WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 29

WELLINGTON.

The passengers by the Arawa numbered 270, of whom 207 were third class. Included in these are assisted passengers, who were certified to poesess in the aggregate £3009 in cash. A Jive-stock insurance agency is shortly to be established in Masterton in connection with a "life" office already on a sound footing. Probably the risks will also include burglary and fire insurance and fidelity guarantee. A young man named Walter Harrod was charged at Feilding with offensive beha^yiour, striking a railway guard, and using indecent language on a train from Wanganui to Palmerston at midnight last night. "Fines amounting to £9 were inflicted, in default one monfch'3 imprisonment. The Bench said that accused's conduct was that of a blackguard, and guards must be protected in the execution of their duty. In the compensation case Brown versus Heenan and Froude, contractors, for injuries sustained by a fall at the new destructor, the jury returned a verdict for £600. Costs were allowed according to scaJe. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones returned from the south on February 26. He states that the reports as to his ill-health are exaggerated. He is quite well and cheerful, and j hard at work. The electric light supply business, which flic Wellington Cdty Council acquired last year from the electrical syndicate, continues to chow satisfactory profits. The excess of revenue .over expenditure -during the six months ended 31st January, 1907, the period when the electrical syndicate had control, was £7045. For the corresponding period, ending 31st January, 1903, under municipal ownership, the excess of revenue over expenditure was £8751. The finding of the Court of Inquiry which heard the evidence concerning the recent striking of the steamer Waihi on a rock in Cook S+rait is that- Captain Carey was not to blame for the mishap. The mate committed an error of judgment in not calling the master, and could not have •been keeping a proper look-out. The court ordered that the mate should pay the costs of the inquiry, £10 13s. The Rangitikei sawmillers have decided to increase the price of timber by Is per 100 ft for all classes on account of the losses and inability to work in consequence of the bush fires. Messrs Travers, Russell, and Campbell, solicitors, have received a cable from Messrs Flowers and Flowers, solicitors, London, stating that the action brought by Joshua Jones against the executors of the estate of the late Wickham Flowers in relation to the Mokau property has been dismissed with costs. .Henry Geo. Hegarty was on Feb. 28 comnoitted to the Supreme Court for sentence on a charge of having converted to his own use £35- 9s 6d belonging to the .Vacuum Oil Company Proprietary. In the of ot>s-examination • of the manager of the j company it was elicited that accused, who ! was engaged as cash clerk, was paid £2 2e 6d per week. - iSamuel Herbert Cousins, dealer, charged with selling hams unfit for human consumption, was fined £10 and costs (£2 19s). The hams were semi-putrid. Two bankruptcies occurred in Wellington 'during the month. Mr Harry Neville, a farmer of Himitangi, was bitten by a katipo spider at tjjorton Beach to-day. He was attended

by Dr Mandl, who eventually sent him to the Palmerston Hospital for treatment. He is progressing satisfactorily.