LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4292, 27 February 1901, Page 5

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Post anil Telegraph Department 'lias been advised that Western Australian telegraphic business is subject to delay owing to bad weather. With reference to a citso which came before the Benevolent Trustees yesterday, Mr C. W. Willeston, one of the Trustees, remarked that able-bodied men in the Old Country, allured 1 by the attractive descriptions of lecturers and writtors of pamphlets, came to this colony in the hope of getting work at once and malting their fortunes. After paying their passage, they arrived at their destination practically penniless, and became a charge on the ratepayers. Our Carterton correspondent states that on Monday afternoon a farewell was tendered to the departing headmaster, Mr Bennett, by the children and staff of the State school, who also presented him with handsome souvenirs. At a meeting of the Borough Council it was decided that ward representation was inimical to tho interest of the town and burgesses. Steps will bo taken to have tho resolution .given effect to. The number of Councillors (nine) will in all probability bo reduced. It was decide! by the. Benevolent Trustees, in committee yesterday; to deveto £ISOO of their funds to the renewal of Die buildings under their control, and to make tho usual annual requisition to tho United District Charitable Aid Board for £SOOO. 'inis sum is £IOOO loss than was required last year. The reduction under the now system, of management, inaugurated by the present Trvtsteeis and carried out by- the present secretary; represents ausaving to the ratepayers in two years of £2500. Three line-of-battlo ships will be added to tho Gorman, navy (luring the coming spring. These arc tho Kaisor Wilhelm der Grosso, biiilt by the Germania' Wharf in Kiel, Kaiser Barbnrossa, bull by Schichau, of Danzig, and Kaiser Carl der Grosso, built by Blohm and Voss, iu Hamburg. Each of tho three vessels has a displacement of H,OoJ tons, has engines of 13,000 'horse-newer. a speed of eighteen knots, and a crow of 651 officers and men. The Gorman navy wiO then possess, with Kaiser Frederica 111. and Kaiser Wilhelm 11., which wore built in tho Imperial Dockyard at W’!hebnshaven and launched in 1896 and 1897 respectively, five almost similar linc-of-battlo ships. Kaiser Earbarossa and Kaiser Carl dor Grosso arc the two first ironclads built under the new Navy Bill. Five other similar ,:n3-of-battlo ships are now in course of construction. tho first of which caunor. be ready before the spring of next year. Tho Government has accepted the tender iof Mr N. Mouli (£5144 10s 4d) for the erection of the post office at Wanganui. Tho tender of Messrs Turnbull and Sous (£1473) has been accepted for electric Vghtiug at the Porirua Asylum. 'Hie following tenders for the erection of post offices have boon accepted: Messrs A. Miller (Motuekaj; A. Pickett (Inglewood); W. Wood (Tarawera). A vote of £IOOO has been made towards the prosecution of the Otago Central Railway; £3OO for tho Hokitilca-Christ-clmrcli road: £IOOO for the Blenheim. Waipara Railway; * £IOOO for the Cat-lins-Seaward Bush Railway. . The tender of Mr E. Seagar (£350) has been ac- , copied for tho erection of an iron fence in front of the Departmental Buildings at Wellington. Messrs Scott Bros/ tender has been accepted for tho supply of boilers at the Seacliff Asylum ; and that of J. H. Moyer for the erection of a native school at Omaramutu.

Tho Council of the Sheep breeders’ Association lias decided to incorporate the association under tho tTiiclassiliod Societies Act. A mew council will bo elected at a meeting to bo held in Palmerston N'orth in June. I

Tho General Post Offices advises that cho Sierra’s mails, which left Auckland on tho 22nd January, arrived in. Condon on tho afternoon' of the 21th instant, i'ho Orizaba’s mails,_ Rom Melbourne, 23rd January, also arrived in London on tho 24th iusUmt. The Wellington Hospital authorities started last year with a balance of £2816 J:i Id. They finished up the year with a, balance of £3243 12s 3d. The receipts last year were £13,581, and tho expenditure £113,234 5s 2d. After payment of ail liabilities, tho Trustees will have a balance of £2OO to the good. Private advices from New Ph-i/utb

show that something very lii.. ■ an epidemic of typhoid fever pres in :huo locality. There are se-e. yen 1 vlicrcrs

irom tho disease in ;. ice:.; hospital. Included amongst th: suff<?icr S is a milkman, his wife and family, and several or his customers. Seemingly this is a. case in rcf-.'.il which tho Health Department a..gut make some investigations. °

German training .chip Tierzogin Picpbio Charlotte, ol tho Norddeut.scber Lloyd, loft Portland last December for the- English. Channel with -100 cadets on heard. Tho success ol tiiis undertaking has manifested itself in a striking maunor, and tho reports regarding tho workdone on board tend to prove that tho Nonideutschcr Lloyd is assuring for its future an efficient staff of officers. Tho examinations both in theory and practice arc rigid, and demand a previous education of a high order. On tho tour from Philadelphia to Kobe, as well as from Kobo to the West Coast of America, tho vessel proved herself to be a fast sailor. During several days fourteen knots per hour wore inn, and for seventeen oonsoentivo days a speed of eleven knots was averaged. The Herzogin Sophie Charlotte will come to Aus-

tralia on one of her next trips in order to initiate the cadets into the Australian system of dealing with shipping matters.

