WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13665, 7 August 1906, Page 8

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

IFrou Owe Ows CoiiispoNDzirr.} < WELLIN(JTON. August 6. Tno Cabinet has decided that the land tax valuation shall in future be made annually instead of biennially, as heretolore. The first shipment of bones sterilised in India under tho conditions laid doirn by tin* New Zealand Agricultural Department, is now on iw way to the coiony. Tiie department t\s that, there have been no recent outbreaks of anthrax in the colony, ;»nd it- is confident that the disease will not appear in any part of the colony where tho w+rfors confine themselves to the use of boneduut which has been subjected to the severe sterilising test imposed by tho Government. The Hon. Hi* M'Xab has handed to tho Colonial Museum photographs of chaits fioru .Salem, Mass., recording tho voyages xr whaling ships that, visited Zealand in the very early days. He has also handed over photos of the Maori curics previously referred to in my telegrants. The earliest specimens are mats, secured by Captains Dorvoy and Williams m 1000. A number of tlto objects bear the cates • 1802. 1307. 1312, and intermediate yean up to 1855. Mr Hamilton stales it; is to bo hoped that photos of other collections made at an early date in America and various imts of the Oltl World may bo mado available in the same way. It is possible that the Museum will lie ablo to obtain casts of many of tho specimens. Ono of tho most admirable of the photographs depicts the model of a. canoe 6ft lOin long, which was got on Mama Island, in tho straits, in 1838. This canoe, says Mr Hamilton, probahly belonged to Rauparaha or another chief of his time. ■ -