NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12176, 23 January 1903, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

, '"/'...' ...... ■:-.,'•'.';■'■• tßMsco mail leaves to-day. - To Anau arrived from the South. Sierra, from Sydney this morning. ' ' \ • ' Ovak'u arrived' from the Eastern Pacific. .■■ Inward 'Frisco mail expected on Tuesday. . Lately several cases of scarlet fever have been reported in Milton. "■'/'•' A large number of passengers are booked jby the Sierra to \ San Francisco. : It is stated that there, is a movement on foot to establish a musical society in Westport composed entirely of male voices ■ A young cyclist was fined 5s in Melbourne ■the other day for having rung his "bell so 8S: : i~: -'■''. ''■■' loudly as to 'startle the State Governor's horses. ",.,-;. •_•_■'• ~v.: : A new disease, which appears to be con.tagious," '•:■ is causing great mortality among rabbits in the Queanbeyan district, New Bjvf South Wales. r . ' . ■'■ r' ' . The Barwon River steamer Wandering Jew recently completed unloading at 'Dangar bridge, being the first to arrive /// .there for 15 months. The health of the natives at Papawai lias bow much improved, and the epidemic of 'gastro-eateritis, which occurred there some time ago, has abated. I Some five • acres of land at Romoto, Hawke's Bay, have been presented by the native owners to the Crown, and will be used as a site for a native school. The Tyneside Colliery, Westland, which was recently reopened, is turning out coal which the manager of the Greymouth Gasworks describes as of splendid quality. ,: A service of cheap excursion trains was arranged in New South Wales recently to afford country residents an opportunity of escaping the heat by coming to the coast. The. Telegraph Department has at present a party of men engaged erecting a telephone line from Seddonville, on the West Coast, to Karamew, a distance of 32 miles. In Gisborae the by-law prohibiting driving vehicles round the street corners at other than a walking pace is stringently enforced, the penalty usually imposed being £1 and costs. .' The Opawa Estate, in South Canterbury, which was .recently purchased by the Government, will shortly be thrown open for selection under the name of the Chamberlain Settlement. It is expected (says a West Coast paper) / that coal will be forthcoming from the " t State coal mine about the end of Sept-ember, by which time efforts will be made to have the railway completed. .'■ The guardians of Christ Church, North . , :- Essendon, Victoria, have protested to the dean against the alleged ritualistic practice of the Rev. M. M. Whitt on. The charges were dismissed as frivolous. '■'■■ The -Vancouver Municipal Council has ■reported to the New South Wales Lands Department that the samples of Australian wood, sent over for wood-blocking purposes, have stood an eight years' test. The New South Wales Government As- »"» tronomer's statement as to the ampleness of the rainfall provokes amusement in the Wee Waa district, where the country is ' said to be a howling wilderness. During the storms of the week before last the lamps in many towns in Victoria i Lad- to t be lighted at four o'clock in the Afternoon, and in others it is stated that , ( , the temperature had become almost wintry. ||;;-it. The ; next meeting of the Australasian -' Conference of Surveyors' Boards will be held in Dunedin in January, 1904, at the same time as the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of «;,. ~ Science. ; „ ■ ; '*■.. ■ During last year 3,104,735 tons of coal were exported from Newcastle, New South ";. Wales,- its declared value being £1,528,121. This export is 137,971 tons less than that of . 1901, and the decrease in value is ; £43,167. The ' strawberry crop at . Croydon Bush fOtago) is reported by the Mataura*Ensign ■'. *to be unusually abundant this year,' but - remarkably backward. Owing to the pecu- i Ear nature of the season, the fruit,,although • well matured, will not ripen. ■ ' ' : -■ ] The Premier considers that some of. the '< ''-■■• claims for compensation on account of.the 1 proclamation of the Hokitika River as a- ] sludge channel, are exorbitant, and he has ! ,-' i intimated that they will not be dealt with unless they are greatly modified. • ' A return shows that while in New South , Wales the cost of administering the old ( age .pensions • laws was less than per - , cent.; in Victoria it is, only 1£ per cent. i |||ftvS: Since; the reduced vote for the pensions ia Victoria the average has dropped from 7s - Id to 6s 9d. That Melbourne has a remarkably good ' water supply system is evident from the i fact that last year while Sydney was on i short allowance for nearly three-parts of the year, the average daily consumption in ] the Victorian capital was 29,250,000; gal- 4 lons (15 years ago it was only 13,500,000, ] and the maximum 57,000,000 gallons). ( The work of the Government poultry de- < * pot for the present season is now beginning ' . in; earnest. On one day 540 pairs of fowls j were. killed and dressed at thei depot, the /day's kill being a record for the colony. * The dressers were paid 3d per pair,;. and one ■man was able to earn £1 lis for. his day's Li work. Some of the dressers were easily j able to make half-a-crown an hour. t A slight disturbance was created in St. 1 Patricks ? Church, Greymouth, the other J ' Sunday evening, by an.unfortunate.lunatic, J a stranger to the town. He was removed ' from the church, struggling ; violently, by s ■£Mk lour 'or five members' of the congregation. * "Outside it took half-a-dozen men to hold t . Jum,'his loud shouting being heard in the , church, much to the' discomfort of the con- x - gregation. ( - ■'•'"-'!' '■'-".■.'' ■',"•'•'«■'' ■; 1 Mr. D. L. Block, when "walking on Glenelg beach, South Australia, the other * day,' - found a, peculiar,: conical-shaped, leather-like object, which, opened, proved to be the egg of a shark, contain- ; ing a live young shark about an inch and 1 va-nalf long. The specimen has been sent c ■to the ' Museum. ; Mr. A. Zeit, naturalist, i stales, that it is a young Port Jackson, or dog shark. 'The Hawke's Bay Land Board has passed the " following resolution:"That,.to meet the increasing demand- for -land in this dis- '.■ trict, this Board respectfully urges on the povernment the advisability of taking over the East Coast Native Trust land, held by the Bank of New /Zealand Assets Realisa- * tion Board, or such portions as are emi- l nentjy suitable for dairying and farming, ( such as Paremata and Pakowai." «