Striking evidence of extinct' glaciers have been found in tho vicinity of Mdunt Kosciusko. A party has cliscovered that, chiefly in the. neighbourhood of tho Blue Lake, the granite rock, for acres in extent,"is deeply rutted and grooved by glacier ice, which must have been at least S(JO feet in thickness. Thr.se ico-groovcd rock surfaces, though somewhat obscured by weathering, are

still wonderfully perfect, and are comparable to those of the most typical glacial regions of tho" Northern Hemisphere. Near tho lake called Hedloy Tarn there arc four line terminal moraines, each about 100 feet high, and a fifth forms the dam of the Blue Lake. Ice-striated boulders were found in these moraines, as well aa in the perfect terminal moraines of Lake May or Cootapatanga Lake. A perfect moraine, with numerous ice-striated boulders, and glaciated pavements, was also found near tho head of tho Snowy River, about a mile

and a half northerly from the Kosciusko Observatory. Tho results of this geological examination prove that Australia has passed through a glacial epoch in comparatively recent time, perhaps synchronous with the Great Ice Ago of the Northern Hemisphere. A meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women, and Children was held in the Alliance Rooms, Mrs W. A. Evans presiding. There were present:—Lady Stout, Mesdamcs Findlay, Hoby, Fell, Allan, Cowell and Rirkcaklie. Accounts amounting to £ll 7s 6d were passed for payment. It was reported that eight fresh cases had been investigated since the previous meeting. The secretary intimated that two children had been adopted, and that homes had .been found for four motherless ones. It was decided that a deputation should wait on the Premier with reference to the status of mothers of illegitimate children, and also upon the subject of desertion by fathers of their families and illegitimate children. The- following subscriptions wore acknowledged:: Hon Charles -Johnston and Lady Stout, £1 Is each; Mr and Mrs Ferguson, £1: Mr Tyson, 12s; Mr Moorhouse, 10s 6d; Mr T, W. Young, 10s; Messrs Waddell, McLeod and Weir, 10s.; . Mesdamcs Pringle,'B. Brown and Bannister, and Miss Wil-

liarrur, 5s each; Messrs C. W. Tanner, Halziell, J. J. Curtis, McGowan, Brailsforcl and Henderson, 5s each; Mrs Kyle, Messrs Bonner and W. C. Fitzgerald, 2s 6d each; G.R., 2s; Mr limes, stationery..

The hurricane, which swept over New Caledonia last month, driving several deep-sea vessels ashore, and playing havoc with the nickel company’s property, extended over the New Hebrides Group and devastating tho islands' in its track. News by the French mail steamer Armand Behic (says the Sydney “Daily Telegraph”) is to-'the clfcci that the storm commenc'd on January 20th, and lasted right through' the next day. During that time it blew with terrific fury, the squalls upiooting trees, destroying plantations and wrecking houses. ' A correspondent at the . group writes: —“The scene at the various plantations is just one of utter devastation.” The total loss is estimated at 150,000 francs. Captain Gaspard, who was* cruising off the northern part of the group in the Mario Henry, fell in with the storm on the 20th,"and described it as one of frightful severity. One vessel was wrecked in Hie hurricane. The hulk Jeannette, owned by the French ; Company, was driven ashore at Port Vila. There was no loss of life. The storm destroyed a quantity of maize, which was ready for shipment to Sydney. Trade generally has suffered by the siprm, so much so indeed that % trader savs four months must elapse before the islands can reqpvor themselves.

* In tlie Magistrate’s Court yesterday George Fisher sued hi< . wife, Laura Fisher, for the return of a Picturesque Atlas, two books, df record, a watchchain with railway pass attached, ami a Maltese cross presented to him in Dunedin. Mrs Fisher counter-claimed *or several articles of attire, a mirror and choval glass, a sewing machine, and other articles. The plaintiff produced an array of old wearing apparel and furniture, and. said they wore the only things he had in his possession in any way tallying with the list of goods filed in Mrs Fisher’s .counter-claim. These, the plaintiff said, he was willing to hand over. Mr Cooper, counsel for Mrs Fisher, said his client admitted having in her possession, the atlas sued for. Site was willing to return it. As .to the other articles, they were not in her possession. After hearing evidence, Dr McArthur made an order for tho restoration of the atlasf He said there was was no x>roof as to ownership in regard to tho other articles enumerated.. An order would be made for tho return io Mrs Fislier of the articles produced t»y tho plaintiff, which he had stated his willingness to hand over to her. In regard to tho sewing machine and ome other articles, his Worship ordered tnat the plaintiff be. left in possession of them'.

