WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2546, 31 December 1902, Page 5

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

(Fbom Otjb Own Cobbesiondent.) j WELLINGTON, December 2k. A ehort time back Mr T. E. Dorm* superintendent of the Government Tourisi Department, approached the Union Steam Ship Company ond the Huddart-Parket Proprietary with a suggestion that they should allow one boat a month to visit and laud passengers at Milford Sound durino- the summer months. It wav represented that if it could be done it would probably give a considerable impetus to the passenger traffic from the Australian States. J.h« Union Company has now replied that to call at Milford Sound jneant a devotion of 196 miles, occupying an additional 15 hovrj on the journey between the Bluff and Hobart, and to stop at the head of lh» sound to land passengers would mean auother hour or more. The company had recently changed the intercolonial time-Übi« so as to en-able passengers from Austral!* to land at the Bluff a day earlier than previously. While appreciating the desire rf the Tourist Department that every facility ehould be afforded tourists of -visiting the Sounds, and while the company was anxious to give every opportunity for doing so, it regretted that it could . not see its way te fall in with the suggestion as far as allowing steamers to call coming from Australia \va« concerned. As to calling going to Hobart, via Melbourne, the company proposed arranging for some of its vessels to go to the Sounds aa usual this summer, but the dates were not yet fixed. The reply of the Huddart-Parker Company was to the effect that it had referred the matter to its Melbourne office. Mr Lucas, an English student, who has been making a close examination of th« Now Zealand lakes and classifying the fauna therein, reports that Lake Manapouri is the deepest lake in New Zealand. He found there a depth of 1458 ft, considerably be-low sea level. In Lake Wakatipu % depth" of 1242 ft was found. Indications are that there will be a phenomenal harvest in the North Island this year. The crops in the Wairarapa, Manawatu, Rangitikei, and Taranaki districts are making magnificent growth. December 25.' The Premier's reply to those who presented him w'th the Wellington portion of the national puree was carefully prepared beforehand, and was read to those present from a typewritten copy. The Post tonight vigorously attacked Mr Seddon for accepting the purse, and accuses him of insincerity im accepting it after his statement^to Reuter's Agency in England. Th~e trustees of the Benevolent Institution have decided to consult their solicitor on two rarfher important legal questions — namely, (1) Whether the trustees would be liable .under the Employers' Liability Act for accidcoits to persons working out the cost of relief; and (2) whether the Truck Act would also apply in such cases. The steamer Sussex, due in New Zealand on the 29th inst, will be the January steamer to load for South Africa. Under the Government contract, Napier, Gisborne, Wanganui, n.-id Wellington have been fixed i.% the loading ports.

According to the "VVairarapa Age, a jawbone, apparently of an extinct reptile, has* recently been, discovered on the banks o£ the Rangitikei River^ west of the Ruahine ran-ge." The specimeu, which is of considerable eize, has been sent to Chiistchurch for- expert classification. Considerable in- 1 : terest is being taken in the matter, as the old Maoris in that district have circumstantial storiee of an animal called by them taniwha.. It was a gigantic reptile, and inhabited tha inland lakes. The Rjataniwha plains, they say, weie onca am inland lake, and, as th» origin of the name— rua (the habitation or hem* of), and taniwha (a reptile) — goes fc'j *how. the haunt of these rrpaturoa.