LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12393, 14 December 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

During the week ending Saturday. Decembers 11th. 381 people visited the Museum. ■

The exhibition of pupils' work at the Technical School will be opened at 7.30 ihis evening.

Messrs .AHomos. Hughes and Tarrant have commenced paintir.g the Museum to-day and expect to have it finished by Christmas. In another column Mr W. F. Wall gives a flat denial to a rumour that he has been appoints'! to the position of hangman. In another column Mr J. W. Rough, architect, cf Eltham, invites tenders for;the election of double-storey I'erroconcretc shops and offices at Eltham. We hare to acknowledge receipt of a handy table calendar from the Australian Mutual Provident Society. Also .a wall calendar from the National Insurance Company. Tlio Gishorne Women's Guild has I been adviaad that the Government will grant up to £1000 on(a pound for i pound sub:idy to the Maternity Home (now in course of construction. I After a period of hot weather a ■ change set in yesterday, the tr>evnioine- ! ter dropping considerably, while rain fell fairly steadily. The' rain will be 1 welcomed by farmers. | The Committee of the Wan^aum Or- | phanage desires to exnress thanks to I those friends who during the nast month have forwarded giits of clothing, r>re erv:d plums, butter, scones, cakes, fruit, grapes. The Art, Industrial, and Curia Exhibition, held in aid of the Gisborne City Hand's funds, was most successful, the gro's receipts for the four nights being £CGO, which will give a r?tum of i'ully £'5:;0 to the Band. A London cable says that tho. Court of Appeal has dismissed Canon Thomson\ appeal in a case for denying the Sacrament to Mr and Mrs Banister. (Canon Thomson reiuseel the Sacrament to Mr and Mrs Banister., owing to the latter oeir.g a deceased wife's sister.) An Oamaru wire says that at the annual meeting of the Oamaru Woollen Factory Co. held yesterday a dividend of 4 per cent, was declared, making 8 per cent, for the year. £1.500 was added to the reserve and £902 5s lid was carried forward. The chairman, in his statement, said that business had been good during the year, which would have been better had there been less difficulty in obtaining labour.

The Garrison Band has just been strengthened by tiie addition of two cornet players from the South Island.

The ordinary School Committee meeting which should have been held last right did not take place.

Although the exact amount has not been made known, we understand that the deficiency on the Wanganui tramways' first year's operations is something under £1000.

At telegraph offices observing holiday attendance ;) a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. to midnight, the attendance on Saturday, New Year's Day Ist prox., will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Mr W". Kerr Coroner, held an inquest yesterday morning into the circumstances surrounding the death of Edward Hackett, who was drowned in the river near Laitown on Thursday night. A verdict oT found drowned was returned.

At a well attended meeting of the Executive of the Wangsnui Christian Convention held on the 3rd inst., it was unanimously resolved to alter the time for the meetings from the end of January to some date after Easter. This decision was arrived at after a full dis-

cussion

Mr W. Webb, the local contestant for the '.'New Zealand Times" voting contest, lias secured a. five years' subscription from the Cosmopolitan Cl.ib, which counts as 1000 votes. Mr J. R. Foster has also given his name for a five years' subscription. Many local residents have already signed for shorter terms.

At the meeting of the Wanganui Drivers' Union, held in the Rutland Buildings last Thursday, the following resolution was carried: "That this Union condemns the action <}f the Arbitration Court in attaching a memorandum to the award of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union so detrimental to the best interests of the Union."

A deputation from the Chamber of Commerce, consisting of Messrs Williams (chairman), Campbell and Connor, loft for Wellington by the mail train yesterday. They intend to interview the Minister on the questions of the River Bank Road, Aim Ahu Block Roads, grading stores at Wanganui, deferential railway rates and several other matters.

