WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2346, 23 July 1887, Page 2

WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

[hV TKI.KOUAI'II OWN COIUIKSI'ON 1 )KST. ] Wt.U.INU TON, Wednesday. So vague is tin* public mind upon tlic subject that even in Wellington it seems necessary to mention that claims to vote will be rccoiv ci 1 by the resist ration officer* up to the dale of the issue of the writs. The issue of the writs will clo.-e the registration offices.

Following upon the comic story of a few days ago there comes another curious compensali m case. The compensation man this t.me had received his compensation, and on the strength of it had spent a very pleasant month or so in an adjourning colony. Returning to New Zealand he applied for a billet in the Civil .Service as if he were a perfect stranger, and in due course his name again appeared in the pay sheets of the country. All of which tends to create an impression in the public mind that kissing goes by favour. Public attention is divided at the present moment between the politicians and the burglars, not equally divided, because the burglars have much the best of it. They have brought into existance a degree of mental activity the like of which is not within the recollection of even the oldest inhabitant. Despairing of receiving effective aid from the police, everybody is barricading on bis own account. The “burglar"’ scare is now a tiling of great proportions. The Post last evening contained large type cross-headed accounts of no fewer than four fresh attempts at burglary, and a heated controversy has arisen between the Post and the Times upon the question whether burglary, properly speaking, is an offence peculiar to the light of day or to the darkness of night. The Post holds that burglary, worthy of the name, is usually performed in the dead of night. The Times has temporarily conceded that it may have been wrong in describing burglary as a day-light robbery, and so another momentous question carries with it the prospect of peaceful solution. There is considerable activity amongst shareholders in the New Zealand Shipping Company in connection with the forthcoming annual meeting to he held in August. The company is more largely owned in Wellington than in Canterbury, and tbe shareholders hero, as they express it, are beginning to want something for their money. If it is only a greater knowledge of the company, which has cost them so much.

In consequence of the appearance in the Times a few days ago of a letter signed by Mr Vickers, formerly an officer in the Native Department, great changes are b'ing made in that department, with a view to take the wind out of Mr Vickers’sails. Mr Vickers’ letter led to considerable public comment, and the flutter in the native office dovecot during the last few days has caused no small amount of amusement. Tire anathema maranatha has been passed upon Vickers by] the departmental heads, while the public are asking Vickers for more letters. In regard to matters of solid general interest, Micawber-like, the public are anxiously waiting for something to turn up.