NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13726, 16 April 1908, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

TAiTTNK left for Fiji. Aeon for Sydney to-day. Manapouri left for, the Eastern Pacific. Straihavon due from New York and Aus- ; tralia. 'it is stated tliat some of the telegraph operators in Queensland work 16 hours a -.day. . : ' 'Two men arrested for theft were, the only occupants of the police cells last night. ; The Wages Board in the. coopering trade in Victoria has raised wages from. 56s a week to £3. , k : It has-been decided to form a labour -bureau branch of the Hawke's Bay Employers' Association. The membership roll x of the association is now 127. It pays shrewd men- now to give up to £120. acre for Hawke's Bay fruit lands, arid an. apple orchard is a surer and more profitable thing than soft fruit. It is said that £<50 per acre per annum can be netted by certain Frimley orchards off soft fruits. -•;"■;:' Some.'.iriroogv remarks "were made at the Sydney; Labour Council the other night with reference to the Industrial Disputes Bill now before Parliament. It was prophesied that if the Bill became law it would create more disputes than were ever known in the history of unionism. The old subject of dirty bank notes was again under consideration by the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last week. . The New Plymouth Chamber wrote protesting against the banks issuing such notes, and the council decided to again approach the Department of Public Health on the matter. Another nest of plague ruts has been discovered in a store in the vicinity of the vhaii at Darling Harbour, Sydney, where the case of plague occurred recently. Five young rats were found in a nest, and all were infected with plague. A special crusade against rats was made in the building, but comparatively few were discovered. The shipment of apples taken by the s.s. Telamon from Port Adelaide on April 2— 22,620 cases— believed to be the record fresh fruit • export from South Australia. In addition to the apples the Telamon had 709 cases of pears, 110 cases of grapes, and 43 cases of quinces, all for London. The Liverpool mail steamer also cleared with 3343 cases apples for London.

A fine of £50, imposed by the Bundaberg (Q.) police magistrate en a dashinglooking lady, who gave her name as Rose M'unro, for having 25 tins of opium in her possession, was paid recently. Defendant's husband is a Chinese laundry man, resident in Melbourne, named Euro Lo'- T . He arrived in haste, by train, and as soon as the police office was opened paid over 50 sovereigns, and his wife was liberated.