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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1440, 5 October 1899, Page 16

English shipbuilders are so crowded with work that they have just made their agents in Ottawa buy up all the season's ship timber in that region, with instructions to ship as soon as it can be gathered together and loaded. A stroke of lightning burned the rim from the hat of Hunz Steinberg, of Vienna, tore off his coat and shirt, and took a strip of flesh and skin from his back, but failed to injure him fatally. M. Chevalier, a French engineer, who was captured some time ago by Turkish brigands in Chalcidis, has been released on payment of a ransom of £15,000 by the Porte. When the capture took place the soldier accompanying M. Chevalier and his wife attempted to defend them and was shot for his pains. Madame Chevalier fainted. The chief of the brigands, named Yorgaki, has now sent a present of £SOO to the widow and orphans of the soldier, and has requested Madame Chevalier to accept a present of £7 to drink a few glasses of champagne on her release in order to recover completely from her fright. The Seaward Downs, Heathfield, and Waikawa Valley Dairy Factories have all disposed of their output for the season. The toll on an ordinary ship passing through the Suez Canal averages about ,£BOO. The distance is 92 miles.

The people in Christchurch are discussing the probabilities of the success of sea-trawling off Banks Peninsula. The " Press" gives an interesting account of trawling experiments that have been made by a syndicate in Christchurch. . It does not appeal/, however, that so far the syndicate has met with any great success, but it was hardly to be expected that the trawler would meet with success on the first trial or drop on good fishing grounds all at once. There are indications, however, that the Canterbury coast is not altogether barren of fish, and the experiments of the trawling syndicate are to be encouraged. The plumbing class of the Technical School has shown its appreciation of xVliss Lily Leslie, registrar of that institution, by presenting her with a handsome din-ner-gong, in view of her armroaching marriage. Mr Robert Scott, instructor of practical plumbing, made the presentation on behalf of his pupils, wnich the recipient suitably acknowledged.