NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1898, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF.

INTERPROVINCIAL. Captain Wilson, of the steamer Onda presented the Canterbury Museum with four ancient Buddhas from Burmah. Two of thes. are in clay or terra-cotta, one in white marble, and the other in wood. The Buddhas Avere obtained from a cave at Moulmein, near Rangoon, by Captain Wilson himself. The Auckland Star reports that the expedition to dive for valuables at the wreck of the Tasmania is now fitting out in Auckland, the old ketch Perseverance being equipped for the purpose. Mr. Pascoe is to be the diver in charge of the operations. A consignment of Tasmanian opossums have been liberated on the north side of the Waikaremoana Lake, Gisborne, in a piece of heavy bush. It is thought they will thrive very well in the district. A curio in whittling has been done by a youth of 18, at Cheviot. It is a chain nearly 7ft long, of about 40 links, with swivel and hook, whittled with a pocketknife out of a piece of 2 x 2 Baltic pine. Dr. Murdoch M'Kenzie. who was temporarily in charge of the Westland District Hospital, has been permanently appointed to the position from a large number of applicants. In his report to the Greymouth Borough Council Mr. Ainsworth, Inspector of Dairies, complained of the insanitary condition of some of the milking sheds, and suggested that dairymen should keep only half the number of cows they have at present, as they were unable to properly feed under existing conditions. There has not been so much sickness about Greymouth for some years as there is at present. Influenza, measles, scarlatina, and heavy colds are quite common, and there are no signs of an abatement of the epidemic. It is stated that one of the streams near the Karamea possesses poisonous properties. It is a powerful sedative, and a number of Karamea settlers have experienced ill effects from imbibing it. Two men from Western Australia are on a prospecting expedition up the Hokitika River, and it is rumoured possess some knowledge of the existence of payable gold discovered in the early sixties. The Auckland volunteers are in want of a new rifle range, that at Mount Eden not being up to the requirements of the new long-range rifle. The mines at Brunnerton have been' working extra well lately, the miners having ' been employed at times 10 hours per day to keep pace with the demand. Some of the best crops in the Hastings district this season are to be found on country which was submerged by last year's flood, and on which large quantities of silt were deposited. Golf has become quite a " rage " with the natives in the Hastings district. They are at it almost from daylight to dark every day in the week, including Sundays.