TTrc Tarawora brought from Lyttelton yesterday thirty stud rams, consigned to Mr Martin Kennedy', of this city, from a. Canterbury breeder.

Mr Harold Beauchamp was yesterday re-elected chairman of the Wellington Harbor Board, on the motion of Mr H. Coo;:, seconded by Air W. Cable. An exhibition of the work of students sc tho Wellington Technical School will he open at the institution to-day from 2 to 3 p.m. and from 7 to 0 p.m.

Two first offenders were convicted of drunkenness and discharged at Mount Cook Police Station yesterday. Mr T. B. Divan, J.P., occupied the Bench. Two missing seamen from H.M.S Alildurr, worn returned firm Christchurch to Wellington by the' police yesterday afternoon, and placed aboard the warship in the evening. Air Justice Cooper will arrive in "Wellington on Tuesday, the sth March, and will take his scat on the Supreme Court Bruch for the. first time, to hear civil cases, on the following .day. An inquiry will bo held regarding the Into fire in Manchester street, Feiiding, probably on Friday. An advice has been received from Hongkong that the’ Amoy-Shanghai section of cable was restored on Monday. The Benevolent Trustees held their

weekly meeting yesterday, when there ivc.ro orcscnt- -Revs J. K. Elliott and W. A. Evans, Alassrs G. Webb, C. W. Wiliest on, D. Robertson, A. Sample and FI. Cork. The number of inmates at the Ohiio Home was stated to be —Females, 17; males, 16; total, 63. The usual routine business was gone through, and applications for relief dealt with. Air G. C. Carr, magnetic observer, and his assistant, Air FI. T. Skey, are at present engaged in making observations of magnetic variations and. disturbances all round the coast of the North Island, with a view to correcting nautical surveys and records, and bringing the charts of the colonial coasts up to date. Observations in the South Island were completed last year. After fixing stations at Tauranga, says tho “Auckland Star,” tho party will proceed to. Opotiki and Mercury Bay. The summer so far (writes our Coly - tcii correspond 3iit) has been a rather unfavourable .one for harvesting operations. Of those farmers who had gone in for crops that required drying and gathering, few were fortunate enough t-j get t-liom saved without some wetting from the frequent rains winch were experienced throughout the season. On the other hand, grass and green crops have been much benefited, and have oansequsntly been abundant. Tins district, being in its pastoral stage, has .probably been a gainer from the plentiful supply of moisture. Beneficial as the results of the cJd age pensions are in the great majority of cases, the sense of independence, accompanying their possession occasionally leads a pensioner astray. _ An elderly female inmate of the Ohiro Home, on coming into her rights under tho Act, asserted her independence by going into lodgings. Accustomed to the dependence of the Home, the poor creature has fared badly when left to herself. Her condition, as described by her present landlady, ivho refuses to house the woman any longer, must be pitiable. The ouco tidy inmate of the Home has apparently' degemerated into a dishevelled and friendless outcast.

A dispute as to the payment of money for carting, between J. Martin and Benjamin Winch, Jed to a suit for the recovery of £1 being instituted before Dr McArthur, S.M., yesterday afternoon. Judgment was given for Martin for 18s 9d, and costs 6s. The following debts were recovered by default of defendants: —Hutt County Council v. Henry H. Travers, £l6 Bs, costs ds; Cadbury and Co. v. R. and A. Baldwin, £2l 12s, judgment against A. Baldwin for amount claimed, with £2 16s costs";' Wilkins and Field v. Robert E. McDonald, £BB Is Id, costs £4 16s; J. M. Cleland v. Wm. G. Bassett and Olive Bassett, claim for £7 16s and! possession; P. MoArdle y. Win. Smart, £lO 10s, costs 15s; P. Johnson v. Charles Young, £1 17s 6d, costs 6s. Judgment was reserved in a case in which J. C. Trickett sought to recover £l9 commission from J. J. Taylor and another on account of the sale of a ooai yard. A fourteen-year-old lad named William Charles Lines was, at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, admitted to twelve months’ probation by Dr McArthur, S.M., for having broken into the shop of Elizabeth Poole on tho 25th instant and stolen therefrom the sum of 15s in money. The lad had been in the employ of Miss Poole, at her dressmaking shop on Lambton quay, but was. told on the Saturday, night in question that he would not bo required any more. Ho went away then, but at about eleven o’clock he returned to the shop, entered it, and committed the thelt. A drunkard named Mary Vhladoro was sent' to gaol for fourteen days with hard labour. Donald McDonald was, fined 40s, in default three days’ imprisonment, for having been drunk on the 25th inst. A further sentence of two months’ hard labour was im--4 osed on tho same offender for obscenity. Three first-offenders were convicted and discharged. Mr T. W. Adams has a very fine plantation of trees at Greendale, Canterbury. The,, plantation (says the ‘‘Press”) consists of one hundred and fifty acres of trees, planted in belts across the property, to give shelter from the northwest and south-east winds. There are over eight hundred different species and varieties, principally conifers, collected from Europe, America, Japan, and from other temperate regions. Of the oak there are no less than thirty-nine varieties, principally American, but some, from Japan. A portion of the planting has been done with a view to raising timber trees, Mr Adams having gone in largely for tho pimis laricio, which ho considers more valuable as a timber tree than tho pinus insiguis, though not such a fast-growing variety. On the property there is also a very extensive collection of shrubs, gathered from different parts of the world, and many of them unknown to colonial growers. The value of Mr Adams’s excellent work lies very largely in his ascertaining the trees best adapted for tho climate. On Monday last that old-established Good Templar Lodge, the Pioneer, had an open night, which was availed of to tho full by sympathising friends. Bro E. A. Drury. Chief Templar, presided, and an excellent programme was supplied by the harmony committee. Bro. Haig, of the Star of Newtown'Lodge, T resided at the pianoforte. The fol

