LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 575, 2 August 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

English and Australian mails by tho Molcoia, which reached Auckland 'yesterday afternoon''from , Sydney;- will come south by the Main Trunk express : to-day, and will be'i delivered in Wollington to-night. ; '■'■■■■

By personal canvass, and a series of small entertainments, tho ■'committee, of' tho Island Bay School has 1 succeeded in raising th« sum of £75, half tho sum needed for a playground for the infant scholars, The other £75 was contributed by tho Education Board.. ■'

Custome returns for the month of July show a laTge decrease in revenue compared with 1 those for 'July 1908. This yoar the month's total was £66,866- Is., of wliicn £007 13s. 9d. was beer, duty. For July, 1908, the total revenue was £81,968 55. : 7d., beer auty amounting to-, £1128 15s. lid,

The local bodies, interested;, having ;found £600 towards'the cost of'repairing tho ManawaLu.Gorge Road, Cabinet nas granted a & lot £ subsidy on this amount, and the work is to bo put in hand immediately by Mr. J. X>. Louch,' District Engineer of the Public Works Departineut':' :... ..'■'.'■-■■ : '•'

Messrs. Robert HaH'and; James Muir. are, candidates for. the' vacancy on the'Miraniur, Borough Council/ Polling takes place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to-morrow, tho, booths being at the council's . officp in Wellington,, tho Worser Bay Kiosk, aiid iiiraxiinr I'ost oilicc store.' '. ■• ..".;'■ ;.v :•:•.■ t

The number, of passengers arriving at Wellington from oversea ports during July was 1439, including eight Chinese. The total was made up of 813 from :tho United Kingdom, u93 from New South gale's, and 28. from other . porls. -The: nuinbci. ;■ of ~passfi)gerjs leaving , .■'\Vellington during tho month was 1«32.' including 30 Chinese;' ' Of tho total, '1573 left for N«w South Wales/134 for'tho Uu'iled Klngdomrand 125 s for othor parts.

On Friday evening tho St.; John's Debating Socioty.decided (by a small'majority) "that single lifo is happier than married, life. . This motion was affirmed by Messrs. D. Douglas and.,C: Andrew, and negatived by Messrs. H. Reid>andH. Dowdy. , Several speakers followed, most qf.them. in favour of tho .married ljfe. The..chairman, Dr. Gibb, placed tho five most effective speakers as follow:—Messrs, H. R«id,C. Redgrave, D. Douglas, D. Patterson, and L. Andrew. .

■ Bankruptcy sittings of the .Supremo Court have now been fixed for, 2 p,m, .to-day. Tho Court of Appeal will deliver jjudgment this morning in the following cases: John Douds v. the Minister for Railways, Short v. ; Tyor-'. man, District Land Registrar v. Snow,, and W. D.. Lysnar v. Ahpnatafe Mairo and another, also in the Otngo Painters' Union dispute, which/directly.'concerns tho Dunedin City Council and the Otago Harbour Board-

Mr. W. J. Birch writes as follows:—"Mr. Buddo has ■-'evidently misunderstood the aim of tho resolution- /.passed by the , Farmers' Union Conference witli regard to tho salo of Crown lands, in order to avoid further borrowing. Our, argumont\is, that if tho leasehold, lands were offered ■■■. to tho tenants for ' purchase, on reasonable' , tornis, sufficient monoy would be 'obtained for ,■ further purchases without recourse to foreign loans." A good report is' given by Mr, J. H. Collins, of. tho Labour pepartment, who rstur'ned ; on, Friday' night from ..Visiting the bush-felling '■ works liear ' Waitotara. 1 ' Most of the underscrub has now-been cleared, and |a general; attack upon the larger trees will soon be made. The men are required to clear the undergrowth before they commence trefr felling. Some of them considered this a grievance, but it was.feared that if the under-scrubbing vyas, neglected it might affect the burn. There is general satisfaction with the supply and prico of stores, though floods [ and dilnculties of transport sometimes retard delivery. , ■'■_:''' ■ , ' ;,.

