LOCAL AND GENERAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6027, 11 October 1906, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Important negotiations are going on between the Corporation of Wellington and Mr Salt, representative in New Zealand of tho Wellington Electric Light and Power Syndicate. Various propositions have been submitted, and these will be brought before tho Council shortly. They are in either the direction of a sale by the syndicate or an arrangement under i/hieh the lighting cost to citizens ,may bo reduced. It is likely that a complete investigation into the cost of the syndicate’s plant, its present value, .and tho value of the syndicate’s rights, will be made by certain persons to be appointed, with the object of assisting the present 1 negotiations^. The earnings of the Wellington Corporation tramways for the firtt six mouths of this year amount to £45,588 Iss lid, and the ordinary expenditure to £32,045 3s lOd. The profits, after providing for interest (£BIB3 2s 3d) and sinking fund (£1913 7s Id), will be over £3OOO. It is calculated that the current half year will show an excess over itho first half of over £6OOO, so that the gross profits for tho whole year will amount to £IO,OOO. This will enable the Corporation to put £15,000 to depreciation, with tho amount carried forward last year, and to carry forward nearly £4OOO. Mr A- L. D. Fraser has given notice of a new Land Bill (No. 2), with which he proposes to settle the question. If tho House gives his measure a .fair hearing he is satisfied be will bo able to put things to rights. The question of large estates will be settled by an extended graduated tax. Every man will be his own valuer, and as a check the Government will be empowered to resume any property at a certain percentage (not being less than 10 per. cent.) above the valuation.

Evidence of the record spring is the starting of the cricket championship matches on the second Saturday in October, said to bo the first time Wellington has done this. If anyone wanted further testimony, he could have had it yesterday at Island and Oriental Bays. Oriental Bay looked like a minor Narragansett; the rush for trains at Island Bay was reminiscent of a race day. N The grading gang _ on the Karori tramway route in Tinakori road is working up beyond the Botanical Gardens and near to the spot where the high banks are being excavated. Behind the graders the metalled bed of the tram rails is steadily advancing, and tho rail-laying, when started, will be able to proceed very quickly. Tho 8 described by the route from below the viaduct to tho tunnel is becoming conspicuous with a network of poles, thirty-one being already erected- in this short stretch, and probably the full complement will not be short of forty. At the elbow by the viaduct, poles are'being erected on each side'of the road. -

“Never again, I trust, will our church, by raffles and lotteries at bazaars, make itself a reproaeh_and a stumbling block in the way of moral reform,” said Archbishop Clark in opening the Anglican Synod at Melbourne the other day. “The end cannot justify the means, and it is . vain for us to protest against the evils .of gambling when we practise in our church work a system which in principle is essentially tho same. We have there; fore forbidden every raffle or lottery in church work, and anyone who, introduces these things docs so in definite disobedience to expressed injunction. Tho whole commercial atmosphere is tainted with secret commissions, and speculative operations which hear false names, and minister to a spirit which is dishonest. So long as these things exist, gambling will discover for itself in most minds ethical justification.” Tho Melbourne Gaiety Theatre was the scene of considerable excitement on th afternoon of Sunday, September 30th, Mr W. H. Judkins, the wellknown social reformer, being pelted with eggs during tho course of an address, and several men being arrested. When ho had been speaking a few minutes an egg, thrown from tho lefthand gallery, struck the speaker on the top of tho forehead, and he staggered hack, temporarily silenced by the blow. Throo or four other eggs were thrown iu rapid succession, and a number of other people, including Miss Elsie Maltman, the vocalist -of the meeting, and the, press representatives, ■ were besmeared. Of course, there was an uproar, and tho police were on hand. Several men were arrested, and conveyed to the lock-up. Mr Judkins, amidst much applause, stood forward to resume his address." _ A voice: You would swear a man’s life away. (Cries of “put him out.”) Mr Judkins: I just want to say that this is. a .very small thing to suffer in the cause of righteousness. (Applause.) Ten thousand blows won’t stop us, unless they injure us. (Applause and boohoiug.) You may smother me with that kind of argument, but you won’t make me hold my tongue. We are going on with our work of saving men.

A monster shark was captured by two Italian fishermen in San Pedro Bay, California, and is claimed to be tho largest fish of the species which has over been brought ashore anywhere in the world. This monster weighed 14.0001 b, or 6 tons 5 owt. It measured from the tip of its tail to the tip of its nose 32if, and the circumference of the body just forward of the dorsal fin was loft. The shark became hopelessly enmeshed in some 1500 ft. of the fishermen’s not, which it speedily tore into strips, but the strings and ropes were wound many times around its gills, and thus the monster was held a prisoner, being finally killed with harpoons. The stomach was full of fish, and the shark was robbing the net when it became entangled.

