NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12662, 16 September 1904, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

[AtrcHENBLAE arrived from Fiji. Manapouri arrived from the Islands. Tarawera from the South this morning. Ragwort is likely to cause as much trouble to Eketahuna settlers this year as ever. It is sprouting up in all directions. Sheep are still selling at high prices in tie North Island. At the Eketahuna stock Bale a few days ago wethers realised as much as 20s each. The Bombay and Baroda Railway Company, India, intends to secure 100000 railway sleepers from Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania. Signs oi an early spring were evinced at the Taratani saleyards last week when a line at 60 shorn crossbred wethers were penned. They were in splendid condition. At the end of last month there stood to the credit (A depositors in the West Australia State Savings Bank £2,072,757, being tin increase of £105149 on» last year's ret\W3* A Dannsvirke mathematician has calculated that if all the men engaged in the battle of Liao-yang were to stand shoulder to shoulder they would reach as far as from Wellington to Napier. Increased interest has been awakened throughout the country districts ol South Australia in political matters, and considerable progress has been made in forming farmere' political leagues. A loss of breeding sheep is reported by farmers in the Carleton and Horrelville districts, North Canterbury. ■ The mortality is attributed to a. fever or inflammation caused by the recent snowfall. A ewe en Mr. W. H. Nelson's property, Woodville, Hawke's Bay, has given birth to a quartette of lambs. The family is doing well. There is a large percentage of lambs this year in the district. The Wagga (New South Wales) district inspector of stock reports that the returns of the autumn lambing give 277,000 lambs, oi 69 per cent. But for the depredations of foxes the increase would have teen much higher. The Sydney branch of the Zionist League has decided to raise a memorial fund in honour of the late Dr Theodore Herzlt, leader of the movement. The amount raised will be forwarded to the widow and children of the deceased. A lottei which had gone astray more than 22 years ago was discovered the other day behind a register grate, in one of the public offices in Lyttelton. It had evidently slipped down behind the grate, and remained there ever since. At Clement's timber yard, at Beechworth, Victoria, a' steam engine got out of hand, and the flywheel broke, while racing with terrific speed. The flying fragments were sent a great distance, and a number of men hid a narrow escape. Eventually the safety valve was thrown open, aad the engine was stopped.