LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2643, 14 December 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The postal authorities advise that the R..M.S."Niagara, which sailed from Suva on December 10 for Auckland, is bringing English and American mails via Vancouver. The Wellington portion is due per Maui Trunk express on Wednesday.- - ' v

By _ Order-in-Council made yesterday t-he ; exportation of all articles to China andSiam without the consent of the Minister of Customs is prohibited.

The retail price of certain standard brands of butter was advanced one penny per pound in Wellington from yesterday. All separation allowances and allotments of pay on account of soldiers at the front or in camp are to be paid before Christmas. Arrangements to this end have been made by the Defence Pay Branch.

Colonel Rhodes has telegraphed from Egypt to tlie Defence Minister: '.'Large quantity of Christmas gifts has recently arrived for our troops. Salvation Army Chaplain Greene is proceeding to the. front at an early .date with these, and he is 'to assist in distribution."

■ The Ninth Annual Conference of the .New Zealand Nurserymen's Association is to be held in Wellington on January 19 and 20 in the Chamber of Commerce. The Hon. the Prime Minister is to be asked to open the Conference. Much interest is being' taken by the members in this important gathering.

Under its new rules the Wellington Stock Exchange has elected the following as country'members:—Messrs. H. G. Bagnall (Palmerston North), S. H. Knight and N, R-. Wellwood (Hastings), W. J. Tabuteau and C. F. Hetley (Napier), T. F. Fitzgerald (Feilding), and A. E. Jackson (Nelson). '

'• A number of requests concerning conditions under which they are required l to work in ships' holds were made to tho Minister of Marine (the Hon. Dr. M'Nab) yesterday by a deputation from the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union. Tho deputation asked the Minister to take action to prevent the use of naked lights, tlie fumes from which were 'deleterious in ships' holds where men were working. Tliey asked tlie Minister also to take such action as would prevent the overloading of ships' winches, a practice fraught with danger to the men in the" holds, but still, it was alleged, a very common practice. Another request was that holds of ships, especially those in- which perishable foodstuffs were carried, should he regularly cleaned and fumigated. Dr. M'Nab promised to.-give the requests his attention and consideration.

Mr. George a. Green, secretary of the New Zealand Association of Nurserymen, and Mr. Thomas Horton, F.H.R.S., the presidont, met the members of tbe Wellington Council in Wellington yesterday afternoon. They will also meet nurserymen at Christchurcli, Duneclin, and Invercar'gill. Matters, of interest to tho nursery trade will be dealt with, and details worked out for the annual conference, which takos place in Wellington towards the end of January, 1916.' Members of the Nurserymen's Association aro alive to the rapid development of the fruit industry, many of them being fruit-growers themselves. Tlioy are at all points of contact working with the Now Zealand Federation of Fruitgrowers for the mutual interests of all. < :

Tlie ipembers of tho Hawke's Bay Club have forwarded £334 to Mr. R. D. D. M'Lean to provide Christmas ocift-s for the men of H.M.S- New Zealand.

Excursion tickcts commence this week. Therefore, wo would respectfully remind you of our fine stock of travelling requisites 'At moderate prices. Geo. Fowlds, Ltd,, Mansers Street,—Advt,

There was an apparent shortage of labour on tho Wellington wharves yesterday, for which 110. satisfactory reasons could be assigned. It was surmised by some that the workers were hanging back for jobs on the Themis, from New York, as the vessel's cargo' included several thousand cases of oil. In certain cases the shipping people could obtain men to work the various vessels, but tho Harbour Board was short. Consequently transhipments, which wore stored in the sheds, couid not be moved, and oversea steamers were 'unable to land as much cargo as was anticipated.

The latest victims, of the spirit of vandalism which is only too prevalent in Wellington aro the" proprietors of the Kelburn Tramway Company, and, indeed, tho majority of the peoplo who inako uso of tho tramway. On Suuday afternoon, owing to a break-down in the powor-liouso, the cable cars ceased running, and the company, as their practice has been in such circumstances, threw their route open to pedestrian traffic, so that incidental inconvenience to the jpublio' might be as far as possible minimised. On Sunday they were poorly rewarded for this act of consideration, since a number of peoplo passing up and down the lino played havoc with the flowering plants with which it is prettily adorned. Rose bushes on a section of the line near the manager's house wore piratically torn to bits, and much wanton damage was done to nasturtiums and other plants growing beside the line" further down the hill. Not all the damage was done by children. Adult individuals were seen pulling tlib rose bushes to pieces. In mentioning these facts yesterday, tho manager of the tramway (Mr. J. Darling) said that the company, in ordor to protect its property against sueli vandalism, would probably find it" necessary to keep the line closed in future on' occasions when the cars were not running. Every effort will he made, meantime, to discover the guilty parties, and if they are discovered legal proceedings will'be 'taken. Wanton damage to p\ants is not' the only thing the company has to'complain/about. Recently the waitiag-sheds and other appointments of tho lino haver been painted and renovated, and already some of the new paint-work in the sheds has been defaced by tho carving of names and otherwise. '

