WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, July 6

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 45

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, July 6

THE PBEMIEE'S COITHT DRESS. There has been some discussion in unofficial circles as to the dress that would bo. worn by Mr geddon on the occasion of his presentation to her Majesty. The correct dress is as followa :— Coat of blue clofch lined with black silk, black velvet collar and cuffs, gold embroidery three inches wide ; breaches of white kerseymere, with covered buttons at the kaeea ; stockings of white silk ; shoes with gilt buckles ; black beaver cocked hat, with black silk cockado ; black ostrich feather and plaited gold bullion loop ; sword with black scabbard with gilt mountings ; sword knot of gold lace ; sword belt of silk, &3. An old constituent of Mr Seddon's says that if he were to appear anywhere in the vicinity of the celebrated Kutnara, sludge channel in this guiss his digger friends would want to pan him out to see how many pennyweights ho would go to the dieh. WHAT IS IN PROSPKCT. Mr Hall-Jones, who arrived in Wellington the other day from the south, had a fine carriaga and pair and coachman in livery with cockade in hi* hat waiting for him on the wharf. Subsequently a man out of work called on the Minister, but the latter could do nothing for him. The man says that Mr Hall-Jones told him that though he could do nothing for him at present there would b3 plenty of work for everybody when Mi* Seddon came back, and that tbe Government then intended to put further taxation on the large land ownei'3, and to burst up mora big estates. This story is current gossip in Wellington at the present moment, and if it is not absolutely accurate the Minister should be afforded an opportunity of contradicting it. A NEW MAP. Tbe Survey department, which Mr Travers, in his address before the Philosophical Society the other evening, found serious fault with because of the poorness of the New Zealand surveys, has just got out a map of the greater portion of the North Islaud on a scale of four miles to the inch. It take 3in Wellington, Taranaki, and Hawke's Bay, and practically embraces all the country from Wellington to Lake Taupo. BAILWAY SERVANTS' SUPERANNUATION. A superannuation scheme for the Government railway servants is to be prepared by the New Zealand Railway Officers' Institute. Referring to this, Mr Ronayne (the general

manager) said the scheme had the most hearty sympathy of the management, which was only too happy to find that the institute and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees between them were in a fair way to solve the difScnlt problem. He only trusted that the Government would treat them in the name manner that the public companies in England treated their servants with respect to sueb funds. . CARRIAGE OF BICYCLES. The Post says that the Railway department; is giving consideration to the necessity which exists for better means of carrying bicyoles by rail. Drawings of a special van for the conveyance of the machines have been prepared; but the department has not yet decided whether such a car would fully meet the requirements. Bicycle 3 pack" so badly in the railway vans that damage is frequently done to them despite the utmost care on the part of the officials, and it is thought that if they were placed in wicker crates ample protection could be given. The department is having a few crates of a special pattern made for use on the Canterbury lines, and if the experiment is a success similar crates will be available for cyclists at all the principal stations in the colony on payment of a moderate fee. July 9. THE COMING SESSION. The announcement of the Premier's departure from London has stimulated all parts of the Government service to active preparations for the session. There are new bills and amended bills, and reports of departments, of scientific experts, of inspectors of all grade*, and of commissions to be put through the press, to be revised and corrected by the writers and Ministers. The note of preparation is sounded everywhere for those who have charge of special functions to send in reports of their stewardships. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. Mr M'Kay, the Government geologist, has taken possession of the lower press room in Parliament Buildings to assort, classify, and record the results of his recent explorations of the gold-bearing areas in the Cape Colville district. This classification will show the nature of the rocks within the gold-bearing area, and enable those interested to know whether, when rocks may have materially changed, there has been prospecting there and to what extent the prospect may have resulted in finding payable gold. It will also show the nature of the change and the yield of gold, whether it may be attributable to such change. Hitherto the Thames rocks and those all over the Cape Colville district have been called " sandstones " by the miners. They are the same as are called by Mr Park, of the School of Mines, " propilyte.' 1 The rocks at Coromandel are similar, although nob exactly identical. The same is the case further south at Waitekauri, Waihi, and Te Araho. During the past two years the revival of the gold industry haa led to prospectiug over the entire peninsula, and conaequently other rocks than those present in the abovenamed locnlit'es have been tried. One central foot is of great importance i In almost all localities, and in most kind's of rock formation gold has been found. Of course the largest results here pro* ' ceeded from the gold-producing rooks in the places above-named. The rocks charge greatly from the west to the east side of the peninsula. Between the main watershed of the divide and the east aide south of Mercury Bay the rock* met with are of a. light grey colour. This feature predominates, but they are not in all cases the s&m*, and thß miner might easily mistake , some of them for the sandstone or decomposed rock of the western side of 6be peninsula, but in truth they are very different. Many of them are highly acidic rock's, the chief characteristic of which "is " rhyolito." Tliey look very often like sand-stone. Gold is nob necessarily absent from tlw rocks on that side or from acidic rocks generally, but. it can.not be found ia paying quantities. In euoh place 1 ! as Broken Hill, Tairoa, Neesville, Waitekanri, and other places there are areas of acidic ruck "which give good promise in the future of yielding i£old in payable quantity. Silver occurs variably in mest places — as, for example, in the Cabbage Bay and Hikutaia districts. JJacgauese and other minerals are rarely met with. The specimens which Mr M'Kay has collected will be ground down showing the structure, colour, and character of the stone, and scms of them will be photographed for the purpose of easy reference and distribution. They will, of course, be part of the record of the geological survey or" the Cape Colville district. PERSONAL. Mr Theo Cooper, who will act with Mr F. R. Chapm&n, of Daneoin, in Mr Ward's interests .in connection with the lather's examination befowi the Supreme Court ia the matter of the liquid sttiou of the J. G. W»rd Farmers' Association, went south in tbe steamer to-day. The Hon. George M'JLean, who has been attending the Racing Conference, was also a passenger for the south ia the same steamer. THE WARD FATIMEHS' ASSOCIATION. I hear on good authority that the liquidation of the J. G. Ward Farmers' Association is turning out very satisfactorily indeed, aud that owing to the ri3e in the price of oats many farmers are able to meet their bills in f nil instead of only in part, as was predicted. PROSECUTION dF FORTUNE-TELLERS. The police are proceeding against three Wellington women who make their living by fortune-telling and palmistry.