NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 16

NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

AUCKLAND

The Hon. Mr Cadman, who is going Home in the interests of the ironsand and other- industries, and for the benefit of his health, has forwarded to the Premier his resignation as a member of the Cabinet without portfolio.

The reductions made by the Assessment Court in Auckland City leaves the rateable value at £349,765, an increase over the previous year's total of £20,603.

The Auckland -Presbytery Commission appointed to visit Hamilton to inquire into charges against the minister (the Rev. J. M. Mitchell) of having preached old sermons and of neglect of ministerial visitation have presented their report. Mr Mitchell admitted having preached perhaps a dozen old sermons during his ministry at Hamilton. With regard to alleged neglect of ministerial visitations, they reported that there was no proof of the charges. The presbytery passed a resolution that they were gratified to find that the complaints were frivolous and not substantiated. Mr Mitchell then tendered his resignation of the Hamilton charge, which was accepted.

HAWKE'S BAY

A Mormon convention opened at Gisborne on the 4th was attended by some hundreds of Native Latter-day Saints. Mormonism has a strong hold on the Natives in some parts of this district.

TARANAKI

The registrar's returns show that at March 31 there were 234 old-age pensions current in Taranaki ai>d Clifton Counties, 189 being for the full amount. The aggregate sum is £3968.

WELLINGTON.

The Railway department expects the financial results of its work for the late financial year to be more satisfactory than that for any previous year. The proposal of theHutt County Council to eiect a bridge across the Hutt River, at a cost of £1500, and to claim contributions from the other local bodies in the district is being resisted by the local bodies so far as the contributing is concerned. A meeting of delegates from these bodies to-day decided to enter a legal protest against the claims made upon them. It is very probable that the Hon. Mr Ward will attend the Postal Union Conference to be held in Rome next year. The Railway department has leceived information that 40 waggons, the first of an order for 1000, were shipped by the Rakaia.

The customs revenue for the financial ear will exceed the estimate by £150,000.

| It is rumoured that prospectors v* ho have ' been prospecting for nearly two jeais in the Mdhaialiara copper mine have struck a lode of silver. Arsenic v. as also ui>co\eied , Trooper (.'nuty, of the second contingent. was convicted at the Wellington S.M. Court

for a grave a^saalt on a Chinaman, but in view of his good fi^hi.ng rocoul elsewhere he was let oii v> ith a fine of £2 and £3 10s costs.

The 'behaviour and woik of the prhoneis employed at Rotonui has been excellent, and the Minister of Justice is considering the question of the employments of shortsentence men in other parts of the colony.

The regulations under the Shorthand Reports Act are gazetted. Candidates must write 150 words a minute and possess sufficient educational qualifications to enable them to report the proceedings in the law courts with intelligence.

CANTERBURY.

John Henry Lewis, a former inmate of the Burnham School, was on the 2nd fined £10 or one months' imprisonment on each of four charge 3of inciting the inmates of the school to ab&cond, the sentences to be cumulative.

SOUTHLAND

Residents at Orepuki seem to find the making of shale oil in the neighbourhood not altogether conducive to their wellbeing. The correspondent of the .Southland Times reports that since the works started distillation the water m the household tanks is covered with a film of oil, while houses are being depreciated by a deposit of the same kind, which discolours the paint and oxidises nails, causing streaks ofrust. Houses a mile from the works are being covered with a felate-colouicd oily deposit.