WELLINGTON NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 40

WELLINGTON NOTES

(Faoic Oub Own Oorbespondknt.) WELLINGTON, February 3. The cost of living in Wellington goes on increasing. The latest rise is in the price cf milk, - which is now 4d a quart, with every probability that it will be as hig-h as 6d a quart before very long. Butter and eggs are also dear, while house rent continues abnormally high. Indeed, for any empty house in the city there are many applicants, and the demand is much greater than the supply. The man with an average .salary who has to Jive in town is having a very hard time of it. \ The dry weather continues, and the country pretty well from Auckland to Cook Strait is suffering consequently. On the West Coast many dairy farmers are not getting with from 40 to 60 per cent, of j their normal output. The long spell of dry weather will mean a loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the (ountrv, ] .and this combined with' the drop in the price of wool will result in a greatly de- ] creased general expenditure during the coming winter. A persistent rumour that a- prominent Wellington business man is likely to leave for London to take Mr Reeves" s place as High Commissioner in Lojjdon has no truth in it. It is quite on the cards, however, that there may be a change in the High Commiseionerehip. before many , {years are over, bat the one man in the ! party who has a claim upon the office j ie the Hon. Mr Hall- Jones. Mr Hall- i ffones is not, however, likely to resign his \ seat in the Cabinet before the general j election, even if he has any hankerings J after the High Commiseionership. so there | is ,no likelihood of any immediate change in connection with the latter. February 4. To-day Mrs Joseph Bull and Mrs Edward Bull, the first twins born in Wellington, celebrated their sixty-fifth birthday. They j were born a year after the arrival of their parents in the ship London, in 1842, and since then they* have not -been out of Wellington for more than a month. February 5. The Government intends shortly to carry cut an improved method of treating the mentally afflicted. The Hon. Mr Fowlds »ays the Government is making some additions to the Mental Hospital at Porirua. but these ai*e not of a very extensive character. He is on the look-out for a suitable piece of land for a central mental hospital, . but so. far has not -been successful. It will probably be on the Main Trunk line, where a good extent of land can be obtained. "We have," he says, *' lots of available labour at these institutions which we cannot use to the best advantage on the small pieces of < land at_ present attached to them ; and, in any case, Ihe time has arrived when we ought to start on another institution. It Js_ not a t'.psirable thing to have too many inmates crowded into one building. If we had a large piece of land and were starting «,new we would work the institution more in the wa-v of separate colonies, which would enable much belter clas^ificat on to be arranged than is possible when having all the patient-s in one large building." February 7. A start was made to-day with the work of altering Government House with a view to preparing it for the next meeting of Parliament. February 8. A start has been made here to laj th«« telephone wires underground. Some of the conduits will be capable of carrying no fewer than +800 distinct connections. The wires v.ill be in leaden tubes, tube carrying 200 connections. The tubes are enclosed in water-resisting pipes, which in turn will be embedded in solid concrete. The conduits will be tapped at intervals of 500 ft with manholes, ja.ad connections will be made through wires in the ordinary wag. It vill take several years to complete the new system.^' » The nil-siocary who brought +he little Chinese jrjrl to New Zealand is Mis 3 Reid, of Ehmediu. The Post gives some further particulars about the child. When she \7ut a year old she was ill with dysentery— a common ailment in China, especially in the Yangteze Valley. Her native town ■was Antunjj. Being at the point of deatk, xwi hor case seeming to be hopeless, she •was prepared for disposal in the manner ottStomary in Anfung. Done up into a peroel, and naeke<J into a gunny bag, she «ot rea-dv for dropping over the city tt«.U. where- hordes of savage, hungry doers >«r* in r.aiting- to devour her, «s ther hare

done other babes for generations past. That is the way in Antung. In other parts there are towere by the roadside with apertures in their sides just large enough to admit a baby. The towers are not high above the road, but they are deep. Quicklime is thrown into them for hygenic reasons, and the babies are dropped into the tower by their mothers, sometimes with the coolness that one would post a letter in a pilar box in Western countries. In I Antung they drop the babies over the city j wall. Just in time, Miss Reid hoard of 1 this premeditated murder, and she prevented it. She says she argued with the parents, who said that the child was at the point of death and even if she lived she might be weakly al! her days, and to whom could a sickly girl be given in marriage? Finally, after all, she was a girl. Now, had the babe been a boy all would have been different, but was a girl worth having. Miss Reid thought so. and she saved the child's life by adopting her. Care is taken to keep the fact of the child's mind that she has parents, but co far .is the control of her future is concerned, that has been entirely relinquished by them. Little Pih will go io school in Xew Zealand, probably in Dunedin. and when she returns to China she will be os carefully nurtured as if she were the child of fond English parents. Ultimately she will be educated for the mediepl profession. It is Mi«s Reid'« hope and intention that the girl shall work among thf» women of her own country, and. if possible, teaoh them that a girl's life is a« sacred as any other, «nd that among the barbarians of the west she is held in equal honour and affection. February 11 j The Minister of Education has under consideration the question of remedying the grievances of teachers regarding inequalities in salaries, particularly in the ca«e of sole teachers in country schools. He will submit proposals on the question to Parliament next session. The keeper of the refreshment rooms at Kaitoke states that he took over the rooms in May, 1905. there being then in stock 37^ dozen cups. Up to December he purchased 668 dozen cups. He estimates his total loss of cups in two years and three-quarters to have cost him £160 2s 7d. In addition to that there has been a large loss in plates i and spoons. WELLINGTON. February 12. At the beginning of March there is to be a ballot "by the police force for the purpose of ascertaining whether members are desirous of loining the Government superannuation scheme, or whether they vi ill continue under the Police Provident Fund, which, on 31st March last, was about £30.000 in credit. Writing on the Ist February, the representati%c of the Tourist and Industries Departments at Sydney stated that numbers of \oung men with agricultural experience were rinding their way across to New Zealand in search of employment. Inquiries concerning settlement in New Zealand were also plentiful, and there was no diminution in the tourist traffic. February 16. Some 200 assisted immigrants arrived by the Rua.pehu from London. Amongst them were several farmers and farm .labourers and a few servant girls. The weather continues warm and di-\, and it is impossible to -see any Teat distance owing 1 to the smoke of bush fires. The destruction in the country goes on, and matters are likely to assume a very serious aspect for pastoralists before the winter is over. The price of stock is falling rapidly, and fiom the East Coast large numbers of sheep are being sent north io the Waikato. Owing to the many big '"barns," tliere will be a large area in grass next season. and a consequent improved demind for stock, providing, of course, that vie ilo not experience another drought. The bush fires near Wellington haie driven large numbers of rabbits into the open. A hundred and fifty were shot at Pahautanui last Sunday by three parries. A deputation of veterinaiy surgeons In the Government employ waited upon -the Minister of Agriculture at his residence yesterday^ morning, fhe proceedings were private. It is understood, hoivever, that they related to some trouble between the Agricultural Department and the veterinary division regarding the training' of dairy inspectors. Kebruarv 17 Messrs Keene and Reid ha\e arranged to supply Tauranga with ga.s for a period of 30 years. A modern plant is to be erected to supply gas for lighting, cooking, and heating purposes. The Borough Council also considered a proposal made by Mr Chenejry Suggate, gas engineer, of Auckland, to erect gasworks, but Messrs Keene and Reid's scheme includes placing in commission two steamships to trade between Tauranga and Wellington, and the residents of the Bay of Plenty cordially wel- ■ corned this part of the proDosal. j