LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1329, 5 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The postal authorities advise that the s.s. YVimmera, which left Sydney at 2 p.m. on January 3 for Auckland, has en board an Australian mail, also an English mail via Suez. The Wellington portion is duo to arrive here by Main Trunk train on Monday next, Januarys. The Telegraph Office states that in addition to places already advised, deferred ordinary cable messages may now be accepted for transmission by either route to all places in the British Dominions throughout the world where tho full rate is not less than tonpence, except Canada, Australia, Egypt, Sudan, and Northern Rhodesia.

The methods of our Parliamentary legislators were soverely criticised by Mr. Justice Denniston at Christchurch tho other day. Speaking of th» provisions dealing with gifts made within three years .of a man's death, he said: "This is one of those Acts that :.ro passed by the House and then scut to <•>. revising Chamber, where the members are waitin;,', carpet bags in hand and steamer tickets in pocket. The time has come, I think, wheu no Act should become ]<w until it has been revised by a select committee, to see that it carries out what is, as far ns can b.» ascertained, tho intention of the. Legislature."

The manner in which the open spaces in tho city are being slowly filled up is indicated by tho fact that Messrs. Wirth Bros., the well-known circus proprietors, have been unable to obtain a "pitch" in their old haunts on what is usuallv called "tho reclaimed land" at tho i'oot of Lower Taranaki Street. Tho old circus site is at present lumbered with thousands of piles from the ex-dock site, and nowhere in the vicinity is there space ouougli for the erection of the huge tents ill which the show i.s given. In this strait llr. Petersen (advance agent for the circus) has. hail to get away from tho beaten track. He hns secured from the T'ailway Department permission for Die Icnls 1o be pitched mi the reclaimed land near the intersection of Davis Street and Thorndon Quay, and there I ho circus will commence a brief season on Monday week. It is possible that, an arrangemont will l)o come to between the Wirths and the tramway authorities to run cars on a special through faxe between all parts of tho city and Davis Street, betwoeti 7 p.m. aad 9 p.ui. during the

During lflll tlinrc were 18 bankruptcies in thn Wellington district-, as compared with 3t during 11)10. During Hie December quarter of 1911 there were liyo bankruptcies in the Wellington district, and during' (ho .December quarter of ilio previous year there were seven.

It would appear that it is becoming a custom among sbe.Trer.-s in the Dominion to temporarily assume names not their own (states a contemporary). In the course of a false pretences case heard at lileuhcim one of tiie witnesf.es, a shearer, was asked why ho tool; up work on a. Marlborough .station under an assumed name. He replied that when he arrived in Blenheim he was prepared to give hie proper name, but was loid by suniu itllouworkers that it was not the. practice among the shearers from otlior parts to work under their own names. The reason of this custom was not explained.

It is not generally known how careful the City Fathers arc of their children. Before the City Council authorities would issue a license, to Messrs. Wirth Bros, to show in Wellington, they insisted on making it conditional on the part of the circus proprietors to takq cut an accident insurance policy for .£IOOO, to cover any accident that may arise to any of the publio within the precincts of the circus. This, of course, is altogether apart from the accident policy taken out by the Wirths under the Employers' Liability Act, which policy covers the whole of the firm's employees. Mr. Petersen, representative for the Wirth Bros., slates that Wellington is the only town in Australasia which insists on aii accident insurance policy being taken out as a condition under which the license i> issued. Incidentally the license cosis £20 for a week's performances.