LOCAL AND GENERAL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7722, 4 June 1903, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The takings at the Dunedin Winter Show yeßterday amounted to £244, against £111 on. the opening day of last year. Ten country bands have already signified their intention of taking part in the band contest to be held in Hawera in August. The Manager of the Burnham Industrial School desires to acknowledge, with thanks, the jtift of a large parcel of magazines from Mr Charles Lewis, 'M.H.R. Renter's Telegram Company has dedared its usual dividend for tho half-year «hded Dec. 31. ab the rate of 5 per cent •per annum. The amount of cash itu hand to that date was £96,000, and the 1 company's reserve no\v stands at £31,000. Mr T Gapes, J.P., and Mr S. Lawrence, J.P., presided at the Christchurch Civil Court this morning, in the absence of Mr W. R. Haselden, S.M., who was attending a licensing committee meeting in Lyttelton. Two cases were adjourned, and the Court rbse. . A speaker at Smithfield yesterday said ' thai there was no place in New Zealand, and no place in the world, for growing grain, fattening stock or for. dairying, to equal the strip of land between tlie Rnngitata and the Waitaki and extending back thirty miles from the seo. June 29, has been fixed for the election of School Committees in the Kowai Pass, Ashburton Forks, Broadfield. Domett, Gebbie's Valley, Flemington, Kyle, Mount Somers, Qverdale, Riverside, Scdgemere and Mount Grey Downs districts, which failed to elect committees at tho ordinaryelection. v The Education Board, at its meeting yesterday, considered the explanations made by chairmen of nieetings of householders in regard to disputed elections at -Bromley, Halswell, Cust and Marshland. Except in one case-, which was referred to the Board's solicitors, it was decided to uphold thl elections of the committees in those districts. The Hon T. Y. Duncan, replying to a deputation from the Otago Farmers' Union, said his opinion was that local bodies might have to do with less grant this year than en previous occasions, on account of the immense hmount of land the Government Ywas opening up. He promised that tho Agricultural Department would do its best to cope with ragwort. At a meeting held last night the officers of the Queen's Cadets corps arranged for tlie enrolling of recruits, in order to bring tlie corps up to the full strength of sixty members. The officers will be in attendance at the temporary orderly-room, Girls' fricndlv 'Society's rooms, Glotfcester itreet, 'at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, to receive applications from lads anxious to join the corps. The thirty-eight Blenheim, shopkeepers fummoned at the instance of the Labour, )epartment for keeping open their premises on the day preceding St George's £)ay, and observing the half-holiday on the Saint's day, appeared before tbe Court last week. Counsel for the Department Itated that tlie Department merely wished Vhe point to be established that the legal lalf-holiday could not be changed withoiit tuthor.it y. The Magistrate, after hearing the evidence, held that a breach of the Act'vhad been committed. He convicted defendants, but imposed neither fines nor Costs. Christina Lawson, wlio had been discharged j'esterday by the Magistrate in response, to an apparently genuine plea that she had bought a steamboat ticket and waa leaving the town,- again appeared at\ '• the Magistrate's Court to-day on a charge pf drunkenness. She came under the definition of an habitual drunkard, and was sentenced to two months' imprisonmment. Mary Blue, alias CraVford, alias v Gray, and Job Hbrwell, who had each been convicted twice within the past six months, were fined 20s and costs each, in default eeven days' imprisonment, if or being drunk. One first-offending inebriate was convicted and discharged, and another was fined $ye shillings and costs, in default twentyfour hours' imprisonment. Mr T. Gapes, J.P., apd Mr Stephen Lawrence, J.P. occupied the Bench. A recent English mail brings word that n British scientific party is being fitted out at Home for the Pacific Islands. Tlie expedition 'will be under the leadership of Major W. Cooke Daniels, who is espeoially keen on studying totemisin and the frigatebird cut at the south-east end of British New Guinea. 'The principal objects of the expedition will he ethnographical, but it is Doped that a considerable amount of pathological and other, more general scientific work .will be carried out. Dr E. G. Seligmann will be one of the party. He is the representative of the Cancer Research. Commission, and has been specially instructed to collect information on th* prevalence of malignant tumours in /New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. A yacht has been purchased in England for the use of the expedition. This vessel is about 90ffc in length over all, and will he fitted with auxiliary power fa petroleum engine) and sent out to Sydney in August, to embark the members of the scientiflo party. The trip will embrace a cruise round British New Guinea, and probably the Solomon Group, the voyage occupying from twelve to fifteen months. A woman with a two-year-old illegitimate child, and another expected, came with a typical story to the Wellington Magistrate yesterday. She said she had had the first child in" one of the Wellington Homes, and her mother, in the South Island, had assisted her. In this second trouble her mother had refused to assist her ; and,' as it was her second fall, the could not gain admittance to the Salvation Arinv Homo. She applied to the Benevolent trustees, whose secretary told her that if she could get the two-year-old child committed to the Receiving Home she could then make arrangements for maternity accommodation and the Trustees would find the coat thereof. The woman accordingly made application for tho committal of tho child to the Receiving Home, which was granted. In the course of a brief general discussion, Dr M' Arthur, S.M., said that something roui-t be done for such maternity ; cases, lest a worse rote follow. Sub-Inspec-tor O'Dnonvan: "A girl that bring 3 her child to life deserves— putting aside her first error — respect, more than- anything else, considering the facilities and inducements that there are to foetal destruction. Though she commits the first mistake, sho ie not guilty of the worse one." Mr E. Russo, of New Plymouth, gives Jus first impressions of Johannesburg as follows: — "Never iv my life have 1 Ecen puch a God-forsaken spot as this—dirty, filthy, dusty, and so horribly behind the times in everything. Tlie post office, telephone service, end trains aw> simply antediluvian. There is only one suburb where there are any trees, -and that is Poonfontein. AU the other places have,? nothing else to. show but red oust. There »re thousands of people here in search of •work, especially engineers, and it is veivy . difficult to get employment. The people ljere uiave a trick of engaging persons ip England at nominal salaries, and when these poor fellows, arrive here they soon find they cannot live on their pay. ' Robbery ana housebreaking are quite the usual thing, and only yesterday tiv o Customhouse officers were . robbed in one of the most frequented streets at 4 p.m. Living is very expensive, about £20 a month being the minimum cost. Amusements are very expensive, and to become a member of a club costs £60. The church is about the size of that of Te Henui, but otherwise there is no comparison. I thought when I saw it that some third-rate livery-stable keepet had his horses there. There are no Reserved seats, and the organ and the choir are both very bad; The congregation is ■fairly numfceousi but most of the women '**• %^^sy^ *J& *s course very badly

The annual meeting of the Riccarton Licensing Committee will be held to-morroAV, at noon, in the Riccarton Road Board office. Tho treasurer of the Children's Convalescent Cottage, New Brighton, acknowledges, with thanks, one guinea from the New Brighton Athletic •Club. Ratepayers in the St Albaiis, Sydenham and Linwood Wards of the city are reminded that unpaid rates! will be sued for and that summonses are being issued. The Government recognises that the export of dairy produce from Poverty Boy is increasing very rapidly, and, yielding to representation's made by business men and settlers, it has decided to station a grader of butter and cheeEe at Gisborne. The gold exported from the colony last month totalled 45,5200_, of the value of £175,253. The export, for the five months of tho present year was 193,1220z, of the value of £736.988, an increase of 31860z and £8566 compared with the corresponding period of last year. Last month's export of silver was 65,7390z, valued at £6533. N