SOUTHERN ITEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11949, 25 April 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

SOUTHERN ITEMS

Tub Westport Coal Company has arrange* with the Admiralty to supply 44,000 torn of coal for the China station this yea*. Owing to the uncertain condition of the New Zealand market, an Invercargill firm of millers has cabled a large order for Manitoba wheat to Canada. The Dimedin City Council accepted the tender of a Belgian firm to supply 1618 tons of tram rails considerably below both English and American prices. During the year ended March 31, the Customs duties collected at the port of Wellington amounted to £509,713, as against £503,093 for the previous year. A city property at the corner of LaiuUou. Quay and Woodward-street, Wtl'.ngton, was* sold on Thursday, the 17th of April, at auction, for £24,000, equal to £200 at foot. ; An Adelaide company has taken up land about four miles from Colton, on the West Coast of the colony, to establish salt works. Analyses show the* salt here to be much finer than'anything yet obtained in South Australia.

The Empire Hotel Mast-erton was robbed on Friday the 18th of April of £130. This amount was taken from the safe, the keys having apparently been rd* moved from under the landlord's pillow. A remarkable recovery from what was re-* garded as hopeless injury is being made by an inmate of the Wellington Hospital, who was accidentally shot in the head at the Pongaroa rifle range about a month ago. Although the bullet has not been extracted,; the patient is rapidly improving. It is calculated that by the judgment of the Privy Council against the Wellington City Council on Monday, April 21, regarding the purchase of " Byko ' corner, for the purpose of widening the Council will bo compelled to pay £8000 more than by arbitration, in the usual way.

Writing to a friend in Balelutha, an erstwhile resident of that district, who is now in Sydney, states that so far as New South Wales is concerned the results of federation are very disappointing, It now. takes, the writer says, 26s to buy what could be previously purchased for 20s. A meeting of unemployed was held at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, oft Saturday the 19th of April. About 100 men assembled. A deputation was appointed to wait on the Minister for Public Works, and urge that something should be dune in the way of finding employment for , men in need of it. ' Negotiations have been carried on lately \ by the Agent-General with steamship builders in the Old Country, with the view of ob- ' taming a suitable vessel for Lake Wakatira. Cabinet has .v < r decided to authorise the Agent-General to close for a steamer at the estimated cost of £23,000. She will run in connection with the railway service. A young man named Fred. Sheath, formerly managing the Kingway Estate, went out ti Otautau to shoot in Longwood Bush on , April 9 and cannot be found, although diligent search has been made. Ho had no'; been in good health for some time, and it is feared that having become worse, he has succumbed to exposure. Sheath's relatives arc in the North.

A cargo of sawn timber from the West Coast, was offered at Dunedin on April 9 when 130 lots, comprising 296,000 ft, were sold. Prices represented a drop of from 3s to 4s per 100 ft on prices previously ruling, the last lots showing an improvement/ on the level at which the sale opened. The drop is probably accounted for by local firms making quotations to the trade at & reduction on published rates. The Tramways Committee of Dunedia City Council is pushing on with arrangements for the electrification of the tramways. The committee recommended taking steps to raise a loan of £100,000 at 4 per cent, locally, for construction, and that arrangements be made to carry out an electric lighting system at the same time, and pursuant on the above being agreed to that requisitions by Nowes Bros, for plant to the ex*, tent of £28,899 be ag">?d to. The report of the Timaru Harbour Board for the year 1901 mentions that the exports to the Commonwealth, owing to New Zealand keeping aloof from federating with Australia, from Timaru alone, during the year, have been less by 24,669 sacks of grain and 7591 sacks of (lour, etc., than during the year 1900. Against this the year's exports included the following toSouth Africa:3o7,3Bl sacks of grain, 4127 sacks flour, etc., and 269 carcases of frozen mutton. Lieutenant Herd, conductor of the Wellington Garrison Band, has been asked by .the editor of the London Challenge Journal, a prominent brass band publication, to bring a. band of New Zealand players to England. Lieutenant Herd has already approached several of the colony's best players, and is sure he. would have no difficulty in organising a first-class band. The expenses of the trip would have to be assured from this end. Given the money and the men he would have great pleasure in taking a band Home. " At Dunedin Police Court Hugh Sweeney was charged with the murder, at Allanton, on March 24, of Annie Sinnott. It will be remembered that the remains of the woman were found among the debris of her burned cottage, the constable on examination finding the prong of a carving fork sticking in her heart. Some additional witnesses were called, but the evidence differed in no material respect from that given at the inquest. Accused was committed for trial, the magistrate declining the responsibility of granting bail, which was applied for.

A rare and ancient vellum document has been rescued from a Wellington rubbish heap. It is a 21 years' lease of a certain tenement, drawn up between one John Toko. Esquire, of Gadington, in the county of Kent, and Josh Oliver and William Oliver, stationers, of London, and is dated Lady Day. February 26, 1763, in the reign of George 111., 139 years ago. It is beautifully written, apparently with a steel pen, and in indelible black ink. The orthography is faultless, and each letter and figure is drawn with the greatest accuracy. It is now in the possession of an Ashburton gentleman, and was given to him by his brother, who accidentally saw it lying on the top of a heap of rubbish at the back of a house which was changing hands. •*•:

The annual report of t'.e Wellington Chamber of Commerce states that the exports from the colony for 1900-1901 amounted in value to £12.754.621, of which Wellington's share was £1,94<5,000. The report says tl e actual vohm-e of exports i t leave the Port of Wellin ton is far larger than the amount placed to the credit of the port in the official records, as the bulk of the produ e exported from Few Plymouth, Waita; , Patea, Wanganui, Wairau, Picton, and Nelson, is finally shipped from Wellington wharves. If the value of these be added to the amount credited to Wellington, the result would be as follows : Wellington, £1.942,000; Cook Strait porta, £1,052,487: total, £2,994,487. Possibly' not quite the whole of the exports of these Cook Strait ports is despatched from Wellington, but it, is to be remembered that a good proportion of the exports from the West Coast ports of the South Island, which totalled £401,977 in 1900-1, are also shipped from this port.