NEWS SUMMARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15906, 1 May 1915, Page 6

NEWS SUMMARY.

Auckland:

The oyster, season opens to-day*

The annual meeting of parishioners of St. Mary's Cathedral was held last night.

Twenty-three men passed the medical examination for the expeditionary forto reinforcements yesterday.

The gold returns to hand from mines in the Auckland Province for April represented a total of £71,367 6s lid.

Mr. Justice Stringer has presented to the Governor his report on the new bylaws of the Auckland Harbour Board.

For the four-weekly period ended April 24, the Wairu-Paeroa'Gold Extraction Co., Ltd., treated 12,200 tons of tailings for a return of £3150.

Shipping freights from New Zealand to England are to be raised by about 15 to 20 per cent, on certain lines in about & fortnight's tinw.

The wholesale price of wheat in Auckland is still £17 per tr«n for sacks, and there is no indication of either a further rise or a decline. Wheat stocks ore stated to bo sufficient for requirements.

The hear'ns of the petition against tho l'turn of Mr. Vernon H. R<ed for the l'>av of Islands seat was commenced at Kaikohe yesterday. The evidence chiefly concerned the allegation that Mr. Georjo Wilkinson was offered a seat on tho Legislative Council on cono'Uion that he p tired from the election contest. New Zealand: A middle-aged man named X. Barton was killed at Riccarton by being thrown from a gig. The price of Portland cement of New Zealand manufacture has been advanced 4s 6d per ton. A nomber of Greymouth workers are complaining of slackness of work at the State coal mines. The matter of appointing further.school inspectors is now receiving tile consideration of the Government. ••■•■» ,

The report, of the commission on the allocation of totalisator permits has.boon presented to the Government. ._.-,

Befom- December 12 the New ; Zealand Government will require 10,600 men for the front Nearly 8000 are registered.

Five deaths were reported in Wellington yesterday from suffocation by ; gas. A number of other residents wero badly affected ,by pis fumes, and "two gas-meter fires occurred. ... . • \,;. .

The Minister for; Finance explains the loin transaction to which the London Daily Mail has referred. The Treasury's approval. was given for a small ■ loan of £200,000 to pay a loan coming due which had to be met. 'i .

gfa- , In order to conserve the local stocks If r ' of butter, the Government proposes that T i\- ' in' ; Mure .butter;may be exported from H ;. New Zealand only with the; consent of v. the Minister for Customs. m The War: .- . - v. V ; "•;■"■ *^ 1 Austrian prisoners in : Russia are officially '■■ \r\ estimated at 500,000. ,« ) «,-- i . Great Britain has declared a. blockade >: I ■ , of the Canieroons ■ coast; German West |' - -Africa. ' •' ~ ~, ~, ; f The kaiser has. decorated .Professor ft 1 Houeton Chamberlain' with, the.-non-"ft>m-baj-iht's Iron Gross. , "** ; The German bombardment of Tpres completed, ; the*'; destruction of «i the'j, town. ' Scarcely a house is left standing.' vVi *\:; V • ! ' i The British •landing force isi operating ;,, .' on the • European side, of the Dardanelles ./ ■. ' ana the French on the Asiatic 'sfdci'f'ii*)fe

• German " aviators k dropped ... incendiary bombs on -the % open *' town 'of ;j Epernay, which is exclusively occupied by a medical establishment., ?;'■ , '"'•<• ' vf'4-: ; •,

i,,; The; public have;already supplied; the War Office request for respirators for the 060 of the troops as a precaution against tho chlorine fumes.;'.;?, ;v.o ; .' • v "jiC

: .'" Athens reports state /that Italy has been concentrating troops on the islands of the Aegean Archipelago for several months, and it L.isl estimated '. that; she has 200,000 assembled there.- iv * '■.'■'*',)' ' : v." •

The Dardanelles-forts were bombarded oil Tuesday for twelve hours, the fire being directed ; mainly against the Kilid Bahr forts on the European- side of the Dardanelles, close to the I farrows.

The Zeppelin E which last week dropped bombs on Dunkirk was seriously damaged by French . artillery, • and was completely put out of action. -. It is stranded in the woods between Bruges and Ghent.

A German force, estimated to number 40 f QW, is trying to regain the important position of Eparges, in the Woevre region. At present the French appear to have the upper hand, but tho German attacks are not exhausted. . . ...

Reports have been received in Athens of a fierce battle on Wednesday in Buvla Ba- on the Saros coast of tho Peninsula of Gailipoli. ■) The Turks sustained heavy losses, in the fighting, and the allies captured an entire battalion. •

It is reported from Volo, on the east coast' of Greece that a portion. of the Australian troops participating in the Dardanelles operations- disembarked' on Tuesday and immediately installed their batterier along the coas'i.

In Belgium the French maintained the ground recaptured during tbo last threedays and continue to progress in co-opera-tions with i the Belgians. North of the right bunk of the Yser Canal the French made 150 prisoners and took two mitrailleuse*. "...'.

The Cologne Gazette states that the Imperial Court has confirmed the Military Court's sentence of death passed on Private Lonsdale, and has rejected an application for revision of the sentence, yhiebnow only requires the Kaiser's confirmation.

A correspondent in the north of Franc 6 gays that, although the second battle or" Flanders has only lasted five days, fighting is so furious, and so deadly are the effects of the engines of war and tho enemy's diabolical devices, that tho lossen of -the allies already exceed those in my previous action since the war began.