LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7731, 15 June 1903, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

. The Tramway Board will- meet on Thursday, at 2.30 p;aj. The Morning went into dock at Lyttelton to-day for an overhaul. - Communication will be established at the Sumner rifle range by a double line of telephone wires, between th© firing point and the butts. The erection of a new drillshed in Christchurch has now been authorised, and the plans, which are in hand, will be comjpletecS.in about a fortnight. In connection with the Girls' Friendly Societies' , day of intercession, there will be » service in St Michael's Church to-morrow, at 7.30 p.m. Bishop Julius will preach. . Three first offending inebriates were each fined 5s and costs, in default twenty-four ihours' imprisonment, at • the Christchuroh Police Court this morning. Messrs J. Richardson, J.P., E. O'Connor, J.P., and W- Prudhoe^ J.P. Z occupied the bench. Mr J. Lomas writes with, regard. to the Ohristchurch tailoring trade award, published in the June number of the "Journal of the Department /of Labour," that an error appears on Paj& 664, giving the rate of wages for female pieceworkers at Is 6d per hour. This ought to read Bd. Colonel j Porter j ing the district," will leave Christchurch by the express to-morrow morning to meet General B.abington and staff at Waimate, when the inspection of the South Canterbury Volunteer District will be commenced. At Palmerston North to-day, Isidore M. Cohen, alias F. H. Cantor, was committed! to the Supreme Court, Wellington, *or sentence on a char.ge of obtaining goods and money by false pretences, Several' otiier similar charges, representing goods and' cash of an aggregate value of £80, are pending against the accused. The following commirnciation was received on Friday night by the Registrar of Canterbury College from the Premier: — I very much regret that owing to my visit . ta^incoln College to-morrow and receiving v <teputa,tions, iv th© afternoon, I shall not be able to get through my public business in time to go over the museum. • However, I trust to-be able to visit the institution oh my next trip to Christchurch. The ' Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr W. R. Haselden, remarked this morning that it was impossible for anyone tcj hear the;, evidence given in court when' people , would persist in talking. He did) not want to start complaining, but if was quite necessary that those who bad 1 business in the court should remember how annoying inte^rup- ' tions were. Be trusted 1 that the membersof the profession would give him their help • in keeping silence W the court. At the Christchurch Magnetic . Observatory, at 9.30 a.m. to-day, the barometer stood at 30.176, and was then steady. The maximum and minimum temperatures recorded during the previous twenty-four hours were 54.4 and 29.8 respectively. The temperature at 9.30 a.m. was dry bulb 34.6, wet bulb 32.0, humidity 74 per cent. The maximum temperaturi in the sun was 94.8,. aind the minimum (thermometer on the grass recorded 23.5, \?here had been no rainfall and the wind w£s south-west. The poultry Industry in New Zealand is assuming large dimensions. During the last financial year 75,000 birds were killed, dressed and graded at the Government depots, rhe majority of them for the South African market/, as against 38,000 for the year ending March 31, 1902. In addition to the poultry which passed through v , the depots during the last financial year, several thousand birds were exported without being graded by the Government ex-. perts. The Agricultural Department intends to seek legislation to prevent the export of any poultry unless it has been graded by a Government official. A

To-day's weather forecast is as follows : —A gale after twelve hours from between the south-east, east and north at all places northward of Thames and - Manukau, andextending after twenty hours to places, thence southward to East Cape, Taupo anU Raglan, and moderate easterly winds elsewhere. The barometer will fall at all places northward of East Cape, Taupo andi Raglan, and rise slowly elsewhere The ge» will be heayy on the east coast northward of Cape Campbell and moderate, thence southward, and also upon the west coast. The tides will be high on the east coast northward of East Cape, good thence •southward and moderate upon the west coast. Rain and warm weather are to be expected at all places northward of East Cape, Taopo and Raglan, and a frost southward of Napier and New Plymouth, , Warnfag signals for easterly gales %&, €Z . hibited at Cape Maria- ran Diemen and Tiri..tiri. During the last forty-eight hours the barometer has risen, slowly everywhere, and ; there has been fine weather with a frost southward of. Gisboxne, . Taupo and New < Plymouth aii very cold .weather in ■ the.

