LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2316, 25 November 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tho staff of tlio Wellington City Corporation held a meeting, at which it was decided to contribute the donations made by the officers during the past three months to the Belgian Relief Fluid. This sum amounts tp tlio substantial figure of £331 ss. 2d., which is boing handed direct to the Belgian Consul (Hon. 1 C. J. Johnston) for transmission to the proper authority in London. ' '

At the Drill Htdl this evening an- [: other batch of volunteers for serviced will be medically examined. , ! Three men were observed making ei rather close inspection of the ground close to' Fort Ballance yesterday, and the men from the fort, not liking tho look of things, surrounded and arrest- *, ed them. "You are under arrest," said the officer in charge. ' "What, is your t name?" lie asked the nearest intruder*' "Blair," was the answer. "What do; you do?" oontinued the officer. "I am* a solicitor," said the arrested man. '• "Your name?" demanded the man iu'V khaki of the nest suspect. "Gray, | K.C.," was the reply. The soldiprs'Jf laughod, and asked the third'his name.' This was given as Beere, also a solici-i tor. The trio were then dismissed, with; the information that they would hear; more of the affair.- The explanation is that the three Wellington solicitors! mentioned were out near the fort en-! gaged on litigation which involves a 7. question of land boundaries. j A public meeting of citizens residents south of the Basin Reserve was held in.' the Newtown, Library Buildings last , night, for the purpose of starting a/* district effort to raise funds for the re-jj li<Sf of distress caused by the war. Mr. A. A. George presided, and those pre-/ sent deoided to form themselves into aJ. committee, to 00-operate with the Wei-, lington Patriotic Committee. The ? matter of holding a carnival in South; Wellington was left over for considers. tion at a future meeting.' ' I 'A' Press Association telegram front Invercargill states that the man James l M'Dermid, who escaped from oustody on Monday while working at Otatara,, was recaptured yesterday forenoon in! the vioinity. of a house near the scene' of his bolt. M'Dermid had crossed the river, and enured the house, and abstracted clothing and provisions. When! found; he had by him a butcher's knife,; also taken from the house; No resist- ' s,nco was made, and the prisoner was, escorted back to the .reformatory. He* will duly appear before the_ Court to answer a charge of attempting td es-'-oape from custody. i Two small boye, aged 11 and 12 respectively, appeared before Mr. D. G.,' A. Cooper, S.M.', in the Juvenile Court' yesterday morning, charged with thef, theft of tennis racauets. One' boy was'" charged with stealing a racquet fronu John Eeilly, and the other stealing," racquets from Wm. O'Donoghue, Vfj Keith, and.TimothJ' Cotter. The boyas had stolen the Tacquets from the St.. Patrick's College tennis courts. The younger boy was admonished' and discharged, and the otheri oonvicted and order to receive' sis strokes with tli?' birch. Mr. H. F. Skey, of the Magnetic Ob-; sorvatory, Christcliuroli, says that an I examination of the seismograph showsf that the origin of Sunday's earthquake! was only about 100 miles away—prob-l ably to the of the Chrktcnuicb ; meridian. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) aoknow«i ledges the sum. of 10s. 6d. from St.. James's Junior Endeavour as a further!' donation to the Belgian Children's Re-i lief Fund. • The theory that the arsenate of lead t spray on fruit is the cause of the pre-J valenoe of infantile paralysis will bo discussed at the nest, meeting of the'. Upper Clutha Fruitgrowers' Associa-j' Hon at Bannockburn. The association j is taking stops obtain the result of > Government experiments regarding thiaj matter.

A series of twelve striking war oar-; toons from "Punch" have been issued* in postcard form by Messrs, Jarroldr and Sons.. Among them are some capW tal examples of the work, of , Mr. Ber-\ nard Partridge and Mr. L. Raven Hill, J two of the leading oartoonists of thtf day.

Five prisoners will appear for sen* \ fence in the Supremo Court,this morn- i ing before His Honour the Chief Jus-' tico (Sir Robert Stout). Their iames and the charges on-which'they 6tand-, convicted are: James Vipond Millican, i false pretences; John Ford, forgery;,' Thomas Robinson, forgery; Robert Phair, breaking and entering and theft; and Christopher William Dickson, two j charges of breaking and entering and theft, and one charge of theft. 'A Board of Officers has been convened by direction of /the Hon. Minister of Defence for the purpose of investigating > and .determining upon all outstanding claims for the New Zealand war medal, carrying the military pension granted J by Parliament last year.' The membors of-the board are: Colonel Porter, C.B. > (president), Colonel Newall, C.8.; Captain Mair, N.Z.C.; and Captain Preece,, N.Z.C. The board assembled for the > first time on November , 17 and exam- v ined a large number of claims. It wilt 7 meet again on December 3. i Mr. A. Kaye, a well-known Christ* church business man, returned from a,visit to ifew South Wales, Victoria, > and Tasmania yesterday. In the course, of a brief conversation with a Dominion ) reporter, Mr. Kaye stated that the drought was being rather severely felt in certain parte, of the country, and \. there would be a big shortage in the ? grain' crops. Whilst the western districts had suffered severely "there were extensive belts of country which had f experienced good and the result was that there was an abundance of V food. This was the case round Young, t Moss Vale, and Junc-e, where it was said that one oould 'not see the cattle when > they laid down owing to the length of * the-grass. This, of course, was gener- , ally beneficial.. as stock from the dry \ districts could be entrained to those? districts that were rioh in feed. Very dry weather had been, experienced in« Victoria and Tasmania, and a poor sea-1 6om generally, must be registered in 1 those States. ■ •>

The publio are reminded tnat tha, members of the Royal Pantomime Company intend'to. make a raid oil Wei-! fington's streets community to-day for the purpose of raising funds for the Belgian Christmas Gift Fund. The pro* cession will start from the Grand Opera': House at noon, and will proceed along * Manners Street, Willis btroet, and tambton Quay, winding up in front of ), the General Post On one lorry will be arranged a tableau representing V Britannia and her and on an-> other will bo the orchestra and the A comedians of the company, who hope 7 to tickle tho money out or the public, ; puree. V . Permission has been given to Mr. H. } Miller (treasurer of the Wellington NoLicense League) to hold a children's \ demonstration on riewtown rark ott Saturday, December 5.

•v' ' ' It is anticipated that, the new appointees to the Chairs of Physios and 'Mathematics will be made at a meeting of the Victoria College Council, to be ■ held early in December. It is urgent that-these positions should be filled at once, in order that those appointed may have the advantage of the Christmas recess as at .least a portion of the notice they will have to give their prosent colleges. The new men should be tere in time . for the opening of the first term nest year. The meeting of Oity '""Council to be held'to-morrow evening ■ will commence at 7.80, instead] of 8 o'olock. - On Saturday Jart -three Uttlo Ber"■(hampore girls, Mavis Edwards, Hazel iWilliams, and Mavis Bradshaw, busied '.themselves by selling, flowers in aid of the fund for the relief qf the Belgian ■ children. They wound up their effort by bringing a large bouquet of roses 'to Mr. J. P. Luke's meeting at , the . Masonio Hall. At the conclusion of his remarks the flowers were sold for 6s. This made £1 Bs. that the little trio of girls had; secured as tlio result of their endeavour.'