NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13456, 8 April 1907, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Maori arrived from London. Arawa due from Liverpool. Waikare left for the South. Pukaki arrived from Westport. Victoria arrived from the South. Wimmera for Sydney this evening. There were 22 weddings in Wanganui last week. The Manapouri is duo from the Eastern Pacific on Thursday. The Government schooner Countess of Ranfurly has arrived from the Islands. The Queensland Government have taken steps for the organisation of an intelligence and tourists' bureau. The occupants of the Auckland police cells last evening numbered eight persons, arrested on charges of drunkenness. In 1901 the number of persons returned per census as divorced was 404255 males and 149 female*. In 1906 the return was —351 males and 256 females. " If these children never sec school they will grow up like cattle.' An extract from a letter praying for the establishment of a school at Okau, inland from Ton^apor-utu. The steamer Wimmera, which arrived from Sydney early this morning, returns to the same port again this evening, the Victoria leaving for East Coast and Southern ports to-morrow afternoon. Expressive item on a £5 banknote seen in a Carterton tradesman's office:"The last of £500! Mahutonga again." For the benefit of the uninitiated it may be explained that Mahutonga is the name of a racehorse,; . Werner Boim, a cadet on the German training-ship Herzogin Sophie Charlotte, fell from the mast to the deck, at Sydney, on March 25, a distance of 100 ft, and sustained a fracture of the skull, and other injuries, from which he died the same evening. " A gas explosion occurred at the Bank of Victoria, Ballarat, the other morning. Two of the bank officers, Daley and Carr. went into the strongroom for the cash and books, when they smelt gas. Daley struck a. match, and an explosion followed, severely shaking both men, and breaking several windows in the building. Turnip crops at Tiiuaru generally are coining on well since the drought broke up, making a second growth, which is quite distinctly visible, in large green leaves standing up above, discoloured small ones. Complaints are made, however, of ravages by aphis' and other blights, and also of "a lotting disease in a.smaller number of cases. The French mail steamer Pacifique arrived at Sydney from New Caledonia on March 25. "When the vessel was lying at Noumea five of the kanaka seamen, who Mere down the. hold, were overcome by the fumes from the copra, which formed put of the cargo, and although four rapidly recovered when they were brought on deck, one of them sticaumbed. A resident of Port Chalmers, who does some experimenting in gardening, is confident that he has disproved the notion that the cutting off the shaw hinders the growth of potatoes. From a plot of ground measuring 14ft by Blt, off which the shaws have been removed three times in succession, he has obtained 1671b of potatoes, the tubers averaging half a pound each. A rather novel experience is to be obtained by unsuspecting persons at, he Exhibition. Iron railings have been fixed round the electric power plant to keep curious individuals from coming too close to the machinery, and when the crowd round the "\iils gets too thick an electric current is .•sssed through them by means of a wire atw*3ted. This has the means of quickly relieving the rails of all hands and feet.,