An ordinary meeting of the City Council will be held this evening.

The Mokoia, from Melbourne and Hobart, arrived at the Bluff thia morning. Her mails will probably reach Christohurch to-morrow evening. \ \ At the Kaia%oi Stipendiary Magistrate's Court this morning, Mr Bishop, S/M., remanded the Maori, Momo, on a ch,yi"gc of criminal assault on a iiiule gir\ irafi] next Monday.

A horse which "was drawing a loaded dray through Cathedral Square at about noon to-day fell down. It was unharnessed; from the dray with some difficulty, and then got up, apparently uninjured.

The Government has made offers for the Edendale estate, b»longiug to the New Zealand and. Australian Land Company, and the Waimea estate, belonging to the Waimea Agricultural Company. /So far neither offer has been, accepted.

The" Government is about to build a laboratory at Wellington for^ the Mines Department. The new premises will be of brick and stone. Tenders for erecting the buildinsc are now being called by the Public Works Department.

In view of the forthcoming election of members for the Education Board, it is desirable that the School Committees should fill in the form supplied by the Board with the full names of the members of committees.

A visit to the grading-shed at present would, .the Wellington "Times " says, considerably astonish anyone who has nob been, watching the progress of thejmprovements made in the treatment of flax during late years. The average quality -of the hemp is now immeasurably superior to that which obtained half a dozen years ago.

The discovery mad© by the commander of H.M.S. Penguin that the height of the Pencarrow light is given incorrectly in ,the Admiralty charts is not a new one. It was reported to the Marine Department an June, 1900, that the height was incorrect, and the Department immediately wrote; t«? the Survey Department, asking for information on the subject. The heights were verified at the time by the Marine Engineer, and in September, 1900, the Department? informed the hydrographer of the Admiralty Department that the correct heipnt was 322 ft, and that the light was visible at a distance of twenty-seven miles. Tho Admiralty charts should, accordingly, have been corrected before now. The " New Zealand Pilot" has not appeared since the correction was made. No danger is likely to ■result from this fact, however, for although! tho height, of the light is stated as. 4<ioft, the distance at which it ia visible is given correctly. '

Tliis morn^ a man possessing no fewer than three "aliases" was charged. at the Lyttelton Police Court with having stolen an overcoat from the steeTage of the ».»• Talune on Saturday. He admitted having token the garment, but volubly protested that he had no intention of stealing it, as he had put it on merely for " a bit of vanity." It was a good coat, and tye was weairing it when arrested. There were, however, facts which discounted his assertion.^ He went into the steerage of the vessel in which he was to have gone to Wellington, and, in happy unconsciousness that a policeman, Constable Connell, was watching him, ajpproached a passenger sleeping there. After gently shaking the man and failing to arouse him, he turned his attention to the overcoat, which was hanging up over the berth. 3Se searched the podkets, threw on the floor some papers which he found, and donned the garment. The nest moment he was in custody. He had, i! appeared, been eleven times convicted of thelt since 1899, and the presiding Justices sent him to gaol for three months, with an expression of regret that they could not inflict a heavier sentence. ;

EXPRESS PASSENGER LIST. BaßSengera from, the eoutlh to-day:— Mr D J Smiuh, Mr Justice Denni«ton, Mr A. L. Denniston, Mr R. H. Pope, Mr and Ma» K Jdhnson, Mr <tnd More George Watson, Mr E. J Dennys Mr A. WWttm. Mr W. G. Stead, Mr R. J. Munro, Mr J. H. Loudon, Mr Joseph CougJilan, Mr W. Hylaud and Mr B. F. Coom.