LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8249, 23 February 1905, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Telegraphic Department is advised from Suva that thp land lines to Levuka are interrupted. Sales of oats are reported at Is 8d Sir bushel for Gartons and Is SJd for uns at railway stations within the Id tadius from Lyttelton. The Australian cricketers have accepted an invitation to be present at Captain ScQtt Harden* s pictorial entertainment on Monday evening. The "Wellington Harbour Board bas accepted the tender of Mr C. F. Pulley, a,t £23,000, for the erection of a wharf and brick store at the foot of Taranaki Street. The insanitary conditions of Auckland (says the '-Herald ") are so general that the city is being continually confronted l)3 r public nuisances in the highest degree detrimental to health. The "Herald" palls upon the Department of Public Health to compel the lopal bodies to abate existing nuisances. A telegram from Wellington states that there is somo feeling among the wharf labourers at that port at the actipn 'of the naval-' authorities this morning in refusing tp employ local men for coaling operations, tho binejackets doing the work. It is said that this is the first time this has heen done there. The holiday camp of the Burnham Bchoolboys on Quail Island will break up on Monday next, A detachment of lads from the school went into camp to4ay in place of a party which returned to the school yesterday. ' On the average sixty boys have been in Damp every day. AU the boys in the school have participated in the outing . this year, and the results in the way pf Improvement itt conduct have been most satisfactory. A man who was on tke express train this morning, whilo it was ready to ' jrtart for the south, was arrested by jßeteptiye Ward on a ohajge that he broke into the dwelling of Robert Wallace, at Christchurch,- yesterday, and stole a case of razors, two silver serviette rings and a gold brooch. Thp same accused was also charged with having broken into the house of Robert George Muff and having stolen a lady's watch, a gold pin and a couple of brooches. The Makatote viaduct, which will he between 9*3 and 97 miles from Marton, will have a total length of 891ft. It will consist, as has boforo been stated, of five spans of Soft, five of 100ft, and fiye braced piers, with pier-head girders. It is exprossly stipulated in the terms of contract that the steel and ironwork shall be manufactured in tho colony. The contractor will have the option of importing the material, but it inust be imported without Avprk of any kind. The steel and malleable iron must be in nfarket lengths, and just in the state in which it pomes from the rolling mills. The work is to be completed within twenty-four months from the signing of the contraot. According to tho Wellington " Post," the New Zealand Master Bakers' Association is said to be in. a rather helpless position just -at present. When he resigned the secretaryship of the Association at the recent conference in Dunedin Mr M. H. M'Carthy retained the official books and some of the . moneys which were in his hands: The Association has, through its solicitors, made a demand for the books and such of tho Association's moneys as the late secretary had in hand. Mr M'Carthy states that he intends to return the books, but as the Association owes him In salary a sum greater than the Association's funds in his possession, he is retaining those funds by way of payment. A cable message, dated London, February 16, announced that merchants were complaining of irregularity in delivery of Now Zealand mails via San Francisco. The mail agent on the Sonoma, whith arrived at Auckland on Monday, reports that the outwardSnails by tho Sonoma arrived at San Francisco from New Zoaland on January 23, after a voyage of seventeen days fourteen hours. The mail-bass were sent oast by the 6 p.m. train, six hours after arrival of the steamer, but they were delayed fourteen hours in transit across tho United States by severe snowstorms west' of Chicago. 't They arrived at New York eitjht hours too lato to catch the Campania, which had sailed for Liverpool at 10 a.m. on January 29. The mails remained at Now York for two days ; they were then ehipped away by the Vaderland, which sailed for Dover at 2 p.m. on January SO.