LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 967, 7 November 1910, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Ma'heno, with an English and American mail, via Vancouver, an English mail # via Suez, and an Australian mail, arrived in Auckland from Sydney at noon yesterday. Tho Wellington portion of the mails will 4 arrive by the Main Trunk express this afternopn. The legal profession are observing Wednesday, November 9, as a holiday. Wlvilo the wholesale softgoods warehouses will remain open as usual tho bulk of the. retailers will close as compensation for remaining open on the Prince of Wales's Birthday (June 23). The Mayor asks the citizens to observe Wednesday as a holiday. The Railway Department his had fitted up at tho Petone Workshops an engine to. burn oil fuel, and this morning a trial run will be made between Wellington and 'the Hutt, with Taranaki oil as fuel. The test is an important ono in railway economics, as. if successful it may and probably will lead to other conversions from coal to oilburning in the Departmental engines. Detectives Cameron and Baillie arrested, on Saturday evening, a man named Frederick Blacklidge, on a charge of having in his possession a bicycle valued at £5, the property of one Ernest Rough, and also with haying broken into and entered the dwelling of the Hon. T.'W. Hislop, in Salamanca Road, some time between October 26 and 29,' and stolen therefrom clothing to the value of £15. The Court of Appeal will sit at 10.30 this morning. The only matter set down for its consideration is that of terms of appeal to tho Privy Council in the will case of Allardice v. Allardice. Mr. Justice Cooper will afterwards hear tho caso of J. V. Gordon v. H. W. Buttrey, an appeal on questions of law from a decision by Mr. Haselden, S.M., in a civil action at Masterton. Mr. E. M.- Blake, architect, has prepared plans for the conversion- of the old Foresters' Hall, in Lower Tory Street—for so long a popular dancing hall—into an up-to-date picture hall for 1 the Grand Picture Proprietary. When altered the building is to bo known as the Princess Theatre, which, by the way, is the name or the old theatre that did noble duty a little higher up tho same street in the days when tho Marquis of Normanby was Governor of Now Zealand. Tho Foresters' Hall is at present a two-story building, but in effecting alterations the hall will be on tho ground floor, and the first floor will be converted into a balcony or dress circle, the whole to seat about 500 or 600 people. The- annual conference of the New Zealand Railway Workers is to commence in Wellington this morning. Oddities in clothing x were briefly touched upon by Mr. C. H. Poole, M.P., speaking at the Town Hall last [ evening. Many queer garments were i worn, in bygone days, he remarked, and, looking at old pictures, one could not help often laughing at the "antique type." "But," continued Mr. Poole with a note of solemn warning, "wo are getting back to it again. Look at 'clocked socks' and 'half-mast trbusors.' These represent an appeal, by young fellows who ought to know better, to people to look at their ankles instead of at their brains." The half-yearly, balance-sheet of the Wellington 'Cooks' and Waiters' Union, to he presented at the half-yearly meetin" this evening, shows a credit of £188 Is. lid., as against £171 Bs. Id. at the end of the preceding half-year. Business to be dealt with at the meeting includes consideration of amending legislation 'affecting members, and tho question of further support to tho "Weekly Herald," the union-owned Labour paper. ' That plaguey annual miisanco, Gny Fawke's Day, prevented many an exasperated citizen from getting his full "eight hours for rest" on Saturday morning. The aged jingle in which the author saw "no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot", is very trying when bawled out by a dozen raspy voices at 5.30 a.m., and the disturbed may bo forgiven for differing entirely with the sentiments of the writer'of the doggerel. ' Crackers banged, and rockets whizzed to some extent on Saturday evening, but the bonfires which used to illumine the hills on tho evenings.of old Fifths of November are gradually becoming a thing of the past.