LOCAL AND GENERAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3747, 23 May 1899, Page 5

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Reserved judgments will be delivered this morning by the Court of Appeal.

Mr Field will address the electors of Otaki at Cudby’s Hall, Taita, on Thursday evening next. The Education Department has fixed the 9th June as the date of the commencement of the South Kensington science and art examinations at various centres throughout the colony. The Jellicoe matter is expected to come on for hearing in the Supreme Court this afternoon before more than one Judge. Mr Chapman and Mr Richmond will, it is understood, appear for the Wellington District Law Society, to move for a rule absolute.

Messrs Thompson Bros, and Co., pro-duce-merchants, have had plans prepared by Messrs Clere and Fitzgerald for a twostoried building to be erected on a vacant section in Harris street, opposite the Electrical Syndicate’s works.

According to Mr W. Tu. Rees, £140,000 has been wasted on the Gisborne Harbour, and the river would be better today if it had been left in its natural condition. Mr Rees advocates making ■a fresh start in constructing a breakwater on the reef known as Stony Point, about half a mile south of the Turanganui River. Nearly all the gardens and shrubberies of Wellington city show signs of the blighting influence of the salt-laden blasts Of the recent southerly gale. Shrubs which are supposed to withstand the sea breezes have been browned and blasted. ■This is not the case only where the shrubs are under cultivation. ~ They have suffered in their native habitat as well, not even the hardy manuka escaping injury.

The annual tournaments in connection with the Wellington Chess Club, which start- to-night, should create some interest. The entries this year constitute a record, no less , than thirty members taking part. The prizes offered consist of valuable- trophies donated by various members; and are supplemented from the club .funds. ,An advertisement appears in another column.

A cablegram has been received by the Government with reference to 'the shipment of fruit sent to London m the steamer Papanui on account of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers’ Association. The Department of Agriculture supplies the following copy of the message:—“The fruit has arrived in sound condition, with the exception of the ‘Cox’s Orange’ apples and some of the pears. These were apparently shipped over-ripe. The average price obtained for the apples was approximately 10s per case, and the highest 12s. The average price for pears was 10s, and the highest 205.” Before the meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce dispersed on Friday last, the President (Mr John Bums) stated that, at the quarterly meeting to be held in June he would raise -the question of Australian federation. He thought the people of New Zealand'were not. sufficiently awake on this 1 subject. At present a large portion of the crops of the southern part of New Zealand was being shipped to Australia, and it was most important that New Zealand should continue to have open ports close at hand for her products. The question should be considered by the members of the Chamber, and full expression should bo given to their views. Personally, he was strongly in favour of federation, the interests of New Zealand being common with those of the Australian Continent.

Five first-offending inebriates were fined 5s or twenty-four hours’ imprisonment in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning. Abraham Anson, for wilfully damaging a macintosh valued at 355, was fined 10s and ordered to pay 35s for the damages done to the macintosh, in default seven days’ imprisonment. William Campbell, for damaging a cab, was fined 5s and ordered to pay for the damages, in default twentyfour hours’ imnrisonment. Charles Anderson and Robert Cheyne were charged with the theft of 9s worth of tobacco. Anderson . was convicted-and discharged.. Cheyne was convicted and fined 20s, in default seven days’ imprisonment. Ho was allowed to pay the fine by instalments of 5s a week, the first payment to b,o made by the 29th of May. Frederick Joseph Fitz Gibbon was granted a renewal of a license for a servants’ registry office. * - Messrs H. C. Gibbons' and Co., the well-known florists, seedsmen and nurserymen, have sent us copies of their catalogues for the present season. " The “Seed Catalogue,” which contains sevon-ty-six pages, is perhaps the most complete of its kind issued in this countiy, and besides giving full particulars or the different flowers and plants, it contains a large number of illustrations. Prefixed to it is an admirable “Garden Calendar,” giving carefuj directions for horticultural operations in each month o. the year. There are also useful hint.on gardening and an article on “The Use of Insecticides in the Greenhouse.”- The ■ Catalogue of “Nursery Stock” makes n ’ separate book of seventy pages, marked by, all.the .excellent features of the other. There are , practical hints , on fruit-tree culture, aiuT vcrv full descriptions of the large stock of, trees .and -shrubs for theorchard, garden and forest, to be found in the nurseries of Messrs Gibbons and Co. The catalogues, which are artistically produced, will be ‘found of great value by all. who contemplate liortuulj tural or orchard operations.

