NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13918, 27 November 1908, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

These were in the lock-up last night three persons charged with drunkenness, one with theft, and one with vagrancy. A dairy farmer in the . H&wera district last month drew » cheque from his factory for £187 for the milk from 100 cows. The Napier Borough Council has resolved to ask the ratepayers to sanction, the following loans: —Trams scheme, - £35,000; roads, £15,500; sanitation, £40,000. • _ \ - There was some skilful guessing of the dressed weights of animate at the Canterbury Metropolitan Show. - The guesses ■were made while the animals were alive. Two men guessed the exact weight (8901b) of a bullock, and four guessed the exact .weight (2801b) of, a peA ol five sheep. Speaking at ;: a" gathering , of. business. ; jnen.of Gisborne held; on board the Man-j ukafve3t«rd?y. to celebrate, the opening of j ' ' the. Union i Steam Ship Company's offices 1 in that ?town, Captain Newton' remarked I that this was his 117 th visit to Gisborne, \ and he had never had to pass the port or - to overcarry a single package or passenger. *

D'tirlng election day several ladies took up collections in the streets on behalf of the proposed Opoliki Cottage Hospital (writ® Out- Oputiki correspondent). The gross totals in the evening amounted to £64, which, with the Government subsidy, will amount to £140 16s, while £4 _4s 3d . was collected 011 the same day at Waimana ' for a similar purpose.'

The footpath on' the west side of Shortstreet, " adjoining| the offices of the Agricultural > Department, has - been. in a bad state lor some time past, owing to the : slipping of- the bant. With a view to remedying the,, trouble, the Public Work* .Department is now constructing a substan- : tial- stow* wall along the boundary of iho Agricultural Department's section. . •

: A South Canterbury correspondent of the Lyttelton Times states that a fanner in Sooth Canterbury,: who was refund money oa good security at ft .high rate of interest before the election,' was sought out by a bank manager . the . day. after the election, arid offered the money at a lower rate. In another case a man "who had- been refused money on first-class security before the election was offered the advances the day after the ©lection.

The*decrease in bird life in the bush of New Zealand is a melancholy fact. The destructive übiquitous sparrow and starling are always with us, but the beautiful tui, the-kaika., wood pigeon v (or dove), the paroquet, wood hen, robiii, and many others, are now becoming rare. In many parts of the bush it was once possible to see thousands of kakas in a day, and pigeons by the hundred. •'» The lovely parson bird swarmed, and his cheerful . note could be heard at - any hour of the, day. , Now, thanks largely to imported vermin, all these birds are disappearing or have gone entirely.