A deputation representing the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce waited last evening on the Minister for Lands to ask for the reading of a large area of land between the Wanganui and Waitotara rivers. The Chamber was represented by Mr Colvin (chairman), Mi- C. H. Walker, and other members, and the members of Parliament present were Messrs Remington, Hogan, Jennings, and Symes. The case for the deputation was that the extension of the road from Kai Iwi railway station for a distance of.thirty-five miles, at a cost of £16,000,,-would open up 130,000 acres of Government lands, which cost the Government £56,950, and which would never be taken up unless the district was roaded. Three Government blocks in the district were opened for settlement in September, 1903, and no application had yet been received.. The Government was thus losing interest at 4 per cent, on the cost of acquisition; on tho other hand, tiro lands were now worth £113,000, and, if settled on a 5 per cent, basis, would 'return £5700 a year. They could carry at a low estimate 160,000 sheep (or one and a quarter to the acre), and besides the direct benefit in revenue there would bo ali the indirect advantages of settlement, cspeci- • ally to tho railway, as tire outlet would bo by way of Kai Iwi. The Minister said ho would consult with the Minister for Public Works to see to what extent the public works fund was responsible for construction of tho road, and to what oxtent it foil on the Lands Department. He recognised the failure to get applications, and would go into tlie matter with the Under-Secre-tary for Lands. 'The matter would have to he decided soon if anything was'to be put on the year’s Estimates, which Cabinet would probably he making up in a short time. Ho would let tho deputation know to-day. The arousing of interest in the work of foreign missions by 1 means of caravan tours is one of the most note" worthy of modern missionary methods, says a London paper. Some years ago this method was adopted by students of Edinburgh University, and two years ago some men. of London University inaugurated tho “London University Foreign Missionary Caravan.’ The caravan campaign is worked by students who are representative of most of tho Christian unions in the colleges and. medical schools of the University of London. In the summer of 1904 the caravan toured through Surrey and Sussex and West Kent; the tour last year was through Herts. The object of this work is to visit the people in villages and small towns_ who are seldom visited by missionary deputations in order to promote and quicken interest in foreign missions. It is sought to attain this object by addressing .meetings, sometimes illustrated with lantern slides, by selling and distributing literature, exhibiting curios, and by private conversation. This summer—from August 14th to September 20th—the tour will be through Bucks. Meetings will be held at Leighton Buzzard, Newport Pagnell, Stony' Stratford, Buckingham, Winslow, Hardwick, Wendover, and Amersham. Six to eight students will travel with the van. Those are divided into two sections; ! the Church of England section and the Nonconformist section, men of tho Ohurclvof Eng* land section addressing the Church of England meetings and men of the Non conformist section the mootings ot the Nonconformist churches.

After a, fair jtrial, the Glasgow magistrates arc reported to have reached the conclusion that the closing of ;.]1 publichonses in the city- on holidays is a mistake. The by-law enforcing the closing was passed ' under powers conferred by the Licensing Act of 1903, and had reference to Now Year’s Day and the spring and autumn holidays. New.Year’s'Day is observed generally throughout Scotland, and publishouses are closed in most if not all towns. The spring and autumn holidays are nob general, and when on these occasions the Glasgow publichouses were shut, an invasion of neighbouring towns took place, and scandalous scenes resulted. Recently the county and local burgh authorities approached the magistrates wdth the request that they should consider their neighbours. The magistrates took* time to come to a decision, but nltimatelv by a majority it ifas agreed that on the spring and autumn holidays the pubhehouses should bo open fi om noon till six o’clock. The bylaw. as amended, w-as to come into force on the autumn holiday in September. -

A writer in the Franklin Institute “Journal” has been comparing’ the time occupied in making the recentlycompleted Simplon Tunnel with that of some other big tunnels, from which it appears that the Simplon is easily first, its twelve and a quarter miles having been pierced at an average rate of two miles a year, dr 34ft each working day. The St. Gothard Tunnel (nine- and a quartervmilee) took nine years, the Mont Oenis (eight miles) fourteen years, the Hoosac, Massachusetts (five miles) twenty-two years, the Sutro, Nevada (four miles) nine years, and the Arlberg (6.38 miles) four years. Excluding the Simplon, the average daily rate of progress varied from s)ft in the Hoosac Tunnel to 28ft In the Arlberg Tunnel, in the Tyrol. In Great Britain, according to “'Whitaker’s Almanack,” there are now fortytwo tunnels exceeding one mile in length, of which the longest, that under the Severn, is' four miles 624 yards in length, and took thirteen years to make.

An mtterjesfcmg collection of over three thousand articles pertaining to the late: President- Lincoln is shortly to he purchased by the United States Government. This collection, which represents the labour of forty-five years, has been brought together by Mr Osborn H- Oldroyd, who will remain in charge as curator, and contains, among other interesting , exhibits .thirteen pieces of furniture from the Lincoln homestead, Springfield; eleven autograph letters and documents, the spur worn by Booth which caught in the flag draped before the President’s box, a library of over fifteen hundred, books relating to Lincoln and the American war, and thirtv-three cartoons from "Punch.” Mr Oldroyd has been making a tour in the United Kingdom—a project ho has had in contemplation

for tho last fifty years. Interviewed by a representative of the ‘Tribune,’' Mr Oldroyd was full of enthusiasm with regard to his collection, which he claims to ho the largest of its kind in the world. His visit to London has resulted in th© acquisition of three additions to his collection. Calling at tho offices of “Punch,” he was presented with portraits of Mark Leinou, Tom Taylor, and Sir John Tonnicl. Tom Taylor, it may bo remembered, wrote tho memorial versos to President Lincoln in “Punch” which appeared on tho occasion of bin assassination in 1865.

Tbo annual meeting of (ho Wellington Amateur v Swimming Club will bo held at Godber’s rooms to-morrow evening.

A band performance, arranged by the Wellington City Council, will be given in the Basin Deserve tins.evening by tbe Central Mission Band.

Tho Auckland City Council, by advertisement in this paper, invites, tenders for an electric lighting plant. At Pnekakariki next Monday Abraham and Williams are to sell,without reserve, Mr C. Tilley’s dairy herd and farm implements. ' The City Council wants to hire a plant for pile-driving. /

The Loan and Mercantile Agency advertises entries for its stock sale, to be held at Palmerston to-day. The New House, Cuba street, has a varied stock of shirt blouses. Messrs Duncan and Macintosh have a men’s outfitting establishment in Manners street.

A shoe salo is proceeding at E. Hannah and Co.’s shops. Prices for several lines are advertised.

Messrs Mackay and Whishaw. land and estate agents, qf Wellington, Masterton, and Feilding, advertise several town and country properties for sale.