NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13262, 22 August 1906, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mopra arrived from Fiji. ■■ Attn left for the Islands. Fire at Parnell yesterday. -..Manuka left for the South. 'Frisco mail doe to-morrow. ; Three shops have been gutted by Are at Blenheim. ;'-..',. . .

A banker and his wife have been murdered in Russia.

Last year there were 142 deaths by drowning in tho colony.

Parliament was opened yesterday by His Excellency,tie Governor.

Earthquake shocks have occurred at the French West Indian island of Martinique.

A railway collision has occurred at Saltcoats, Scotland, amd 70 people were injured.

It is estimated that 200,000 people iu Chili are homeless in consequence of the earthquake.

• The number of marriages in New Zealand in' 1905 show an increase of 217 over the number in 1904.

The public recognition of the new Ministry will take the form of a conversazione in Wellington on September 10. .

The chairman of the Wellington Racing Grub says the evils of gambling are caused by the bookmakers and the tote shops. , " The legalised gambling machine," was referred to by Mr. Bishop, S.M., of Christchurch, yesterday, in sentencing a bookmaker for trespassing.

The latest official statistics show that the .New Zealand birth rate in 1905 was the highest reached since 1891, being 916 in excess of the number for 1904.

The best- of the clover crops in the Win-cbester-Orari districts (Canterbury) are yielding from a sack to a sack and a-half of seed to the acre. One paddock of fourteen acres returned eighteen sacks of seed »nd another of six acres gave nine sacks.

The Gore Standard understands that the Southland Farmers' Co-operative Association has had a very successful year, the profit approximating about. £2000, practically all of which was derived through the operations of the two Gore branches of the .business.

It is expected (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) that both the Oirig and Tamaki properties recently acquired by the Government for close settlement will be open for selection early in December. Surveyors are at present engaged on both, cutting them up into suitable allotments. Details of a shipment of pears sent from Australia to London have been received-, The pears were 50 days in the hold of the vessel, and were placed in a compartment by themselves, and kept at a temperature of 42deg. to 45deg. When sold at Govent Garden Winter Nelis realised 34s a case, Josephines 335, and LTnconnue 21s. These are record prices. They were shipped foi a Castlemaine grower.