LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2728, 27 June 1906, Page 61

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the Supremo Court on Friday after- ' noon Mr Calvert mentioned his application for a writ of mandamus to the Waikouaiti Licensing Committee to grant a renewal of an accommodation license to John Outred, of the Railway Hotel, Waianakarua. At the meeting of the committee the license was refused in accordance with the reduction vote carried in the district. Tho contention on behalf of the applicant is that accommodation licenses are not subject to the local option poll, which only i affects publicans' licenses. Mr A. S. ! Adams represented the committee. It was agreed to mention the matter to his Honor again this morning. The young man Henry Williamson, who met with & gun accident at Halfway Bush on Wednesday, is making very glow progress towards recovery, and is not yet out of danger. At Friday's meeting of the Hospital Board Dr Batehelor took exception to a minute of the previous meeting regarding an infectious diseases hospital site. The minute stated that a sub-committee was set up to inquire as to suitable sites available-, and to confer with Dr Mason, chief health officer. This did not please Dr Batchelor, who protested that it was distinctly understood that the committee was to confer with the district health officer (Dr Ogston). Dr Batchelor went further, and declared that the act specifically directed that the site and plans were to be subject to the approval of the district health officer, and quoted the section to that effect. The Chairman of the board (Mr P. Miller) eaid that the minute was a correct record of what the board had resolved. No slight at all was intended on Dr Ogston. Matters with regard to the district boundaries had to be decided before the district health officer could be asked to approve a site or plane, and the chief health officer was the proper and only person to deal with the question of boundaries. They had all along conferred with j Dr Mason. *nd at the several interviews

Dr Ogston had always been present. As a matter of fact, Br Mason himself evidently regarded that the board was adopting the proper course, for he had written, in reply to the secretary, stating that he hoped to visit Dunedin shortly, when he should be very glad indeed to go over any of the sites proposed. He was sorry the board had not been able to obtain the land at Logan's Point, which, indeed, was suitable in every respect. Meanwhile, perhaps, the board might communicate with Dr Ogston with regard to any of the sites it had in view. Dr Batehelor: "The concluding sentence is a gentle hint that we should have consulted Dr Ogston in the first instance." The Chairman : "I do not think so ; it is a matter of opinion." There the matter ended, but the doctor's expression suggested that he was still unconvinced that his interpretation of the act was not the right one. " What appears to be a very ingenious and useful addition to the equipment of electrical tramways is being at present brought under the notice of the city authorities. It is a stopping-place indicator, and has already been satisfactorily tried on the Christchurch lines. A machine, enclosed in a suitable case, is placed in a, convenient , position in the car, and through an aperture in the front displays the next stoppingplace in full view, automatically altering as each is passed. The indicator is also suitable for railway purposes, when electricity is— available, to display the next station in each carriage. The inventors arc two Christchurch electrical engineers, Messrs A. E. Brown and H. T. Smith, and it is stated several years' study and many experiments have been devoted to bringing the machine to its perfected condition. It is now pronounced by experts to be thoroughly satisfactory. Mr G. W. Russell, of Christchurch, is at present in Dunedin in order to bring the indicator under the notice of the municipal authorities, and it is probable that at an early dato a trial of it will take place on the* 1 city lines. A trial has already been arranged to take place at Wellington at an early date. The field of operations for this clever invention, however, is rather more likely to be found in Europe and America than in the country which ha 6 given it birth. • A.. point that the new arrival from the Old, Country has to learn (says the LytteL ton Times) is that money in New Zealand has a .different value in the countries of his.- birth- and -of hia adoption. A young man was charged at the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch on the, 21st for failing to provide his wife with adequate maintenance. He pleaded "Not guilty," and said that a fortnight ago he paid her Is 10£ d. "A while after they arrived, in Janua>y T she -got 6s or 7s out of me," ho told the court. He said he was a warehouseman, and got 24s a week at Home. "You'll get more than that -Ik re, if you only do and shovel work.' the magistrate told him. He was ordered to pay £1 a week towards his wife's support, and was offered the alternative of paying £25 into court as a security, finding sureties for £50, or going to gaol for six months. He decided to deposit the £25. In illustration of the same point, Mr V. G. Day, S.M., afterwards told a reporter that a while ago a large manufacturing firm " imported " a number of work-girls, and these were much annoyed when they landed because they could not spend the farthings they had brought. The Christchurch Press states that Lieutenant Michael Barne, writing to Mr George G. Stea^ to thank him for the interest he had shown in the proposed new Antarctic expedition, cays he trusts that the value of