The Garrison Band^ intend giving a. sacred concert in. the Opera House on Sunday evening next, commencing at 8.30 A tine programme has been prepared, and a very large audience may Le anticipated, as these concerts provide pleasant and refined recreation for those who attend them. A collection will bo taken to defray expenses of Opera House, etc., and the balance (if any) will be placed toward the Ballarat Content Fund. The full programme will be published in, a future issue.

The Christchnrch Trades and Labour Council has issued a manifesto, strongly protesting against the Government's land proposals. A meeting of Christchurch South and Christchurch East electors unanimously carried a resolution: "That this'meeting believes the freehold tenure to be the most pernicious iform of land tenure, and' most empliatically protests against the proposals to o-rant the freehold of their sections to Crown tenants, and the sale of any moro Crown lands of the Dominion. The moetine subsequent!" formed a branch of the New Zealand Labour Party.

The holiday serson will very soon be ]■ ere. a.id ib has b-eea arranged that the children of the Wanganui Orphanage aro to ■■eta 3 weeks' sojourn at Castiecliff. In past years friends have shown, a very practical,interest in these young folks when they liave been at the seaside. They will not be forgotten this season. Friends -may leave parcels at the house of the President, Mrs Griffiths. 13, Guyton Street and donations of money may be sent to the Treasurer, Mr James B. Moßean 10, Liverpool Street, or to any member of the Orphanage Committee.

Some wonderful shooting was done by the Wcodville High School Cadets in the competition for the "Weekly Press" Challenge Shield 0:1 Friday. One boy (Lieutenant Hind) made possibles at each range, and continued shooting at 100 yards, VnisiiiTig up with 33 successive bulls. Another boy (Bugler Rapley) made the possible at 200 yards, and continuing, finished up with twenty successive bulls. The aggregate for the whole team is a Dominion record in this competition, being 33 ahead of the vinnms; score last year. The Woodville tpam has had possession of thia shield for two successive years.

A Lyttelton. "Times" reporter was informed by a member of the Christchurch Prohibition League that a resident of Christchurch. avlio had become a chronic alcoholic subject, and who applied to the Magistrate's Court for admission to the Paka'toa Institution, was refused the necessary order for admission on the ground that he had not been convicted for drunkenness the statutory number of times. The man thereupon went through the procedure imposed upon him by the law, got himself into a sufficient state oi insobriety on two occasions to secure his arrest, and was at last granted admission to the institution.

In the course of a lecture on the English language delivered before: the Christclmrch Cathedral Union <:n Monday evening last, Mr J. C. Adams spoke of"the growth and decay of languages. He said that English, instead e-f showing signs of lo:s of vitality, promised to become more powerful than it was at the present day, and he firmly believed that in the course of time English, which was already spoken throughout the world as the language of crmimerco, would become the "Volapuk" or the "Esperanto" of the world. He did not think there was the slightest need for a manufactured language as a means of intercourse among the people of tho different nations, as English- was so vigorous and so widely known that he did not think success would attend any attempt to supplant:it by an artificial language. In the course of his remarks at the Wellington Missions to Seamen social on Thursday evening. Mr Poole, M.P., gave an interesting dissertation on the meaning of the vyord "shanghaied"— a term of dread import to all self-res-pecting sni'oiv. He reminded those of his hearers who had read "The Grain Carriers" of. Mr Noble's realistic description of how an overloaded and unsaaworthv ship at San Francisco had been supplied with a crow oil1 a dozen or so of drugged men. who broke out in open mutiny when they awoke to their true situation. "It amounts to the stealing of men," remarked Mr Poole, and he explained how men had b?en rendered insensible and bundled on board a «hio wanting; hair's by unscrupulous crimp-;, who fraudulently secure:! advance mnn?y and any premium offered by ]vcc\vmz sssinvn. Even dead men had been put into a ship's forecastle to Fitpplv the nr+-i"le requirements. The 'Viiamriiaied" man littlo to cnt, nn-1 driuv YM^ rv no money wages at the end of the voy-