GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue I, 4 July 1903, Page 21

GENERAL NEWS.

For walking up one of Birmingham’s main streets carrying an umbrella measuring six feet across, and declining to close the huge mushroom-like covering at the request of a constable, the owner has been summoned to appear at the Police Court on the charge of obstruction.

“Observer” writes in mighty disgust to the “Northern Advocate” concerning the spectacle of the Mayor of Whanga rei helping the surface-men to repair a street, and describes it as “unique in the history of the colony.” Evidently “Observer” is not a follower of Ruskin.

An optician who visited the Wan ganui Boys’ Schoo: the other day found that the eyes of about 15 per cent, of the boys were affected. One of the lads was almost blind in one eye—a fact which was unknown not only to the parents of the boy and the schoolmaster, but to the lad himself.

A cablegram has reached the colony authorising the official receiver of the Midland railway to accept payment on behalf of the bondholders of the company of the amount agreed upon by the Government (£150,000) in bonds. Payment will be made in a day or two, and this will close negotiations between the company and the Government.

Though Commissioner Tunbridge declined to be “interviewed” before leaving the colony, he stated to the Christchurch police force, when bidding them farewell on Tuesday, that, unlike certain other heads of departments who had left New Zealand and who had shown a desire to find fault with the Government, he was pleased to say he was leaving the colony in friendship with everyone.

To bring the city drainage question to a head Dr. Sharman has given notice to move at the next meeting of the City Council: “That a conference be invited between delegates representing this council and the suburban local authorities, with a view to discussing the advisability or otherwise of settling a comprehensive drainage scheme for the city and suburbs, and the vesting of the control of such drainage in a general drainage board, having special statutory powers.”

Dr. Pomare, native health officer, is back in Wellington after a round of visits to native villages in the North, where typhoid was prevalent, and on the West Coast of this island, where measles and scarlet fever had occurred. It was found that in most cases the epidemics were due to bad water and insanitary conditions, and improvements

in this direction having been carried out, the trouble was abating when the doctor left. Next week he, in company with Dr. Valintine, will pay a visit to the Maori pa at Papawai. Mr C. H. Verity, of Napier, has written to the Auckland Harbour Board referring to the suggestion to connect the Waitemata and Manukau harbours by a canal. He suggests that a preferable scheme would be to construct a sixrailed track between the two harbours, which would enable boats of 500 tons register to be carried upon it in cradles. He estimates the cost at between £60,000 and £70,000. The letter was received at yesterday’s meeting of the Board, and acknowledged, but further action was not taken.

The up-to-date nature of the Auckland electric tramway system is demonstrated by the latest innovation, each car being provided with a telephone, so that in case of breakdown the inotonnan can immediately communicate with headquarters. The telephone is carried in a small box, and at intervals of half a mile along the line are placed boxes, where the instruments can be brought into connection with the wires. The idea is somewhat original, and the installation should be of great utility on a system so extensive as that of the Auckland company.

The railway returns for May are generally satisfactory. During the month the revenue from the North Island was £6'2,514, and the expenditure £46,103, being 66.55 per cent, of the revenue. The South Island returns show an income of £107,648, an expenditure of £68,59'2, being 58.26 per cent, of the revenue. The grand totals show that the revenue from 2291 miles of line open was £170.162, and the expenditure 61.39 per cent, of this, vi/., £114,696. The passengers in the Auckland district numbered 78,809, as compared with 66,936 during the corresponding period of last year, the revenue from passengers and goods showing a very substantial increase.

Mr Mowbray, managing director of the Great Northern Brewery Company, speaking at the opening of the Esplanade Hotel at Devonport last week, said that if the owners of hotels had in the past paid more attention to making their houses places for the accommodation of tourists and boarders, in preference to the development of the bar trade, there would have been less talk of reduetion than there had been. He believed in making the company’s hotels into commodious places of resort for tourists and those who wished the accommodation that could only be given by publie houses, and it was this policy the company was now pursuing in the equipment of the new Hotel. At the Hawke’s Bay Gun Club’s winter meeting, held nt Whakatu. the Colonial Ammunition Company’s ammunition was again well to the fore. In the open handicap Mr R. J. Fleming was successful in being among those who d vided the prize money, and in the sweepstake he and Mr G. R. King divided with Mr Chavanees. Both Mr Fleming and Mr King, who shot all their birds, were using the Colonial Ammunition Company’s “Favourite” cartridges, 2*jin case, loaded with the company’s patent concave wadding. Mr Fleming was firing from 25yds mark in the Open Handicap, and from the 26yds in the Sweepstake, Mr King firing from the 24yds in the latter, the boundary for the match being 40yds. Some days ago a paragraph was published in our columns, taken from Samoan files by the mail steamer, to the effect that the anchor of a schooner at Fanning Island had fouled and broken the Pacific cable. As most people know, there has up to the present been no interruption in the cable, and the story was published as a rather amusing canard. As, however, some persons whose knowledge of the subject is not intimate ».".v have accepted the paragraph as embodying a statement of faet, we have pointed out above that there has up to now been no interruption in the service. How this story originated it is difficult to conjecture, and why it came to light in Samoa of all places is also inexplicable, but presumably it is a prime sample of the good old nautical yarns with which jovial sea-dogs delight to entertain guileless hearers and reporters on the hot scent for nows. “Even the Chinamen are clearing out ’the country,” said a speaker at a recent unemployed demonstration in Sydney, in animadverting upon the pre-