the results to be obtained will justify the kindness of subscribers and friends in New Zealand. He adds : " I take- it as the greatest honour to have been given command of the forthcoming expedition, and wish that our programme included a visit to New Zealand. The intention is to explore the region south of Graham Land during two cruising seasons, and the intervening winter months will be spent in the Antarctic. The scheme includes some extended sledge journeys." St. Helena, that lonely fragment of an ancient volcano, is to be allowed to keep her little garrison of British troops for a few months longer. She can ill afford to lose any part of her population, for the allurements of an Atlantic residence J2OO miles from the nearest continent are not overpowering. Perhaps, however, if it were generally known that St. Helena had no public debt its popularity as a fashionable watering-place might rise to the level of 1899, when the Boer warriors built up their shattered constitutions under the influence of its healthy climate. For the pa-lmy days of the island oue must go back to the time when the Suez Canal was unheard of, and vessels bound to and from India made it a port of call, and filled the pockets of the islanders with gold. Now they are driven to the harder, if more exciting, industry of hunting the whale and cultivating the potato — pursuits which maintain in decent comfort a community of something like 5000 people. The night staff of the Victoria Coffee Palace, Melbourne, were startled in the early hours of a recent morning (saye the Sydney Daily Telegraph) by hearing a disturbance in a bedroom occupied by a gentleman who had arrived from Sydney on the previous day. They opened the doer, and found the occupant in ■> state |of collapse, tlie furniture in a heap of ruins, the window broken, and ft hold knocked in the wall plaster. Unable to find any sign of an intruder, and failing to get a satisfactory explanation, they sent for the police, who took the Sydney gentleman to the wa-tchhouse, and charged him with wilfully damafiini £2 10s worth

of property. The explanation he gave the T Oity Court Benoh later on, however, showed that it was a ease for sympathy rather • than punishment. The visitor was a dealer in gems, of George street, Sydney. He i bad suffered from insomnia for three or four months past, and, tired out by a train journey, he consulted a doctor this particular evening, and got some medicine. Before going to bed he took two doses. "It had such an effect on me," said the victim, " and my dream was so vivid, that in trying to avert the crushing of my own ohild " At this stage of the explanation he broke down. He promised to pay for the damage, and was discharged. The manager of the Coffee Palace had in his charge property to the value of £500 belonging to accused. There were no deaths at the Dunedin Hospital last week. At the beginning of last week there were 128 patients at the institution, and while 29 were admitted for treatment 37 were discharged, leaving 120 cases for this week. The Rev. F. W. Boreham preached his last scrmon3 at Mosgiel •on Sunday to crowded congregations. In the morning he based his remarks upon the words: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, broodeth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, and beareth them, so the' -Lord alone did lead him." In the evening Mr Boreham delivered an evangelistic address from the word-* : ' ' God so loved the world that Ho gave Hia only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Mr Boreham. with his wife and children, left Mosgiel on Monday morning by the express connecting with the Waikare at the Bluff in the afternoon. The Drainage Board reports that the only rainfall last week was on the 18th, when .OlOin fell. The total fall for 1906 to date is 11.605 in. Professor Easterfield's analysis of Tara-na-ki petroleum shows the following: — Distillation test : Benzine, 20 per cent. ; burning oil, 40 per cent. ; lubricating oil, 37 per cent. ; pitch, 2 per cent. ; loss, 1 per cent.; — total, 100 per cent. Crude benzine, redistilled, yielded 66 per cent, of naphtha. The kerosene is of greater density than Whire Rose oil, and shows &■ greater tendency to smoke when burned in American lamps. This defect is also shown in.'Hussi»n keroscnea, but it is largely overcome"' by the practical manufacturer. The heavy oil is a good lubricant. Mr Fair, manager of the company, in reporting, says: — "At present the ' liirthday well ' is a payable one. From past experience I should say the life of this well is probably 10 or 12 years, but it will not . necessarily be a flowing well the whole of that period." The first of the De Glehn type of compound engine built in the colony arrived in Dunedin at the close of last week, and on Sunday was experimented with on the steep grade between Sawyers' Bay and ! Waitati. The test made was a severe one, and, in places, on a greasy rail, but results are reported as satisfactory. The grades in the Canterbury district are not sufficiently steep or lengthy to allow of a thorough trial being mado there; hence Sunday's experiment on the north line. About six of these engines are being built at Addington, and the Railway Department has called tenders for 20 altogether. This class of engine has four cylinders — two high and two low-pressure,— and is noted for its easy running. In the Home Country and on the Continent it is extensively used. The Taratu coal miners' dispute has been referred direct to the Arbitration Court, and it will not, therefore, be necessary for the adjourned meeting of the Conciliation Board to bo held to-day. The sectional portions of the huge steel verandah for