CENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2129, 11 July 1907, Page 1

CENERAL NEWS.

The AVcllingtdn City Council has received a claim for- £2OO from Mr. Richard Elliott, as compensation for injuries sustained in the Brooklyn tram accident some weeks ago.

A young lady in Musfcortou had a narrow escape from being choked recently by partially swallowing a peariflo bullet in some cake she was having at tea.

Several wood pigeons have been observed in the Now Plymouth borough during the past week. As the bush pigeon is becoming very scarce it is to be hoped that the visitors will not be molested.

it is said that nearly £IOO changed hands over the lluahme-Mnrtinbor-ougli football match on Saturday, and that the followers of Martinborongh team were the principal losers. At the Geelong Court (Victoria) Mrs. Emma Humble, ex vice-presi-dent of the Woman's National League was fined £5 with costs, for canvassing in an election booth during the last Federal election.

A prominent Labor leader, who has just returned from a trip up country, told a Wellington Post reporter that the movement for the organising of general farm laborers into a union was progressing in the Wellington and Hawke’s Bay districts. but it had not yet come to a delinito head. The Auckland City Council has declined any liability in respect of a claim for £470 by the tenants and leaseholders of Bradford buildyijjs, for damage sustained by the removal of I heir stock and fixtures, etc., in connection with the recent plague scare The Council accepted the tender of 'be Ferro-Concrete Company of Australasia at £36,000 for a concrete bridge across flic cemetery gully, between vSymonds Street and Grafton Road,

Tbo Custom duties for the last financial year amounted to £2,941,048, Sic beer duty being £17,573. ‘ Other duties, fees, and dues bring the total up to £3,213,022. The Chinese Immigration Act , brought in a revenue •it no less a sum than £13,000. The net collections at the principal ports were: Wellington, £815.214: Auckland. £795,887; Lyttelton and Christchurch, £512.418: Dunedin and Port '"’''aimers, £494.995; Napier. ■ £llO. ]97, Invercargill. £100,637. The rate "or cent 1 , of cost of collection was 01 7s 2d.

Mr. Massov, in the House in reply-

ing to some remarks regarding his attidudo in respect to giving the lease in perpetuity tenants the option of tbo freehold, said that in each case be was willing that the capital value of the holding should he apportioned as between the interest of the State on the one hand and the interest of Hie settler on the other, and that the option of the freehold should he granted accordingly. The result, he ■:aid would he exactly what ho had always advocated.

The Colonial Analyst reports to Parliament that of 19 samples so-cal-led hop beer 11 showed so high a per centage of nlcolhot that convictions to that’, number were recorded. Some of the spirits examined were raw. harsh, unmatured alcohol, which is certainly injurious if taken even in moderate quantity. hut which cannot be excluded from the colony under our nresent laws. The use of anti“entics in food seriously requires defining. more especially boric and sallievlie acids.

Constable Matherson and Mr. Jolm Edgar. who has been appointed as crnide hv the police, have returned to Queenstiwn after a second fruitless search in Greenstone Valley for traces of Mr. North, the American tourist, who left Queenstown some time ago, with the ohieet. of making the overland trip to Milford. The search was commenced where Mr. North’s bag of provisions were found, and lhough operations were hampered owing to had weather, the narty traversed a lot of ground. The guide is: ->f oninlon that a more thorough ‘■enroll should have been made in more favourable circumstances. It is very difficult to form any opinion as to whether the mission man has been drowned or lost In the hush. The Musicians Bill, which hat boon introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Sidey, aims at the formation of a Musicians Society for Now Zealand, and for the registration of musicians. The various societies of musicians in the colony are at wovent. registered under the Unclassified Societies Act. but the powers nrnvidod for hv that Act. are considered to he too limited. The Bill provides for the setting up of a Musicinns’ Council for the colony. All members of the existing societies shall ipso facto become members of the new society. The standard of '•ualification for memborshin consists of Ihe composition. of teaching, per-

