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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3143, 22 March 1909, Page 4

At West Narrabri (N.S.W.) list week, Karl Hansen (26), sailor, employed on the Pilliga scrub clearing work, was shot by the police. Some of the men on the Pilliga works are a rough lot, and have given the police mu:h trouble. A couple of days before this fatal occurrence they commenced drinking, and the police promptly locked up five of them. A sixth man got away. Constable William Lane, officer in charge of West Narrabri, arrested Hansen, y alleged to be the sitxh man, for riotous conduct. Hansen resented, and drawing a knife, attempted to stab the officer, who then drew his revolver, with a view to firing at his opponent's legs, but Hansen ducked, and received the bullet in the forehead, death ensuing in a few hours.

Mr M'Keown, in charge of the Wellington Labour Bureau, did not have a very satisfactory statement to make on Saturday as to thestate of the local labour market. Carpenters, painters, bricklayers and others connected with the building trades were looking in vain for work, aad in increasing numbers week by week, although it seemed" probable that new undertakings would presently absorb some of them. Dairy hands were being shortened in Taranaki, Manawatu, and Wairarapa; nevertheless vacancies exist for a few really first-class milkers. The callers at the offices now number i* from 40 to 45 a day, and there are considerable enquiries to get work, but jobs in the country are not keenlysought. Pick and shovel work is reported to be very scarce just now. Disinclination tn work in the country was to be seen in a number of letters written by Mr M'Keown. recommending men to work at various country places in both islands, which letters had never been called for by the applicants for work. A lot of men described as clerks call upon the Labour Department from time to time for employment, but great difficulty is experienced in placing them.

You cannot hear the groat opentiG stars, but tlie'great composers of music may be your daily companions. All you want is a piano—a good piano. Inferior pianos are an irritation. The Dresden Piano Company stocks only good pianos, selected with spr-cial regard to New Zealand climate and conditions. The Dresden Company is absolutely straight in its dealings. That is principle. You can buy a piano on such easy terms that you will scarcely feel that you are paying for it. Mr M. J. Brookes is manager for •the North Island. Local representative! Mr T. B. Hunter,

The following local runners have for the 75 Yards Handicap in connection with the Palmerston North Gaslight Sports, to be held at that town on Thursday next:—J. H. .Berry, A. E. Wilton, J. Johnson.

At a recent meeting of the Greymouth Harbour Board it was said that the expense of running the new dredge Mawhcra for three months "Would be £3OO. One of the members said he thought £SOO would be nearer tbe mark.

A despondent looking land-hunter, Who had taken part in 23 land ballots for Crown lands mournfully told a representative of the "North Otago Times" that he had grown grey in the effort to draw the right marble, and nad now given it up as a bad job.

A pound and a-half of ripe English strawberries were on sale at a London shop on February 3rd, and quickly purchased by a gentleman living in Eaton square, at 16s a pound, each of the strawberries cost about a Ad.

Kaiapoi residents have a mim"ber of fowls recently through the •depredations of dogs, about 140 birds having been killed. The tjffending. dogs were caught while attacking the occupants of a fowlyard, and the owners had to pay a .heavy bill lor damages before the animals were released.

The opinion already expressed by Captains Stewart and Aldwell, of the Pateena and Te Anau respectively, ■that the ifljfated Penguin struck a

derelict in Cook Strut, is home out "by information received from Mr R. B. D. Eyre, Collector of Customs for Blenheim, who was interviewed by a Herald" reporter. He is of the ©pinion that if the Penguin struck a derelict it was the schooner Pet,

laden with timber, which ran on the arocka at the entrance to Pelorus Sound some time ago, and came off ten days later. This theory is borne out by the fact that, alter the dis- ' aster, large quantities of timber came ashore at Kaikoura and along

the Flaxbourne beach. Together with the timber, the bulwarks, decking, and debris, similar to a schooner the size of the Pet, are to 3>e seen. AH this points to the fact that the opinion expressed by Captains Stewart and Aldwell bears some significance (adds the "Herald''), and tfje only way to clear up the mystery is to locate the spot where the Pengain lies.

At the conclusion of the ordinary business at the Auckland Harbour Board meeting on Tuesday, the chairman (Hon. E. Michelson) said, according toithe "Herald," that some time ago very alarming -statements -were made by a certain member of the Board regarding the ferro-con-crete wharves. The question was; (before the Board, and it was agreed that it 1 would be unfair to undertake any inquiry in the absence of the Board's engineer. It would be a wise thing, 'now that the engineer had returned, to have a lull leport made, and -find whether the defects Teported at the time had increased or if the remedy applied 'had been'effective. Mr J. B. Macfarlane remarked that it was wonderful howiloig such alarmist reports, as were made then, took to die out. He had been asked aoout the railway wharf by peode in Dunedin and Wellington, and his reply was that he wished he. could live as long as the Railway Wharf would last, for then he would be ammortal. It \wa* agreed, on the chairman's motion, that ithe engineer should prepare a report on the Railway Wharf.

When the city of Dunedin was a scattered hamlet, and yet the principal town of the province that was just in the gray dawn of prosperity, Captain Cargill,Superintendent of the settlement, purchased from one Dent, of London, a large clock, which he hung near the Speaker's chair in the hall in which the Provincial Ciuncil periodically assembled. That was 60 years ago, and the old clock, passing through many vicissitudes, has solemnly ticked out the.days and months and decades. It hung .for long in-

the Normal School, until once more

.a change in the order of things "' moved it on, and, the Hon. Thomas Fergus taicing an interest in the venerable timekeeper, it found its most recent resting-place in the Education Board's room, says the "'Otago Daily Times." Gn Wednesday the board in conclave .assembled bequeathed the instrument, in truat, to the Early Settlers' Museum, where it will once more be associated with the original chair and table used by the Speaker of the Provincial Council