GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1618, 4 March 1903, Page 55

GENERAL NEWS.

Tho opening-up cf the State coalmine on the West Coast proceeds apace. '.tenders arc now being called for the supply cf 750 mine tubs. On Thursday last a. huge blast was fired at the Capo Foulwind quarries. Sixteen hundredweight or dynamite was used. The resulting displacement of stone was estimated at fifteen thousand tons.

At the Old Age Pension Court on Saturday morning, Dr A. McArthur, S.M., intimated that in cases where both husband and wife have a pension, or where one only has a pension ancl tho other has property, it would be necessary for both parties to appear in Court when applying for renewals.

A female inmate or the Porirua Asylum, aged .twenty-five years, who is of opinion that she is Beelzebub, escaped from the institution on Saturday. She is of medium build, of fresh complexion, is dressed ir. a-fawn skirt- cotton blouse, white straw hat, and was believed to be also wearing a fawn jacket. Tho following are the ■Wellington export returns for the month of February: Butter, 11,159 cwt.. value £54,233; cheese, 393-3 cwt., value £10,409; frozen bec-f, 6551 cwt., value

£10.003; mutton, 77,044 carcases, 40,895 cwt., value £44,399; mutton, pieces, 3833 cwt., valued £5167; lamb, 65.590 carcases, 20,688 cwt., value £31,803.

Tho General Manager cf Railways lias submitted to the Westport Harbour Board an approved design, prepared by the Board’s engineer and the chief engineer of New Zealand railways, for a coal-leading crane to be set up on the new Westport wharf. The crane will have a loading radius covering 41ft, and its comnlote cost will be about £25,000. While a member cf the Benevolent Trust was in attendance at the Boardroom o*no morning last week a youth slowly climbed the stairs and proffered a request for free passage to • Christchurch and Dunedin. The talc lie unfolded was that he had been sent to New Zealand by his parents m Melbourne. They had provided him with money, but this had dwindled so greatly that at the time of the interview he had only £4 10s in hand i Tie inf armed the astonished Trustee that he did not caro to disburse that sum in steamer fares, for “ it was awkward to have to travel without a few shillings to spend on incidentals.” The youth didn’t get a passage at the expense ex the ratepayers, but lie got some advice.

It is the opinion of Mr Kinseila, Dairy Commissioner, that dairy inspection is greatly required in New Zealand. Ho has found that the experimental work carried on by the department has been exceedingly useful, so far as it has been possible to carry it on with life facilities at command, in discovering the sources of contamination- in the manufacture of butter or cheese. For instance, it having been found in one factory that the flavour of the butter was not perfect, investigation was made, when the trouble / was traced to a well containing indifferent water. The water from this well had been used to rinse the machines, and when its use was discontinued, the butter* immediately improved. Mr J. A. Kinseila, Dairy Commissioner, returned on Saturdaj 7 from the conference in Lyttelton of the Canterbury and North Otago members cf the New Zealand Dairy Association. At this conference* which was held in accordance with a suggestion at the last annual meeting of the association, the dairying industry was discussed, when the general opinion was expressed that there was a necessity for some systematic method of inspecting milk. A resolution was unanimously passed confirming the resolutions passed at the meeting of Bluff members of .the association, and expressing the opinion that tho inspection of milk should come under the Dairy Commissioner’s department. Another resolution urged the Government to equip at once a proper experimental station where experts might carry on their investigations in the interests of the producers. Old age pensions for the full amount (£18) were granted in Wellington during the month of February as follows: Sophie Wolff, G 9 years of age, 30 years in.the colony; James Chase, 71 years, 40 years in the colony; Elizabeth ‘Jane Beer, 73 years, 37 years in the colony; George Ward Beer, 69 years, 37 years in the colony; Charles Orchard,. 68 years, 44 years in the co-lony; Robert Hardie, 65 years, 43 years in the colony; Ellen Conroy, 65 years, 28 years in the colony; Barbara Riley, 82 years, 25 years in the colony; John A. Caldwell, 72 years, 52 years in the colony; Henry Joseph Lepper, 67 years, 27 years in the colony; Heinrich A. F. G. Bunkenberg, 65 years, 32 years in the colony; George Mudgway, 86 years, 61 years in the colony; William Bailey, 68 years, years in the colony; Charles Carr, 76 years, 46 years in the colony; and Henry B. Burnett, 65 years, 28 years in the colony. One hundred renewals were also granted. . One pension was refused,,

A patient escaped from the Nelson Lunatic Asylum on Wednesday last. So that all men might know him, the patient was graphically described in the press as being “ forty-eight years of age and the possessor of a reddish beard.”

