LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2496, 24 June 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Flags were flown from many of tho official and commercial buildings in Wellington yesterday in honour of it being the Prince of Wales' Birthday. The Hon. James Allen has received a cablo message stating that the No. 1 Stationary Hospital has reached another stage of tho journey—"All well." Tho North Island Railway Appeal Board will sit at tho Magistrate's Court, Wellington, at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. The annual conference of acclimatisation societies of New Zealand will be held in Wellington towards the end of next month. Tlio prohibition of the export of potatoes will allect no one particularly in the Wellington district. This district does not grow in sufficient quantity to export, to any great extent in any year, • ?v ,V? uteut *' le market offered in Wellington.' The growers who might have made a small fortune had tho demand in Australia caused a big enhancement in values are those of South Canterbury, where they have just pitted many hundreds of blight-free potatoes. It is anticipated that the prompt action of the Government will have the effect of bringing down prices to normal again. It has been a matter of difficulty for local merchants to obtain supplies from the .south during the last %i in lle ITa rece i ye d a quotation of 140s. in the south yesterday, which practically means £8 per ton in Welington. This price will probably not be maintained beyond the end of t'ao week. An Invercargill correspondent- writes that tho grain business at Bluff is running under severe pressuro at present, mid all the grain sheds aro rapidly filling up, several of the smaller sheds being full to the ridge polos. The Katea. which sailed last week, took 21,000 sacks for Sydney direct, and this relieved the pressure for the time being, but the gaps aro again being quickly filled. Merchants at Bluff state that it is the busiest time they have had since tho Boer War. The will of Bishop Grimes is being proved by Messrs. Izard and Loughnan, solicitors, on behalf of the executors, Dcan.Regnault and Mr. H. H. Lou«h- ---'»»• The estate (says the Christchurch jS? 18 va,uet, \ at about £5000, ™J"™ a , r ? legacies amounting to ilfaOO, of which tho principal aro:— Mount Magdala, £400; Nazareth House, £400; Nursing Sisters, Lewisham Hospital, £400; Sisters of tho Mis'sion. £150; Sisters of St. Joseph, £100. Ine lesidue is divided equally between the late Bishop's successor and the Superior-General of the Marist Order, ilie chanties for which there are specinc bequests aro those whose urgent need under the conditions arising from the diversion of charity through the war were strongly advocated in the last pastoral issued by His Lordship shortly before his death. The returns from the Christchurch city organ recitals have been so poor lately that the recitals will be discontinued for four Sundays, from last Sunday. At the end of that time tho Entertainment Committee of the City Conned will consider the question of recommencing the series. Speaking at a conference of delegates of Scottish societies yesterday, Mr. J. M'Kay supported a- suggestion that all Scottish, Highland, and similar societies should be amalgamated. "If wo had had a strong socicty in New Zealand, he said, "we would not have been insulted by the powers that bo, and had the kilts taken away from our troops; we would have had troops at the front .with the kilt." The annual conference of the United Federation of Labour,will be held in Wellington on July 6. A great number of Wellington unions will not be represented this year. A special conference of the Drivers' Federation is to be held in Wellington early nest month., for the object of making representations to members of Parliament with regard to tho conditions under which stable work is done. The inquest concerning the cause ot death of a newly-born child, which occurred in a house at Cambridge Terrace the Saturday before last, will be held at tho Magistrate's Court at 4 p.m. today. During an argument which occurred opposite the /Duke of Edinburgh • Hotol last night, one of the debaters, who.cndeavoured to convince his two " codebaters with blows, was arrested and conveyed to Manners Street Police Station. He mil appear in Court this I morning to answer two charges of assault.

A-trooper was arrested at Upper Hutt yesterday by Constable M'Holm on a -charge of stealing an electric accumulator, valued at £6, at Trentham on June 6. It was proposed at the monthly meeting of the Southland Education Board that the board should keep a "black book" in which should be recorded tho names of teachers who applied for positions which were advertised, and then declined to accept them. It was mentioned that tho board had adopted a similar practice some years ago, and it was agreed to renew it. As the result of a petition to amalgamate the Hutt River Board with tho Lower Hutt Council, the Mayor of Lower Hutt (Mr. Baldwin) is calling a publjo meeting next Tuesday evening to consider- the question. The terms of the will of tho late Mr. Allan Maguire, of Dufferin Street, provide for bequests of £500 for the provision of Christmas cheer for the children inmates of tho Wellington Hospital; £500 for a cot in the Children's Hospital, and another; and £500 for stained glass windows for St. Mark's Church, of which he was a member for many years. In response to a circular proposing that a conference of_ Chambers of Commerce be held in Wellington, the Wellington Chamber has received favourable replies from all the principal Chambers in New Zealand. The subcommittee to which the replies wero referred has fixed August 4, 5, and 6 as the dates of the conference. Remits will bo received up to July 1". During the To Aute-Wanganui College -Rugby matches at the Palmerston North Show Grounds yesterday a collection was taken up for the Maori and Pakeha Sick and Wounded Fund, when £68 was gathered in the boxes. Mr. V. A. M'Hardy gave £50, Mr. L. 11. Levin £50, and to this was added £100 collected and subscribed by the Old Boys of the college. These amounts total £268. A ceremony in honour of this year's Victoria University College graduates will be held in the Town Hall to-morrow evening. It is expected that the graduates will be presented to the Primo Minister (tho Hon. W. F. MasseyV Tho Mayor of Lower Hutt (Mr. H. Baldwin) has received a petition from over seventy ratepayers of the Hutt requesting him to call a public meeting to consider the advisability of tho affairs of the Hutt River being taken over by the Lower Hutt Borough Council. Mr. Baldwin has accordingly called a meeting for Tuesday evening next. Tho river is at present- under the jurisdiction of the Hutt River Board, and it is hoped that a considerable saving will bs effected by the absorption of tho board by tho council. In a paragraph published yesterday regarding tho pending case between Messrs. Richardson, M'Cabe and Co., 1/id., and tho City Corporation over the Tilling-Stevens motor-nuses, it was stated that the agcncy for the Tillui;Stevens motor vehicles was secured by Sir .Joseph Ward during his Inst visit, to England. Messrs. Richardson, JJ'Cabo and C'o. point, out that ' the agency is not held by Sir Joseph Ward, but- by Messrs. .1, G. Ward and Co., 'ltd,, invsftwgiU.

There will bo a special sitting of the Court of Arbitration at 10 o'clock this morning. The business before the Court includes consideration of the compensation case of Jansen v. the Huddart--1 arker Company, and hearing of an application to amend the Dominion Plumbers' award. There was a good attendance at tho meeting of tho Wellington Philosophical Socioty last night. Mr. Thomas King, the president, ocoupied tho cliair, and two interesting papers were read. The first was by .Dr. Newuian, M.P., tho title being, "A R-cview of Maori Art." A largo number of exhibits of Maori carvings, etc., were shown, to illustrate tho paper. Mr. Klsdon Best contributed a paper cvtitled "The Maori as a Voyager," and described the wonderful voyages mado by the -Maoris in tlieir canoes. Both the papers were fully discussed, and the meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to tho contributors.