The Exhibition.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5621, 16 November 1889, Page 4

The Exhibition.

THE ACCOMMODATION QUESTION. Mh E. E. Bilbrouoh, the New Zealand representative of Messrs Thomas Cook and Son,informs us that they propose to adopt here asimil.ir system for the accommodation of visitors to Dunediti to that adopted l>y them at the Paris Exhibition this year and during previous exhibitions. On all occasions it had worked satisfactorily, and there appears to be no reason why the same shouldnot be the case here. Briefly stated, their plan is this : The registration of the various hotels and boarding-houses under their various rates, issuing a set of accommodation tickets in connection with each rate for one day, two days, and s» on, for a week, a fortnight, a month, as the case might be. They will have these tickets on sale at all their offices and agencies. In Dunedin a register will be kept by which the rooms vacant in each hotel and boarding house on the list will be posted daily. A passenger going to their Auckland office, or to the ofticos in Wellington or Christchurch, as the case might be, and stating the number of days for which ho requires accommodation, and also the class of accommodation, can pay down a sum of money covering the whole of the expenses of the trip. Each hotel and boarding house will be required to furnish particulars daily as to the rooms at their disposal and the room that will be vacant, say one week, two weeks, or three weeks ahead. Passengers requiring accommodation at a given hotel will be put on the list of that hotel for the date they desire, and there will be no difficulty by means of the registration in telling them whether such accommodation will be at their disposal. If not, some other hotel or boarding house coining into the same class, which has vacant rooms, will be mentioned to Ihem. People not so particular, but who are wishing to limit their accommodation by the rate per clay, will be registered in the order they apply at any one of the hotels or boarding houses under that particular rate. The managers of the hotels and boarding houses will be at liberty to fix their own charges, these charges being in no case in excess of what they would charge to tourists going to them direct. By this means Messrs Cook and Son claim that they will have a complete record of the accommodation vacant on any one day and for any period necessary ahead. By making a charge of one shilling in addition to the actual cost of the accommodation they will be prepared to telegraph from all their offices and agencies for the special accommodation required, and no further charge will be made to the traveller. — Exchange. The Napier correspondent of the Wairoa Guardian says : — We have threatened ■what I am positively certain will never happen— the boycotting of beer acknowledged to be good, because its maker holds certain opinions. The Mayor, Mr G. H. Swan, whose brews are, I am told, the delight of connoisseurs in malt liquors, was asked by the Homo Rulers in town to preside at the meeting to be addressed by the Irish delegates, and he declined, hence the threat to boycott. The teetotallers ought to watch the outcome of this, for if it ilih'h result in a boycott, they might bring liquors into disfavor by attacks upon the opinions of brewers aud distillers. An Invercargill telegram of Monday says : — After a hearing extending over four days, the charge of larceny against Holmes and his wife was for the second time dismissed by the Resident Magistrate. The household goods, groceries, etc., which the defendants were accused of stealing from Wallis' house, Morton Mains, were all in Court, and after the decision a most extraordinary scene occurred. The accused's solicitor instructed them to remove their property, while the police and the prosecutor strove to retain it. The accused and their friends carried the stuff in triumph to a cab in waiting, and after the affair in the Court the room looked like a devastated grocer's shop, the floor and tables being strewn with burst packets of maizena, mustard, blue, etc. The battle of Leipsic was the bloodiest ever fought. It took place on October 16th, 18th, and 19th, 1813, between the French and the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians. The French were 160,000 strong, the Allies 240,000. More than 80,000 men perished, and the French were defeated. Such losses throw into the shade the losses of our own war. At Gettysburg 30,000 were killed and wounded, at Chicamaunga 28,000. In the battles of the Wilderness 6788 men weie killed, and at Spottsylvania 6296. In the final attack on Kars, during the RussoTurkish war of 1877-78, 8000 men fell. The losses in the attacks on the Shipka Pass amounted to about 20,000 men, and before Plevna some 30,000 men perished. Manus' victory over the Cimbri and Teutons at Vercelhe in v.c, 101, is said to have cost the lives of 200,000 persons.— New York Sun. The Lyttelton Times of Tuesday records the following narrow escape from a serious railway accident : — An unpleasant occurrence had to be reported to the railway authorities at Christchurch yesterday, and will, of course, form the subject of a departmental enquiry. Divested of tho somewhat alarming conditions with which reports of such blunders are liable to be tinged, the circumstances were as follow : — A light engine was running from Oamaru to Christchurch, under what is known as " line clear " instructions. That is to say, the driver had to be guided by the. instructions given him by station masters en route. His last " 2>lace of call " was Ashburton, and there his instructions seem to have been to "run clear of all time-table trains." To effect this the driver would have to wait at suitable places for due trains to pass. This at any rate was not done, for when the 4.15. j). in. train from Christchurch was about half a mile south from Dunsfindel, the free engine was met. Fortunately, the road here is straight fur a very considerable distance, and there is absolutely nothing to impede the view. Both engine drivers saw the threatened danger, and both used prompt measures. The result was that the opposition engines were brought to a standstill in ample time. The driver of the free engine took his charge back to Bankside, and the passenger train proceeded on its way. The hitch was decidedly unpleasant, in view of the possibilities attendant on mistakes of of the kind.