Writing to his mother, who resides at 247 Tinakori Boad, Wellington, Gunner Joseph Kenny slates that lie is in England recovering after doing a turn with the New Zealand troops at the Dardanelles. Ho was, at 1 llio time of writing, in the First Southern General Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, \?hich ho described as "some hospital," for "you could put Wellington Hospital in some of the wards." 'The doctors attending, the men there wero 601119. of the best in England, the food and attention were as good as it was possible to get. He considered himself lucky to be sent to England instead of to Egypt. He wished to see little more of Egypt, but was charmed by England. Gunner Kenny was expecting to be. able to trr.vol soon, and stated that he intended visiting Ireland. He observed: "Wo are given a return ticket to any part of the United Kingdom free; afto 2s. a day ration money while 011 furlough." ,

The amount subsoribed to date towards the Soldiers' Club, •to be established at Hastings, is £1027.

Colonel W. 11. Morris, Director of Post , and Telegraph Services, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel C. B. Harton, O.C. North Island Battalion P. and T. Corps, inspected Nos. 7 and 8 ' Companies. of the battalion and the P. and T. Senior Cadets 011 Friday evening last. There was a strong nraster of each of the companies. After the inspection the three companies were; put through a number of movements' by their respectivo officers. Cblonel'Morris expressed his satisfaction at the state of efficiency exhibited. He regretted, however, that the men had to parade without arms, and in a number of oases ill mufti, disabilities due to the military situation. It is interesting to know that Nos. 7 and 8 Companies have already got over a hundred men on service or in training for the front. The Senior Cadets made a very fine showing, parading 107 strong. With their drums thej\ marched like veterans, while flieir drill' •was done with snap' and precision.

In a. letter to the Defence .Minister, Licut.-Col. 0. M. Begg, N.Z.M.C., writes"l must just' write you a note to let you know that since T have been convalescent I have taken the opportunity to visit 1 as many hospitals as I could where there were any of our wounded. I am very glad to say that, without exception, they are : loud in their praises of the treatment they have received, and whenever I ask tiiem if I can do anything for them they always, say there is nothing—that they have everything they want. I am glad to say I am getting on well, and hope to soon get back to work. We had a strenuous five months on the Peninsula, pnd as you will have heard, my men worked magnificently. Everyone Was high in their praise of the medical work on the Peninsula itself."

Tho Hawke's County Council has unanimously declined to endorse three resohiions forwarded to it- by other bodies. One from' the Petono Borough Council desired amendments to the /JVar 'Pensions Act, another from the Mount' Herbert County Council suggested that tho Government should pass legislation enabling looal bodies to strike a patriotic fund rate, and the third asked the council to give all single men a month's notice. .

Police from the Mount Cook Station visited premises in Haining Street last evening and arrested three women on a charge of assisting in the management of a, disorderly house.

, A shortage of' stokehold hands still pi availed on hoard "the ferry steamer Maori last evening, and the result was that the (.vessel was agaiu compelled to proceed to Lyttelton under two-thirds of her boiler power. The - Arahura did not get away for Picton, Nelson, and West Coast ports till an hour after her advertised time of sailing, 'on account of the vessel being one short in her stokehold complement. A man was eventually found and the vessel was thus enabled to-leave port. '

Waterside workers in Wellington caused tronblo again yesterday' in. connection with the discharge of case oil at this. port. When the British. Imperial Oil Company's steamer Pliysa arrived' here a few weeks ago tho men asked Jor 2s. per hour to discharge her oase oil cargo, an dafter certain deliberations the stevedores agreed to give them t'he extra sovenpence per hour. Yesterday the Barber chartered steamer Themis berthed tit the King's Wharf from Now York with 24,000 cases of oil oil board,, and the woteiside workers demanded 2s. per hour to discharge her. During the past six weeks there have been three such incidents, tlio vessels held up being the Pliysa, Kivanto Jlnru (superphosphates), and now the Themis, and in each case, although the men were only entitled to Is. sd. tyer hour, they held out for higher wages, and gained their ends. A singular exception, however, was the handling of the case oil cargo on the Union Company's Wai-runa,-which arrived Jierp from San Francisco' on December 2. She had ! several hundred cases of oil oil board, hut no trouble was experienced with the watorsidcrs in discharging her cargo. In ad T dition, the Wairuna had general cargo to land here, the same as the Themis, hut hor case oil cargo was landed at tho award rate of Is. sd. per hour.

Tho Hawke's Bay Hospital Board has decided to allow anyone, rich or poor, to enter tho hospital for treatment, and the Finance Committee lias been authorised to draw up a scale of fees which will expand or contract according tj tho condition of the patients' pursostrings.

Mr. H. W. Grimes, of Messrs. C. Begg and Co., will go- into camp with JtUe 11th Heinforceinents to-day.