BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 12763, 16 March 1906, Page 8

BREVITIES.

Counterfeit half-crowns are in circulation in Wdlington. Formal business only, transacted at the monthly meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, held at the Town Hall yesterday. The Christchurch Tramway Board have accepted the tender of Messrs Packer and Jones at £4,154 for car shed extensions, and that of Messrs Babcock and Wilcox for a tubular boiler. v '' The criminal session of the Blenheim Supreme Court was opened yesterday before Mr Justice Denniston. There was only one criminal case—that in which a seaman off the schooner Ronga, named Beaman, was charged with stabbing another seaman at Havelock. A verdict of not guilty was returned. The Hokitika Borough Council have entered into an agreement with Mr Leslie H. Reynolds, C.E., to provide an efficient water supply scheme for the borough. A serious complaint was made at the Invercargill Borough Council last night of lax inspection of meat at the abattoirs. The opinion was generally expressed that- the inspection would never be satisfactory while the Government inspector was not under some control by the Borough Council. A councillor paid a surprise visit, and declared he found the inspector absent while meat was being killed and the stamp lying open on a desk. The condition of the buildings was said to be most unsatisfactory. Through a horse attached to the New Zealand Express Company’s van bolting at Invercargill yesterday the driver (E. Checkers) sustained concussion of the brain. At the inquest on the body of Constable Keaney at Mataura the jury brought in a verdict that deceased met his death by taking carbolic acid in mistake for another medicine, and added a rider that medicine bottles containing poison should be made conspicuous in shape, and that the labels should be very large. The Hawke’s Bay County Council have voted £l5O towards the adequate representation of the district at the New Zealand Exhibition. Under the will of Mrs E. M. Pike, senior proprietor of the Derby (Eng.) ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ £I,OOO each was left to Mr Basford, the manager, who is a residuary legatee, and to Mr Piper, the editor, while three other members of the literary staff received £3OO each, and £SO apiece was given to every employee of ten years’ standing. Another plague case is reported from Sydney, the victim this time being a young girl A fire at Woonoona (New South Wales) destroyed two business places, a timber yard, and a saw-mill, the damage being estimated at £3,000. A timely rainfall saved the township.