NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13647, 15 January 1908, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bovkric; left - for Sydney. ~ Victoria left for the South. •"."Opawaand Indrar.iayd loading for London. '..-•: Sisal hemp production is said to be rapidly extending in Queensland. '.-"No. outdoor relief was granted by the Wariganui. Charitable Aid Board last • month. .--'.'. c From 50 to 60 miles of wire have been used in the New Plymouth electric lighting system. ■ " ( Fifty prohibition orders were applied for in the New Plymouth Magistrate's Court in 1907. All weie granted. : Lack of rainfall is seriously affecting the niifk" supplies in the Taraiiaki province, particularly about the Waiinate Plains. There is in Eketahuna, says the Express, a lady who, though over 80 years ot age, has never yet travelled in a railway train.

■A 'number of men have stalled work on the Kawakawa railway extension, and the rails should be laid to Towai by the end of ; the year.

The Haivera County Council has decided to proceed with the erection of toll-gates on the Main South, Okaiawa-Manaia, anti Sfceet Roads. '

During 1907 there were 228 arrivals at the Patea Wharf. One vessel went ashore during the year. In the preceding year five were stranded.

A very prolific peach crop is being 'gathered in' the Gippsland district of Victoria, *an average of 50 tons a day being sent by rail from Bairnsdale.

The revenue collected at the Newcastle Customhouse during the last quarter of the vear'l9o7. amounted to £64,379 4s 3d, being an increase of £23,587 8s Id on the corresponding period of 1906.

With the close of the year the old municipal system, of New South Wales ceased to exist. v The Act under which it was constituted was passed in 1867, and subsequent amendments had altered it but little. , Large numbers of stock are being trucked daily at Waipukurau for southern pastures, owing .'to the scarcity of feed. Factory managers report that the dry spell has decreased the, milk supply 25 per cent. v-Another new milking machine has been installed at the experimental farm at Levin. This machine, like the previous one, contains two buckets instead of one, so that the mi'k from each cow can be tested separately. A railway porter, Norman Allen, who had been missing from his camp at Miriam Vale, near Gladstone, Queensland, for some days, waif found dead within lOOyils of his tent. V There was a bullet wound through his breast and a rifle by his side. .The total number of telegraphic messages transmitted in New South Wales on Christmas Eve was 39,625, compared with 35,983 on the corresponding day of 1906. On Kew • Year's Kvo the- messages totalled 27,464, compared with 27,562 in 1906.