LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 125, 19 February 1921, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Pacific Cable Board notify that communication with Sydney has been restored.

The annual meeting of the New Zealand Master Printers* Federation will c'|wn on Wednesday next in the Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Messrs. L. T. Watkins and Thomas .Tones, members of the executive council, the Wellington union will bo represented by Messrs. IT. •T. Meyer, F. Lewis, and C. AT. Banks. Delegates will also he present from all parts of Nev.’ Zealand, and amongst flic important business to be dealt with will be recommendations to the Tariff Commission.

General lalxinrers are not finding the outlook for employment very bright in Wellington at the present time. During this week seventeen unskilled workers have registered their names at the Labour Department’s Employment Bureau in Ghuzr.ee Street. Positions have been found for a dozen of this number, one of the lucky ones being a returned soldier. Of the five others whose names are still on the unemployment register, several are returned soldiers, who arc unable by reason of war disabilities to take on work of a heavy nature. Last week sixteen labourers applied at the bureau for work to be found for them, and positions were obtained for fourteen, principally in the country/

Tn the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, before Air. F. K. Hunt. S.AL. William Albert B. Taylor, the driver of a milk cart, was charged with wilfully setting fire to vegetation not on,his own property. • The defendant was seen by a railway employee driving his cart up the Ngaio Road from Kniwnrra. Taylor was then observed to light fires in two places in the bush in a reserve on the Ngaio road, which caused the destruction of about half an acre of vegetation. When seen by a constable, the defendant admitted that he had thrown lighted matches from his cart, which caused the fires. He was convicted and fined £5 and costs.

During the past week Mr. A. Leigh Hunt hns given town-planning lectures at Levin and Foxton. At each place the Mayor presided, and the lectures wore held under the auspices of. the Borough Council, Chamber of Commerce, and beautifying societies. Good aml‘onces attended, and showed keen appreciation.of the lecturer’s remarks. The solicitors for the plaintiff company (Bond and Bond) state that the name of Alfred Bowden appearing on the list of judgments by default in the Magistrate's Court, published on February 16. should be "Albert Bowden,” and not "Alfred Bowden.”

At a meeting of the Wellington Central branch of the New Zealand labour Party, held at the Trades Hall. Vivian Street, on Wednesday night, Mr. A. Harding presiding, the following resolution was passed unanimously" That the members of this branch congratulate Councillor Fraser and other . Labour members on the council for their untiring effort to get rid of one of those unsightly. places in Upper Cuba Street, namely, the Royal Oak fowl-run. which is overrun with rats and is considered a danger to public 'health.” The Waterside Workers’ Band will play al the Botanical Gardens at 3 o’clock to-morrow afternoon.

Air. C. S. Thomas, counsel for Reginald .Matthews, has communicated with the Minister of Justice, with a view to securing a. commutation of his sentence of death to imprisonment for life (reports a Christchurch Press Association message). Since the death sentence was passed on Alatthews he has been in flic Paparua prison, where he is under a constant watch day and .night’. Matthews took his sentence with evident signs of its full import, but he soon regained his composure, although maintaining a rather defiant attitude. He has not spent any time in writing, as Eggers did before his execution. There has been a. prolific yield of bananas, pineapples, oranges, and other tropical fruits on the island of Afangaia this season. Air. T. Duncan, resident agent on the island, who arrived at Auckland this week after spending seven years there, stated Unit in January, 1920, the plantations suffered severely as the result of a Hurricane, but they” had since recovered, ami owners were now experiencing a considerable harvest.

It «s usual for outgoing vessels to be searched by the police, and when the Moeraki was about to leave for Sydney on Thursday, Detective Black paid an official visit to the steamer. There 'he arrested Joseph Henry Pike, on a. charge of having on December 31 stolen tho sum of £24, the property of Ferguson and Osborn, Lambton Quay. Pike appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.. and on the application of Detec-tive-Sergeant Lewis- was remanded to appear on "Wednesday. Bail was allowed in two sureties of .£250 each. The accused had been employed as a bookkeeper by Ferguson and Osborn, and tho total defalcations were alleged to amount to about (£4OO.

Colonel Hiram Bingham. a noted American exnlorer. and Professor of Latin-American History at Yale University. is at present visiting Aucklamk having arrived from Samoa bv the st*-n*jior Navun Colonel Bingham, who is a native of Honolulu, in addition to holding several American university degrees, is a Fellow of the Royal Geogranhie.nl Society and of tho Royal Anthropological Institute, London. He has done considerable exploration work in South America, principally, in Peru, whore he made a close study of. the territory formerly occupied by the Incas. lie has made- five expedittans to South America for the Yale University and tho National Geographical Society. His investigations have covered many fields of rciont.ific, research, including zoology and botany, and on. his last visit to tho Southern Continent he was nccompaiiteil by about a dozen scientists and their assistants. Colonel Bingham served in the. American aic. service in France in 1918. On his visit to New Zealand, which will extend over two or three weeks, ho is accompanied bv Mr. G. H. Mvors. of Washington. who was formerly in the American forestry service. Colonel Bingham’s oloie knowledge of Hawaii and its natives who have so much in common with the Maoris, has led him to look forward with interest to an opportunity of obtaining some first-hand information regarding the history and characteristics of the Maoris. After a short stay in tho Dominion he will proceed from Wellington to San Francisco by the mail steamer.