NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13210, 22 June 1906, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Frisco mail due. Talune arrived from South. Whaugape left for West port. Niwaru for London to-morrow. Auckland City Chambers burned. ".Whakatane left for South and London. The Queensland Worker publishes a suggestion, offered in all seriousness by an ultrawhite Australian, that any man employing coloured labour "ought to be put in gaol and fined heavily." '

, 'Labour was very scarce all through the summer months (writes tho Hawke's Bay correspondent of the Otago Witness), and if it had not' been for the Maoris some of the crops would not have been harvested at all.

Dining the recent spoil of fair weather at Lawrence, Otago, the farmers took full advantage of every hour (Sunday included), and got the bulk of their crops in. Considering the. season, the grain is reported to be threshing fairly well, and is of good quality.

Orangegrowers in.the Salisbury district, South Australia, are anxiously concerned about a mysterious disease, apparently fungoid, first noted two years ago, which attacks the trees about this season. '■.**. tree apparently healthy, in 24 hours is " burnt'' or blasted in irregular patches, leaves and fruit dropping off. ' : . •

Speaking at Amberley, Canterbury, Mr. A. W. Rutherford said" that the producer in his relation to taxation was very much ,in the position of the giant tree to which the rata had attached itself. The .giant ultimately died. The producer could stand a certain amount of taxation; but he doubted whether the land could bear the whole burden.

The new valuations for the Invercargill borough show a capital value of £1,532,497, an increase of 17 per cent, on the previous valuation, and an unimproved j value of £689,779, an increase of 32 per cent. For the borough of ore the capital value is £417,132, ail increase of 31 per cent., and an unimproved value of £183,000, an increase of 73 per cent.