NEW SOUTH WALES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 9

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Another wild animal scare has taken place, this time in the. Wellington district. Some of the residents are confident that a tiger is roaming about, and losses of . sheep at Stuart Town and Laidly are attributed to its voracious appetite. Several persons have seen the tiger, or some animal which they take to be a tiger. One landowner has offered a reward of £50 for tho beast, dead or alive. There has been some sharp criticism in the press in regard to a. "freak" dictation paper set by tho Sydney Sewerage and Drainage Boarrd. It had the effect of causing forty-three failures out of . fifty candidates who presented th-omsolve's. It resembles the nonsense hold in reserve by the Customs Department designed to catch educated foreigners: — "This celibate was a licentiate in medicine, and held other scholastic diplomas. His characteristics wero'idiosyncrasies personified — on© day taciturn and the next garrulous. To-day his facile pen evolves a sapient dbtich in a piquant satiro of some literary genius; to-morrow an ecomiastic effusion on an illiterate voluptuary. His studies in concreto_^science were exoteric, his researches in natural philosophy esoteric, if not chimerical." It ma}' be added tha./ the faculty of mastering the innumerable absurdities of English spelling is purely mechanical and is consistent with very poor intellectual capacity. A text like this would go so far to exclude candidates of the greatst ability and fitness for the post. A remarkable feature in tho Braidwood district, the "Big Hole," has como promintntly beforo the public in connection with a swindle of unusual audacity and magnitude. Tho "Hole" is a natural shaft, almost circular, 130 feet ' in diameter and 365 feet deep, with vertical iidea. Two people only ever ventured to descend, being lowered by ropes, and one of these, Alexander Fraser, who went down twenty years ago, dircoviod brilliant possibilities. He reported that he had found at the bottom rich gold-bearing wash, also an underground passage running in the direction of Aialcuu, and intimated his belief that vhi.s was tho source of the Araloun gold. Ho floated tho "Hole" an v mining property, rtnd from first to .last obtained bct.weeu £tiOOO and £10,000

from friends and acquaintances to develop the property. This money he used entirely for his own purpose, spending it freely in giving dinners with a liberal 'hand, and making himself very popular. In the ' Supreme Court he pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining money on fake pretences. Judge Murray described the case as one of the most extraordinary that had ever come under his judicial notice in respect of persistent and deliberate fraud, and leferred in blunt terms to ths, credulity of Eraser's victims. He eentenced prisoner to five years penal servitude on each charge, sentences to be concurrent. The growth of settlement in the Temora district, Riverina, is illustrated by the fact that 130,000 bushels of wheat were, handled at the local railway station this season. Agitation for increased railway facilities is going on. The Sydney Morning Herald is gratified with the results of the late session of the Stats Parliament. In its issue of the 12th inst., it says:— The State Parliament finished its business last night,' and the short session is really over. There isi (something of . a surprise in this, because the speeches on tho Address in Reply indicated a willingness on tho part of some members in the Legislative Assembly to run on till August. Fortunately the Premier again showed himself master of the situation. The Government with its mind made up can do anything with the assembly, and .the; legislation it has been able to carry through has been quit© - sufficient evidence of the fact. Sir Henry Parkes .and Mr. Reid, in thsir best, days in State politics did not do better — indeed they rarely did as well. Which of them could show such a bunch of measures as the result of the deliberations of ono Parliament as ars comprised in tho local governing Acts, the amended liquor law, and various other very important legislative reforms? * Ths uitficulty with past Premiers lias been that they have promised some of these things, but have found party exigencies too much for them. Tho electors of New" South Wales will no doubt place the achievement to fho Government's credit with the rest cf a fruitful three I years' activity.