NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12267, 11 May 1903, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Suez mail arrived. ■ 'Frisco mail due to-morrow. Zealaudia arrived from Sydney. Westralia for Sydney this evening. The Taviuni is due from the Eastern Pacific on Thursday. • A man named Henry Hill was fined 40s at Dannfivirko for catling trout with a spear. Another Japanese diver hat died at Ihursday Island from paralysis caused by diving in deep water. During the excavations on the new racecourse at Palmerston, the remains of a dead Maori were dug up. Large numbers of private dwelling? are under contract for erection at Kelburn and Hiram ar, suburbs of Wellington. In two years the Commonwealth Government has reduced the strength of the Australian defence forces by 6551 men. A package received in Ghristchurch the other day bore this remarkable address : — "Chatham Islands, Christchurch, New Zealand." , , The Victorian gold yield, as measured by the Mint receipts for'the month of April, is stated at 55,045 crude ounces. April was broken bv the Easter holidays. The British Admiralty has placed an order for the supply of 95,0001b of canned beef with Mr. L. Conrad, the proprietor of the South Australian Meat Preserving Works Harvesting is in full swing down South, and farmers are very busy now getting in their cror-s which, in spite of recent indifferent weather, are in fairly good condition. Over 1200 pigs were cured by the .North Island Bacon Company, at its Woodville ■works during last month, and the splendid sum of over £4000 was paid out to producers. TT A man has just died at the Westport Hospital, who Lad been an inmate for 28 years, for 14 of which lie was bed-ridden. He had been engaged in mining previous to his admission. Some light-fingered gentry have been paying uninvited .visits to Masterton timber yards, and did not go away empty-handed, the result being that local builders are complaining of the depletion of their stock. The "new electric tram installation, in place of the old steam system, which has been completed from Circular Quay, Sydney, to Bay-street. Botany, is working well, and is giving general satisfaction to the public. The trams now run three times as often as heretofore. The Feilding and District Acclimatisation Society has determined to take vigorous measures with a view to suppressing poaching. To this end, a large number- of competent men have been appointed as rangers, whose names, in order to make their work effective, it is not. intended to disclose. At the Royal Show, Sydney, held in the beginning of'last month," the first prize in the £100 butter fat competition was won by a cow giving 167!b 8-jOZ in three days, which produced 5.8701b of butter fat. This showing is a safe indication that the quality of cows competing was not of a very special standard.

In connection with \\: a reconstruction of the Sydney Harbour Collieries Company, it has been stated that the extra working capital that wouhi be required to finish and equip the second shaft would be from £40,000 to £50,000. The amount of fresh capital now guaranteed is more than treble this amount.

Two farmers were litigants in a Queensland Court recently over the possession of a. cow and her progeny. The case took 22 hours, and then the jury, after two and ahalf hours' retirement, could not agree. Counsel consulted, and suggested to their clients to give the cattle to the hospital, and each to pay his own costs and withdraw two other actions. That course was adopted.