Local & General.

Grey River Argus, Volume 57, Issue 10520, 12 June 1902, Page 4

Local & General.

A man in Napier has received ad vices that potatoes are fetching Ll6 a ton afc the Cape. The ruling price in Napier afc the present time is L 4 per ton. Mary Schippan, who was acquitted on a charge of murdering her sister at Towitta, South Australia, denies fchafc she is married fco Gusfcave Nifcschke, as reported in the Adelaide Advertiser. An important conference of shore engineers from all parts of the colony is to be held in Wellington during the coming session of Parliament. A swagger, a big strong man, tells the Chronicle he walked from Napier to Wanganui, and was unable to obtain work. The man says on some stations in the Hawke's Bay district, when he was there three weeks ago, there were as many as seventeen or eighteen swag-men on one station one night, all looking for work. He complains particularly that along the road from Bulls to Wanganui briar is plentiful, but those responsible, despite the Noxious Weeds Act, will nofc give a man a job to clear it. One farmer told him he was taxed too much already, and could nofc afford to spend money clearing noxious weeds. In its weekly commercial report the Christchurch Press makes the following statement : — "In . Christchurch the price of bread suddenly dropped lasfc week, and is being offered in shops at 4£d for the 41b loaf." The Minister for Lands says the Cabinet has not definitely decided to amend the Land Act in the direction of preventing fche sale of the freehold of Crown lands. The question is sfcill undor consideration, but there is a probability that something will be j done next session to preserve fche freehold of all State*owned lands. A thrilling story bf a mother's heroic attempt to save her four children from Illuming house was told ata coroner's inquiry at Chatham. Her husband, named Hedley Mason Smitb, bad gone to work in the dockyard in the early morning, and the flames had got a strong hold of the ground floor before she was aware that her home was on fire. After dragging the little ones to what she hoped was a place of safety, she became unconscious, bufc was rescued with three of fchem. The fourth was burned to death.

Writing to his parents in Hawera. from the camp of the Ninth Contingent in South Africa, Trooper Bert Stevens tells that the twenty stowaways who were put ashore at Australia managed to arrive in Africa by a piece of strategy that does them tlie credit of being ingenious. They.represented (o the Australians thafc they j were a part of the New Zealand Don- 1 tingenfc and had missed their steamer, and were sent on to Africa with an Australian Contingent. What the Australians said when they discovered how they had been sold must be left to conjecture. It ia estimated that the necessary repairs to fche barque Gladys will cost between L3OOO and L4ooo— new sails and rigging alone will cost; about hloOO. During his stay in the South Sir Joseph Ward will open the cable connecting Stewart Island with the mainland. In an address to his constituents Sir Jo9t>ph will probably indicate thfc work to l.c undertaken during the coming session of Parliament.

Says the Greymouth correspondent; of the Posfc : An important; discovery of hitherto unknown hot springs, po- , ssessing properties equal to fche Rotorua springs, has been made afc Lower Kopara, within thirty three miles of Greymouth. Samples of fche water have been forwarded to the Govern- ! ment for analysis, and efforts are being made to get a direct road to the springs. Mr H Douglas De Lautour tels me fchat since ho left Gisbovne, New [Zealand, in May, 1900, he has been all through the Argentine and Chilian Republics, and also the' Falkland Hands, where he carefully studied the pastoral industries and methods of each country. "But," he say.^, "I am quite certain that to a man of limited I capital wishing to s'a^fc farming there i 9 no country like New Zealand, and I should nofc advise any one to leave New Zealand for South America." Mr Di Lautour will probably return to New Zealand in the course. of the summer. A curious coincidence is reported from W-enganui. Six women with babies mefc toge'.her recently, and agreed to vote which was the handsomest infant. Each baby got one vote. iV:

