NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12409, 23 October 1903, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

'Frisco mail leaves to-day. _ Breconshire arrived from Fiji. Sonoma from Sydney this morning. It is expected that the electric trams will be running in Chrisichurch by March, . 1905. - . . ' „. . . \n alarming increase 01 raboits is re--»-J ported from the Carcoar distract, New South Wales. The recent warm weather has brought on the grass splendidly in the Lower Valley (Wairarapa). 4 miner named John Birch cut his throat at Helensburgh, New South Wales, »nd died subsequently. Steps are being taken in Queensland to experiment with light railways, with a view to encouraging settlement. Butter is now coming to hand in considerable quantities at the local grading works, says the Patea Press. The September lambing {says the Tapanui Courier) was one of the best on record, and percentages average very high. The Department of Home Mains has decided to invite tenders for a- battery at Arthur's Head, Fremantle, West Australia. Dr. Kearney, of Parramatta, Sydney, , after a visit to the West Australian fields, says there are at least 1500 men unemployed. A motor car owner was fined £2 in Melbourne for furious driving. He drove down Bourke-street at a rate of 18 or 20 miles an hour. Maize-planting has now commenced in the Opotiki district. The weather is very favourable for the work, and an early crop is anticipated. At Sydney, Albert Henry Shore, a gunner of the R.A.A., committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor at. Victoria Barracks. A boy named Springberg died in the Tenterfield Hospital, New South Wales, the result of neglecting a splinter that ran into one of his toes. At Palmerston North on Saturday, at Messrs. Abraham and Williams', Limited, horse sale, draughts averaged £50. One

pair realised £72 each. Large hauls of fish were secured at Maclean, New South Wales, one day recently, 200 baskets being packed, and some of them were left in the nets. A butcher nataed George John Foley, who had carried on business in Parramatta, New South Wales, was found dead with a knotted handkerchief round his neck. - There nercr has been such a number of good draught sires in the El'.esmere district as at the present time (writes the Southbridge correspondent ot the Lytteiton Times). An Indian hawker in the Tumberumba district. New South Wales, who had his leg broken by a tree failing, stripped the bark and bound it round the broken limb with his turban. The work of , tree-planting on Somes Island, Wellington, by' prison labour was completed last week. Some thousands of trees, mostly indigenous to the colony, have been planted at both ends of the island. The recent rains have had a wonderfully beneficial effect all over the Hawke's Bay district. The fruit prospects are the best for many years, and with a favourable spring Hawke's Bay should this year establish a record in fruitgrowing. Other crops are also showing well, and the outlook all round (says the Telegraph) is decidedly bright. This spring is probably without parallel in the history of Bruce so far as sunshine is concerned (says the Bruce Herald). For the last six or seven weeks practically no rain has fallen, and everywhere in the district people are crying out for wet weather. "Owing to scarcity of rain, grass and crops *re coming on slowly, and where sheep lavs been on turnips the paddocks are filled *rith dust. _ Now that rabbits are disappearing (says the Tapanui Courier) there is a great outcry for destroying stoats and weasels. The vermin have, however, come to staylike the rabbits will never be "rid of as long as there is any food (fur, feather, or lamb) to eat. -keepers will need to wire-net their runs very closely fill future, as when, rabbits get scarce stoats and weasels are active poachers. The other day Mr. Buckrell, of Whakamara, Taranaki, while ploughing, turned tip _an oddiy-fashianed stone, which on examination proved to be a native oil lamp. It, seems the custom was for the Maoris to scoop out one end of a stone, pour fish oil into the hollow, then fix in a wick, and the lamp was ready. Mr. Buckrell has presented the curio to the Hawera Museum. 16 is a rare specimen, and much coveted by collector!;. '..-.. |' ■