TUBERCULOSIS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9344, 19 February 1896, Page 5

TUBERCULOSIS.

The Olutha Leader states that Mr Park, Government veterinary export, ordered the destruction of an entire herd of pigs owned by a farmer in the district, as they were badly affected with tuberculosis.

TIMARU GAS COMPANST.

At the annual meettug of the Timarn Gas Company last night it was shown that tbe profit for the year was £889. A dividend of 8 per cent, was declared. The Directors were asked to call up 10s per share in order to wipe off the liability on debentures maturing in November next.

STANDARD INSURANCE COMPANY

The annual report of the Directors of the Standard Insurance Company has been issued. Tbe balance-sheet shows the income from underwriting to have been

£73,853 5i 21, from investments £4439 2*, transfer fees £24 J6-, total £73 2-2 35 7d. The losses amounted to £32 600 3i 7J, reinsurances £24,854 12s 10 i, expenses of management, Ac, £15,633 9* lOi, balance of profit and loss £5134 2s 4d. The underwriting profit was, therefore, £769 14*. The Directors recommend a dividend of 7_ per cent. They regret the business has not been more profitable, which they attribute to the low rates for fire insurance which prevailed in the colony and the numerous casualties to shipping.

THE AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON,

A Press Association telegram reports that H.M.8.8. Orlando, Rtngarooma and Wal. laroo, bound North, passed the Bluff at 3.30 p.m. yesterday.

EXPORT OF CHEESE.

The Hawera Star learns that an Eltham business mau has lately tried the Sydney market with a shipment of cheese, which, if not very profitable, seems to show that with the duties removed there should be a good opening for the Nsw Zealand article.

A NEW ZEALAND ARTIST.

The Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times telegraphs :—** Mr C. F. Goldie, son of Mr David Goldie, ex-M.H.R., who has been for the last three years fitting himself for an artist's career in Paris, has been awarded the first and only prize given for drawing from life for the united studios of Julian, in Paris. More than 300 students from all parts of the world competed, so that MrGoldie's work willnowbehnng in the studio with that of the priza winners for the latt ten or fifteen years, many of whom are now celebrated artists.

A BUSH FIRE.

The Press Association sends the following message from Wellington —An extensive bush fire has been ragiog near Martinborough. A scrip of country fifteen miles lon,** and from one to six miles broad has been cleared. Dozens of wild pigs were roasted, aud it is believed that many deer have perished. The tire comes not inopportunely, as the Government Surveyor was about to report on the opening of more land for settlement in the district, and now it is ready cleared.

NEW ZEALAND RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

Although only £120 is set down on the programme for the North Otago Match at tho New Zealand Rifle Association Meeting, the amount contributed by the town will be largely in excess of that sum. Whethor the excess will be added to the North Otago Match or to the Nursery Mutch will not be determined until Major Sommerville arrives at the end of the week.

AN AWKWARD FIX,

A Press Association telegram from Auckland slates that a man named Archie Thompson, while cutting timber in Brown's Bush in connection with the Waihi Sawmill, was proceeding along a bush road when he found that some one had fired the bush ahead, blocking his progress. He attempted to go back and discovered that a fire had started id his rear, hemming him in completely, ft was a case of facing the less of two evils, and bis horses stopped in the midst of the flames. Thompson, to save the animals, pluckily rushed into the fire and managed to cue them loose. He got badly burned on the arms, hands and face, and the horses were all more or less seriously injured.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

In response to advertisements a large number of the residents of Amberley and the surrounding district assembled at the Oddfellows' Hall, Amberley, last Monday to consider the desirability of forming a branch of the Canterbury section of the National Association of New Zealand. Mr F. Courage was appointed Chairman, aud fuily explained the objects of the Association. Mr J. Smelhe moved—"That a branch of th.c National Association of New Zealand be formed in Amberley, to be in agreement with the Canterbury branoh." This waß seconded by Mr J. Wilson and carried. Several of those present then gave in their names and aubscriptions as members, and a Committee meeting waa held at which the following officers were elected :—Mr F, Courage, President; Messrs John Smellie and T. H. Evans, Vice-Presidents ; Mr W. M. Burke, Treasurer; Mr H. Gain, Secretary ; also a Committee of fourteen to carry out the objects of the Association.

TOWER OF ENGLAND.

It is so seldom nowadays that Englishmen find much comfort in the perusal of Continental newspapers that the reproduction of a sentence or two from the St. Petersburg correspondence of the Frankfurter Zeitung of Boxing Day is pardouable :—The fact that the mere threat of war has already cost the Yankees pretty dear (says the German journalist) has had a sobering effeot on those Russians who counted with certainty on the outbreak of a war between Groat Britain and the States. Here in Russia, where, as in several other countries, people overwhelm "the British nation of shopkeepers" with scorn aud mockery, because it can hardly mobilise half a million of soldiers, and is wont to fight shy of every serious danger of war, they are quite dumb at the spectacle of the unshaken composure with which tbe British received the American threat, and of the-mighty shaking of the American mouey market in consequence of Cleveland's ill considered utterance. They seem only now to understand how enormous is the power of England, and this perception may have a useful effeot here, too, far beyond the limits of the present dispute.