LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7910, 15 January 1904, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The fishing notice posted at. the Ohriftchurch Tourist Office to-day slowed t^afc the Waitaki, Rangitata, Rakaia nod Waimnkarjri axe fishable. • A conference of school inspectors will be held at Wellington on February 3, and will be attended by the inspectors of the North Canterbury Board of Education. Fuller's Pantomime) Company left for the south by tie express train to-day. A new company of performers "will appear in the Opera" House here on Monday evening in a. variety entertainment. During the last forty-sinyears there hay« been exported from this colony 15,572,507 oz of gold ? valued at £61,111,316, and 3,299,9280z of silver {mostly th© output, ol Ohinemiui County) j valued at £462,807 j total vaJue t £61,564j123. . " In the course of a /humorous speech, at Gore yesterday Sir Joseph- Ward: ; made a personal explanation to the effect that ib was not a Cabinet Minister who told the. inmartes of an Otago;benevolent institution that whisky and sulphur was a good cure for sciatica. ■ ; ; The popularity of the <New Brighton Gala was exemplified by the nurober« of passengers conveyed from Chri6tchurch by the tramway companies. The approximate numbers were— By the <New Brighton Tram-way Company 6000, and' by the City and Suburban Company 1500, and to tfoese must bs added a large contingent of cyclists which went to swell the crowd. ■,-.■' Speaking at the meeting of the voluntary contributors to the Samaritan Home last night, Mrs Cunnington referred to the treatment of inebriates in Great Britain, and declared that the Mother Country was far ahead of tfo& colony in the method* adopted. In England the Courts had powei to commit inebriates to certified homes foi treatment, and she thought the stipendiary magistrate should fcive power to commit inebriates for stated periods to such institutions as the 'Samaritan Home. At the Christchurchi Magnetic Observatory, at 9.30 a.m. to-day, the barometer stood at 30.217, and was rising. The wind was south-west, and cloud (040) 16. The maximum temperature during the preceding twenty-four hours was 66.1, and. the minimum 41.8. The temperature at 9.30 a.m. was— Dry bulb 58.2, wet bulb 53.5, humidity 69 per cent. The maximum temperature in the sun was 147.4. The minimum thermometer on, the grass was 34.9. The rainfall was nil. ' Althougb the railway returns ai* not yet made up to the . end of ■December, it is anticipated that they will show *an increase of £150,000 \ compared! with the returns for the preceding nine months. The 1902-1903 traffic during the Christmas holidays^ all over /the colony was abnormal. Sir Joseph. Ward 1 , speaking in Southland in connection with these matters, said that increased railway and postal business was the best index ol the colony's prosperity. : . A man who 'has been missing since th« beginning of December has just /been restored to this family '(says the Wellington "Post"). He disappeared just after getting a citation to/, serve as a*"j»ryman. • On Tuesday, while- some pig-shooters were in the wild country between Makara and Terawhiti, the backing of their /dogs led them to explore a patch of scrub, where they found) the missing man, half-dressed and sleeping on a sack. His means of sub?is< tence during a month and a half is &rays' tery. He was unable to give an intelli*' gible acoount of himself. - . Mr Bridge v speaking at the meeting oi voluntary conT^ibiitors to ' the Samaritan Home last night, complained that the Government had not, up to the- present, don# anything in the direction of granting;, the. Home powers of . detention. The institu; tion was a public one, inasmuch as the majority of the trustees were elected I>y the local bodies, and the accounts were audited by the Audjt Department, What the trustees wished was that the stipendiary 'magistrates should be invested with power to detain inebriates in the Home. He felt sim such powers would do much'to increase tat benefits, derived from the institution. A disease* new to the United Kingdom, known as amkylostomiasis, a w6rm diseas^i las appeared among the Home miners, an<J is creating much alarm. 1 A national con^ference, representing the whole of the. miners of the United Kingdom, was *el<i on October 21 at the Westminster Palao© Hotel, to consider "the worm disease a* present very prevalent amongst the miners on the Continent,, and in Cornwall, England." Mr B. Pickard, M.P., vho presided, eaid that this disease , was supposed to have been introduced from South Africa into Cornwall and the. Continent, and ifc was playing havpo among the miners, and ; if it were nofc stopped its ravages would extend to the miners in other districts and ultimately to ,the whole community. "" The conference jieaolved-p" having considered 'the disease known as"' the worm,' and having 'heard of its. terrible effects on the mining population on the "Continent, and that it has been found in Cornwall and in Scot* land " — to call on -the Government to pre« vent its introduction and-- spread. It i» understood that the Secretary of State Em sent Dr Haldane to - Germany' to make a special study of 'the disease in ihe coal-mlft* iflK districts most affected, ; . s".

Mahupuku, the ■wfill-knnwn Maori chief, died at Carterton last night from heart disease. A man named James Maadigan, who was arrested at Nelson a short time a-go, pleaded ■guilty at Hastings to-day to stealing <v cheque for £36 in January, 1902, and was committed to the Supreme Courf- ab Wellington for sentence. At Wellington, this morning, the editor and publisher of the "New Zealand Times" were proceeded against for alleged interference with the course of justice, by publishing certain interviews, on cargo broaching, in connection with the- arrest of tvharf lumpers on charges of cargo broachIng. Judgment* was reserved.