NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12239, 7 April 1903, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

{Vaixare left for Sydney. _ Moura arrived from Fiji. Mararoa left for the South. • Winton is afflicted with scarlet fever ana German measles. . Farmers axe discussing the advisability ol having an analytical chemist in Invercargill. On the Awamoa Estate 100 acres have threshed 58£ bushels of first-class wheat per acre—a most handsome yield. Within 10 miles of Wyndhain, Southland, over a dozen flaxmills will soon be in operation, in addition to those already working. The officers of the Department of Agriculture are satisfactorily coping with the outbreak of mammitis among cows at Kurow, North Otago. Settlers at Baniego are, according to the Clutha Leader, memorialising the Government with the object of getting a reduction of their rents. Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Monday, the 10th, 11th, and 13th inst., are to be observed as holidays in the Government offices. Large prices are being obtained for dairy stock in the Lismore district, New South Wales, as high as £25 having been paid for milkers recently. The publicans of Kaiapoi, who have been for some years selling beer at 2d per glass, at a meeting held recently decided to raise the price after April 8. A mud geyser at Arikikapakapa has been very active lately, and is throwing up a very fine cone, which*looks like a miniature Vesuvius, with the lava rolling down its sides. Two bags of Tartarian King oats imported and sown last year on.heavy, swampy land, in the Taieri district, where hitherto no. crop could stand, have resulted in a yield of 120 bushels per acre. , A contemporary says : —The locust is more plentiful this year than ever known before ; they seem to bo or a larger variety than the ordinary New Zealand species, and possibly may be a recent importation. In the district around Fairlie severe frosts are common at night now. On. one occasion recentlv over 11 degrees was registered, and everywhere autumn tints are visible, and the leaves are beginning to fall. The Rabbit Trappers' Co-operative Association are receiving at their Gap Road works 25,000 rabbits per week (says the Wyndham Herald), and it is expected that fully 50 per cent, more will be received during the next few weeks. A moho, one of the rail tribe, a bird rarely seen in these days of stoats and weasels, was caught alive a few days ago at Rotorua, and will be presented to the Tourist Department, to be placed in. the aviaiy at the Sanatorium Grounds. Speaking at Dunedin on the matter of church union, Mr. Mackenzie, M.H.R., said that if, instead of there being four or five different churches in this small community, thev had two well-supported churches, it would be hard to estimate the increased usefulness. The Rev. W. C. Oliver has just completed a deer-talking trip in the Lake Hawera district. Both Mr. Oliver and his companion, Mr. E. Hardcastle (of Christchurch), shot four heads.' Mr. Oliver's best heads were two of eleven points. Heavy weather, with rain and snow, was met with in crossing the hills into The Dingle. The following is the state of His Majesty's prison, Auckland, for the week ending Saturday, April 4:—On remand, 6 males ; awaiting trial, 11 males, 2 females ; penal servitude "for life, 3 males ; hard labour, 177 males, 18 females; imprisonment, 1 male ; received during the week, 16 males, 2 females ; discharged, 13 males, 2 females ; total in prison, 198 males, 20 females.