NEWS NOTES

Grey River Argus, 26 June 1906, Page 4

NEWS NOTES

Great Britain's yearly imports of flowers, fruits, and vegetables are valued at over £3,500,000, apples alone accounting for £2^000,000. ! A seven-year old boy named Booth, residing at Wyan, near Casino Bay (New South Wales) was so badly- gored by a bull that he died some hours later. .. The goldfieldToTWest Australia are the largest in the world, covering as they do 324,000 squaTe miles. , Eleven years after the settlement of the Whangamomona it is still necessary to pack the mails in, the road being practically impassable for wheels. The only venomous bird known is the death bird of New Guinea. - Its bite causes intense' pain in every part of the bddy, loss -of sight, convulsions and finally death. < The new War Office in London contains 600 rooms and two miles and a half of corridors. Its bricks number 26,500,000, besides 26,000 tons of Portland stone. 'A narrow'dingy street leading- to the workhouse gates at Hoxton has been named "The Land of Promise" >y the Shoreditch Council. The export of gold from New Zealand for the past 50 years has totalled 17,i80.,9300z5, valued at £67,401,649. The State Cabinet has agreed to a Victorian Court being established at the Dublin International Exhibiton next year. The largest pin factory- in the world is that in Birmingham; where 37>0° o > 000 pins are manufactured every working day. Melbourne's first ice-skating rink was opened on the ibth inst at Prince's bridge, and it atracted a large number of people. The new Venture is known as the Glaciarium/ and £40,000 has been put into it. " The Cromwell Argus Jias ben informed that the late RevT Father McGrath, " who was in charge of the Crom .well diocese for a number of years, has left a substantal legacy to the Catholic church of Cromwell. A cycle boom is expected this year. One. firm in Birmingham district last year turned out over 50,000 machines; this it expects an output of 75,000 . The number of people in Paris making a considerabfe living out of blackmailing is simply appalling. The female element includes ex-ladies' maids ex-theatrical dressers, ex-nurses, etc. Their ranks are swelled by discharged private secretaries, clerks, valets, etc. A bankrupt named Douglas "Ronald Waddell, grazier, of Singleton, whose estate was sequestrated in Januay igos and who was committed to Darlinghurst gaol on April 11," 1905, for refusal to disclose certain particulars in relation to his business transactions was released this month. This order states that the Official Assignee has now obatined all the information he requires with reference to. the estate. The Seddon (Marlborough) Cemetery Trustees are humorists in their way. The. new ground _was recently laid out by Mr Simpson, one of the prominent 'settlers and, an ex-member of the Government survey staff, who, of course, performed the. work gratuitously The trustees, however, forwarded him a vote of thanks and the title to a free plot! Quite a refreshing picture was presented in the Town Domain Reserve says, the Opitiki Herald of Tuesday last.) Two energetic lady members of the hockey club, armed with formidable spades, were busy preparing the ground, while a number of admiring swains were stretched" -indolently on the grass watching and criticising the operations. The Dunedn Star says :— Unknown to most people we have, been harboring a vessel with a stirring past. This was the little steamer Isleworth, which quitted Dunedin for the Bluff on June 15th. It has leaked out that during the Russo-Japanese war»she was one of the most successful contraband carriers of all the vessels who embarked on that risky business. On one trip out from England she carried something like 1500 tons of high explosives, and guns and such things often figured in her holds. Over this coal was spread, and out of this covering coal she bunkered en route. So supphed, she could kep the sea for ong periods, and on 'her first trip to the East she steamed for ninety days without seeing land. On that occa- ' sum she went round the Horn. None of her crew knew where she was bound for or cared. She was at the game for the best p art o f two years, %£ was only once stopped by a Russian ship of war. As her papers were usually "her RrV , f ° r Ho »* k «»fc or some other Brmsh port, and the Russian inspecting party did not remove Te hatches and stir up the coal, she got through the ordeal. According £ such particulars as a^Star representative was able to gather, she usually bore up for Sasebo for discharge.

A sensational affair marked the voyage of the South African liner Comrie Castle, from Cape Town to Plymouth. Among the passengers was a wellknown zoological collector, Herr Windhorn, whose baggage included half a dozen zebras, several elands, some paradise cranes, a few wolves, and besides baboons, a splendid speci- ] men of the rare sphinx species. This j brute, which was nearly five feet high and; possessed of enormous -strength, was 'kept in a strong cage in the forehold. For a week it sulked/ and then I began to .give way to fits of rage, dur- 1 ing one of which it managed to break] out ■of the cage. Happily the sailors ' heard the commotion in the hold, and ] realising what it meant, quickly barricaded the companion way and thus pre vented the baboon from making its way to the deck. For two days the Gaboon evaded every attempt at recaptuie'. Times wthout number nets were thrown over it, but it either cleared itself from them, before they could 'be secured or eluded them altogether by its surprising agility and tremendous jumping powers. Finally Herr jWindhorn and his assistant ventured into the hold itself, hoping to catch ithe baboon happing. It appeared to asleep, and might have been netted ;had not Herr Windhorn tripped over : a rope and fallen. , This accident aroused the baboon, .. which leaping on ,the prostrate trainer, its teetlHnto one of his legs, Mad witt pain the man seized the animal by the nostril and lower jaw, and succeedec in fprcing.the babon to let go its -hold But the next second the brute had fas tened its fangs in to^ Herr Windhorn's right hand. At this moment the as sistant and a plucky sailor rushed tc the collector's rescue, and contrived t< effect a diversion. The baboon how ever, was a match for all three, am 'mauled the would-be rescuers prettj badly before they- and Herr Windh'on could escape from the hold. The nex move was to attempt to stupify the ba boon, by giving it the choice of hal a -bottle of whisky and some lemonad< dosed with • enough laudanum to- kil several men. The baboon drank botl but the only, visible' effect was thaa the animal appeared rather livelie than' before.' Finally it was secured b; means of a grating, with fruit to bai the trap. It died, however, befon Plymouth.