NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13730, 22 April 1908, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

.-.-"■Rak.ua loading for London. "Victoria left for the South. ! :>-■ ;Koromiko-for -Newcastle to-day. •■'■ •■' Atua due from the Islands to-morrow. 'Den of Rut liven for Vancouver to-day. , , The ■; drought in the Yass district, N.S.W., is the most severe since 1851. ' \'A'dwelling that was built in Otaki over '-';."» 50 years' ago has just been demolished. The Sydney police state that a number of counterfeit sixpences are in circulation. V . -Quite a record was set up the other day Xiak. Haw-era by two pigs, which turned the - scale at over 12001b. , !1 'The Government is negotiating for the ' purchase of a block at land at Woolston . for the erection of workmen's houses. .The gold yield of Victoria for March amounted to 56,59.10z, being a decrease of ■ '■ 16,91507. as compared with the returns for -* March of last year. 1 :; _'• The Jnv-eric. with 225 bags of mail matter for 'New Zealand, left San .Francisco or the 10th instant. The mails should reach Auckland about May 8. ~■-'. '-It is proposed to establish a glucose fac- , tory in Melbourne. Several thousand acres of maize would be required to supply the raw product of the factory. *"' :, '~At the Canowindra (N.S.W.) Police Court, Basil Hearne Birchill was fined £50 ..'.; for havings used the term physician, he not being a duly-qualified medical man. ■'-■ The .Victorian". Labour party is already ; ■ preparing for the next federal election. They propose to contest 17 seats, and to • endeavour to greatly strengthen the Fede- '. ral party. ""'"TheMelbourne Harbour Trust has decided to increase the pay of seamen from £9 to £9 5s a month; firemen, from £10 *» to £10 5s a month ; and labourers, from .'•:' 7s to 7s 6d a day. ':,-Reports from Hokitika slate that an ' unprecedented crop of apples has been grown throughout that district this season. It. is recorded that some specimens of the - fruit exceed one pound each in weight. . a/It is not generally known, a Nelson •-'■ paper - slates, that weasels can catch fish on occasion. A weasel destroyed at Poor Man's .Valley the other day dropped a small .which it had evidently just captured. -■-..., 'V" Dun oats (says " Rouseabout," in Timaru *> Post) are coming to be recognised as providing a welcome bite "between the last of .:- the turnips and, the first of the grass, and are being largely sown in consequence. With care a good* crop may be reaped even rafter they have been fed down fairly hard. ■;"-r A correspondent writes sarcastically to the Manawatu Times as under:—" Would it not be killing three birds with one stone '■'if our milkmen compelled us to go to their f,irni6 and fetch our own' milk, as well as pay cash beforehand, and od'iv get it once a. 'day'.' We should then be able to get it at any time, and, perhaps, fresh from the cow."