AUCKLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2268, 19 August 1897, Page 31

AUCKLAND NEWS NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) j Auckland, August 13 i IMPORTATION OF CALIFORNIAN WHEAT. It is stated with regard to the importation of Califcrnian wheat by the 'Frisco mail steamer . that as the farmers in this district have neatly , all sold last year's crop this importation will { not in any way injure them. In fact the only j sufferer* will probably be a few speculators in •' the south. . ! LOST IN THE R.M S. ADEN. Intelligence has been received that among the drowned on the steamer Aden, which was ; wrecked at Soeotra, in the Indian Ocean, were Mr and Mrs Strain and two children. Mr Strain ! was a brother-in-law of Mrs Hastie, wife of Mr John Hastie, secretary of the Auckland branch of the National Association. The Strain family belonged to Wishan, Lanarkshire, Scofci land. ; 1 DEATH IN THE ASYLUM. j The death is announced at Avondale Asylum { of Henry Funcke, aged 54. The chcumstances ' of his committal to thab institution are* still fresh in the memory of most people. In September, 1890, at Northern Wairos, Fancke was trying to go on board an Auckland-bound ! steamer while carrying firearms. He was not ; 1 allowed to go np the gangway, and aftar making { several attempts he seized his gun and fired afc j the steamer just as she was leaving the wharf, j ! The bullet struck Constable M'Leod, of ! Northern Wairoa, and killed him on the spot, i Fancke was captured, but when brought up for j trial at the Supreme Court the jury acquitted j him on the ground of insanity, and he was com- j mitted to the asylum. A compassionate allow- j j ance granted to M 'Lead's widow by the Government was lost through a defaulting solicitor. IN THE HANDS OF THE INTERVIEWER. 1 Mr George Fenwick, editor of the Ofcago ! Daily Times, was interviewed by a. proas repre- • j sentative from the Intr-rocean, while at Chicago, « ; relative to the New Zealand labour legislation, j , as a big strike was % on, and relative to the pro- •' j visions of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act--, ; j which he explained to the pressman. The other questions on which information was j solicited was as to the effect of the womanhood ' suffrage, the eight hours' labour day, and the j 1 compulsory half-holiday. It must have been a j ' disappointment to the advanced American ; woman to find Mr Fenwick expressing the '• opinion that " the women voted very much as j the men voted, and that* woman suffrage was j not going to revolutionise anything." Mr Fen- | wick suffered somewhat from the effects of the • heat wave which passed over some of thtJ States j through which he travelled while en route to England. •. THE LAND VALUATIONS. Some persons who profess to be "in the j know" here state that the now Government ! valuations are being made with a view to i increased revenue, and that in order to avert I tightness in the colonial chest a property tax j will virtually be imposed though under another i guise, and exemptions reduced to £150. • j August 14. i j A bankrupt, a mining agent, in "his sworn statement says his assets are £7 odd, consisting of cash and sundry shares in 11 different mining companies, which are practically valueless at the present time. He could not offer any compromise. The Auckland Savings Bank, under Mr Cameron's management, has held its own much better than such institutions appear to have done elsewhere. In the first six months in ' 1896, ending on June 30, the deposits made in , the Auckland S&viDgs Bank totalled £197,116 13s 3d, while for this year the deposits for the corresponding period amounted to £207,116 8s 6d. The withdrawals in the first six months in 1896 amounted to £190,719, while this year they were £187,984- 11s Bd. The new accounts opened in 1896. numbered 1714, and for the j same period this year they are 1909— -an in- ! crease of 195 V j

Only one-fifth of the boys of India go to j - school, and only one-fiftieth of the girlg. ,