NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13096, 8 February 1906, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

>CaR/Imka left for London. Frisco mail leaves to-morrow. Waikare from the South to-day. The inward 'Frisco mail is due on Monday.

Ayrshire due from Britain and Australia.

The Zealandia left Sydney for Auckland yesterday.

During last year motor cars to the value of £49,296 were imported into Victoria.

There were two cases of bankruptcy in Masterton during January, as against none for the same month last year.

The caterpillar has got into some of the barley crops on the \Vaimate Plains, and' as a consequence the crops have had to be cut before ripening.

'1 he imports through Patea last year were 8079 tons ordinary and 4453 tons of coal, the previous year's figures being 8374 tons and 2839 tons respectively.

As giving an idea, or the value of the fishing trade near Nelson, it may be mentioned that on December 31 last no fewer than 50 fishing boats were licensed at the local Customs office.

The Right Rev. Dr. Cairns, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, has issued a pastoral address, strongly condemning gambling in every form.

A Christchurch hotelkeeper says he is prepared to erect a hotel in the exhibition grounds to contain 300 to 500 rooms, at his own expense, leaving the exhibition authorities to fix a tariff.

In the Kaiapoi (Canterbury) old 1 age pension district since 1899 the number of pensions granted has been 517. One hundred and thirty-three of the pensioners have died in the" past seven years.

, The area" sown with wheat on the proposed lino of railway from Mudgee to Cobborah, N.S.W., increased from 10,007 acres in 1896 to 39,719 acres in 1905, and the average yield for 10 years was 12.73 bushels per acie.

The other evening the Sydney police seized 160 tins of opium, valued at £250, in a house in Wexfoid-street. It was stated that information had been received that the opium was recently landed from an American vessel.

According to Mr. William Scott Fell. Australians for some reason or another are not. inclined to invest in shipping ventures, and he looks upon this as all the more Sitrange because they readily invest in gold mines in which there is no gold.