forming, or writimr noon music for a form A of voars. Tbo Bill also provisos for tbo admission of theoretical and practical examinations, to l*o conducted by tbo council in tbo principal centres of tbo colony. Some information furnished to Sir .Joseph Ward by the English Admiralty regarding the cost of providing and maintaining four river-class destroyers, four first-class destroyers, and fitting out a repairing depot for the fleet has been given to the House. The cost of the vessels mentioned was set down ns £479,300, their upkeep

at £70,100 per annum, depreciation £31.000 complement £50,000, ■ not- including cost of victualling and clothing. Even with all this expenditure, added the Premier, the local navy would not be very effective. He heartily supported the naval subsidy rather than a local navy, and the .Government was prepared to jiropo.se an increase in the annual vote. The Government Insurance Com-

missioner reports new business for the year as follows: —Policies completed 3083. assuring £729,105, being £l3,

OS4 in advance of the previous year’s .business. The total business hoav in force is 45,648 i>olieies, assuring £lO, (167,391 (and 1,183,901 bonuses), at death or maturity. Claims by death amounted to £124,230. The

total amount paid by the Department since its foundation 37 years ago has lieen £3,180,188. The accident branch business shows a decrease in premium income from 1123,970 to £20,815. The Commissioner states the decrease is due to 'new competitors in the field, "who, in their anxiety to secure business, have been willing to accept premiums (piite incommensurate with Lhe risks run.” The claims amounted to £13.720 as against £11,343 in 1905.

In Jiis speech on the Address-ill Kopiy. -Mr. Massey urged’ that' the late exhibition was somewhat premature. Had the Government waited till the completion of the North Island Trunk railway, when possibly there would he one or two last turbine steamers running ” across the straits, there would have been a far larger attendance. He understood that some of the details of the management would be made public before long, and would be an object lesson as to what Government management really meant. Mr. Massey referred to a remark made by him last session that he believed the ex bib- I it ion would cost £75.000 or £BO,OOO. Shortly after this a Minister, on being interviewed 'in Auckland, stated that the cost would not be more than £25,000. The Minister for Public Works, who was also interviewed shortly afterwards, placed the. figure at £-10,000, and a little later be raised bis estimto to £30,000, ''X,nv. sir.” said Mr. Massey. “I want to know what the exhibition really cost.” The annual report upon immigration. which has been laid on the table of the House of Representatives, shows that during the year ended March last, there was a gain of 1210 persons uypr the "number given i|i t|ie hist report. They possessed capital to tile extent pi £ll-1.080. and an annual income in addition of £IOBB. The amount contributed by tile colony in passage money was £12,570. In the earlv part of last year 270 navvies arrived for the North Island Main Trunk railway, but "the granting of passages to t-liis class bad benn discontinued. All the immigrants it was stated were of a very superior class. The concession of assisted passages to relatives of persons already in ibe colony bad been largely availed of. A large number of applications for information concpi-jiing the colony was also being received from tile United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and other countries. The total number of persons to whom assisted passages were granted during the year was 3712, the number including 466 .. farmers, 279 navvies, 254 domestics, and 841 artisans and members of various occupations.

Mr. Stalhvortliy luis moved in the House for a return to ho furnished showing the quantity of kauri hold by the Crown, sawmilling companies, and private individuals, together with tlio number of mills owned and engaged in' the cutting of kauri, {die number of hands employed therein, and the quantity and value of the output for 190(1. The member for Geraldine was in humorous vein in the House of ltepresentatives on Thursday night. The Gender of the Opposition was the subject of the first salley from Mr. Flatman. “What is Mr. Massey?” ho asked, with a contemptuous glance at the front Opposition bench. “Hu can’t keep the sun from shining by holding up a blanket. lie can’t double up the moon and put it in his pocket. Ho can’t make a wheelbarrow do the work of a motor-car. Not lie I He is nothing extraordinary. Ho is only the same as any other man.” After this withering outburst, Mr. Flatraan wandered into other realms of humor. Speaking of unionism, he said: “I joined a union once, and that was when I got married, and I never joined another.” Tile House laughed.