LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1539, 7 September 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion Day (Monday, September 23) will be observed as a holiday by the public service throughout Now Zealand. At next Tuesday's meeting of the Wellington Industrial Association, a date will be bxerf for the annual conference of the W Zealand Industrial Corporation, to bo held m Wellington. Exceptionally large supplies of spring flowers are now being handled at the Blair and Allen Streets markets. Yesterday morning the market place Lore some re'semblanco to a bulb show. One firm of auctioneers, Messrs. George. Thomas and Co., oflered 6000 dozen lots of flowers, liio majority being bulbs and violets. On two other days recently this firm has quitted 1700 and 1000 bundles of blooms. A. paper on "Crime and Heredity," by the Rev. J. Kayll, visiting adviser to the .Now Zealand Prisons Department, is to be read at the meeting of tho Wellington Eugenics Education Society on Monday, September 9, in the Museum Library. Mr. Kiiyll is an expert in criminality, and the paper should be of interest to thoughtful citizens, it will aim at showing that tho most notorious criminals are frequently the victims of a bad heredity, and that although their numbers may be comparatively small, yet, Hie law of imitation, and (lie facts that those criminals are the principal organisers of crime, both combine to make their influence one of tho most important matters to be considered in the whole problem of criminality.

Argument was to have been heard in the Supremo Court yesterday in regard to a motion to set asido a writ, that has been issued in respect of the Star of Cnnada's salvage, but by agreement between the parties tho motion was not proceeded with, and all mattere in connection with the caso will now stand over until Hie commencement of the civil sessions in Gi6borne the week after next.

• How did that pretty little headland on the'Parraniatta β-iver come to be known as Kissing Point? That wae a problem which Mr. Walter Hibble set himself to answer More'the Australian Historical Society recently. The, generally accepted 6tory, according to the'lecturer, was that in the days of Governor Paterson, a Government House party went up there for a picnic, and while the Governor waa indulging in"a nap after lunch, a lady won a pair of gloves in the time-honoured way. Mr. Hibble, however, does not accept this as authentic, and pins his faith to. the following incident: —When Governor Hunter was in charge, tho beauties of tho Parramatta were well known, though its shoals and reefs were not. A pleasure cruise on tho river-ended in the vessel going ashoro off what is now known as Bluxland's Point. Governor Hunter indulged himself in the heroic and delightful task of getting the ladies ashore, and the first to ect foot on dry ground rewarded him with a kiss. Hence, Kissing Point. '

The Dominion noticed a few. dare ago a complaint of two persons that they had been unable to obtain stamps for their pennies deposited in tho automatic seller in the lobby of the General Post Office. It was subsequently found that some eilly or malicious person had placed in the slot of the machine a penny covered with sealing-wax, and it required the weight of four following pennies to force the bad coin far enough forward to allow the mechanism to present a stamp. The machine was full of stamps at tho timo,

The telegram from Christchurch, conveying,tho terms of settlement in the libel action, Booth' v. "Triad," Limited, stated that the apology to bo published included an admission that tho statements complained of were "based on information which was wholly erroneous." This, however, it is stated, only npplied to personal reflections to which exception was taken. The apology states: "Wβ do not however, withdraw one word of our criticism upon the pictures themselves, or upon their arrangement on the.walls. Regarding these two topics we repeat our reference in tho article in question."— Press Association.

A special meeting of the Mirnmar Borough Council is to be held on Monday afternoon, to consider, and if approved, adopt a resolution making a special rate to provide for the interest and sinking fund on tho -£18,000 loan.

A rather sensational incidont happened in tho totalisator house prior to the iacing at Miirton last Wednesday (says tho Wanganiii "Herald"), which nearly resulted in a tragedy. Jtr. T. H. James, architect, was showing a couple of Wanganui pressmen over tho building, inside of which there were also several others. One of the clerks, who was in tho pdrtion of the house set apart as a bank, was handling a Browning automatic revolver, which suddenly went off, the bullet crashing through the wall of the bank and embedding itself in the ceiling. Mr. James and the pressmen had a narrow escape, as the bullet whizzed past just.beliind them, a splinter from the wall hitting another man in the back of the. neck.