NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12468, 12 January 1904, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

MOKOIA left for Sydney. Taluue for the South this afternoon. Thursday afternoon has been fixed by the Timaru Borough Council as the statutory weekly half-holiday for shops in Timaru. A "seaman named William Anderson, vho had been employed on the steamer Era, was found drowned in Newcastle Harbour the other day. There are over a dozen sawmills hard at work in the Eketahuua County, and, owing to the high value of timber, every littla patch of bush is being eageny sought after. Wyndham (Otago) fruitgrowers report exceptionally good crops. The harvest of gooseberries and currants has been splendid, while the apple prospects indicate phenomenal yields. A young man named Hains, when using phosphorus fot poisonin b rabbits, inhaled the fumes, with the result that he died in Goulburn Hospital, New South Wales, from chronic phosphorus poisoning. Farmers in Victoria are dissatisfied with the prices now offering for grain, and some large holders announce their intention of storing their wheat, as they believe that a grain ring is in existence. The first week in February has now been definitely fixed for the conference of State Treasurers and the Federal Treasurer on the subject of the federalization and the payment for transferred State properties. A bush fire brigade has been formed at Brown's Creek, New South Wales. A special steam hooter has been put in position at the mine, which will be sounded j as a. signal that a bush riro?has broken out. The arrival of two waggons by the s.s. I Paparoa completes the second 15-pounder battery which (says the Wellington Post) i has been under order from the Home autho- i rities to the Defence Department for the | past four years. ' The growth of pasture in Central Otago '. has been marvellously vigorous. Cattle j and sheep are running knee-deep in grass ! and clover, and stock everywhere is in a j thriving condition, notwithstanding the ' winter being the severest on record. The I orchards in the Alexandra and Cromwell ! districts promise the heaviest yields ever i known. A peculiar case is reported from Gosford, j New South Wales. William Anderson, a j native of the district, left town in the direction of his home on a recent Saturday night. He was found on Sunday morning j standing in a waterhole, all power of j speech and hearing having left him. He remained in that condition until he died : on the Monday. I A question has been put to the Victorian Department of Agriculture by the Mel- j bourne representative of an English firm of wheat buyers as to whether the Depart- j ment would undertake to inspect wheat loaded for the United Kingdom and issue '■ certificates of approval when it was up to I the required standard. Tie matter is i under consideration. i Caterpillars are doing incalculable clam- ' age to the wheat and oats in the Buugen- i dore district. New South Wales. It is ! estimated that mare than aalf of the dis- j trict is affected. In one paddock of 16 l acres not one head is left. Farmers pro- ! pose ploughing directly. There is more ; than sufficient seed on the ground. The \ fruit crop is extraordinary, both in quan- i tity and quality. : The following is the state of His Majesty's prison, Auckland, for the week ! endm., Saturday, January 9. 1904:—0n i remand, 2 males; awaiting trial, 7 males: : sentenced to penal servitude for life, 2 i males; sentenced to hard labour, 159 males, j 14 females; sentenced to imprisonment, 1 j male: received during the week, 11 males; I discharged, 15 males: total in prison, 171 I males, 14 females.