LAND AND WATER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 57

LAND AND WATER.

When near the Beaumont on Tuesday the driver of the Lawrence-Roxburgh coach came upon a rather xinusual object by the roadside, this being a large albatross that had evidently been blown considerably out of its course. The bird was secured with some difficulty, and wa3 found to measure nearly 3ft from wing to wing. It will probably be added to the collection that adorns the Lawrence -Athenseum.

The fi&hing industry and the export trade are making good progress at Preservation Inlet. On her return to the Bluff from her last trip the steamer Rose Casey brought over 500 cases of frozen fish, mostly blue cod. for shipment to Melbourne, where the demand is always good. The long spell of fine weather has favoured fishermen, and some exceptional takes have been recorded. The fish are of large size, in perfect condition, and of superior quality.

Four boxes, containing 100,000 trout ova, were shipped, at Lytteiton on Friday to Melbourne by the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, to the order of the West Australian Govern'menfc.

In.Siam there is a species of small black ant which is officered by mounted generals.' Among tbp working troops -monster ante move at regular intervals, and on each of these large frisects "sits or rides one of the small ants, evidently in command. A Christchurch te'egrain states that in the anirual hockey match Wellington ladies v. Christchurch ladies the visitors won by 1 goal to nil. A ,=chool of seven whales were to be seen sporting themselves =ome few miles to the east of Howeil's Point on Thursday afternoon last. — Western Star.

During the past two months the Ashburton County Council has paid threepence a head on 2000 hares killed in the county. The Southland News states that an Acclimatisation Society ranger coufiscivted a number of fair-sized trout illegally in the possession of some fishermen on Thursday. The Taupo Natives are petitionine the Government not to rear European fish in Rotorua. "Let that lake." the petition says, " remain as a sanctuary for the beautiful fish of our ancestors, as'" all the other lakes and streams are now full of these pakeha fish, which have destroyed our fish, and we are punished if we go to kill these pakeha fish, even though the f lakes and streams are our own property. " So far as can be ascertained (says the Mataura Ensign) all the district streams are in satisfactory fishing trim. - Many old anglers complain that the prospects for good sport are not particularly bright^ owing (o rlw absence of floods preventing the trout in the fstuarios making their way up into the smalkr sti-oam-s. SWIMMIXG CHAMPIONSHIPS. LONDON. August 29. Kieran won the oOOvds Swimming Championship at Leeds m 6min 7sec. SWIMMING THE CHANNEL. LONDON. August 23. Burgess again failed to avnm. across the

f Channel. He encountered a gale, and gay I up after being nine hours in the water.