LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 33

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hon. A. Pitt, Acting-Minister in charge of charitable institutions, pud a visit of inspection on Friday to Seacliff Asylum and the Inebriates' Home at Waitati. The Cook Islands revenue for the year ended March 31 is £5310 4s 3d, and the expenditure £4553 3s 9d. leaving a surplus of £752 Os 6d, which, add«d to the surplus on the previous year, gives a total surplus of £2610 16s lid. The expenditure includes £650 for the residence of the Collector of Customs, and £1000 subsidy to the schooner Countess of Ranfurly. The imports last year amounted to £34,856, and the exports to £34,71-0. Xew Zealand is credited with £25,803 for imports and £16.100 for exports. •The High School Board advertises in this issue the conditions on which such pupils of the public schools as may now or shortly pass the Sixth Standard are granted enrolment at the High Schools. No free pupil may be enrolled who was over 14 j-ears on December 31 prior to his applying for enrolment. Any pupil, therefore, who will be over 14 on December 31 of the present year must be enrolled this year or not at all. Such pupils, it has been decided by the High Schools Board, shall be enrolled at the beginning of the third term, in September. Those pupils, however, who are young enough to wait till February — that is, those who will not be over 14 on December | 61, 1904 — will be enrolled at the beginning of: the school year in Febmiary, and will j thus have before them two fuil years at the High Schools, instead of a year and a fraction. It will therefore be seen that the board is trying, as far as the regulations allow, to do the best for both classes of pupils. P. S. Galbraith, J. F. Frith, and William Wilson, a&sistant surveyors in the Land and Survey Department, have been appointed to the rank of district eurveyors. Quecnsfcown re-ported to tho Dunedin Telegraph Office at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday: '"Weather remained fine here and at Skippers, but raiued all night afc the Head of the Lake. Rivers steady, and inclined to fall. The lake rose an inch and a-h;ilf i 7 uring Friday night, and is now at the 2ft lOin level above normal mark." Tho number of patients in the Hospital at the beginning of last week was 112, and 25 more were admitted during the week, wl'ile 25 were also discharged. Two deaths occurred, the names, of the deceased being William Weir and Percy Lodge, £>nd the Lumber of patients at present in the institution is 110. Th« Hon. Mr Pitt stated at the Inebriates' Home inquiry at 'Waitati on Friday that legislation will in all probability be introduced, early in. the coming session to place the institution on an improved footing. There were, very large congregations at Loth morning and evening services in First Church on Sunday, when the Rev. Dr Nisbefc, the newly-inducted minister, occupied) the pulpit. The evening- congregation was especially iarge, ev<n*y available space where a chair could be placed being occupied. Dr Nisbet's style of preaching greatly commended itself to his hearers, and his discourses, Avhich are delivered without notes, eve.n the text being announced with a clo^'J Bible, were vigoious and strongly evangelical. A feature of the morniig service was ihe children's sornion. The congregational singing, led by a strong choir, wa=s hearty, the hymns hating been very appropriately selected. The chor*, at the opening of evening worship, sang very tastefully | the anthem " How lotely are the messen- j | gers," and whilst the collection t\as being ! laken up the anthem "Tho radiant morn." Mr Joss© Timson pic-sided at the organ, and fittingly brought the day's services to a clo=p by playing tho "Hallelujah cl.orus " The Right Hon. the Premier Ims received a letter from the Witw atersrand Trades and labour Council, Johannesburg, dated April 12, of which the following- is h coi>y: — ' Dear Sir, — I am instructed by tl.e Witvotersrand (.Johannesburg) Trades und Labour Council to smeeivly thank you on behalf of the workers represented by is for tho sympathy expressed, as also tho support you have given us in resisting <ho introduction of Asiatic labour into the Transvaal. I am also dirtctcd to inform you that, notwithstanding tho large amount i of misrepresentation, that has been aive-u to

