NEWS IN BKIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14690, 26 May 1911, Page 8

NEWS IN BKIEF.

The- Mauriceville Rifle Club scored 734 points -in the Daily Mail match (eays a Press Association message).

The Mayoress , (Mrs. C. J. Parr) will be VAt Home''" to-day at the City Council Chambers, between three and five p.m.

An outbreak : of fire occurred in one of , the stalls at the Wellington Exhibition ■ yesterday (telegraphs our own correspon dent). The flames were extinguished be • fore any serious damage was done.

The collections undertaken by the .Greymouth Star towards Pearson's London fresh air fund, which were cabled to England yesterday, amounted to. £105 10a 9d,, thereby ensuring 3000 children an outing on Coronation Day.

It is. notified in last night's gazette that regulations under the Public Health Act published in the Gazette of May 18, directing measures to be taken to prevent or check the spread of plague by ' into force throughout New Zealand yesterday, says a Press Association message.

Mr. C. Hammond, of Feilding, has received a cablegram from his brother, Mr. Joseph Hammond, the aviator, stating that he has completed his engagements in Aus-* tralia, and before proceeding to Europe will visit his relatives in New Zealand, leaving Australia in about 10 days' time. The prohibition of delivery by the post office of correspondence to Peter Grant, and Barnett and Grant, Christchurch, -has been removed, the Postmaster-General being satisfied by statutory declarations that the' person and firm named will not use the post offico for any illegal purpose. Association. " "'' ' :

The superiority' of skim-milk as compared with whey for feeding purposes, was emphasised by . a farmer who has had 12 years' experience in the Wairarapa. He states that with pigs one would not get 10 per cent, of the quantity or within 50 per cent, of the quality, by using whey as against skim-milk.

It is freely rumoured in military circles thai- Captain G. S. Kichardson, chief instructor of' artillery, -and at present attached : to the Department of Military Operations and Intelligence at general headquarters, is going to England in July next for a course at the Staff College, at Camberley.

Saturday last, was < the 57th anniversary of the town of Masterton. f There are only two survivors of the first settlers, namely, Mr. David Dixon, and Mrs. W. Adams. The late Mr. Masters, after whom the town was Gamed, died in 1874, at the age of 73 years. The town was proclaimed a borough in 1877, and was connected with the railway, in 1880. :

A Ballance dairy farmer, who is a supplier to a butter factory near Pahiatua, lurnishes ?omo particulars of the value of by-products for the past season. Tho settler imilked 48 cows, and from the skim-milk reared about 50 pigs, valued at £2 5s each, which brought m £112 .10s, and 12 weaner calves at 355, making a total return of £133 10s.

A strange bird, which looks like a cross between a wild duck and a swan, is on exhibition at Masterton. The bird was shot at the foot of the Tararua Ranges. Its wings are about 3ft from tip to tip, its tail resembles that of a pigeon, and its beak lacks some of the characteristics of the- duck. Local ornithologists have "been quite unable to place the bird.

Travellers by train on the Manawatu line may see an excellent lucerne field on tho farm of the Porirua Mental Asylum. It provides a capital demonstration of the success with which this great fodder plant can be grown when a clean seed bed is provided. The Porirua patch is absolutely free of weeds, and now carries a fine body of vegetation.

A Lenperton (Taranaki) farmer has been trying the experiment of placing goats in a small area in order to cope with blackberry. On a paddock of about 20 acres it was not possible 12 months ago for any person to see many yards in front, of him, so dense was the growth of "blackberry. Now the whole ground is level right over, little else being left but stalks. Tho goats require special fencing, much more so than sheep.

May lias been a record month for some of the woollen manufacturers in Christchurch. The manager of one firm in tho city informed a reporter that there 'has been a rush oE orders owing to tho sudden arrival of cold weather. The long spell of sunshine, ho said, made the shops postpone taking delivery of woollens, but the ' recent foggy weather, which told plainly tho advent of winter, induced them to stock the warmer materials.. The month •; was, the .best the firm had had for some •{yean*..