At tho ceremony of turning tho first sod of the electric tramway system at Dunedin on Thursday, Mr Goodman, who is supervising the construction work on behalf of Noyes Bros., the contractors, stated that he had the names of 1150 applicants for employment on his books.

It way thirty-three years ago last Saturday since the last of the British troops left Jjew Zealand —the 18th Regiment, sailing on the 28th of February, 1870, from Auckland for Sydney by the steamer Hero. Saturday was also tho anniversary of the relief of Ladysmith (190 J% and Friday last was the anniversary of Majuha (18S1) and Paardeburg (1900).

The Customs revenue and beer duty collected in Wellington for the month of February totalled £51,316 8s 9d and £993 10s 6cl respectively. The figures for the corresponding period of 1902 were £43,799 12s and £674 7s 3d. The Customs revenue and beer duty for last week amounted to £13,903 6s 6cl and £372 4s 6d. Saturday’s return amounted to £1684 18s 6d.

The March steamer for South Africa, under the contract between the Government and the New Zealand and African Steamship Company, will be the Surrey. Tiie following loading ports have been nominated for Government approval:—Port Chalmers, Napier, Gisborne and Wellington; but any other ports in the colony will have a chance to come in before the 4th March by guaranteeing 300 tons of cargo. Collectors of Customs throughout the colony havo been instructed that, pending the passing of the Shipping and Seamen’s Bill—which was introduced into Parliament last session and will be brought in again—a magisterial inquiry is to bo held into any loss or life occurring in the ease of an intercolonial or coastal vessel, whether by accident or suicide, and that litis inquiry will take the place of the ordinary preliminary inquiry.

It is understood that negotiations are well advanced for the appointment of a Commissioner of Police, in succession to Mr J. 13. Tunbridge, who is retiring shortly on tho conclusion of the * arm cf'-his engagement. The gentleman to whom proposals have been made is Mr Dinnie, who succeeded Mr Tunbridge at Scotland Yard. Mr Dinnie is in the prime of life and vigour, and is a younger brother of Donald Dinnie, the celebrated athlete. Tie is believed to bo disposed to accept tho position of Police Commissioner, but the terms of the engagement have not yet been settled.

In the ease of claims made by Civil servants on the ground of permanent incapacity or disablement, it is gazetted that before such claims aro dealt with it shall bo shown by medical evidence satisfactory to the Governor-in-Council that the officer is incapable, from infirmity cf mind or body, of efficiently discharging tho duties of his office, and that such infirmity is likely to be permanent. It is further stipulated that it shall bo shown by -evidence satisfactory to tho Governor-in-Council that tho infirmity of mind or body has (men caused through no fault of the officer himself.

An instance of the injustice done to the taxpayers of the colony by withholding from Land Boards power to sue for arrears of rent was instanced at Thursday’s meeting of the Wellington Land Beard. It transpired that the holder of a small section in this province had held the land for about fourteen years, owed about £42 to the colony, and during his' tenancy of the land had only paid about £lO off his liability. During all these years he oad the use of valuable 1 bush, and lived, to quote the words of Mr Hogg, “rent free, like a sparrow!” A Pahiatua business man recently wrote to tho Lands Department taking exception to his name 1 being published in a recent Land Board report amongst the defaulters 1 list. The letter complained that the publication was likely to affect the credit of complainant, and added that the amount owing was only a few pounds. The Land Board ito which the letter was sent on Thursday) treated the complaint with something approaching levity, and opined that so small a matter could have been quicker and better settled by paying up than by entering into correspondence with a Government Department. Some settlers at a township called Piriaka, near th e Wanganui river, approached the Wellington Land Board, asking that a coming sale of land leases concerning lands near Piriaka should bo conducted at the township instead of at Wellington. Tho settlers contended that to hold the sale in Wellington would be to give a greatadvantage. The Board decided to hold the sale at the township. In the course of a discussion on the subject it was tacitly agreed that if the initial experiment proved to be successful other sales of land would in future be held at the nearest township to the land being disposed of.

