GENERAL TELEGRAMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 259, 26 October 1908, Page 2

GENERAL TELEGRAMS.

UDY'ERNiIEXT HOADINti WORKS. By Telegraph.—Proas Association. Wellington, l.ast Xignt. Scarcity of labor i s likely to be l hie worst dilliculty ot the Roads Department m expending the. special grants uf HMflUt) for_backbloek roads this year. There are 2734 men at work now, a thousand more than at this time last year, and the Department could pinui another four hundred in various parts of the country. The main purpose to winch tlie blackblocks' allocation will be up-plied will be 'widening bridle tracks and dray roads, and it is expected that Jwl'weea four and five hundred mfres can be dealt with during the year. 'A now method of allocating the expense of superintendence and administration enables the whole of a road grant to 'be utilised for the actual work of road making.

CONVICTIONS FOR DRUNKENNESS. Christehureh, Saturday. The Lyfctcl'ton Times this morning publishes the result of an examination of police reports showing tliat during the last seven years :!,>,!W4 separate persons in the Dominion have been charged with drunkenness against whom there was no known previous convictkm for this offence. The number hist year was 5809.

A I'ATEA TRADER INJURED. Wellington, Saturday. On the last trip of the steamer Kitpiti to Patca she struck a submerged abject and sprang a leak. She completed her voyage and returned to Wellington. Soon after midnight it yas discovered that she was leaking to such an extent that she had to he beachi'd at Pipitea Point, in the harbor. The exact extent of the damage is not yet known.