LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 4 September 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union meets this afternoon at 3 o'clock in St. Paul's classroom. All women are invited.

- .A Council meeting of the Chamber of Commerce will be held this morning at the office- 14 Wicksteed Place, at 10.30.

It is notified, in last night's Gazette that. September 26th will be observed as a holiday in the Government offices, being the- anniversary of the day on which the colony of New Zealand ceased to be a colony and became a Dominion.

We are informed that tie District High School entertainment, which yesterday was billed for the 24th, must perforce be held* on the 18th, nearly a week earlier. .The tickets will be in circulation very shortly.

The Ctahuhu water diviner, the Rev H. Mason, is at present engaged m the Motueka district, and hasv indicated several places in which he claims artesian bores may be successfully driven. So far none of the sites have been tested.

Replying to a deputation asking members of Parliament for better salaries for land valuers, the Hon. McNab yesterday expressed sympathy and said provision would be made on the Supplementary Estimates. He hoped within the year to grade valuers.

At a meeting of the Dunedin Methodist Conference 'Committee on temperance and public morals yesterday it was decided to send a circular manifesto to all Methodist congregations, urging, the; importance of having names placed on the roll and recording their votes for no-licenso on the day of the poll.

At a meeting of the National Insurance Company at Dunedin yesterday resolutions providing for enlarging the powers of the company were unanimously carried. As soon as the resolutions aro confirmed the directors will open an accident branch. ' -

A press wire says that the Auckland Trades and Labour Council last night endorsed the resolution of the Christchurch Council, asking for the removal of Judge Sim. from the Arbitration ■Court bench.

Included in the immigrants who arrived at Auckland by the steamer Oswestry Grange, from Liverpool, yesterday, are about a dozen domestic servants, of whom four or five have arranged to leave the ship at that port. There are also several miners, tradesmen, and labourers, while one of the new arrivals puts himself down as an evangelist.

Very drastic, action is being taken by the pomological staff in dealing with the Ban Jose scale, which has appeared in various places throughout the province. The majority of persons in whose orchards the blight has been discovered have' received notice (says a press wire) to spray their trees, and where this has not been effectively carried out the inspectors are destroying the trees. Fruib growers strongly resent the wholesale slaughter being made, and talk of petitioning the Government for compensation.

At a meeting of the Board of Governors of the McLean Institute at Christchurch yesterday it was resolved to lease a large house at Opawa, to be used as the house for gentlewomen directed to be established under the will of the late Allan McLean. A matron is to •be appointed at a salary of £200 annually. A lengthy discussion took place on a proposal that for the time being the inmates be restricted to the wives, daughters, or sisters of Canterbury residents who arrived in the province prior to 1885," but the proposal was not adopted.

At a meeting of the Dunedin Trades and Labour Council last night (says a press wire) the following motion was carried: —" That the sympathy of the Council be extended to the Canterbury Farm Labourers' Union in the position in which they have been placed owing to the arbitrary and high-handed action of the President of the Arbitration Court in refusing an award, and the Council endorses the action of Mr J. A. McCullough in entering an emphatic protest against the decision of the Court.

At a meeting of the committee of the Canterbury Cricket' Association, held at Christchurch last night (says a Press wire) the hon. secretary reported that he had received the following communication from Lord Hawke:—" I have pleasure in informing you that I havo engaged G. Humphreys, of Kent, for your Association. He is one of the most reliable men. in .their eleven, and I have the very greatest confidence that he will give you every satisfaction. A very good all-round man is what you want, and I really consider I have been lucky in. getting him.. He. will sail with Relf as soon as the season is over. I hope he will bear out all I have said for him. With every good wish for the success of cricket in New Zealand,— Yours very truly, Hawke. July 22nd1, 1908." Satisfaction was expressed at the choice, and the hon. secretary was instructed to communicate with Lord Hawke, thanking him on behalf of the Association.

The Canterbury Philosophical Institute, at its meeting last evening, decided to take steps to obtain records of aaasonal 'affecting,^-plants-^n different parts .of New ;Zealaljd;H. The scheme1 was, adopted on thejmbtfonjof Dr. Cockayne, seconded1 by' Dr. Coleridge Farr. Dr. Cockayne said that all kinds of seasonal changes should be rioted and much valuable information could be obtained. The records would be edited, and,,.they .might, published in'the "Transactions" of the New Zealand institute. Dr. Farr suggested that the services of school children should be used. Mr E. G. Hogg, president of the Institute, said that if all members helped to record facts as they came under notice they could be sorted by trained botanists, and very valuable information would be made available to students. A committee was set up to take the scheme in hand. ;