WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent. ) Wellington, December 23.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 55

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent. ) Wellington, December 23.

PERSONAL

Nearly all the members of bath Houses have now left Wellington. Tho Hon. Mr H*ll Jjnes was to leave for Timaru this afternoon. Mr Guinness went south to Christchurch by today's sle&mer,i&nd will return to Greymouth via. Otira Gorged The Hon. John M'Kenzie was able to take a drive out to-day. Mr Sligo, M.H.R., who had a relapse after a severe attack of influenza, is now rapidly improving ; Dl 1 Roes (late of Dunedin) is attending him. Mr James Wilkie, the well-known journalist, will spend his Christmas in the hospital, where he has just undergone a seri r u3 operation.

IXFIVDJENZA.

Influenza is etill rife, and many people are seriously iil with it. The d )CtorS are kept bu«y day and night attending to patients, and whele batches of employees are absent from warehouses aud offices. The chemists are doing a roaring trade in smnioniated quinine, which is used as a preventive and iv the ordinary irescriptions.

CORRECTING THE PREMIER.

The underwriter* have been in commuutcation with the Premier regarding a statement he made in Parliament that in one town in New Z.caUnd he (the Premier) had been informed that the premiums paid amounted to about £90,000 from property owners, and the amount paid for lostea sustained was £10,000. The underwriters say in reference to tbi3 that the Premier has been misinformed and that his informant's statements are altogether inaccurate aud calculated to mislead the Premier, and through him the public. They point out that the gross annual premium income for insurance of buildings iv the largest insuring centre of the colony is not 20 per cent, of the amount stated, and that the total premiums received for all building*, merchandise.

and all other insarable prcpsrty is not 40 per cent, of tho * mount stated as having been received, while the statement regarding losses ig as inaccurate as the statement re premiums.

THE FLAX EXPERT.

Mr John Holmes has got to work in London. Hearing that there was an opening in South Africa for many kinds of produce which Now Zealand could well supply, Mr Holmes took passage for Capetown. He represented at Capetown th»t New Zealand held the premier position in tbe frozen meat trade and was desirous of keeping it, but bis inquiries conviuced him that till the duty of 2d a pound is abolished (the chauce of this is by no mean* remote) a profllab'e trade with Capetown itself could not be looked for; but: at Durban a remunerative market might be opened up, the livo stock of Scu'h Africa having been decimated by tho rinderpest. If a market were to be made in hczon meat a line of direct steamers would be necessary. Mr Holmes is of opinion, however, that a trAde could be done in butter with the present facilities for comrnuuication in Cape' own. He found that binder twine was imported entirely from England aud the United Slates, but merchants expressed their willingness to supersede this with manufcicturcd New Zealand hemp (which they had never heard of) should a trial prove it to give satisfaction.

EARTHQUAKES

At the last metting of the Philosophical Society there was an interesting discussion en earthquakes. Bir Jsmes Hictor said it was a mistaken idea that severd earthquakes were peculiar to New Zealand. They had been far more severe in Japan and Indiß, where there were high ranges and deep oceans. In" Wellington, earthquake vibration came mostly from tho SE. The vel< city of earthquakes ranged from 270ffc to 9000 ft per second. The greatest damage was iuvariably nearest the saat of the disturbance. Their duration generally was short, a few momentary quivers sometimes repeated, but occas'ona^y there was a great rocking, as in tho great eaithquake at Lisbon, wheu the rocking lasted fivo minutes. An earthquake wave strikirg 'hfiid rock sometimes changed its direc^on, as when a billiard ball cuinonui off the environ.