LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2919, 3 November 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The probable date of the breaking, up of the State schools of the Wellington district for the summer holidays will be Friday, December 15.

The naval "ratings" (as naval seamen are officially referred to), who returned to New Zealand a few weeks ago on furlough, after a strenuous time afloat during tlie pact two years, are shortly returning to their ships. Before they, take tHeir departure, tho Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) hopes to find an opportunity of fittingly entertaining them. When the men' arrived there was little time to do anything but informally welcome them,' as the men wished to get away to their homes as soon as possible, but during the next week or two it is hoped that tho men will reassemble in Wellington, and be honoured for the fine work they are doing for the Empire. . . Probate in the estate of the late Dr. A. A. Martin, of . Palmerstoa North,(who died fo wounds on active service), was granted recently by the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, to John Thomas Martin and Elias Martin, the executors named in the will. It is understood (says the "Manawatu Daily Times") that the estate loft' by the deceased totals in value upwards of £oOjUOO. . . A noteworthy instance of endurance on the part of a girl fifteen years of age is recorded by the Hawera "Star." The other morning tho girl, who resides at ICakaramea, was sent to catch a horse belonging to her parents. The animal had strayed out of the paddock

on to the public highway, and was making for Manaia, from where it had come, originally. Tho girl followed the horse on foot to Manaia, a distance of twenty-seven miles. She rode tho animal back as: far as Manutahi, where she becamo exhausted, and some

friends, who were searching for her, took her. in {*s tho night. The girl left homo at seven iu the morning, and did not roach Manutahi until 10 p.m.

• Telephone subscribers who rent party lines—i.e., two or more of whom .use the same wiro—may have been surpris-

Ed at receiving an intimation from tho Post and Telegraph Department that an alteration is to bo made in their distinctive call-signals, says an exchange. The signals aro being revised

throughout tho Dominion, with a view to uniformity of system. In lieu of the employment of two, three, or four rines. long or short, and somewhat arbitrarily chosen, the Morse signals for the letters D, K, M, R, S, and W hare been selected as being especially distinctive, and one or other of these

is being assigned to each subscriber to

a party line. Thongjk notion of tlie change has teen i»iven already in rfi-

rn.rd to somo of the suburban oxOisinftes, it is not'intended tn lie nut

into operation until the Telenhoiie Directory is reprinted, about the end oi tlie year.

The clerk of tlie Upper Hutt .Town Board, James Alien Webster, was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of having stolen £100, the property of the hoard. The arrest was made by De-

tective Mason and Constable M'Holm. Accuscd appeared at the local Court before Mr. J. Davis, J.P., and was remanded to appear in Wellington on November 8. Detective Mason .stated that other charges were pending. Webster was junior for a, time in the Petone Borough Office, and was aftorj wards in the Karori municipal office before being appointed clerk to tho Upper Hutt Town Board. Tho accused was granted bail on his own recognisances for tho sum of £100 and another surety of £100. Charles Laurence Neilsen, an employer who under stross of work prevented an employee from attending his annual or casual camp, was fined £10 and 12s. costs by Mr. W. G. ICenrick, S.M., lat Dannevirko yesterday, defendant had applied for exemption, whic'li was refused, but word only eamo to hand two days after tho casual camp had started, and he then considered it too late for tlie oniployee to attend.—Press Association. In the Magistrate's Court at Hawera yesterday five yotuhs, railway enginecleaners, pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking and entering tho Hawera llailway Refreshment Rooms, and were committed for sentence. —Press Association. The serenity of the Onslow Borough Council meeting last evening was Tudcly disturbed by an inebriated individual who lurched up to tlio door and sought admittance. Ho thought lie was invading a public-house, and his protests at being turned away wore expressed very vigorously.

At last night's meeting of the City Council tlio Finance Committee's recommendation was passed to the effect that jio further action bo taken in the complaint of til© I'ctono Borough Council as to tho slippery naturo of the decking of the approaches to tho Hntt Pipe Bridge, and also that the Borough Council bo informed that tho maintenance of tho approaches is a mattor for the Petone Borough to deal with.

Before proceeding with business at tha meeting of the Onslow Borough Council last evening, the Mayor (Jf r . C. C. Crump) announced that four .young men from the district, Messrs. Comne, Jordan, Hcndle, and Latimer, had lost their lives fighting in France, and on his motion the council decided to send letters of condolence, to tho parents of the deceased.

The City Council adopted tho following committco recommendation at last evening's meeting"That the Government be advised that the council will be prepared to accept the control of Wilton's Bush Scenic Reserve \ipon condition that if at any (time tho Government again take control, of the reserve the .council shall be repaid such money 09 shall havo been spent by the corporation in tho up-koep of the reserve."

