LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2235, 22 August 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There was a total eclipse- of the sun at, 1 p.m. yesterday, extending over a lino from Norway to Bombay,- and obstrvable in Sweden, Russia, Persia, and North-West India. The postal authorities advise that'the B.s. Maheno, which sailed from Sydney for Auckland on Wednesday, is bringing Australian mails and also ail English mail via Suez. The Wellington portion .is due per Main Trunk express on Monday afternoon. v A Brooklyn tramcar and an express driven by William Standen had a misnnderstanding on Customhouse Quay,' near the General Post Office, early yesterday afternoon. The result of the collision was that the express was overturned and considerably damaged. The driver was thrown from his seat under tho horee's hoofa, and was very much bruised and shaken. Officers and Boldiera of the Salvation Army will assemble this afternoon, at the Vivian Street Citadel, and subsequently parade the streets ■ of' the city on .behaJf .of t-he t# Mayor's Patriotic ( Fund.. The procession will include three motor lorries containing the • .Wellington City (S.A.) Band,\ the .Songster Brigade, and the children of tho Wellington Girls Home. . The Labour Department report that the labour situation has been very bright during-the past few days. The troopships have employed all men available, and in addition there is increasing demand in the country, many farmers reporting vacancies on account of their sons having joined tho Expeditionary Force. By yesterday morning's mail, through Cardinal Merry de Val, Secretary of State to his Into Holiness tho Popo (an office which has, with the dying of the Pope, necessitated a fresh appointment), Bishop Grimes received a letter from his lato Holiness enclosing a,donation towards tho now marble high altar ordered from Italy for the Cathedral at Ohristchurcli.—Press Association. The no«' paying-out system introduced by the Wellington Co-oporativo, Waterside Labour Employment Association camo into operation for tho first time yesterday. By the new arrangement the men are receiving their wages at tho association's central offices in the "donkey room" building, in the X shed. Previously to tho centralising of the pay-out system, each 'shipping company paid its own men. . Under tho new arrangement the wages-shoots are collected, and tho various amounts earned by each man aro added together. Yesterday tho men presented their slips, indicating the hours worked and tho estimated amount due, at one of tho four sets of pay windows. Theso slips woro .checked bv a clerk, and handed to another cleric, who paid out the wages. There was an cxtraordinnrilv large number'of name 6 r.n the pay-sneet yesterday on'account of, the unusual activity .pa the'waterfront', ~-../. ,

Ihe public will be pleased to know that the price of milk will bo reduced from sd. to 4d. per quart as from September 1 next. The.executive of the , Wellington Licensed Milk Vendors' Association mokes an announcement to this effect in. our advertising columns to-day. In the Masterton Magistrate's Court f e i fe a laan earned i Norman was imed £10 and coste for keeping liqiior for sale in a No-License district. His delenco was that he had procured liquor tor a party, at which ,a send-otf was to ue given to a contingenter, but it transpired in evidence, however, that the con. tmgenter in question was a Salvationist., An Irishman once strolled into a hotel, and, observing a fight in progress, ho inquired if the combat was a private affair, or if anyone.could join in. The place whore this happened is nameless, but ill a hotel well-known by namo in tine, city there occurred on Thursday evening a disturbance which was by no moans limited to a select party of two duly qualified members. A lrtrgo num. ber of soamen were patronising th 6 hostelry with no other immediate ideal than the consumption of what they term a few pints," and while the process was still incomplete (the hour was only 9), an.argument as to the respective merits of London and Liverpool crept in. The Londoners hammered in their E Dints with considerable and the iverpudlians punctuated their remarks (and those- of their opponents) with black eyes and upper-cuts. The licensee of tho hotel (the Duko of Edinburgh) and" his staff did what they could to mediate, but were rewarded with kicks and blows. The police were procured, and the force (one .nonstable) scoured one of the parties to the argument. : A. citizen lent a hand and apprehended .another. ■ Yesterday morning these two warlike* visitors were accommodated in the Magistrate's Court, and both were fined for interfering with the arresting constable—Walter Burrowe £3, and Maurice Murphy £1. The citizen who went to the rescue of law and order by catching one of the offenders was complimented by the Magistrate (Mr. D. 6. A. Cooper). ■ <"• . ; ' When the neivs of tho death of His Holiness the Pope was received it was thought possible that some of'bur local clergy who have been representing the Archdiocese of New Zealand at the Encharietic Congress held at Lourdes (in France) may have been in Home at the time of the Pontiff's death. Coad-jutor-Archbishop O'Shea said yesterday that our representatives—Archbishop Redwood, Deans Eeghault, HoUey, and (Dr.) /Kennedy—would probably leave Lourdes soon after the congress, which closed on July 26, but lie rather favours the idea that they would be in Ireland father than on the. Continent when hostilities broke out, suggesting -that the \Veather in Rome would be rather warm for them at the present time of the year. They would ordinarily have visitei? Rome towards tho end of September.