WANGANUI JOTTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 14

WANGANUI JOTTINGS.

ffly TfilewaDh.—Snftcial Corresoondeit.l Wanganui, Fotiruary 2. A public meeting is to bo held in a few days' time to consider sending an invitation to the United Fire Brigades to hold the 1913 demonstration in Wanganui. Several prosecutions in connection with the regulations under the compulsory military training law will be heard in Wanganui next week. Considerable comment has been Toused by the action of the Wanganui East Borough Council accepting the tender of a German firm for the supply of a. !a\ge number of pipes for water and drainage, notwithstanding that the tender of the Wanganui Spiral Pipe Company was £110 lower than that for the foreign article. One result is that several ,inen are being discharged (on completion of a contract) from the local works next Saturday, whereas had Wanganui East Council given the order to the local compauy all hands would have been kept going. . ■ Judgment has been given by the Chief Justice in favour of the Gonville-Castle-clilf Tramway Board in the test action against Wanganui Borough Council, to decide which body was to pay for tho feeder wires from tho power-house to the borough boundary, where the tramway system of two bodies junction. The amount involved is between ,£4OO and .£SOO.

Customs returns collected at the port of Wanganui in January show a big increase over the figures for the same month of last year, being -£7649 Bs. 7d., as against JB481() 10s. 2d., an increase of X 2838 18s. sd.

One of the tragedies which marked the early days of this district was called to remembrance yesterday by an application from the Wanganui Philosophical Society to the Wanganui County- Council to purchase the site of the house of the Giliillan family, of Matarawa, whose massacre in April, 1847, started a 6erious war with the Natives. The council decided it was not in their province to devote funds to such a purpose, but members intimated that they would be glad to contribute to a public subscription if one were started.

There is still reported to te a considerable shortage of labour in this district. The Wanganui County Council has ,£IOOO worth of metalling contracts unlet, contractors refusing to tender owing to the great difficulty of procuring men. One member of the council stateS at yesterday's meeting that he had work on his place for over thirty men, hut could not get them. Vital statistics for January:—Births 53 (55 previous January); deaths, 11 (15)marriages 15.(11). Now that shearing: operations are almost completed (though several flocks are still untouched, through scarcity 1 of mem) it is possible to gauge the size of the seasons clip, which is stated to be a decrease of about 15 per cent, on last seasons figures. This is mainly due to lighter condition of fleeces caused by the extremely wet season which has preT&licdi The Wanganui Chamber of Commerce has received word from the Premier and the Minister for Public Works that any 'legitimate promises" made in connection with the Wanganni-Raetihi railway will receive "due "consideration," also that tho matter was "stall being oonsidcred." The letter stated that the trial 6urvey • was more costly than was anticipated, > the figures for this work, it is understood, being ,£2OOO.