WELLINGTON,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2201, 27 May 1908, Page 2

WELLINGTON,

(iSi>ecial to “Times.”)

WELLINGTON, May 2G. A MATTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Though the Government insists on the laws regarding public health and maintains '•an. expensive Department of Health, it evidently does not always act up to its principles. A correspondent of the “Evening Post” writes that “the septic tank at Upper Hutt Railway Station was again overflowing and polluting the vicinity of the milk loading, dock oil Friday morning. At the orsonnr time a deposit of ,um>ui©‘"some four to six- indies' deep and probably 20 feet wide, extends for a chain or more alongside the railway line opposite the passenger platform. Fortunately the welther is iiot warm, otherwise the railway station would be a bed of roses or something else with stinking stable litter and the foetid contents of a- septic tank musically inclined'within a chain of the passenger platform.” THE PRICE OF LABOR.

A deputation from the New Zealand Ironmasters’ Association waited on Sir James Mills, managing director of the Union Company to-dav with reference to the prices charged for the supply of labor to the Company. The deputation.'asked for an increase in the rates charged fpr.the supply of labor,.pointing out {hat as present contracts are based on prices fixed twenty years ago, and that during that period the price of labor has considerably increased. Sir James Mills promised that the representations of the deputation should receive careful consideration.

RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK The shortage of rolling stock is etill causing inconvenience, and the Union Company is complaining. The Railway Department says that this difficulty has been overcome, but the Union Company denies the statement. Two of the Company’s colliers, the Kittawa- and Koromiko. "ere on Saturday waiting upon the rolling stock. Furthermore, the Company states that if berthage accommodation had been -available for the Otterburn the Department would have been hopelessly incapable of coping with the traffic.

A SCENIC RESERVE. Twenty-six thousand acres of land on the banks of the Wanganui River have been jeserved by the Government for scenic purposes. RUGBY UNION MOTHERLINESS. The weather here was not too bad to prevent the girls’ hockey teams }T°ni taking the field, yet Hie Wellington Rugby Union (which does some extraordinary things in the way of-management) postponed its games, fins motherly interest in its players has caused some comment and amusement. Tlie matches were not postponed till the public and the players were on the way to the ground. The selection of the local team also seems to have been bungled.