lowing contributed to (he entertainment: —Sister McDonald, senior, song: Bro. Drury, song; Bro. Cartwright, songs; Bro. Howitt, songs: Sister Pr.arl Gubb, comic reading; Bro. Martin, song; Bro. Stokes, comic Irish recitation; Sister Hyde, junior, pianoforte selection.; Bro. Cartwright, a short address; Sister Drury, junior, song; and Bro. Petherick, recitation. A vote of thanks was accorded to the performers and to visiters. Temporary havo of absence was granted the treasurer, Bro Woolstou, and Sister Drury, W.F.S., undertook to discharge the duties pertaining to that office m his absence. Bro Martin was elected electoral deputy to watch over the interest of the lodge by seeing that all members wero duly placed upon the electoral roll.

A consignment of poultry'—chickens j and ducklings—is being sent to South j Africa by the Agricultural Department, j Tho poultry will be placed in a freezing hold of the Otarams, which will leave Lyttelton for London on the 9th of next month.

The election to fill the vacancy on the Canterbury College Board of Governors, caused by the death of Air H. R. AVebb, will bo held on the 18th '-rox. All graduates of the Now Zealand University who are at present on the books of the college are entitled to vote. Nominations will close on tho 11th March.

The arrivals in the colony during the month of January, 1901, were;—Alales, Zo.'o; females, 1U30; total, 3105, as against 2640 for January, 1900. The departures in January, 1901 were :—Alales, 1465; females, 602; total, 1967, as against 1703 in January, 1900. The excess of arrivals over departures last month was 1138.

The amount which the Wellington Hospital Trustees will ask the District Board for this year will be £12,360, as compared with £7BOO last year. A portion of the increase will be necessary' to meet expenditure on tlio erection of a now, nurses’ home at the Hospital. The increased cost of living in Wellington ol late has been taken into consideration in arriving at the estimates for the ensuing year. Consequently increased amounts will be asked lor in regard, to groceries (£1450, as compared with £1380), moat and poultry <..£iu)o, _as compared with £830), and milk (£650, as compared with £590). The amount required to bo expended in bread is set down at £2BO, and for vegetables £l2O. The new nurses’ homo is to bo erected on tho vacant section on the north side ot tho future children’s ward. The nurses’ homo at Christchurch cost £SOOO, and that at Dunedin £3238. It is expected that tho Wellington nurses’ homo will cost about £SOOO to erect.

The employees of the Government Printing Office, and tho stuff of the Stationery Department, together with the lithographic staff of the Lands and Survey Department, held their annual picnic at Day’s Bay' yesterday, crossing the harbour in the Duchess. The weather was all that could be desired, and a very largo number were present. The Hens J. G. Ward and W. C. Walker sent apologies for their absence. A x>rogramme of sports was very' successfully carried out, one item being a tug-of-war between the staff of the Duchess and the printers. This was won by the latter, who walked'away w'ith the sailors. Toys and other prizes were distributed to tho children. At a luncheon in the pavilion, at which the Government Printer (Air John Mackay) and tho overseers of the several branches were asked to meet the Committee of Management, the toast of the King was honoured. The only other toast .was that of the health of Mr D. Jpslin, one of the staff, who has obtained six months’ leave, and shortly sails for Great Britain. In the -words of the Government Printer, who proposed the toast, they all wished Air Joslin a pleasant trip and a speedy return. The picnic party returned to town shortly before seven o’clock.