At the request of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, tho names of the Revs. S. Buchanan and H. Williams have been removed from the list of officiating ministers. About fifty sections, in the township of Hokio, will bo offered for lease on the 11th March, and a section, 420 acres in extent, in the Ngamatea, Wanganui district, will be sold on the 4th March. A settler in a backblocks district wrote to the Wellington Land Board on Thursday complaining that roacls v ero so bad in his locality that he was unablo to get his wool to market, although lie had had it baled up since November. About one hundred men are now employed in clearing and formation works on the Rcss railway. It is probable that active operations on the new bridge over the Hokitika river will be commenced this week. The Minister of Lands, in his recentvisit to the Auckland district, inspected the Matamata estate of 45,000 acres, now under offer to tho Government. This estate, which is in the Waikato district, is th e property of the Assets Realisation Board. Ho likewise inspected the Woodlands estate, also in the Waikato.

Very largo drafts of fat sheep and lambs have been brought down from the country to Wellington during the last few da.ys. The volume of this traffic will be realised when it is stated that up till three weeks ago 24,000 fat sheep and lambs were sent away from Branccpeth station, in the Wairarapa. It was asserted at a meeting held in Wellington on Thursday that a school costing £4OO was now being erected in an out-back district of this province where there was only a handful of eiiildren permanently resident. However, there is likely to be ?. big influx, of juveniles for a short period as a result of railway works to bo undertaken in the vicinity at an early date. An expensive post office is in course of erection at the same spot. When prohibition ..was carried in several electorates of the colony last November'an article was> printed in the “ New Zealand Times” explaining the measure of actual prohibition—there is no total prohibition—of liquor sales specified by the Act. Reference was made in this article to the fact that'the legislation regarding chartered clubs was at least ambiguous, and that there would bo a probability of misunderstandings and possible heartburning be-

tween two sections of the community when the issue came definitely into question. Point is now given to this forecast by a paragraph in the Christchurch “ Press,” to the effect that “ m view of complications likely to arise from tho enforcement of prohibition m Ashburton, the Working" Men’s Club there lias decided to take no mere members until some important points affecting clubs shall have been settled.” At Thursday’s meeting of the Board of College Governors, there were present: —Mr A. cle B. Brandon (chairman), the Mayor of \V ellington, and Messrs H. D. Bell, J. Young "and A. Warburton. Accounts amounting to £471 10s 7d were passed for payment, and the statement of receipts and expenditure showed that, including fees and rents due, amounting to £6Bl 6s 9d, the credit balance was £2248 11s Id. On the recommendation of the principal of the Girls’ High School, the Governors’ Exhibition not- taken up by Marion A.l- - was awarded to Maisie Collie,, who was next in order of merit. Miss/ McLean, in her report, stated that the Girls’ High School had been very successful in the recent Civil Service examinations. All the six candidates who entered passed, three securing second, third and fourth places respectively amongst the "Wellington candidates. The successful candidates from the school were :—Gertrude Davidson, Flora McLean, Annie Keasberry, Ellen Hildreth, Olive Bennett, and Amy Howden. Miss McLean having recommended a second tennis court at the school, a committee was given power to act in the matter.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Yvellington Land Board, Mr Kearns, of Tai'hape, waited on the Board to place before it the case of a number of settlers who required a greater area of land than they at present could obtain. The Board unanimously adopted the following resolution, drawn up by Mr Hogg: —“That the attention of the Minister of Lands be called to tho position of certain village and improved farm settlers at Taihape who are residing with their families on holdings which on the completion of the public works will be too small for their support. The Board is of opinion that these men having proved their bona fides by making valuable improvements, and residing for some years on their homesteads, should be afforded an opportunity of taking up sufficient land in the neighbourhood so that they may be able to earn a livelihood. As there is no likelihood of this being done if the land just surveyed in the vicinity be ballotted for, the Board recommends that an effort be made to secure an amendment of the Land Act (that will m n d such cases) before the land in the vicinity of these homesteads is disposed of.”