Mr J. P. Brandon, of Master-ton, requests us to state that be was not a partner in the firm of Messrs Mowlem and Co., auctioneers. The annual meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society will be iieid at the Museum lecture room on Tuesday, 30th May. At- the Sailors’ Rest last evening an enjoyable concert was given by the Misses Barber, assisted by the Misses Pownall and Salmon, Messrs Douglas Jackson and Twiss. The encores were numerous, and hearty. Mr Seddon’s speech at Pahvdua on Saturday night occupied three ! ours and a half in delivery. At the end of tied time much of the rowdiness which characterised the earlier part of the proceedings had subsided.

At the monthly meeting of the Bootmakers’ Union last night, the following resolution was unanimously carried; ‘‘That this union has every confidence in Mr John Hutcheson, M.H.R., as its representative in Parliament.”

Under the auspices of the St. John Ambulance Association Dr James is going to lecture —entirely at his own expense—to a class consisting c;i-cUy of members of the Civil Service Coips. Ino lectures will, it is understood, common on Thursday next. '

The following hours will be observed at the telegraph office on Wednesday, 24th May, Queen’s Birthday Morning, 9 a.ui. to 10 a.m.; evening, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be a midnight cable service as usual. The Telephone Exchange will be open continuously. Mr Mudgway’s Boys’ Guild gave an invitation “social” at the .Oddfellows’ Hall, Petone, last night. There was a large attendance. During the evening songs were contributed by the Misses Murphy, Bowman and Silva, and Mr Frank Woods. Various amusing items were given by the boys. Mrs Bowman'apd Mr Mudgway were very attentive to the visitors. Late American! news shows that the municipal and local board elections have furnished some remarkable results. At Galesburg, in Illinois, Mrs Mansfield, a Democrat, was elected on the school board, defeating her own. husband, who stood as a Republican. The women at Beattie, in Kansas, have si Mayor and council, without exception, of their own sex. They were elected after ardent electioneering, the poll taking place in a blinding snowstorm. Mr Tepp, the wealthy Salvationist, whose programme included the fining of every female wearing bloomers, of every person expectorating in the streets, and in the discharge of every policeman swearing, has failed to secure election as Mayor of Wichita, Kansas. He ascribes his defeat to the defection of a number of women who were bribed with a promise by his opponents that they would remove the anti-theatre hat law.

Some striking facts about the British navy are attracting attention. The year 1899 will be unique in British records, for not only will the personnel reach 110,640 men, twice as many as ten years ago, but no fewer than 50 warships of different types will enter the navy ready to hoist the pennant for action. These include five great battleships, the Albion, Canopus, Glory, Goliath and Ocean, totalling 54,750 tons, and costing £5,000,000; 14 protected cruisers, and 31 unprotected cruisers. Moreover, six new armoured .'hips will be begun, making a total of 32 armoured vessels, 17 protected vessels and 49 unprotected vessels completing, advancing or beginning. That is, 1899 will see the stupendous number of 98 British warships under construction, representing an outlay of £35,000,000.

The, first out-and-out traitor of the Spanish-American War, so far as the records show, was'Henry' _T. Haze, corporal of the Ist Californian Volunteer Regiment at Manila, who deserted his company in October last, married "a native woman, and took commission and uniform as a first'lieutenant in the Filipino army. Mail reports say that his body, was found in the trenches on 12th February,, riddled with , bullets; but from "private Tetters there is some reason to believe that Haze was captured and shot as a deserter. Haze was 35 years of age, and his record reveals him in the light of a ne’er-do-well prior to his enlistment. , He had served a short'time in the American battleship Oregon, and was discharged from the naval service because of illness. His behaviour as a, volunteer soldier was excellent, until infatuation for the . native woman whom he married led to his desertion.