NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A Southern settler has named his pair of carriage horses Cook and Peary, because, he says, they have the pole between them.

There were seven occupants in the police cells last night, one arrested for lunacy, one lor false pretences, and the others for drunkenness.

An average of £3 2s per day has been taken at the Napier baths since the opening ceremony, and it seems pretty evident that tho venture will prove a municipal success.

For some months the expenditure in stores, wages, etc., in connection with the Taviuni while operations were under way for refutation, probably amounted to £500 or more a month.

The Kauaeranga bridge, Thames, was opened on November 9, 1877. It has been kept in splendid repair ever since, and is at present said to be a strong and substantial structure, likely to last for many years.

It is the intention of the Wellington Y.M.C.A. management to hold a great mission during the month of May next, when Dr. Henry and Professor Bilhorn, of America, will be on a visit to the Em-' pire City.

" I shall never meet a New Zealander, Australian, or Canadian in London without feeling that I owe him a meal," said Mr. Will Crooks in Christchurch the other evening. " 1 only hope they won't all come at once."

When a defendant in Court at Timaru recently was asked hew he pleaded to a charge of riding on the footpath, he made a rather novel plea, which was, "Guilty to two chains, Your Worship." The two chains cost him 12s. .

The jockey John Pinker, who was injured at the A. R.C. Spring Meeting on November 6, has been admitted to the Public Hospital from the private hospital where he was first taken. He is reported to be progressing favourably. ' ,

, A Taranaki resident claims that a concoction made from\ dock roots is a' certain cure for potato blight. The only rows of potatoes he saved last year were those sprayed with th«> mixture, and already this season he tat proved its efficacy in young vrops. ■

Boy scouts will be privileged persons on the Wellington tramcars when in uniform, if a recommendation to be put forward by the Tramways Committee of the Wellington City Council is given effect, to. The suggestion is that the scouts should be charged half the usual fare.

A Government valuer for a Hawke's Bay district was recently retired, the reason given being that : ;. ! the Government was economising. The Hawke's Bay Herald states that two valuers have now been appointed for the district in question, and between them they draw 50 per cent, more salary than their predecessor did. v

•Flies, small birds, and slags are punishing th« rape crops in _ the Masterton district very severely this year. One wellknown farmer lost practically the whole of his first crop, and had to put in another sowing,, which to date gives promise of being more successful than the first..;'-".' ';;.■" ■ -,''. .'".■ ' '

. Sheep increased in n'i'iiber in the Dominion by one million during last year. It is estimated that there are now 23,500,000 in New Zealand, against?:2o,ooo,ooo in 1906. Lambs ; are reyorttd :4 to ' - have improved in both; quality and condition, but. there is .'.o improvement to record in the quality of the mutton. .' ...

" There are ,40"million less sheep in the world now than there were 10 years ago," says the Hon. T. Mackenzie, "and 80 million more people have begun to use wool. If, when wool is up, you are offered a good price at the shed, take it. But if, when it is down, you are offered a low price, don't take that, Go on to the market."