sent administration of the affairs of New South Wales, and inquiries made here show that this statement is perfectly true. Unusually large numbers of Chinese have returned from Sydney to the Flowery Land during the past two or three months, and practically none have arrived from there for some considerable time. An endeavour has been made to get at the cause of the exodus, but no satisfactory explanation of it could be elicited from the Chinese merchants. Since the middle of April, 341 Chinese have left Sydney, and whilst this number includes some from Melbourne, it does not take in several large batches that have gone from New Zealand. Only an odd one or two have arrived from China during that period, and these have been well-to-do Chinese with large interests here, returning from holiday trips.

In giving his decisions in certain charges of sly grog selling in the King Country Mr. Northcroft, S.M., made some very strong references to the extent of the evil in the King Country. He remarked that the maimer in which sly-grog selling was carried on in the King Country was dreadful. The natives were sinking into the lowest degradation, and those persons who carried liquor into the King Country were equally guilty with those who sold it. All this terrible state of things had come about since our railway had crosstbe I’uniu River. While the natives were isolated and kept the Europeans out of the country, they were a healthy, vigorous and thrifty people. Large and healthy families were to be seen, while now they were dying like so many sheep. Young men and girls were drinking and card-playing. and, worse still, few healthy and large families were now to be seen at the karngas, and all this had come about by our boasted civilisation. As for those people who sold liquor in the King Country, he intended to send them to gaol when charges were proved. This applied to men and women alike. There would be no distinction.

The want of extra berthing accommodation at the Onehunga wharf has been been brought under the notice of the Marine Department from time to time, but owing to the difficulty in providing a dredge nothing has been done. The harbour master. Captain J. Neale, knowing the importance of having work done along the inner portion of the wharf to facilitate the loading of vessels, seized the opportunity of the Government steamer Tirtanekai being in port for a few days, and after consultation with Captain Post the latter gentleman undertook to improve matters, and by having his vessel hauled from end to end of the wharf at half ebb tide, with both propellers going bard, he succeeded in working a great improvement. As the result of a few days’ work the water has been deepened nearly four feet a distance of 250 feet, which will now enable the smaller vessels to be berthed inside the wharf and so facilitate the work of discharging and loading the large vessels at the outside berths. Captain Post is certain that in a week at spring tides he could work such further improvement as would end all further complaints from shippers for a very considerable time.

A hitherto untold incident of the Parliamentary cruise in the islands, published by the “New Zealand Times”: At Rarotonga one of the party went ashore in search of curios. Engaging a stalwart islander in conversation, the visitor broached the subject to him, and offered to barter. The islander suggested that in return for a splendid collection of curios that he possessed the New Zealander should supply him with a suit of clothes similar to the one he was wearing. This was agreed upon, and the New Zealander went on board the Mapourika, returning shortly with his “best” clothes wrapped in a brown paper parcel. When he again met the Rarotongan they started off up the town, and the latter suggested that as the parcel was heavy and the day hot they could move more rapidly if he (the islander) carried the swag. The New Zealander agreed, and, lightened of his burden, they strutted along more freely. The New Zealander was about to ask how much further they had to go when the Rarotongan shouted excitedly: “Me see fight! Me see fight!” and ran in the direction of the supposed fight. The New Zealander could not keep pace with him, and soon lost sight of his friend and his bundle. He returned to the ship a sad and a wiser man.

The ucw time tables for the different circuits of the Auckland Electric Tramvice will be seen from the fact that under the new time-tables 739 double trips per day will be run, as against 498 per day under the old time-tables. On the Newton-Ponsonby section on week days the service starts at ten minutes to seven, and the last car leaves town at three minutes past eleven, there being a car every 3 or 4 minutes each way during the busy hours of the day. On the Symonds-street-Newmarket line there is a thirteen minute service during the busy hours, the last car leaving town at four minutes to eleven. There is a five and ten minute service on the College Hill line, and on the Parnell line during the busy hours there is a car every five minutes. The Kingsland line has a ten-minute service from five minutes to seven in the morning until five minutes to eleven at night. On the Royal Oak line there will be a car every seventeen or eighteen minutes. On the Arch Hill line during the busy portion of the day the service is either a seven or a thirteen minute one. The company has had printed 10,000 handy pocket editions of the time-tables for free distribution. These little books contain besides the time-tables full information as to the company’s regulations