LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1342, 20 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tlie postal authorities advise that the s.s. Victoria, which left Sydney at noon on .lamia rv 17 for Auckland, has on board an Australian mail. The Wellington portion is iluo to cirri re licit? by Mam Trunk 011 Monday next, January 22.

The English mail nsually arriving on Monday afternoon will come to hand by to-day's Main Tri.nk train, having arrived at Auckland yesterday by the Marama.

Oil account of Monday being a holiday tli D out-patient department in connection with the Wellington Hospital will lx; dosed all day. Urgent cases, however, will be treated at the Hospital.

The Railway Department insert in our advertising commits of this issue the train arrangement l ! for Anniversary Day.

Amongst other applications that c.nne before the Ota go Kducation Board on Wednesday was one from Lauder that bees bs removed from the roof of the school. It appeared that swarms had. taken up their abode between the lining; and the weather-boards and in the rooi, with the result that the bees kept up a perpetual humming, frightened the children, and occasionally entered the building and caused distraction. The architect was instructed to take what steps were necessary to remedy matters. It appeared that the schools at Hawea Flat and Rongahere had been similarly visited by beos, and that the insects haxl had to bo smoked out and their entrance prevented.

Generally speaking (says the "Clutha Leader") the local fruit crop has been almost a failure this season, owing to the late frosts and cold weather of early summer. Gooseberries are about .the only fruit that can bo classed good, and even tliwc are not nearly so plentiful as they were last year. Currants, cherries, and apples have suffered severely, and housewives will need to be economical if they set aside the usual supply of preserves. Plums are lint so bad, bat heavily-laden trees are scarce. "Black spot" is very prevalent in apples this year, this defcct iieiiijT not only on tli.e fruit, but also on the leaves.

At about 10.20 p.m. on Thursday, the radio-telegraph station at the General Post Office, Wellington, heard the radiotelegraph station,.recently erected at Macquarrie Island, calling various stations, but was unable to communicate with that station, as likewise were several ship stations, which at that time were in touch with the Wellington station The distance to Macquarrie Island from Wellington is approximately 1100 miles.

In conucction with the trouble between the ferry employees and the. Wellington Harbour Ferries Co., it is now stated'that th.o conference arranged between the men and the company has bsen ratified by the directors.- On account of .Monday being a public holiday, the conforcncc is' to bo held on Tuesday.

A find of.considerable interest was made a few days ago by workmen engaged in making a cutting at the southern end of the • new Chain Hills tunnel (says the "Otago Daily Times"). .Thirty-five feet under the surface, in ground. that had onca evidently been of a swampy nature, were found a number of moa bones of all shapes and sizes, from big shank and breast bonos down to smaller and moro fragmentary pieces that had porliaps onco belonged to a "babv" moa. There were two fairly big deposits of thom, and they were carefully, lifted and conveyed to Dunedin. Some of tho bones are in a von" good state of preservation, and show little or no signs of decay.

At the afternoon session of the Primitive Methodist Conference at Christchurch on Wednesday, when matters affecting. tho young people of the Church were under iliscussion, tho president, tho Rev. (5. Ivnowles Smith, said the young people of New Zealand were, or believed themselves to lie, well educated, and if tho Church was to teach them in.the Sunday.schools, it would be necessary for those who taught there to make a study, of tho art of teaching. In his idea, it would lie a fine tiling if . the Nonconformist bodies in each of the four centres would combine for the purpose of paying some well-analificd person to coach those who intended to. take up tho work of teaching in tho Sunday schools.

Tho president of tho Primitive Methodist Conference (tho Kev. G. li. Smith) speaking on "The Church and Democracy," at a meeting in Christchurch on Wednesday night, said that democracy was tho child of the Church, and had not denied the relationship with tho Church. Tho pity was that democracy was the spoilt child of the Church, getting whatever it cried for. It was crying for pleasant Sunday afternoons, without church services. Ho warned tho Church against giving the playthings ill place of the food and education that were good for tho child. Tho Church must assert its authority, and declare that religion demanded a dominant place in the life of the community. Otherwise, democracy would, go over to materialism, and New Zealand would go to tho devil. If religion were to be put into its proper place, tliero must bo a spiritual message from tho pulpit and an appeal to democracy through the great sentiment of its life.

At 9.39 o'clock last evening the fire brigade reocivod a call to suppress an outbreak of firo in a 5-rooraod dwelling at No. 281 Cuba Streot. Tho downstairs Si.rtion of the dwelling was considerably amaged, and the upstairs portion slightly. Tho house was occupied bv Mr. JoTin Graham, and owned by Mrs. Cooper, and the contents were insured in the Norwich Union Office 'for .£BO. . The next door house, No. 283, was occupied by Mrs. B. Ilenry, and was slightly damaged.

Owing to the palicity of entriei the annual contests of the, Mannwatu Riflo Association, to have been held at Palmorston North on Monday, have been indefinitely postponed.

Yesterday, Detectives Kemp and Cameron arrested a man in AVellington on a charge of stealing twenty-six shillings' worth of metal watclios at Wanganui.

A message from Ballarat to the Melbourne "Argus" states that about seven weeks ago a young man lost tho powers of hearing and speaking as the result of a fright, caused by having trodden on a snake while ho was out shooting. The shock when he saw tho snake coiling about his foot caused him to have a fit, and ho was taken, to a hospital for medical attention. The doctor stated that nothing more, could be done for iiim, but there was a probability that the effects of the shock would pass away. Ten days ago lie suddenly bewail to talk, but he could not hear anything. Evidently ho .imagined that his power of speech had returned, for ho asked a police constablo if lie was talking. . By means of writing ho was answered in tho affirmative, and was .delighted at tho improvement in his. condition. A littlo later ho becamo conscious of sounds, and this was followed by a return to liis normal state, both of hearing and of speaking-.. Subsequently lie set out for tho Horsham district, wlicro ho had his unusual experience, and where lie had work, to return to. He had been doaf and dumb for over six weeks, but ho had been in good hoaltli otherwise. During tho period of his disability ho appeared to toko great pleasuro in. playing on a month-organ tunes wliich he had learned before his. mishap, although ho could not hear the sounds produced.

An amnsuig instance of crcsvpurposes oo cur red tho other day which was mado possible ill tho first place by tho fact that tho Wellington offices of Thos. Cook-and Sons, tho tourist agents, arb situated in the same building as tho offico of tno District Registrar. A lady called at tho offico of Cook and Sons and. informed h clerk; as he imagined, that sho wished to register a berth. "Certainly, liiadam," replied , the clerk, . "first or.. secomU" "First;". replied tho lady, after a pause, and with a look of astonishment, . for which tho clerk found it impossible to account:. Tho problem, however, was quickly solved. "What steamer?" asked tho clerk, returning to the business in hand. "Ifs not a steamer, it's a baby," said tho fair caller. Then somebody told the mystified caller that tho Registrar's offico was round tho corner. Announcements regarding Church services will bo found on Page « of this issuer