WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 65

WELLINGTON.

_ The Citizens' Life Assurance Company (Ltd.) has taken up a loan of £16,000 required in connection with the Palmerston North drainage scheme, and also a £26,000 loan required for the town water supply extension.

Sir , J. G. Ward has issued writs for libel claiming, £5000 damages each from the Evening Post and New Zealand Times for publishing an advertisement by V. Braund convening a meeting on the 24th to hear him deliver an address on certain matters.

The Education Board has decided to appoint an instructor in elementary agriculture at a salary of £300, half of which will be provided by the Technical Education Board. - The following tenders have been received by the Public Works Department for the erection of a bath building at Rotorua : — Informal — M'Kinnon and Hamilton, Dunedin, £25,320. Accepted— W. E. Hutchison, Auckland, £25.720. Declined — Ferguson and Malcolm, Auckland, £27,384; J. E. Guthrie'and Co., ""'Auckland, £27,800. Alternative tenders for using Bruckner's patent wall slabs: — Informal — M'Kinnon and Hamilton, ' Dunedin, £25.215. Declined— W. E. Hutchihson, Auckland, £26,019; J. E. Guthric and Co.? Auckland, £27,350 ; Ferguson and Malcolm, £27,904. Glade He use, Lake Te Anau, additions, etc. : — Accepted — H. Morris, Invercai-gill, £1580. Declined-^-Shilds and Andrews, Invercar-gill,/-£1697_,- Hamilton and Davey, Invereargill, £1340; George Woods, Invercargill, £2190. The Wellington City Corps of the Salvation Army raised £700 10s during a selfdenial week — an increase of £70 over last year. The Wellington.' South Corps raked £121— an increase of £31.

Mr M. Kennedy, of Wellington, h3s given to the Roman Catholic Cathedral fund $ section of land having a frontage of 66ft to "'Buckle street, by a depth of two chains, occupying part of the proposed site for the cathedral. Building operations will commence when the money in. hand amounts to two-thirds of the cost of the first part of the cathedral to be erected.

Judgment -was given by the Chief Justice on Saturday in an action brought by Ward Bros. -v. the Valuer-general. This was an application to have an assessment quashed on the ground that it was with- _ out the authority; of the law, and owing t<o r the capital value being based upon what neighbouring lands* have recently realised when out up for building purposes during the" course of an exceptional land boom, instead of being assessed, so far as the interests of applicants are concerned, upon, the capital value based upon the interests of applicants under a lease which restr : cis the applicants from using the land other than for farming purposes. • The court held that it had no power to interfere. The ■.freeholders of the land had accepted the valuation fixed, and the leaseholders who paid the rates had no redress. The Moeraki. from Sydney, on Wednesday brought 37 foreigners, ihe passenger list including 23 Chinamen (17 being newcomers), 4 Italians, 3 Danes, 4 Syrians, and 3 Germans.

Charles Newton, the prisoner who escaped from the gaol gang on Wednesday, wa3 recaptured on Thursday by a detective, after a brisk chase through the streets of the city. His movements aroused suspicion, but until the police laid hands on him they did not know who they had captured. 'He made a stubborn resistance. He was. brought before the court, and was sentenced on Friday morning to an additional 12 months. He is at present serving a sentence of six years -Jor burglary, passed in Napier in August last. A wharf labourer named Robert Edward Taylor was fined £20 on Monday for gaming on the wharf. The police said that gambling about the wharves and on the hillsides about the city was a perfect pest. ,Taylor was caught playing poker with dice, a number of wharf labourers participating.