WELLINGTON NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2074, 28 December 1907, Page 1

WELLINGTON NEWS.

(Special to Times.) AVELLINGTON, Dec. 27. Immediately after the holidays the Minister, for Lands (Hon. R. ..,cNab) will inspect tlie suggested sites for a dairy school at Fcilding and Hawera. About the middle of January lie will go "over some of the Crown lands between Napier and Opotiki, and return to AVellingtoii by way of the Main Trunk Railway. Inquiries made locally regarding the trade done in fruit during the past few days go to show that the quantity handled bv the merchants this year was much larger than formerly. There was good inquiry for New Zealand-grown fruits of all kinds, particularly peaches.' black currants, and gooseberries. I’ninis are rather late this season, and cherry plums are also backward. The heavy shipments of fruit from New South AVales, one merchant told a “Post” reporter, somewhat demoralised tho trade, and prices, which were well maintained up to the beginning of the week, went down in • consequence. The tramway totals for Boxing Day are not yet compiled, but the cash takings (£648) show a marked increase over all previous takings for one day. On Christmas Eve 101,675 passengers were carried, inclusive of 3305 on the ICarori line and 2458 on tlie Miramar-Seatoun line. The fares collected aggregated in value £572. On Christmas Eve, 1906, the figures were 78,400 and £425 respectively. There were 65 cars plying on the various lines.

During the Christmas Eve just pissed it is satisfactory to note that notwithstanding tho huge crowds in tho street and the. immense number of passengers carried on the trams thero were no serious accidents. The only one in which injury was occasioned to anybody concerned a conductor, who slipped when getting off a ear. Yesterday a car met with a mishap in Wallace-sfcreet through a milk-cart coming into collision with it. A shaft of tho-cart pierced the car and then broke off, occasioning a fright to several of the passengers. ilJottors on racecourses now find it essential to put tlieir money on the totalisator at least five minutes before the advertised time of starting of races, or to have no wager. 'Not everybody can make up his mind in time, and somo of those who fail adopt desperate expedients. Yesterday a local lawyer, of somewhat diminutive stature, was on the trotting ground at Retone, carrying with him a bag not uncommon with the legal profession. After the machine had closed the lawyer was approached by an irate punter, who (probably misled by the bag) ejaculated, “Here, I’m shut out from the tote; give us a pound’s worth of Ploughboy.” The lawyer replied that though he could not" do that lie was prepared to accept one-third of the proffered pound and give the would-be bettor six-and-eightpence worth of advice concerning this year’s Gaming and Lotteries Act Amendment Act, its prohibitions, permitments, and penalties. The bettor, however, kept his pound intact, and when Rloughboy lost the race he oracularly remarked that the pound would do very well for Saturday.