TELEGRAMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1921, Page 3

TELEGRAMS.

VARIOUS DOMINION ITEMS.

, —U.EGRAPH —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION] RAILWAY RETURNS. FIGURES FOR LAST FINANCIAL YEAR. WELLINGTON, May 12. Railway returns gazefttefd to-night show that the total number of passengers carried during the year ended March 31st was 15,315,040, against 12,760,814 for the previous year, an increase of 2,554,826. In round figures the increase in the number of secondclass passengers was 2,120,(KM), while the increase in first-class passengers was 432,000.

The total railway revenue for the period ended March 31st was £6,908,531...N0rth Island, £4,134,985; South Island, £2,773,545- while the total expenditure was £562,600 —North Island, £3,126,400; South Island £2,510,200. For the previous year the figures wore:—Total revenue £5,732,487North Island, £3,366,330; South island, £2,386,1757. Total expenditure £4,105,067—North Island, £2,268,486; South Island £1,836,581. The total number of live stock carried during the year just closed “was 7,503,86 7,a decrease of 168,565, while the goods carried totalled 6,085,360 tons, an increase of 488,128 tons.

DISPUTE AT MILLERTON MINE. WESTPORT, May 14 The Millertoh mine was idle to*=dfty ( consequent on a dispute between the management and the men over a man being sent home because the man, ot men, in charge of their particular face or faces were not at work. The Act provides that the man in charge of a working face must have two years’ experience in mining. The miners contend that if the former does not turn up at work, the other men should be found some other work, instead of being sent home. WATERFRONT LABOUR.

TIMARU May io. At a meeting of the Timaru A. arid i\ Association on Saturday, it was decided to write to all the A. arid P. Associations in the Dominion and :hc Farmers’ Unions, asking them to go into the question of labour on the waterfront, and to ask the Minister of Labour to convene a conference of fill the Harbour Boards with a view to the adoption of some system of permanent labour on the whnrve*. HOLDING WOOL RACK. MASTER TON, May i-l. On the motion of .*ir V. Perry, a member of the Council of Agricnltu.'c. the Mastertdn A. and P. Associati ni to-day resolved to request the Government to cable to Mr Massey uqging him to support Mr Hughes in his efforts to persuade the Imperial Government to agree to all B.A.W.R.A. wool being held off the market for a period of about two years in the interests of fhe Australian and New Zealand wool producers.

escaped prisoner. AUCKLAND, May 11. George Vincent Keys, who escaped from Mount Eden Prison on April 8. was recaptured near River'iead on Saturday. He was surprised in an outhouse when having his midday meal He did not resist. MISHAPS TO MAPOURIKA. WELLINGTON, May 15. The steamer Mapourikn, when arriving at 9 this morning from Nelson, was caught by a violent squall and she collided with the wharf. The latter was damaged to the extent of two or three •hundred pounds, being cut into for a depth of twelve feet. Only two rivets started in the vessels’s hull. When earlier she was off Terawhiti at 5 o’clock this morning the stewards discovered that a porthole was left op m in the Mapourika stewards' storeroom and a lot of water had got into the compartment, damaging the foodstuffs in the storeroom. The water found its way into the afterhold which contained no cargo. Pumping operations had cleared the water by this evening.

DEATH OF UNION SECRETARY. NAPIER, May 14. The death occurred on Saturday i f Air Denis McCarthy. Ho was fur many years secretary if the Napier Watersiders’ Union. Mr McCarthy had a seizure on Friday night and vns taken to the hospital on Saturday mornning. He died there at 4 p.m. to-div. AURORA AUSTRALIS. AUCKLAND, May 16. A beautiful Aurora Australis was visible in the southern sky from six to eight on Sunday evening. Its richness and distinctness was beyond anything usually seen, save much nearer the polar regions. Telegraph operati ms were much affected on Saturday and Sunday.

A LEAKING VESSEL. AUCKLAND, May 16. The barquentine Ysabel, loaded with cement at Whangnrei, was towed to dns port last night leaking. The pumps were manned constantly throughout vh* voyage.

A PRINTER’S DEATH. WELLINGTON, May 16 On Saturday evening the death took place of S. J. Furness, who is well known to the older generation of newspaper men and printers. He was born in Wellington over 69 years ago. On leaving school he entered the office of the “Independent,” and as a young man conducted a printing office in Nelson. He also was one of the founders of the Ashburton “Guardian.” He proceeded to Blenheim in 1879 and in partnership with J. H. Boundy acquired the “Marlborough Express.” Mr Boundy retired in 1894, and from that time till 1919 Air Furness was sole proprietor of. the paper. At the end of 1917 he returned to Wellington.