LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10538, 13 August 1912, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Fine weather was reported this morning from all parts of the dominion. The following steamers are expected to bo within wireless range to-night:— Tahiti, Maitai, Manuka, Mocraki, Victoria and Warriinoo. A private telegram from Suva, received in Auckland, states that the charge of theft against William Greeflland, arrested on tho s.s. Zealandia and returned to Fiji by the s.s. Makura, was dismissed, the prosecuting company, his employers, offering no evidence. Meetings of journalists were held this week at Wellington to formulate proposals to be laid before the newspaper proprietors as to the ' rates of pav, overtime, and other matters. It ie announced that other meetings will lie' held, and steps taken to obtain the opinion of country journalists. At the Juvenile Court this morning, before Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M., a boy of four years was charged with "being not under proper control. It was stat<Ki that tho boy s mother was a confirmed drunkard, and consorted with bad characters. Tho child was committed to the Christchurck Receiving Home, to be brought up in the Lutheran form of religion. The mother, who was present,, protested strenuously, and considerable tact was necessary to separate her from the child, to whom, 6he clung desperately. Tauranga representatives at the tenth annual _ conference of the NewZealand Acclimatisation Societies, to be opened at Wellington to-morrow, are to move that the Government be requested to impose a special license of £1 on all pea-rifles except tho?e used under such conditions as may be deemed expedient. The deadly pea-rifle also comes in for notice from Westland, whose delegates will move that a gun license be imposed on all persons carrying pea-rifles or guns—licence not to exceed ss, and to h® issued by tHe various postmasters—and asking that . boys under the age of sixteen be prohibited from carrying pea-rifles. The Admiralty hydrographer, in his annual report, ;says that during 1911 as many as 442 rocks and shoals dangerous to navigation were reported ; in various parts of, the world. Of these thirteen were discovered by vessels striking on them, 108 were. reported by the .Admiralty surveying 6hips, eight by others of his Majesty e ships, ten by British and foreign authorities, and 303 by colonial and foreign Governments; while in the same period 36 previously reported dangers have beenexpunged from the charts. During the year 906 miles of coast-line were charted, and an area of 5405 square miles sounded by his Majesty's surveying vessels. The experiment that Mrs Lars Anderson, tho wife of the United States Minister ;to Belgium, has undertaken in Brooklyn w-ill be watched with interest, but it is to be feared, that it does not' go quite far enough. She is inviting girls of the working-class, twenty at a time,"to spend'tein days on her estate, where they will be provided with, "every luxury and pleasure." .Each, of the girls is to have a maid in attendance on her, and to have motorcars, horses and carriages at her disposal. By this means she hopes to stimulate the desire of the girls to improve their condition. Unless an elopement, a marriage with an Italian count, a divorce and an "unwritten law" affair are thrown in the experience, of course, will not be complete. And, even in America, all that would take up quite a considerable portion of the ten days. Game licenses in general, and universal licenses in particular, are, as usual, to provide discussion at the annual conference of the Acclimatisation Associations, to be held this week. Auckland asks that a general license for shooting imported and native game be issued at 20s, and that licenses for shooting native game be issued at 10s per annum. I'eilding is of the opinion that game licenses should be applicable all over the dominion —the same, as fishing licenses —and that better_ facilities should be afforded for the issue of same, while the Whan.garei Acclimatisation Society emphatically pro-" tests against any proposal to make shooting licenses universal. Tauranga will move that tho Government be requested to issue dominion licenses as follows,: —£3 for a shooting license, £2 for a fishing license, or £s_ for license for both shooting and fishing. The statement that the Duke of Wellington was married to Lady Catherine Pakenham, the daughter of the first Earl of Longford, at Castlepollard, xn Westmeath, "is (writes a correspondent of tho "Westminster Gazette") at variance with tho generally received account that the Duke was married in Dublin on April 10, 1806, and that the marriage was solemnised in St George s Church, Dublin, the church of the parish in which Lord Longford's Dublin mansion in Rutland Square was situated. That mansion has now been converted, like many another palace of the Irish nobility of the period of Grat-tan's Parliament, into p. publio institution. While the house, _ some twenty years ago, was undergoing repairs soveral hundreds of .pounds in sovereigns were found concealed in the boardings, and the Lord Longford of the day" made a claim, which was susi tained, to be tho owner of the treasure on the ground that it had been hidden there by one of his ancestors, a former holder of the house, in which his family had even then long ceased to reside. The open-air cafe for London is again under discussion (says the " Westminster Gazette"). Practically everybody is agreed as to the advantages of dining and drinking in the open air, but the business man distrusts the climate. This deep-rooted fear of the ram persists, in spite of record summers, m spite of the fact that open-air cafes are popular and successful in countries which have not the London amount of sunshine. The district is rather a matter of habit. Where the experiment has been tried it has succeeded, as anybody can see who visits any of the open-air restaurants which already exist in London. The change will be brought about in no revolutionary way, but it will come, nevertheless. Those of us who are still young have witnessed the death of prejudices which have more reason behind them. In timo, tho Londoner will alter his views a®to the climate of the country in which ho lives. But he will have to battle against vested interests that are strong, for the open-air cafe is going to bo sadly prejudicial to the place wo now call a publichouse. Leave the office with a headache and go home? Don't do it—take Stearns' Headache Cure before you,leave and you will arrive Home in a pleasaol mood. 25 A cold is quite a paradox, * Because it makes you hot; It makes your nose red as a rose, And head boil like a pot. But ere it reaches boiling point, If you use it's subduer It soon will fly, assisted by Woods' Great Peppermint Ctire i , 16

On her last trip from Vancouver tho *.s. Zealand! a was in wireless communication with tho land tho whole way across tho Pacific, except for one night, between Honolulu and Fiji. The matron of Children's Convalescent Cottage at Now Brighton desires to acknowledge tho receipt of tho following gifts:—Meat, from tho Belfast Freezing Works; jam. from Airs M'Millan; toys, from the D.I.C. ; fish, from Mrs Gapes; and rabbits, from a ELrjend.