LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2293, 29 October 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

By a sharp variation of tho meteorological conditions yesterday afternoon Wellington was dragged back into the middle of winter. Shortly after midday tho wind veered round to tho Bcutli, ii smother cf grey clouds shut out tho blno of the ficklo summer, the .thermometer dropped ten degrees, and heavy rain fell during tho rest of t'ho day and last night. Tho rain was badly needed, but the Arctic conditions it brought were- unpleasant.

The Fire Brigado received a call at 2 o'clock yesterday morning to suppress an outbreak of firo in tho wholesale premises of Messrs.. Thornton, confectioners, in Herbert Street, off Manners Street. The building; a single story brick one, was considerably damaged, ,as wero the contents, before the flames wore extinguished. A policy for £'200 covers the buildings in tho Northern Insurance office, ai:d one of £1000 tho contents, in the Liverpool, London, and Globo office.

"Trustees ought, never to employ tie mortgagor's solicitor," said His Honour 5 [r. Justice Hosking in the Court or Appeal yesterday afternoon. A caso before the Court furnished proof of tlio lolly of such a course. His Honour added that in practice he had always discouraged this.

A poll of Eastbourne electors, will bo , taken to-day to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Councillor F. l>. JVelly.. Tho candidates aro Messrs. W. ferry ami 0. Russell. The polling booth in the City will bo at the Borough ofnoes, on the Ferry Wharf. In the Legislative Council yesterday .tno Hon. Captain Daillio drow attention to tho state of some of tlie bank notes Mich were being issued in the City. Ihoy wore unclean, he said, and coneti- «! !J? I" 5 ? t0 P l,blic fccaltn- Now that the banks had tue privilege of issuing bank notes as legal tender, they should see that the notes were clean. Public health called for some interferZ ce £ n th ° P» rt ° f tto Government. e WL- ?:A BeU that Presumed that the banks had had to have recourse to their spare stock of that currency, in. order to supply the present need. If the position was not amended tho probability was that tho law would have to be amended so ae to make le"al tender only those notes which were clean enough to bo no danger to.public health.

According to the annual report of the Wellington Philosophical Society, tho committee appointed to act in the matter of establishing a memorial to the into Augustus Hamilton, whose scientific and artistio work in New Zealand is so well known, has £105 in band, and proposes to have a monument erected over, the lato member's grave.

Detective-Sergeant Rawle arrested a young man yesterday on a charge that on or about October 9 he forged the nameabout October 9 he forged tho name or Hi. Jiarlo on. a document purporting to be a school certificate and uttered the same to Andrew Clark.

. Thousands of ballot* papers are-be-ing dispatched from the Trades Hall in connection -with the vote to be it ko » £ e>ect a Labour candidate for the Wellington East seat at tho forth* coming elections. Every ballot paper is accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope, and it is anticipated that between seven and ten thousand papers will be returned. Labour men assert that tho selected candidate will have as strong a backing as has ever, been accorded a representative of Labour in New Zealand.

According to a report furnished to thit Abattoirs Committee of tho City Council, tlio following stock was slaughtered at tho municipal abattoirs durfne last month:—lo6 cows, 616 bullocks 3 bulls, 4776 sheep, 140 lambs, 88 calvee, and 25 pigs. Save in the case of bulla and pigs these figures represent a decrease on the number slaughtered during September of last year. The fees received during last month amounted to £421 ISs.

.The annual report of the Teohnological Section of -the Wellington Philosophical Society, adopted at the a.nnual meeting last night, mentions that no stops had yet been taken towards the formation of a technical library in Wellington. The committee considered that full weight should be given to this matter by the library committee of the parent society.

A peculiar occurrence is recorded by people who drove along the road from Greytown to the Carterton show yesterday afternoon. A high wind'was blowing, and suddenly there came upon tao traffic a dust storm which almost completely blocked the way. The bank of dust roso to a great height, and collisions woro narrowly averted by vehiclee winch mado any attempt to continue on their way. When the storm passed i< was found that several motor-cars were drawn up on their proper side of the road, the drivers having found it impossible to proceed in safety. A Press Association telegram from Dunedin says that after an exceptionally mild season the weather changed suddenly yesterday,' rain and eleet showers fell frequently in the morning, and a heavy hailstorm was experienced shortly after one o'clock. Heavy suowstorma prevailed about 4.30 and 6 p.m., and the weather then cleaiw!. "There is a fair coating'of snow on the high lords. Repairs to the New Zealand Shipping Company's mail ■steamer Ruahine have been completed. The new cargo port' door was fitted yesterday, and screwed up and tested to the satisfaction of all concerned. The work of reloading the liner waj commenced, but the heavy rain which fell during the day impeded operations. On inquiry at the local office of the company it was ascertained that tie Ruahine was scheduled to leaive Welliugton for London to-morrow.

Speaking at Island Bay last evening, Mr. R. A. Wriglit warned electors that there was a danger .of some of■•' their names being omitted from the roll. Any elector removing from one part, of the district to another part of the same district might find his name absent from tho roll. It was imperative that every elector should .examine- the roll to seo 2 his namo was recorded there.

It is not generally known that when , tlie two branches of the Empire's chief defence forces are mentioned tho Navy should alsvays precede the Army. The point cropped up yesterday at the conference of tho New Zealand Veterans' Association when Colonel Stuart Newall drafted a resolution anent the present' war. ■ He initially only referred to the Army and its allies, then Captain Thomas" Humphries pointed out that the Navy had been omitted. Wlen the motion was read out again Major II Loniax, of Wanganui, pointed out that tho Navy should precede the Army, to which . tho mover (Colonel Ncwnll) at oiiee' agreed. Another little known point affecting naval etiquette is that the health of the King is always drunk sitting'on a British warship. This is said to be a survival of the days of George IV, wlio, when dining on a man-o'-war, saw that the 'tween deck space, greatly lessened by, tho use of hugo oaken beams, was hardly sufficient for tlio convenience of some of the taller members of the Service, and then and there ho decreed that tho health of the Sovereign should be drunk sitting in tlie Navy.

Tlie City Council has ,given the Salvation Army permission to make street collections on behalf of self-denial on Saturday noxt.