NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14929, 29 February 1912, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Seven- persons, arrested on minor charges, were the occupants of the police cells last night.

The apple crop is officially pronounced a promising one in Canterbury ths season. Pears are not abundant, neither are plums. The business at the half-yearly session of the Supreme Court-, which opens at Gisborne on March 11, is not likely to occupy more than a week. Cucumbers of large size are being grown in .New Plymouth, some of them weighing as much "as 61b, soz. They are a new variety, the product of inoculation. Telegrams at deferred rates will bo accepted from .March 1 for Luxemburg, Spain, Canary Is! md, and all offices in Morocco, except Casablanca and Mogador and Rabat. Salvation Army officers in New Zealand ' are on the tip-toe of expectation as to who will be appointed Commissioner for New Zealand, hitherto considered a dependent of Australia so far as Army organisation is concerned. A woman, who was before the Wellington Court last week, has no fewer than 121 convictions against her. She has been almost constantly in gaol during the last quarter of a century. The kenness of some of the teachers in the Marlborough district to obtain instruction is shown by the fact that one of them who was recently married is said tojiave spent his honeymoon in attending the summer school for teachers. The oat crops are turning out particu- '■ - v larly well in the Wairjrapa district. One farmer hag a crop of 20 acres of abundance oats, which it is estimated will yield 90 bushels to the acre. Many of the other crops in the district are expected to reach 60 bushels and over. A Greytown resident has imported three boxes of Cyprian queen bees from New South Wales. The new importation consists of record honey-gatherers and also non-swarmers. Two were tested bees, and in one box ail the bees were dead with the exception of one queen, whilst in the other only one bee was dead. Bumper harvests in South Canterbury and Otago call for many workers. The harvest is great and the labourers comparatively few. In consequence the various branches of the Labour Department are engaged at the present in directing surplus and unemployed labour southward for the harvest. It is not likely that until the crops are gathered many men will be received on the various "public works of the Dominion.