TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1678, 27 April 1904, Page 25

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

AUCKLAND, April 21. The Auckland Provincial Farmers’ Union Conference has instructed the Executive to form a Mutual Fire Insurance Association. Mr Edwin Hall has been nominaled as manager. A resolution was passed expressing the opinion that the Government should make more adequate provision for the teaching of agriculture and agricultural science in the country schools. It was also decided to take steps to endeavour to obtain such alteration of the Government valuation of the Land Act 1896 as will provide that one of the two assessors sitting with the Stipendiary Magistrate to hear objections to the valuations be appointed by the local bodies; that preference on British goods should be in the form of a reduction of . duties, A resolution was passed in favour of the optional freehold of Crown lands. THAMES, April 32. The survey of 25,000' acres of land in Piako has been commenced. As soon as the work is completed the land will be thrown open for settlement. A portion of tho block is between the Thames and ■Waikato. For the remainder a comprehensive drainage scheme must be instituted.

HAMILTON, April 31. Geo. AA 7 alion, an inmate of the AA 7 aikato Old Men’s Refuge, who had recently been admitted to the adjoining hospital suffering from rheumatism and sciatica, was found last night with a bullet wound in his head, lying in a ditch near the hospital, with a revolver by his side. He died this morning. At the inquest, the evidence showed that the man had walked from the hospital to the refuge, and taken the revolver from amongst his belongings. To the verdict, suicide by shooting, the jury added a ridsr requesting the Coroner to draw the attention of the Hospital Board to the management of the refuge, and expressing the opinion that the inmates of the refuge should not be allowed to keep firearms there. DANNEVIRKE, April 21.

A little girl named Murray, aged eight years, was killed at Mataniiau yesterday afternoon. The child, along with two. others, was in a trap returning from school, when the horse took fright at a motor-car and bolted. The girl Murray was thrown out and suffered a fracture of the skull, also injuries by one of the wheels passing over her body. The other two children escaped. The motor-car was stopped forty-five yards from where the horse bolted.

DANNEVIRKE, April 22. A large meeting of ratepayers, held last night,.agreed to a proposal to take a poll of ratepayers for a loan of for sewerage and improvement of tlie N waterworks.

At an inquest on the girl Murray, who was killed by a trap accident p.f 1 Matamau, a verdict of accidental death was returned. A rider was added that the girl driving the horse was too young to be in charge. PALMERSTON, Anrtt 22. A married woman ns Mwgaret Beck was brutally assaulted bj a man at Longburn on Wednesday night. The assailant entered the house at a late hour by the door, which had been left open for the woman’s husband, who is

employed on a night shift at the freezing works, and went into Mrs Beck’s room, and on being ordered off the premises he struck her a savage blow on the face. The woman fell heavily to the floor, and broke one of her arms. The man made off. The police are now scouring the country for him.

CHRISTCHURCH, April 22. A man named John McConkey, a farmer residing at Lake Flat, Doyleston, died suddenly on AYednpsdav evening. Death was due to syncope, but was indirectlv caused by a trap accident on 6th April.

TIMARU, April 82. Mr Richard O’Neill, farmer, living three miles from Geraldine, has been missing since AA 7 ednesdav. ASHBURTON, April 22.

The Magistrate delivered judgment in the sly grog cases this morning as follows: —J. AV. Malcolmson, commission, agent, was fined £25; Alex. McKenzie, bookmaker, £3O; A. Bray, so da-water manufacturer, £45; Thos. Alexander, billiard saloon keeper" £3O; Robert (Shields, boardinghouse keeper, £3O; D. T. Todd’, reporter, £3O; John Robb, of AVinslow, £3O. Judgment was reserved in -the case against Elizabeth Ditchings.. The cases against Dineen, Lagan, NeaJu on. Mi Isom, and Hyland were dismissed!, principally on the ground that there was no corroborative evidence to that suip.plied by the informers. In Dineen’s case the Magistrate recommended the police to bring under tire notice of the Railway Department the extraordinary amount of liquor consumed! at a wedding on defendant’s premises. The liquor in convicted cases was ordered to be confiscated, and in the dismissed cases to be returned. His AVonship refused to make an order costs. OAMARU, Anril 22.

The body of a middle-aged woman was found on the beach opposite the gas works to-day. It has not yet been identified. There are no particulars. Evidently the body had been in the water only a few hours.

INVERCARGILL, April 22.

Speaking at Invercargill to-night, Mr Massey, leader of the Opposition, after a sympathetic reference to the Premier’s indisposition, replied to the recent statement in the “New Zealand Times,” telegraphed by . the Press Association. This controverted Mr Massey’s remark at Lawrence that the borrowing in England of most of the money for advances to settlers would exhaust our credit there, and lead to the ownership of the colony’s lands gradually passing to people outs’de. Mr Massey now said that by the Ministers’ own admission they had been going outside of the colony for money for eight years of the ten during which the Act had been in force. He repeated the assertion that by the present system the ownership of the land was passing from us in a manner which caused anxiety to those who had the welfare of New Zealand at heart. If a man was given the right to acquire the freehold by instalments or otherwise, the people had the money to pay into the Treasury to purchase other estates as necessities for set. tlement arose. It would not then be necessary to go to England for money, and the ownership would remain with us. The same remark applied to Crown land. The money from sales of that land now went to the Consolidated Fund, but he considered it would be much better to pay it into the Public AA 7 orks Fund, and use it for specific purposes, or into the Land for Settlement Fund to buy more land. Mr Massey was given a vote of tlxanka, with prolonged applause. The ballot for the Edendale estate waa held to-day. Of 19,500 acres purchased by the Government, 8500 were’ disposed of. A large number of the sections went to people outside of the district. The applications, after being reduced, numbered ninety-three. There seems to be an impression that the rents are too high. DUNEDIN, April 21. At the Police Court James O’Donnell, of Allanton, on a charge of keeping his hotel open after hours on a night when the circus visited the place, was fined 40s and costs. On a charge of sending liquor into a prohibited district, Owaka, without properly labelling it, James G. Robertson, manager of the liquor department for A. and J. McFarlane, was fined 20s and CoSib ' DUNEDIN. April 22. Mr Jonas Harrop, an old resident of Dunedin, and well-known in Oddfellowship circles, died suddenly of neart disease. He bequeatned £25,000 to St. Paul’s Cathedral Funu. conditionally on the public subscribing £20,000.