LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1681, 18 May 1904, Page 50

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A “Native” asks: Can you inform me bow much a London penny stamp ot 62 years back (1842) is worth? It hears the late Queen’s head. Will some stamp collector oblige “Native” jwith .an answer ?. Mr J. F. Cutfield, manager of the National Bank of New Zealand at Wanganui, has been granted .six months leave of absence, and) will!'leave on a trip • to England, by the Marere early next month. A very old settler, Mr Bioliard Hurst, who had 1 resided there for forty years, dlied on Saturday at the ripe age of ninety-five years (says a Press Association message). Tlxo deoeas- : ed was formerly.of the Sixty-fifth Regi- • ment, and saw service in the Maori : war. The Victorian Railway. Commissioners - (one of whom is Mr C. Hudson, formerly fe ?of the New Zealand Railways) have issued a return showing a comparison between the working of the Victorian lines for the quarters ending-31st March • ; in 1903 and 1904. The latter quarter : shows an-'increase of 5755 train miles run;- an increase of in gross revenue - ; and an increase ef £221.073 f net revenue over working expenses. .The percentage of ordinary .working expen- . ?es to- gross revenue was 54.03 in the March quarter of 1903 arid-45.09 in the corresponding quarter of the present . / - year-

Mi* John Duncan has been appointed a ranger, under the Animals Protection Acts, for the Hawke’s Bay district. All the Dunedin City Council’s waterworks debentures are now sold, the last parcel having been taken up a few days ago. More than one hundred tradesmen and labourers, looking for work in New Zealand, arrived at the Bluff a few days ago by the Melbourne steamer. The appointment of Lieutenants H. E. Pilkington and W. P. Wall to captaincy rank in the Royal New Zealand Artillery is gazetted. Sir Rupert Clarke has left Melbourne on a cruise to Pago Pago, in the new yacht recently built to his order at Auckland. A conference of the local bodies of Marlborough, convened by the Land and Railway League, is’ to be held next mouth to urge the Government to extend the railway from Seddon. Detective Benjamin, of Palmerston North, has .been transferred to New Plymouth. His place at Palmersifcon wiil he filled by “Acting-Detective Quirke, of the latter place. Neiys has been received from Dunedin of the serious illness of Mr John Hislop, LL.D., father of the Hon T, W. Hislop, of Wellington. Mr Hislop, senr. ( is now in his eighty-third year. ■ Mr D. Quddie, Acting-Chief Dairy Commissioner, is at present on a visit of inspection to the dairy factories in the Auckland province. He will ,be absent from Wellington for about a fortnight. Chief-Detective Grace, of Auckland, who has reached the age limit of sixtyfive years, (says a Press Association telegram) is about to retire on pension. He has been granted three months’ holiday leave prior to severing his connection with the police force. News has been received at Christchurch of the death at Perth of Mr J. G. L. Scott, headmaster of the East Christchurch School. He was 4aken d 1 on his way home after a holiday, and died in Perth Hospital after a lingering illness. Mr J. G. Harkness, secretary to the National Dairy* Association, has been connected with the association for seven or eight years. The association was started some ten years ago by the farmers in Taranaki, and Mr Harkness, as chairman, was the founder of the agreement between the association and the shipping companies which marked a new era in the history of the association.

Mr Reginald A. Sttidd, who commences a series of evangelistic addresses at the Central Mission Hall oil Friday evening, is a member of one of England’s famous families of and himself won his “rep.” cap when at Eaton and Cambridge, and was selected for a team which toured the United States and •Canada. His brothers, C. T. and 6. B. Studd, were members of the Hon. Ivo Bligh’s eleven which played in Australia in 1882-3, and C. T. Stnidd played in a test game in England. Mr S todd. has devoted himself to evangelistic work during the last eleven years. He is general secretary of the Anglo-Indian Missionary Society. Their© are at the present time 2173 artisans and labourers employed on cooperative works by the Public Works Department. The North Island Main Trunk railway employs 1014, Otago Central 230. Paeiroa-Waihi 214, Midland 163, Coal Creek 119, Blenheim-Waipaira (south end) 103. The number of men employed on road woirks by the Department of Reads is 1635. Of this number 214 co-operatives are in the Auckland district, 134 Te Kuiti, 106 Rotorua, 174 Hawke’s Bay, 237 Taranaki, 190 Wanganui, 182 Wellington. 62 Marlborough, 60 Nelson, 1.15 Westland, 29 Canterbury. 62 Otago., 70 Southland. In view of tlie severe depression existing in South Africa, and the receipt of. letters from all parts of the country inquiring as to the outlook for settlers in New Zealand, Mr J. Graham Gow. Commercial Agent for this colony, recently decided. ..to visit all the important centres in Sen th Africa and supply information to intending settlers and oithens. In a report to the Department of Industries t and Commerce, dated March 7th, Mr Gow states that in every town he visited he had many callers, and most of them stated that they intended to New Zealand. At Johannesburg lio'fmmd that the butter, meat, etc., from New Zealand \yere giving every satisfaction though business was very restricted. He called on Mr Dalrymple, managing director of the An-glo-French Exploration Company, who promised that preference should be given to New Zealand products in future purchases. Mr Gow has been introducing New Zealand clover and other seeds to the notice of South African buyers. New Zealand timber has been tried for railway sleepers, but has been found unsuitable, because of the prevalence of ants. On account of the ravages of these ants, iron sleepers were used for some of the new lines of the Central Sojufch African railways, hut have not given satisfaction. “Crops this season are go/od in South Africa/’ writes Mr Gow. “and, merchants expect to l he in a position to obtain large local supplies of maize and other forage.”