The Red Cross' stall at Harcourt's Building, to be presided over by Mrs. Waters to-day, will have an added interest to the pulblic inasmuch as it will he marked by a. torn and tattered Red Cross flag, which did duty at Anzac right through the Gallipoii campaign, and therefore has a rare historic interest.

Summer is here, and the seaside calls. This was apparent in an application received by trie City Council last evening from a person, who wanted permission to erect a tent on the Lyall Bay sandhills during the summer months. The application was refused.

The use of the 'Basin' Reserve on. December % and the right to charge for admission were granted to the Returned Soldiers' Association by the City Council lost evening.

■ The application for permission to ereot the proposed King Observatory in the Botanical Gardens, a sliort distance from the existing Observatory, was granted the Wellington Philosophical Society by the City Council last evening. The freehold of the land was not asked for. Day's Bay is not the only outlying portion of tne oity which seeks to link its municipal destiny with the city of Wellington. On the supplementary order paper, ivhicli was submitted to the City Council last evening, was the bare mention of a letter from the Onslow Borough Council, dealing with a proposal to amalgamate with the city. The matter, which is so far in a nebulous state, was not discussed by the council, which, on the motion of the Mayor, referred it to the Finance Committee for consideration.

Those Dunedin millers who were charged £12 10s. a ton for flour on Monday advanced their price to £13, and those millers whose price was £12 have increased their charge to £12 10s. Another miller names £13 10s. as his price. The advance has been brought about by the increased cost of milling wheat, which has advanced by fully 3d. per bushel during the past fortnight. _ Prime velvet wheat is now very difficult to obtain.—Exchange.

Under..the auspieces of the Wellington Baptist Church, the Rev. J. J. North delivered a leoture in. the Baptist Church, Vivian Street, last evening; entitled "The Puritans and the Hewing Out of Liberty." There was a crowded audience, the Rev. J. A. Archer presiding. Mr. North traced the history of the Puritans from the time of James I up to the Elizabethan period, and gave instances of how 'those people fought for liberty. Mr. Mao Donald, assistant curator of the Dominion Museum, demonstrated, per medium of lantern slides', many phases of Mr. North's lecture. At its conclusion the Rev. J. A. Archer proposed: a vote of thanks to the lecturer and his assistants.

Mr. G. L. Stewart, secretary of the Wellington Education Board, accompanied by Mr. Hylton (late secretary of the Marlborough Board), has left on a visit to Blenheim and the district for the purpose of meeting the Marlborough members of the new board, and, with them, making a tour of the schools. Mr. Stewart will probably return. to Wellington to-morrow evening. ;

An inquest will ! bo held this afternoon concerning tlie death of a married man named Gordon MfLennanu who died suddenly on Tuesday at Island Bay while engaged 1 at his work 1 as a plasterer. . '

Private cable advice has boen received from Major S. C. Schofield, of the Third, Auckland, Mounted Rifles, Main Body of the Expeditionary Forco, to the effect that he has arrived in England from Egypt, and expects shortly to he invalided homo.

Advice has been received by the Loco. Engine-drivers, Firemen, and Cleaners) Association from the General Manager for Railways (Mr. E. _H. Hiley), in reference to representations made by the association executive, that on further consideration it has been decided not to call upon members rejected by the Defence , authorities _na unfit for active service to indemnify the Railway, Department against liability for compensation.

The names of twenty-five non-com-missioned officers of the Nineteenth Reinforcements who have qualified for commissions were published in yesterday's issue. The number of commissions granted was 23, so that the two men at the bottom of the list did not secure promotion. The census enumerator has supplied the following information in connection with the recent census taken in Featherston: Total population, 1159 (males 603, females 556); dwellings, inhabited 228, uninhabited 7, being built 5; total 235.

George 13. Clarke, a married inan who was found wandering about the slopes of Mount Victoria in an exhausted condition on Friday evening last, died in tho Hospitaj oil Wednesday night. Ho wa.s a resident of Lilly Street.

New- regulations undor the Defence Act, 1909, are gazetted. Tliey prescribe financial instructions and allowance rules for the New Zealand Military Forces. The maintenance grants are fixed as_ follow: —£1 per man for mounted units, 10s. per man for other units, 2s. 6d. per man in Senior Cadets, and in the General Training Section. There aro also detailed instructions as to the purposes for which these moneys may be used, and as to tho administration of funds Generally.

A visitor ascending the Christ-church Cathedral tower on Monday met with an incident he will remember for somo time. Ho came to a trap-door, which I was closed, and thinking that it was operated by a rope hanging beside him, Ihe pulled the cord. To his dismay, instead of raising tho trapdoor, a bell rang with much energy, and kept oil ringing for some time. _To one tinaccustomed, the. experience of the clangour such as that in a confined place was not a pleasurable one. It turned out that he had pulled a. rnpe that had "let down" a hell, and this released, swung on until it came to a stop.