Prince Sfccherbatoff, commissioned by the Russian Government to represent Russian agricultural interests in April, delivered an address before a* meeting at the Mansion House presided over by the Lord Mayor of London. The Prince contended that Russia ought to furnish a large aad growing market for British manufactures, while fche British should find' ifc to fcheir advantage to take the surplus food prbducts of Russia. Mr J. Grattah Grey, who has done i a good deal oi traveling since his dismissal from chief-ship of the NewZealand Hansard staff, recently arrived with his wife in Melbourne, where he received a warm welcome at the hands of the Celtic Club. — Sydney ] Freeman's. \ The local office of the Union Steam Ship Company received directions thismorning not to book any more passengers, fov the " present, for the special excursion which the Waikare is to make to Fiji for the Coronation festivities in the Is'awds this month. The Waikare carries some2ooexcursionists, so thafc the enterprise of the company has been well supported. Some idea of the dimensions which the rabbit industry is assuming may be gleaned from the fact that from Thursday night until Saturday nighfc last week no fewer than 60,000 rabbits were received at the Burnside Freezing Works.

Venice Has a cafe which has been open day and night for 150 years. Politics have not by any means been a source of financial gain tp Mr Field, M.H.R., so he informed Otaki electors last night. They occupy about three quarters of his time — the whole of it during the session and about half of it during the remainder of the year — «nd, assuming that he could earn LIOOO a year as a legal practitioner in tlie city, it meant that he sacrificed L 750. As a"member of Parliament, he was now payed L3OO, and it. would be seen that that did nobby any means pay him for the time spent in politics. He could not have held the position if he had nofc had partners. Still, it was a pleasure to him, and he waa anxious to serve the electors, so he was coming forward again. A country member— especially one who did his duty — was well worth L3OO a year. The election would about swallow up one year's honorarium, though the Act provided that the expenses must not exceed L2OO. Mr Field admitted that it would pay Foine town members if fchey received Ll 50. Referring to his donation of L4O to the Otaki Hospital, he emphatically repudiated the suggestion that he had given it because he weakened after his vote for the allowance. He gave, ifc because ifc had for some time been his intention to make a donation to the hospital when he could afford ifc, and the opportunity came then.

It will not do (says the Manawatu Standard) for the residents of this dis- , trict to rest supinely under the im. pression fchafc fche notice given to the Manawatu Railway Company of the termination of the present arrangement for fche exchange of passengers and goods is merely a threat to bring the company to terms and that there will be no interference with the present state of affairs likely to cause inconvenience to the users of the company's line. We happen to know that mosb elaborate preparations have been made to block the traffic on the company's line as much as possible. Notice has been given of the intention of Government to take a portion of fche f rentage of sections between the Longburn School and the present station, for the purpose of erecting new buildings and goods shed nearer the Freezing Works, and passengers going pasfc Longburn will have to walk a quarter of a mile to get to the connecting train, while goods will have fco be carted the same distance. The Standard suggests that it is well worth considering whether the local bodies should not construct a. light railway line between Palmerston and Longburn, and so afford the company facilities for conveying passengers and goods to Palmerston independent of the Government line altogether.

Apropos of the summoning ofJParliameutfor the Ist July, the Manawatu Standard declares thafc the dafceia utterly unconstitutional, as according to law the supplies for the year commencing on that day should have been voted before the end of June. But, adds our contemporary, conI stifcuttonal Government . has gone out of fashion of late. The Christchurch Spectator hears on very: good authority that Cardinal Moijsin, now oh a visit to Rome, will not 'return to Australia, but will be attached to the Vatican. Further, that it is highly probable that Archbishop Redwood will be the recepienfc of a high honor at an early date-r-thafc of being elevated tothe dignity of a cardinal. Fifty pounds is to be given by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society towards the scheme of the Government to obtain birds smiaahiot the colony, preference to be given to ducksand wild geese. It is stated that experiments made at the Government farm at Ruakura seem to indicate that ragwort is the cause of the cattle disease known as "bush sickness."

The experimental trip of the Federal line steamer Sussex to South Africa from New Zealand is now certain to be very successful. In addition to the 30,000 carcases of mutton from Timaru and Lyttelton, large quantities of "mild.curehamand bacon, poultry, butter, cheese, leather, condensed milk, and potatoes will be shipped. ' ' _ - '