SOUTHERN ITEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11949, 25 April 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOUTHERN ITEMS

Thk Westport Coal "Company has arrange*? with the Admiralty to supply 44,000 tons of coal for the China station this year. y&\ 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 Dtmedin 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 comer of Lam! ton Quay and Woodward-street, Wil'.ngton, was sold on Thursday, the 17th of April, at auction, for £24,000, equal to £200 a) 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 Mastertou waa robbed on Friday the 18th of April of £130. This amount was taken from the safe, the keys having apparently been re« 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 Pongaioa 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 " Bvko ' corner,' for the purpose of widening Willis-stret, the Council will be compelled to pay £8000 more than by arbitration, in the usual way. Writing to a friend in Balclutha, 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 tib the Basin Reserve, Wellington, onSaturday 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 done in the way of finding employment for j 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-' taining a suitable vessel for Lake Waka-' t-irtt. 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 Ringway Estate, went out to 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 are 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 hale opened. The drop is probably accounted for by local firms making quotations to the trado- at a reduction on published rates. The Tramways Committee of Dunedin City Council is pushing on with arrangements for the electrification of the tramways. 'J ho committee recommended Inking steps to raise a loan of £100,000 at, 4 per cent, locally, for construction, and that arrangements be made to carry out ail 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 .agreed 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 flour, etc., than during the year 1900. Against this the year's exports included the following to South 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 th'i

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 evidencediffered 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 Codington, 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 pteel 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 Ashbxirton 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 the Wellington Chamber of Commerce stales that the exports from the colonv for 1900-1901 amounted in value to £12.7.54,621. of which Wellingtons share was £1,94*3,000. The report says tie. actual volume 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 New Plymouth, Waitai , Patea, Wanganui, Wa'irau, Picton, and Nelson, is finally shipped from Welling* ton wharves. If the value of these be

added to the amount credited Ijo Wellington, the. result would be as follows:—Wellington, £1.942,000; Cook Strait ports, £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.