NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12545, 12 April 1904, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

'Frisco mail arrived. Westralia left for Sydney. ' Sonoma for Sydney this morning. " if ■- Zealandia for the south this afternoon. rfy:>Bullion, valued at £18,860 was sent to London via Sydney yesterday. ' New regulations with respect to overtime if.' in the post and telegraph offices of the colony have bee* issued. Store wethers are very scarce at present I*" in the Poverty Bay district, and buyers have J, - found it difficult to'fill their requirements. A youth named George Cook was fined one shilling at tie Central Police Court-, Sydney, tor giving a boy under 16 years , of ago a 1 cigarette. The New Zealand Times suggests that the • Premier should take a holiday by going to ;■ the St. Louis Exhibition as representative of New Zealand. s| The sum of £9300 is to be expended by the Wellington Industrial Association in the ?'B\, erection of buildings for the projected exhibition to be held at the end of the year. A City Council inspection of the churches ' in Christchurch shows that in most cases the doors open inwards, instead of outwards, ■which is considered to be a danger in case :"'V of fire. The record price for a line of station-bred cheep in Australia was made last month by Messrs. Mack and Austin, of Narromine, N.S.W., who sold 6000 six-tooth ewes at ,'9s each. A statement was recently made by the Tasmanian Premier that this year's crop of potatoes would total 180.000 tons. This has been refuted, the estimated quantity being 120.000 tons. The accounts of the Onmaru Harbour Board disclose the fact, that the revenue last year was about £600 better than that of the previous year, while there was a slight, de--5 crease in "the expenditure. The Minister for Lands is endeavouring to get as much as possible of the bone-sterilis-ing plant made in the colony, but there are special parts of the machinery which will have to be imported from America. The rabbit invasion in West Australia has become so serious that the Government has decided to proceed at once with the erection of a wire-netting fence, 78 miles to the westward of the first fence, which has just been .erected. The inspector of fruit at Vancouver has written to the Chief Secretary of Tasmania, js stating that a satisfactory t-vnde_ in Tas- - ' mania fruit can be established i: freigats are reduced. He suggests action by fruitgrowers to secure this. , The vintage at Corowa (N.S.W.) is now ' Bearing completion, and, almost without exception, growers have crushed the best yield for very many years past. A heavy crop iias been cut, and the wines made promise to be exceptionally good. While engaged in re-roofing a house in " Church-street, 'Newcastle, it- is reported that the workmen came across what are believed to be five human skulls. The matter is now being investigated by the police. Copies of IsKtthe Newcastle Chronicle and of the Sydney " - Morning Herald, dated in the sixties, ere • also found above the ceiling. A pathetic burning fatality is reported from Napoleon, near Ballarat (Vic.). A poor woman I | named Mrs. Drever returned to her homo f|§§ after a bard day's work at a neighbouring « house, to find her eldest child (aged eight) rushing about with her clothes on fire. The §Si | flames were extinguished, but the girl died ' from 1 the burns shortly afterwards. The lady elector is quite conscious that she has become a power in. the laud. One A?' lady canvasser for Sir Malcolm McEacharn fexplained to the chairman at a committee meeting at Melbourne that a motor-car must be sent at half-past four o'clock for a . ..certain, lady, as she absolutely refused to ' vote unless taken to the booth in that way. ■_ , ,' The following is the state of His Majesty s '• * prison, Auckland, for the week ending April .*. 9. 1904 :—On remand, four males; awaiting fc "trial. 11 males, one female; sentenced to I f penal servitude for life, two males; sentenced ;to hard labour, 158 males, 11 females ; senh tenced to imprisonment, one female : default II | of bail, one male: received during the week, ;l~: ,21 males. 4 females; discharged. 17 males, two females; total in prison, 176 males, 14