Visitors to the Athletic Park on Saturday afternoon were not l surprised to seo that the huge hoarding there had been blown down. Originally the hoarding was situated on -the west side of the ground, , but'it was recently removed to the south side, where a breakwind was required. For some time it, had been noticed that the thing was , unlikely to stand the strain of a scvero gale, and, just about 1.30 p.m. on .Saturday, when, fortunately, no one w'as in the vicinity, the. hoarding suddenly came down with a crash over the spot where, less tlian aji hour and a half later, perhaps 100 to 150 people would have beeii' sitting. It is ; unpleasant to think what would ha/o been the result had it fallen whilst the crowd wevo present. That many would have been killed, and the others more or less seriously, injured, is not cpen to doubt.

Referring to the recent conferences which he had with the Natives at Huntly, the Hon. A. T. Ngata tojd a Dominion reporter on Saturday that there were present representatives of sections of'the tribes in the Waikato, portion of the King , Country, and Kawhia. Individualised areas and those held , .in small family holdings were excluded from the operations of the conference. Tho lands dealt with, viz.,- those .held , tribally or by largo numbers of owners, were ltangitoto, portions of llaiigitototeuhoa, Maungatautari, and areas bordering, on'Kawhia harbour. Although thero was at first a, disposition to open up the larger questions of policy, subsequently the proposals made by the Native Minister at Huntly in April Inst were adopted in detail, and it was agreed that they should apply to encli of the blocks'in question. The proceedings were being conducted by the Registrar of tho Land Court at Auckland (Mr. Ballantyno), of-the Lands and Survey Department, assisted by Mr. Kaihan; M.P., and a Native committee. : It was expected to.complete the larger blocks by the ond of noxt week. There was a likelihood that sittings would bo held in tho; Thames district, and in tho King Country, to , suit tho -convenience of. the peoplo ■of those, districts. Among other, things it was arranged that the largo Moerangi block should'be-investigated by the; Native Land Court some time in September. In conclusion, Sir. Ngata added that the settlement of. the title to this largo aroii was of vital importance to tho peoplo Lof Kawbia.

Tlio rainfall recorded at Wellington for the month of July up to Saturday morning was 6.45 inches. > The Tourist Department is calling for tenders for tlio lease of tile accommodation houses at Te Puia (East Coast), To Anau, I'nUaki, and Waikaremoana, Six petitions in bankruptcy were filed in ■the' Supreme Court, Wellington, during the ! month of ! July. One of these was from Mast'ortun, one from Carterton, and the rest from tlio city. The vital statistics of the Wellington' Registration' District for last month are as follow (with tlio figures-for July, 1908, in parentheses):—Births 180 (183), doaths 70 (80), marriages 76 (74). Twenty-one of the marriages wero .celebrated in the registrar s oilice, aa against 18 last year. Tliero were 8 marriages of now arrivals.

The edict issued by the Tramway Departrnont of tho "City-Council to the effect that passengers meeting; with'accidents through boarding, or alighting from, cars in motion would be prosecuted for a breach of the By-laws was ignored by one of tlio council's best-known officials on Saturday. The official in question attempted to board a niov.ing car ■on Lambton Quay, when ho, slipped, and was dragged along the wood blocking'for some.distance, boforo-he lot go his hold and fell clear of the car.. A severely cut face was the extent of: tiJio damage. ' ' ■

It has beeai stated that rctronohed Civil Servants will have to; competo with the public for the sections to be thrown open for selection between Kakahi aiid Rauriniu, on tho Main Trunk line. This is not the case.' Attho meeting of tho Wellington Land Board, held on Thursday last it was distinctly stated by the (Mr. '.Mackenzie)'-.that, retrenched Civil Servants and , railway employees out of work wero to receive tho first option with respect to the. lands. about to bo thrown open;for settlement, which may be freely interpreted to/mean that, only reprosentatiyes of either of'those two classes will bo eligible to participate in tho first ballot. At the same timo the (ommissioner saidi.that. tho Government had rio definite knowledge as to how the idea would be accepted, and if the land was not taken up by those for whom it had been especially selected; it would be made available to any bona fide -stittler.