NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13983, 12 February 1909, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Twenty- applications have been received for the position of engineer to the Wellington Harbour Board.

As mullet are now plentiful in Hawkes' Bay, the Minister for Marine has decided to do away with the close season in that hay.

Farmers ore said to be growing good oat crops on the Waimate Plains this year. Around Manaia the yields are up to 70 bushels to the acre.

A steamer excursion from Dunedin to the West Coast sounds will be run under the auspices of the Tourist Department, at Easter, if possible, at a reasonable fare.

There is on view at a shop in Waimate a brown trout, caught in the Waitaki River. The fish weighed 201b, is 3ft in length, and 20in in girth. The fish was caught by Mr. T. Park.

A poultry fancier of Ashbuxton had the misfortune to lose about '10 Wyandotte fowls, a few days ago. By some mistake the food prepared for the fowls was mixed with brine used for preserving beans, and all the fowls which ate the food died.

Settlers in the Morisou's Bush district, Wairarapa; are having the unusual experience this season of a. very small fruit yield, the marketable fruit in sight being only about a seventh of that usually gathered. Gales are Raid to have been responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs. A very large shipment of dairy produce will bo made by the Kaikoura, which is to leave Wellington for London next Thursday. A quantity of Southern cheese, which it had been intended to send by her, is being placed on board the Papanui at 'the Bluff.

With the object of liquidating the debt on the new Garrison Hall, a fine building, which has cost £6000, the Gisborne volunteers, with the assistance of Signer BorEoni, have organised a spectacular carnival, entitled **' The Birth of the Empire." This was opened by Lieutenant-Colonel Porter before a large audience.

The Zoo. at Newtown Park, Wellington, grows daily. Last week there arrived /romthe southern islands, by tho Hinemoa, three sea lions, which are "to be provided with a pond apart from the feathered inmates of the lake. Further contributions have also been received in the form of an Australian teal and coot, a Japanese duck, and a "Leadbeater" cockatoo.

'The conversion of the Hanmer Spa into a sanatorium was very strongly supported by Dr. Little, who was one of the speakers at the complimentary banquet tendered to Mr. A. W. Rutherford. Dr. Little, who is leaving Hanmer after 14 years' residence is reported by the Lyttelton Times as saving that the Government were doing now what should have been done from the first and he was doubtful whether the chance had not come too late to do Hanmer any real benefit. J