LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 898, 18 August 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tho Court of Appeal has adjourned until 10.30 n.m. on Friday, September 2, ivbcn judgments will be delivered in Holt v. Holt (u Napier will case) and ilorland v. Hales (relating to the sale of the Birchliill Estate, Marlborough). These are the only reserved judgments oi tlie Court ot Appeal that have yet to be delivered, 'J'h'i. Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) stated yesterday that he had hoped the judgments would have been ready for delivery that morning, but they had not all been received from the judgfcs who were out of town. lie had no doubt- they would be ready by September 2. . ' .

A legal opinion has been,given by llr. T. P. Martin, secretary and counsel to tho Municipal Association, to the effect that the City Corporation has full powers to supply cieebicul appliances and fittings. The opinion is interesting in view of the recent decision of an English judge that the Corporation of Leicester was not warranted in supplying such fittings under English law.

Replying to Mr. Hordman's ouery as to whether, before finally deciding upon the plans and the scheme for the erection of the new Houses of Parliament, ho will give the House an opportunity of considering and ' discussing them, the Prime Minister says that the Government has already consulted the House in connection with the proposals, and at the- proper time the authority of Parliament will be obtained for whatever is proposed to be carried out.

Frederick Myer Solomons, of Tory Street, tobacconist, was yesterday adjudged bankrupt. His creditors wilt meot at the Official Assignee's office ou Monday, August 29, at 11 a.m.

A visitor to "Wellington, whose people are interested in hotel property in Liverpool, liars received a letter referring to the disastrous effect tho taxation provisions of Mr. Lloyd George's Budget aro having on licensed premises. .The letter states that it means ruin to many, as ithas depreciated the value of. hotel prupei'tj so much. Uu the hotels owned by the writer and his relatives the extra taxation in the last six months amounted to JSollll, and would bo over £M\S for the year.' Estates comprised of hotul property Jiact' depreciated from 30 to 50 per cent., and several companies were withholding/dividends in view of eventualities. /

During this year, 19,791 persons have paid land tax alone, 73G1 mortease tax alone, and COfll land and mortgage tax combined.. The number of persons, companies, and firms who paid mortgage tax for the year. 1909 was 13,368, and the amount of such tax was .£168,318.

During the year ending March 31 last, the New Zealand railways .consumed 253,035 • tons of coal—New Zealand hard coal, brown coal, and Newcastle coal. Included was 20,892 tons of Taupiri coal, for which .£10,969 was paid..

"Those connected with wireless telegraphy," said Mr. T. Buckley in his lecture to the Philosophical Society last night, "aro ready to' speak glowingly about any new developments, but when huge difficulties are encountered—as they aro—we hear very little about then). Services across the Atlantic at so much a word have been established, / but they have not lasted. General advantage has not been taken of them. The press receives a number of messages for a while, and then none at all."

The Taranaki Petroleum Company yesterday received its first order froia (ho Kaiiway Department foe fifty bar- 1 rels of crude petroleum with a ■ view to testing its valuo as fuel'on the railways. —Press Association.

Thcro was a fair attendance at the Assembly Hall in. the Y.M.C.A. building last evening, when Professor Easterlicld lectured on "The Influence of Chemistry on -Civilisation." The lecture, which was appreciatively listened to, waa' illustrated by a number of interesting demonstrations.

At 7.5 p.m. yesterday .the Fire Brigade received a call to the steamer Warrinioo at Queenjs Wharf, but on a'rrival it was discovered that there was ( no conflagration, the alarm having been caused jy tho fusing of an electric wire. ■'■•■■' •■'

The names of tho successful applicants for positions ns adjutants in the Defence Forces are to be made public at as early a date as possible after the report of the Boards of Selection has been received.

There are said to be -50,000 boys _ in America who bare wireless installations of their own, and it is claimed that some of • these installations are more up to date than the official ones;. Some of the boys are believed to have sent bogus messages to revenue cutters off the coast, causing them.to go on fruitless errands in search of alleged ships in distress. _So acute has this trouble become, according to some remarks made by Mr. T. Buckley in his lecture to the Philosophical Society last night, that forthe restraint of the youthful Marconis is under consideration.

A question that wireless telegraphists are asking themselves is why it is easier to telegraph over the Pacific than over the Atlantic. Mr. T. Buckley raised the question in his lecture to'the Philosophical Society last night, but he did not attempt to answer it.