the new Dunedin Railway Station, are now being put in position at the northern end. Good headway is also being made with tho formation of the approach and frontage to the station, and other remaining work is being rapidly pushed on. A handsome brass tablet has-been placed in one of the halls of the Mornington School. The inscription upon the plat© bears testimony to the fact that Mr R. A. Farquharson, M.Sc, who has this year gained the Rhodes scholarship for New Zealand, was for eight years a pupil in that school. The first " gift Sunday " at the Mornington Methodist Church resulted in £60 6s Id being received, in addition to the ordinary offerings, for the reduction of the free loan of £600 from the connexional loan fund. To show the urgent need that exists for a direct steamer service between the Cook Islands and Wellington, it has been pointed out to the New Zealand Times that in consequence of the Taviuni arriving late at Rarotonga on her last trip from Tahiti, the Rarotongan cargo, amounting to 800 tons of fruit, had to 'ie in sheds for two days awaiting shipment. The result of this was easily foreseen at the time, and it is particularly apparent now in the portion of the cargo sent to the southern portions of the colony. Advices 7rora Dunedin show that nine-tenths of the oranges consigned to that city arrived in an overripe or rotten condition. The position was aggravated by the fact that, notwithstanding that the fruit arrived in Auckland late, only a portion of the consignment could be sent forward at once. The balance subsequently suffered further delay. It is occurrences like these that explain the fact that a European planter in Rarotonga last year shipped 450 cases of oranges, carefully selected and p.acked,

r and received in return 20s to compensate^ him for fruit, risk, and labour. There is this further point to be considered, that I when the steamer takes in a large cargo ■ at Tahiti and the other French islands. • I thei'e is always a possibility that the Raro- " tongan fruit may have to be .left, behind altogether, or shipped at the risk of dangerous overloading. . .., --=v. «' " ■; At Samoa, on May 30, a young German planter, Hirsch, whilst hunting on his plantation, was attacked and shot dead by < a native who had escaped from gaol. -The < native was still at large when 'the Sonoma H left. • ' ;■ '. If the experience of Mr Ju3tice^!Bhanibs man, president of the Arbitxii^£^^^^. can be taken as a criterion, theilbl of the > members of the Arbitration Court is' irofc ■ enviable one. *"I don't like*-- to 6ay anything about my work," said his Honor at Auckland last week. "It is seven weeks since we left Wellington, and so far as I am concerned I have only had one *day free" in those 'seven- weeks. That was one Sunday ! Ido not say what I did oh the other Sundays I"" ' A-*oompensa»~ tion case^ftasr being heard) and the- counsel ■ engaged expressed . sympathy with the court, but said they could not suggest a " way of getting over the difficulty — that' was, to finish the case, to enable the court, to leave on the following day and sit in Hawera on Friday morning. His Honor said that tho court at times went out of its way to hear compensation cases, but it could not conclude the present case. It was eventually agreed that the case should be adjourned sine die. The New Zealand Times has received from the Federal Government a copy of despatches in connection with tho Natal native court-martial incident. It will be remembered that "Mr Seddon cabled' Homo for information, and that he was com* municated with by Mr Deakin,. the Aus* tralian Premier. Mr Seddon's reply to Mr Deakiifs message had not previously been published in New Zealand. It was as follows: — "Quite agree with you that anyinterference with the constitutional rightaT of any self-governing colony should strenuously resisted. Before taking { n^| direct action, however, the press tele-^ graphic communications being so meagre | and conflicting, Government' of New Zealand wishes to be fully acquainted as to4he actual facts, and to that . end have re* quested Governor of New Zealand to cable of -State for the " Colonies J fop further particulars. • Hesitate Jo believeImperial ' authorities^* tvouM deliberately, interfere with 'coiisUtutidnal^rigljts/'of th« -self-governing colony." r .- ;? Wnen^- so ; -many" human lives were at stake, ; 'and the having been by court-martial, at a time, of war, postponemonfc^toV«nitl>J«- . full information as' to- legality offaei&9n£e,S may have been all that was actually dona by Secretary of State for the Colonies.? ■ Some unusual complications have arisen in respect of tho arrest of a. man on a I charge of having obtained £20 from Henry I R. A. Francis, at Blenheim, on May 29, I by means of a ,falso pretence (says tho ! Post). The Blenheim police telegraphed to different centres that a man named Donald Cameron, with several aliases, was wanted there on the charge in question. ' The Hawke's Bay police' arrested a man of this name, who, .it was later stated, was not the person sought for by the Blenheim authorities, and remanded him to Blenheim. The journey was broken at Wei* lington, and whilst in custody at -the Lambton Quay Police Station he escaped, and has not since been recaptured. In the meantime the Wellington police ' arrested another Cameron, whom the Blen* heim police said they wanted, and ascertained that he was not the perpetrator of the offence. They brought him before Dr A- M'Arthur, S.M.. on Saturday'morning, said he was not-th»-real offender, >and* had him discharged. Now* they are turning their attention; again^ to the manarrested by the Hawke's Bay -police *nd who escaped from custody.