LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2247, 5 September 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The postal authorities advise that tho s.s. Maheno, which left Sydney on Wednesday, and is duo at Auckland, is bringing Australian mails and also an English mail via' Suez. The Wellington portion is due per Main Trunk express on Monday afternoon. Seventy-four years ago, on September 6, the ship Blenheim sailed from the Clyde with 300 settlers for Wellington. The Blenheim arrived on Christmas Eve, 1840, at Wellington Heads. A shortage of ships' firemen at Wellington is still being severely felt and there are many vacancies on vessels in port. The shortage has caused much inconvenience and delay. Word was received in Wellington yesterday that the Australasian cargo by the German steamer Roon is now held up at Java. Cablo advice from tho British Consul at Batavia intimates that the captain of the Roon, acting on instructions from his owners, tho North German Lloyd Compamy, has refused to deliver any* of his cargo which it was previously arranged should be brought down by the Dutch, steamer Tasman. . '■ Five prisoners, who have been oonvicted of offences in the Lower Court, will appear for sentenco in the Supreme Court this morning before His HonourMr. Justice Hosking. They are: William Gillham, otherwise James Gillham, breaking and entering and thoft; Leslie Walker, theft; William Joseph O'Dwyer, forgery; Patrick Joseph O'Connor and Ernest Jones, theft from a dwell.ii'K. ' A cowardly, brutal, and unprovoked assault (the description is Inspector Hendrey's) led to the punishment of a young man in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. The accused was one Edward May, and the complainant William Henry Hargreaves. : May is said to have jumped up on an express which Hargreaves was driving along a street, and to have dealt with him in a most violent manner. The accused pleaded guilty, but added that Harsreaves had provoked him by calling him a scab for working at tho barracks as a groom during the strike. May was lined £2, in default seven days' imprisonment, and was ordered to pay 19s. costs. . Members of tho congregation, of a Wellington church recently complained to tho police that a two-up school gathered in Sanders Lane (near the church) every Sunday_ morning. Constable J. Adams was, in consequence, detailed to watch for the breakers of the_ Sabbath, and on a recent Sunday morning,, after watching the operations for a couple of hours, lie asked the school to oblige him with their names. . The result was that yesterday morning Peter Leonard Ansley, William Beresford, Albert Columbus, Samuel Sloan, and Arthur Leonard Wood were charged in the Magis-, trato's Court with the offence, and each fined £2, in default three days' imprisonment. .. Commissioner Richards, the 'head of the Salvation Army in the Dominion, who has just returned from the great Congress of the Nations recently hold in London, will be welcomed home at the Vivian Street Citadolto-morrow. • The Commissioner will be supported by the chief secretary and the combined staffs of tho National Headquarters, Training College, andsooial institutions. An excellent group photograph of the warrant officers, staff sergeants, and sergeants of the 84th York and Lancaster Regiment, stationed at Limerick, Ireland, has been received at the headquarters of the sth (Wellington) Regi<The.-> Wellington. Regiment is affiliated with the 84th York and Lancaster Regiment. - ; In the Dominion Analyst's annual re- , , port it is stated that: about' 5001b.. of gelignite and about 1000 . dotbuators, damaged by prolonged exposure to moisturo during the Waihi strike, were destroyed by dumping in the sea. i The construction of the line of concrete piles that aro to carry the Wainui main across the bed of tho Wainui River at a point about a quarter of a mile below tho lower dam has beon completed. The now pipes, which are .to form a bridge, high above the reach of the ever-changing course of. tho stream, will shortly arrive at Wainui, and within a short time tho necessary diversion of the main will bo made to tho now viaduct which it is hoped will bo immune from tho danger of any- future washaway in', that locality. ' . It is a little-known fact that it was chiefly through the action, of one of the Magistrates of Glasgow—Mr." John Fleming, of Clairmont—that New Zealand was retained as a British possession. He was about tho first, if not Hie' first, man in the kingdom to direct the attention of the Government to the possibilities of New Zealand as a British settlement. Ho 'took up the matter with enthusiasm, and, enlisting the services of such men as Dr. Norman' Macleod, Sheriff Allison, and Lord Provost Lumsdon, convened a mooting in the Glasgow Athenaeum on May 15, 1810, which was the means of arousing public attention to tho question all over tho country, and brought about the annexation of the islands in time to prevent their passing into the hands of tho French. It was doubtless the outcome of Glasgow's connection with the appropriation of the islands for Great Britain that Now Zealand was largely colonised by Scotsmen. There will be a mass parade of Boy Scouts on Sunday afternoon at St. Peter's Church. The boys'will fall in at tho Basin Reserve, and will march to church, headed by the South Welling-ton-Boys' Band. As the result of the excitement caused by the war, the business that was being done at the Opera House in Christehurch did not warrant the-con-tinuation of the Bremian-Fuller Company there. Dunedin has ■ also been showing such poor returns that the same management is to clpse down at tho Princess Theatre to-night. So far the business in Wellington and Auckland has not been so' unsatisfactory as the south, and it is not intended to suspend operations in these two cities for the present. If, however, the returns fall much below their present level, the management will certainly have to reconsider the question as to whether it is not advisable"to "rest" until things are in a moro settled state. At tho Petone Police Court yesterday, before Messrs. Wakehani and Piper, JP's, two first-offending': inebriates w'ero convicted and discharged, and for depositing a load of sand on Britannia Street without a permit, Charles King was fined ss. and costs 7s. At tho annual meeting of the Hutt Valley Trotting Club held last evening at Petono, Mr. H. Palmer presiding, tho following stewards were elected:— Messrs. John and James Sharpe-. Craig, Rydpr, Elvines, Maria, Edwards, Upton, Quinn, August, M'Parland, M'Whirter, Foley, King, and W. H. Edwards. The report and balance-sheet (published) wore., adopted. Prior to Jiis departure for Palmerston North to take up the position of drummer to the No. 2 Regiment, B Company, Mr. Charles Cole was farowelled by his many friends at Lyttelton. On behalf of the employees of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, Mr. W. Pect presented Drummer Colo with a wrist watch, safety razor and strop, and a box of cigars. Mr. W. Tredennick also handed Drummer Colo a purse of sovereigns, the contents of which were subscribed by his associates of the Port.