our views, the workmen he>e remain antago-* r.istio to the threatened Chinese invasion. This is borne out by tho expressions utiered at our recent Labour Day (Good Friday) demonstration. — I remain, etc., H. W. Sampson, Secretary." It is understood thai the right of the Railway Department, in connection with the working of the superannuation scheme, to deduct from the service of tiio beneficiaries the time they tvere engaged rnder the Provincial Governments prior to tho railways being taken o\er by the Gcner-i.' Government is to be brought before th< courts in the form of a lost rv-c. The Trinity College cxanih.a? ;oi^ in musical knowledge were held on Saturday morning at the. Normal School by Mr A. >T. Barlh, supervisor. Considerably oi er 10G .students c at for the examination, and their papers will be for'inrdofl to London in due course. At tho Presbyterian Chine*e Church in Walker street a very interesting ceremony took place on Sunday afternoon, when three members — via., Me=sts Lo Keong, Paul Clian, and William Chan — were ordained as elders of the church. The serwes was conducted by the Rev, AY. Hc-v. itson, convener of tho Foreign Missions Committee, Interpreted into Chinese by tho Rev. A. Don. The Missions Committee was further represented by 'he Hew D. Kon-ie, and ihe Session by the Ret. Dr Wadde-11. the Rev. W. Scorgie, Messrs John Reid and A. C. Begg. A large congregation of Chinese witnessed the ceremony. \ Mr Sim appeared before his Honor Mr Justice Williams on Monday to apply on behalf of the Bruce hotelkpepers th&t a day should be fixed lor hearing aigumontj \ on the application for a mandamus to compel the Bruce Licensing CommiWee to act. Mr Sim said it was important to his clients to have the matter disposed of ::s soon as possible. His Honor paid he could take the matter next dky if the parties wer& ready. Mr Adams intimated thai he was notj-efc ready to file a statement of defence: he did not know whether any facts tvere disputed. His Honor remarked that probably the parties could agree upon a statement of facts, and if so he ttould take the matter next day. The directors of the Taipo Explosive? Syndicate hate arranged for the "new factory at Deborah -Bay (o be oliicially opened on, Saturday afternoon next. Invitations have been issued to a number of gentlemen interested in the manufacture of explosives, and the partj' will b\s conveyed by boafc from the Dunedin wharf direct to Deborah BayBritibh postal orders for values of $d and every multiple of 6d up to £1 are noVr procurable at the principal money order offices in New Zealand for payment in the United Kingdom. Full information is obtainable at all money order offices. At a special meeting of tho householders of tho Moeraki school district to elect a school committee, after a ballot the following were elected : — Messrs A. Cavmichael, J. Dick, B. Pollet, T. Thorby, C. Pagel, A. Hull, and A. Southertvood. At a subse- v quent meeting of the committee Mr Carmiehael was elected chairman. Mr Thorby secretary, and Mr Pagel treasurer. The pronipt action of Motorman Haviil on one of the Castle street electric tvamcars on Saturday afterncon prevented an almost certain fataht;/. A mite of a child wondered on to the tram line, but vas ob=eured from view by a cyclist until the car was only a few yards from it. Mr Haviil, 1 owever, worked his brakes to suclk effect that a dead stop was come to, bufe only just in time, the ear being within inches of tho child. A motorman on the> George street line on Thursday also averted a serious accident by prompt action, in this ' case a child being thrown in front of the ear through collision with a passing cyclist. Jn each case the least hesitancy on the part of the motorman meant the almost certain death of a child. A recent telegram received from the North Island stated that two men had committed a reries of murders between tha Mokau or Atvakino Rivers and the Marakopa River. At the time of the report inquiries tvere immediately set afoot by the Auckland police, but no confirmatory information could be obtained. It now transpires, however, that Constable M'Carthy, of Kawhai, acting on instructions, proceeded to Marakopa, where he ascertained the origin of the report. A gentleman who is interested in timber and flax, it appears, arrived afc Marakopa a day or two before, and in the course of conversation with tho Natives told them about the murder at Te Atvaite, and said that Eihs was reported to be on his way in the direction of Kawhai, accompanied by a man who t\ as reported to have committed four or five murders in Australia, and that th&y had better keep a good look out. The Natives, it seems, did not thoroughiy understand the visitor, anct one of their number lodo a distance of about. 20 miles over tery rough country to give •warning to tho Kawhai residents that a woman and four men had been murdered on the Marakopa road, ami that the desperadoes tvere heading- for Kawhai. Tho cx 1 planation above given appears in a recent; i^uo of the Tardiiaki News, and is supplied! by a Kawlui correspondent- t\ho is contersant with all the particulars. The gold dredges which have been built in Scotland and Germany according to de?', .=igji* prepared by Mr C. A. Ulrica, ofi'\ Wellington, ave> m-y powerful, and are ex-i ]>eoted to overcome iho difficulties which, 1 dredgemasters r avo encountered in working tho West CoasL river L-hK Each diedge will be driven by an engine of 100 horsepower, and will be able to work to a, deptb 1 of oQit. " ""