, and should enable you to got insurance premiums reduced.”

. The Chief Inspector of Machinery, Air 1 H. Duncan, has been elected a member f °f the Society of Arts, Adelphi; Lon- ! don.

“I think it is about time wo got rid of this pro-Boer name New Zealand” writes a correspondent of the “Otago Daily Times.”

j The Hon J. Carroll, who returned last Friday from the East Coast, states definitely that lie will not visit London for the coronation. It is probable that he | "HI 6° to England later in the year. i In the four principal centres of ihe j colony in December sixteen persons d { ec ?. cancer, a similar number of phthisis, and seventeen of heart disease.

The total births in the boroughs and suburbs of Auckland, Wellington, Christ el uircli and Dunedin in December amounted to 3SB, against 425 in tiie previous month.

The Premier lias received the following letter, dated the Dtli instant, from Mr R. E. liornblow, of Mangaweka, with reference to a report of a recent interview which he had with Mr Seddon in regard to the dismissal of cooperative labourers: —“Dear Sir, —I have just received a wire from the proprietors of ‘Truth,’ Christchurch, in which they state ‘Premier totally denies the accuracy of the reports of my interview with you.’ I have telegraphed, as asked, briefly what actually took place. It is to be regretted that any unpleasantness should have taken place over this matter, as I am not desirous of fomenting trouble. ... As you know, newspaper people are prone to make matters of this kind as sensational as possible. When I was asked by the ‘Times’ reporter for particulars I gave him the principal headlines, and of course he was not slow to make the most of the interview. All he wanted was to know the ingredients, and, like the proverbial pudding, he would soon make it swell out. As the representative of so large a number of men, I could not look upon the interview as a private one, more especially as it was well known through the press that the interview on their behalf was to take place. Personally, X think the report in the ‘New Zealand Times’ did you a lot of good on account of your outspoken manner. The engineers up here are taking on all the men who are in adverse circumstances, which has made your promise good. To-day some thirty extra men were put on to the works here. As a matter of courtesy, I considered it was my duty to drop you a line on the matter, as i hare no private feelings in the affair. ... In conclusion, I may say that I believe you spoke conscientiously when you intimated that you had no idea that the men were dismissed in so hurried a manner. Yours truly, R. E. Hornblow.”