LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The official statement of the business done at the Wellington Telegraph Office on Christmas Ere shows a very large increase over last year's figures. Luckily sill the wires worked Very well, ,bu_£ nevertheless the operators worked, all night and. only got clear of the" Christmas work at 9.30 on Christmas' iiiorjiing, just as the . office was reopened, to the public for further use of the ,wire's. The totals of the telegrams .handled arc 11,780 i forwarded, .9992; transmits, 35,286; total, 56,988. This is an iricreaso of ..95(8 message's as compared with the 47,440 deaclt frith.-' on December .24 of last year. A largo iricreasa, of telegraph business was experienced throughout the Dominion.

' . At the Mount Cook Polios Court yesterday, before .Mt. T. S. Lambert, J.P., the following, oasiis,of insobriety wore' dealt withueorge' Hastings api>eapod for the seveiity-fourth tiine, and pleaded iawl for another chance,- but hiving several recent convictions he was fined «fe-, or fourteen days' imprisonment. Thomas North, with twenty previous convictions, was fined ss'., or 2i hours' detention. Thomas Smith, who had been bailed out for 10$., ..did hot Appear, wis fined the amount of his bail, with the, option, of 48 houi's' detention. Albert Edward' Downs and a first offender were each admonished, convicted, and discharged;

The Christmas holidays have been marked by ideal summer weather, all the more brilliant in quality, perhaps, because of the long spell of .. wretchcd weather which characterised the' spring ihonths. With 'the thermometer at 72 Fahr. in the shade, cloudless skies, ;and little or no wind; Wellington has been greatly favoured'. All tho'city, beaches have been- thronged, from Island Bay to Potone, and the' small section- 6f sandy beach in Oi-lental Bay, has',been the'.plav-. ing ground for thousands of children during the past-few days.- It has been a Toyal Christmas for the surf-bathers. Some Wave been boast that they havo been as long in the water as ashore, and as tli6' result of combined surf and sun-bathing have been biirrit as brown as Maoris. If the New Tear'holidays are as fine as the Christmas ones some of . the surf-bathers will be unrecognisable by their friends..

Tiie number' of. passengers booked -.outwards, from Wellington stations- on .Boxing Day -must have, almost constituted a record for the day.. The r'Ailway officers have not completed- the work of compiling all the figures, and ho comparison? are yet possible, but the amount, of cash received at both Thorridon and Lambton Stations was considerably, more than the amount received last year. From Thorndon about 2000 passengers booked for tions- between Wellington and Paekakariki, 800 of them! for Plimmerton, and about 1000 for north; <jf RtetoUta. riki;'. From Lambtori .8181 passengers booked , fof Upper, Hutt arid intervening stations, and 880 for staitlona beyond Upper Hutt.

Oho of the features of the how His Mar jesty's' Theatre .is. the' orchestra pit. In order to give it the maximum resonarioy it has been cfcnstriicied' on lines' -which makes it .peculiarly senatW? to'., sound. This has been effeoted by suspending the pit iri a concrete trench, and doing fiway altogether with anything- in the. foTih of 6olid supports fof the floor. This has had the effect of increasing thtf,volume of sound from the orchestra,- and enhancing its quality.

The congregation of St. John's Presbyterian Church sprung a surprise on the Hey; Dr. Gibb by presenting him with a motor-car as a ■ Christmas gift. For sbmo time past the pastor of St. John's has been troubled :With n. form of rheumatism, which made it difficult for him to cover liis parish, and iri order, to mako his task tho. lighter, £• proposal to .present, hini wife « oar. was" made. The idea was taken up heartily, arid the response was, such that the. necessary funds'were ebon in the hands, of the treasurer of the movement, and,the presentation tras duly made .at Christmas. . .