AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9985, 14 March 1893, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

[from our special correspondent.] WHOLESALE POISONING. MELBOURNE, March 8, Afc a picnic party bold on Saturday at Toronto, near Newcastle, by the employees of the Sydney Soap and Candle Works, a large number of the guests wore poisoned by eating tinned meats. Those who suffered most severely were taken to the Newcastle Hospital. Shortly after reaching the Hospital R. Bond collapsed, and his life is despaired of. James Crockett is also in a very critical condition, but the others show signs of improvement. Others of the picnickers are suffering in their own homes, though in a leaser degree. BANK OF NEW ZEALAND. The Melbourne Argus says:—Tha halfyearly (interim) meeting of shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand was held on Feb. 2, The Chairman was able to make the gratifying announcement that the deposits of the bank were once more steadily increasing. He expressed the opinion that the rate then being given for deposits would not be continued. As a matter of fact, the New Zealand rates were reduced by i per cent six days after the meeting, but the Chairman very properly pointed out that after all it was not so much upon the deposits, but on the circumstances of the Colony, that ‘the prosperity and progress of the bank depended, and he went on to say that the present position of tfta Colony was most encouraging. Ills opinion that New Zealand bad emerged from its difficulties, and that a future of steady and substantial progress could ba expected, is certainly founded on sure grounds. The manner in which the Bank of New Zealand passed through a period of considerable danger is full of reassuring promise. TEE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. Commenting on the decision of Messrs Turnbull, Martin and Co, to inaugurate a new steam service between England and New Zealand, the Argus says:—Certainly it is a pleasure to read that a British firm is contemplating the building of 10,000-toa steamers for the New Zealand meat trade. Hera we have significant evidence of the possibilities before the producers, not only of New Zealand, but of Australis, provided that the opportunities are turned to account. That such vessels are spoken of for the New Zealand business shows the faith felt in the future of the frozen meat trade. Those on the spot must bo convinced that it has obtained a permanent hold upon the market. Whether the flocks of New Zealand will stand a much larger draught upon them is not exactly clear, but a whole fleet of 10,000-toa steamers could fill up or load up with River in a mutton and Queensland beef. Anyone who had spoken ten years ago of 10,000-ton steamers being employed in the New Zealand meat business would have been laughed at from one end of the land to the other. There is no reason why the development in the next ten years should not be still more rapid, and if so, the Continental Colonies cannot be shut out from such trade. Australia was prosperous, and making steady progress when she depended on wool alone, and she will have a yet firmer basis when she has a market for both wool and mutton. But from the political and economic standpoint the object lesson of New Zealand is most valuable just now. She has pulled through after a reactionary crisis as severe as any ever fait in any of the Colonies, (1) by retrenchment, (2) by ceasing to rely on loan expenditure, and (3) by finding profitable export. THE LOSS OF MEMORY CASE. A Launceston telegram states that a man answering exactly the description of Southern, of lost memory notoriety, stayed there under the name of Arthur Perceval for some weeks, the time corresponding with his absence from his home at Albury. Southern is now at his home, and intends writing a book on his case. A FRI6HPUL ACCIDENT. A child, aged seven years, named Louisa Horstent, living with her parents at Orford, Victoria, met with her death in a fearful manner on Saturday evening. She was playing hide-and-seek with her brother, and went into a bedroom to hide in a large tub kept in the room for the purpose of bathing the children. The little girl crouched down in the tub, and the mother immediately afterwards entered the room with a bucket of boiling water, and, not knowing the child was in the tub, poured the whole of the contents on her, scalding her terribly from head to foot. The child said, “Mother, you're pouring hot water on me,” but did not seem to enffer-pain. She became unconscious directly afterwards, and died next morning.