NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12071, 15 September 1902, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

♦ A' Suez mail arrives to-day. Hingamite from Sydney -day. TheTrisco mail leaves on Friday. ZeaJandia for Sydney this evening. At Sydney, James R-eid was fined £2, ■with costs, for cruelly ill-treating a cat by allowing dogs to worry it. The carriers of Wellington are asking to have more direct representation on the Wellington Harbour Board. The cost of deepening the river at Gis'l. borne, by the aid of the new dredge, is a little less than 9d per cubic foot. There are now nearly 500 names on the roll of members of the Wellington Scenery Preservation and Tree Planting Society. A Mrs. Collins fell from the train at Quirindi (New South Wales), and after lying on the line for 60 hours unconscious, recovered. An area of about 100,000 acres of land suitable for wheat growing near Glen Innes (New South Wales) will be shortly thrown open for closer settlement. An Australian firm has nude an offer to rebuild the Ofaristchurch Cathedral spire, with a guarantee that it Mill not suffer from the effects of earthquakes. Two burglars entered a shop keot by Mrs. Lacy, in Elizabeth-street. Hobart. and left again in a hurry with a bullet from the lady's revolver to expedite their departure. The Winton Record says that locally pigs are. in great demand. Several large orders for bacon have been received by local people, and had to be declined, none being procurable. Lambing has commenced in Central Otago, and lambs tan be seen skipping about in most of the paddocks. The weather is favourable, and the percentage generally promises to be good. The mortality amongst stock in the Winton district has been brought, about, so the Chief Government Veterinarian says, through the animals eating ragwort, a noxious weed. Reports from Departmental officers to the New South Wales Minister for Works (jo to •how that the day labour system has proved advantageous in a number of public works carried out recently. The Queensland police have arrested two aboriginals, named Joe and Billy, in the Normantown district, for the alleged murder of an ex-tracker named Barney, at Talavera | Springs, in March last. ! The Mackenzie country (Canterbury) is •looking well for this time of year. The days are warm and bright, the nights very sharp and frosty, preventing much growth yet: stock are looking well. With a view to meeting the reduction in their incomes, the members of the Victorian Public Service Association, proposed to establish a co-operative association, for which, it is thought, fully 10,000 customers eould be obtained. "Practically every slick of building timber that is used here. - ' says the Gisnnne Times, "has to come from outside by sea. The only reason why Gisborae has not mills is the lack of road and railway communication. The timber is there in abundance." It is understood that the West-port Coal Company have a proposal in hand to drive st, new tunnel—to serve for haulage and travelling—from Millertoß to Mine Creel:, which will reduce the present long route to half-a-mile. The work is estimated to cost »ome £12.000. A young man named Alexander Tuffs, was discovered by a neighbour in his yard at Port Melbourne a few days ago, vigorously beating his head with the edge of the blade of an axe. When token to the hospital the man, who had developed madness, was found to have sustained cuts necessitating the insertion of 32 stitches. A further rise has been made in the price j of timber (says the Egrnont Post). The manager of the Union Timber Company informs our contemporary that there was more in the timber trade three years ago, with timber at low prices, than now. Insurance, increase of wages, and greater difficulties in obtaining logs have had this effect. According to a country poultry fanner, vko was giving evidence in the Wellington Magistrate's Court the other day. the only hope for a profitable trade in his business is to get a direct private connection with the consumer, cutting out the middleman. This particular farmer found it disastrous to dispose of his poultrv by sending it for sale at auction in Wellington. Lambing results are very satisfactory throughout the Wairarapa. but on the East Coast the excellent returns are (says the Dannevirle Advocate) discounted owing to the depredations of hawks and wild pigs. The latter are very numerous in the Mount Adams and Wild Taipo district, and even «* far back as Douglas. A "wayback" settler states that recently he saw a gigantic boar tackle two newly-born lambs and immediately eat them.