WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 13.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 18

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 13.

At the Police Couit to-day a boy of 13 was charged wifh the th?ft of several b'eytles. Tho machine* stolen except two lia.<l been ret ovc reel. Tbe police stated that bcu.cc-n labi Thmsday and Saturday dofondsnt was connected with other eases of theft. Ko rook a machine belonging to a Mr Lambert from Lambton quay, and left it in Manners street, and a second machine b-e!ong.ng- to Mr Mann, and a thiid belonging to .Mr Reid. The third machine he left in Manners street, where he mounted a hor--c belonging to the Waingawa Meat Company, ledo it to Newt-own, placed it in a paddock, and hid the saddle and bri-clie. All this property, however, had been recovered. Tho pclico desired to make further inquiries into the character, of the lad, against whom nothing previously had been known, and desired a remand. The magistrate granted the remand, and allowed tho defendant bail on his father's recognisance. He directed the lad to give Constable Abbott, who arrested him, every rssistance in recovering the missing machines, and tod him if he did not speak the truth he would be severely punished. In an article on the Dunedin police cases the Pest says: — " 2t is quite clear that our police administration must receive another careful overhauling before public confidence is restored. The recent prosecutions of two members of the foroe for perjury, which, though verdicts of " Not guilty " were returned, with the approval of the judge, disclosed at the best a serious bungle that might have resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice ; and the al'egations of police inaction in the deplorable case at Christchurch, to which Mr Taylor, M.H.R.. has drawn attention, had already disturbed the public mind, and the pertubration will be completed by the latest news from Dunedin. Mr Taylor may do the colony further distinguished service by securing another full investigation into the administration of the Police Force. But in tho meantime, let us put it to the credit of Ministers that, on the unimpeachable authority of the Dunedin Crown Solicitor, they would not have appointed a oonvicted criminal to the foroe if they had known what they were doing. Their intentions are excellent and their motives high, but tfy-ey are too busy to read their own Tecords." Dr Pomare, Government Native Health Officer, will leave for the south to-night to attend the opening of a Maori meeting house at Temuka. Mr Herdman, M.H.R., has returned to Wellington from a visit to his electorate, and ho is quite pleased with the condition of things political there. Everywhere he was well received and he had the best meeting possible at Na-seby. Asked whether the Premier's recent visit to the south had produced a political landslide. Mr Herdman replied that he had failed to notice any special cataclysm in Mount Ida. Mr Herdman is quite sure the Premier's visit has been a positive advantage to him (Mr Herdman). He supplied three reasons why the Premier's visit to the south has not tended to strengthen the Government's cause. "In the first place," said the Mount Ida member, " the electors in the south are beginning gradually but surely to recognise that in his public utterances Mr Seddon does not adhere to fact. Secondly, his lavish promises were quite palpably made to purchase political allegienee. Th" scales are dropping from their eyes, and they are beginning to realise that if the oountry is to be governed wisely and justly some other method of political warfare than that indulged in by Mr S-eddon must be practised in future. Further, the indiscriminate abuse of political opponents which marked his southern platform efforts have done him more .harm than good." Southern electors, Mr Herdman said, are watching with keen interest the New Liberal party originated in Christchuroh. and are inclined to welcome it as an indication that many members of the Government party are dissatisfied with the present condition of things. .Tune 15. Plans have been prepared for a new Colonial Museum in Wellington. The cosb of the completed building will be about £30,000. but pi-obably a vote for only a por- ! tion of the building will be taken this session. The Premier intends to deliver a political address at Ma&terton. Mr Herdman, M.H.R. I for Mount Ida, has been asked to reply to him. j The decrease in our exports continues. The figures for May are now available, and show the following, the exports for May 1904 being in parenthesis:— Butter, £26,537 (£38,211): cheese. £17,279 (£11,811); frozen beef, £31,011 (£33,072) ; frozen mutton, | £88,522 (£166,433) ; frozen lamb. £193,689 (£177,147) : wheat. £24- (£16,279) ; oafs, £6716 (£5552); potatoes, £216 (£2103). Adding the exports (hemp excluded) of the two months, they compared as follows: — May, ' 1905, £3637994; May, 1904. £450,6j)8i dc*QKWe. fet Mac. 19J)Sv £86^QU ~

A honiestoad settler who gave evidence before the Land Commission tc-day is a worker ir> every sense of the word. He has a section of two and a-half acres, and is employed as a sloreman. He told the Commission that for four years he had woi'ccvl every moment of his spare time, before he went to work in the morning, and after he came homo at night. "I am nob leligiou.--.." hp added, "and work all day SundavA." It transpired that at one tiir.s he belonged to a labour union. MrAnstev asked him whether such long workir-g hours were in accordance with labour principles, and whether he thought it was fair thai, a man should try to get an advantage over his fellows by such extreme measures. The witness, ho.vcv-c-r, adhered to bis idea. K-e was fend of work, and he said it was his pleasure, and he thought it was quits fair that he should work as long as he liked in Older to keep his head above water and make provision for old age. There can b? no doubt whatever about tho statement that the unemployed difficulty is growing in Wellington. A shopkeeper who advertised for a man to do labourer's work about a garden was met by a procession of 60 m-on last evening, and other applicants have been calling^ upon him to-day. The advertiser, Mr Christeson, a hairdresser and tobacconist, was asked if the applicants appeared to be steady. " Sobsr, able-bodied, honest, intelligentlooking men, most anxious for work." Mr M. J. Reardon writes substantiating his statement that there are men on the co-operative works who receive only 4s 6d a day. He offers to give the Labour Department the names of the men. "To reach this Eldorado," he says, " a man has to carry his swag from 12 to 17 miles through a sludge channel which a horseman can only negotiate at the rate of three miles an hour. He has to pass through a tribe of engineers and flunkeys, whose little brief authority is exercised in the most objectionable way, and finally his work is measured up by people who appear to have tho power to manipulate th-e pay in the most extraordinary way. This last is tho real grievance against tho management, and it is a very serious one. If ever tho true history of this work obtains the light of day it will make an interesting chapter." Mr A. C. Lloyd, an immigrant, says: — "The majority of men seeking employment such as myself, who frequently called at the Labour Bureau, can candidly say they have met with tho same reply as I have often : 'Nothing at present.' I must say, being an immigrant and having no knowledge of this country, I really thought the Labour Departm-ent could or would h<4p me in seeking employment." The Maori census as taken by the Government is not seviouslv regarded by educated Maoris. Mr Hone Heke, M.H.R., told the Native Trusts Commission yesterday that the Government census was far from being accurate. When the guileful uneducated Maori is approached with requests for information concerning his relatives, his lands, and his stock, he is _ struck by the idea that increased taxation is in view, and h& gives microscopical estimates of all he liossesses.