NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The C nited State* reven.io frr the past * TC A?-JJi° we a sur P-'us of 84,000, 000d01. Middlesex County has raked Albert Trott s benefit fund to £800 . Tor JJ ■ TThomasT f homas hughes has been re-elected ! .Lord Mayor of Sydney. i «]£T c ' l -/u°* ll i Sai l d Asiat , ics have not yet comphad with the terms of the Registration of Asiatics Act. The South Australian Legislative Council has ratified the agreement to transfer the , Northern Territory to the Federal Government. Tho birth rate within the Sydney metropolitan area for the month of November was the highest for 10 years. The death of Air Theodore Devan explorer in New Guinea, is announced. The deceased was 47 years of age. The special N.S. Walee court which was appointed to deal with the ooal troubles held a. meeting at Newcastle on the 9th and then adjourned till Thursday. ' ww ot weather prevailed throughout N.S. j Wales on the 2nd. At Bourkl the ternI perature was 112 degrees. 1 T he j 06 ,^ 68 Red «ction Board has ordered 24 hotels to be closed within the i Melbourne metropolitan area. During an inter-tribal fight at Leonora (Western Australia) one black was killed ! and two were seriously injured * A g & rice6 L Were obt ained for fat cattle n li Homebueh sales, Sydney, recently, liest bullocks ranged from £16 to £18 and best cows up to £14. - *u The i. Gover . nment Statistician estimates the wheat yield at 12,840,000 bushels of which about 8,000,000 will be absorbed » locally. The Supremo Court has decided that under the Civil Service Acts the Govern--"roent is not permitted to retrench civil bv Th V?Kn f ° r **°™ m} *r increased PVZRjhn' 00 an^ *.h?. h ? sports by ±,2,887,000, compared with the previous ' ■November. j Sir W. Laurier, in consequence of the increasing supplies from elsewhere, is being i urged to impose an import duty on wood The report of the N.S. Wales registrar of ' trades unions chows that trie- number ot tl^ uni <>ns at the end of 1906 was •£82 053 their funds totalled . President Roosevelt proposes to repeal' the duty on wood pulp. Many of the Halfpenny newspapers fn America are increasing their price owing to the shortage ot pulp for making paper. The £*ar newspaper (London) has been I ordered to- pay Mr Hunt (town clerk of Westminster) £800 for libelling him by " stating that he was obstructing progressive agonts during elections. As an outcome of the pooling echeme of the Great Northern and Great Centra! Railways their stocks have improved on M nmmn°A . mar !v et to , the extent «f ±»<i,UOu,ooo during the week. ( The French airship La Patrie, which broke away from Verdun, was seen sailing above Glasgow. ■ The Mayor of Dunedin has approached the Athenaeum Committee suggesting that negotiations should proceed for amalgamating the Athensum with the Carnegie Free • L^. rr c al T- . The At henaeum Committee has i notined that it will appoint a sub-cor-n; mirtee to meet members of the City Council with a view to eliciting auch information as is necessary before the general question can, be fully ventilated. | The West Harbour Borough Council has increased the dog tax from 5s to 767 6 6d ! per annum. j Mr James Small, a member of the Dun- , edin City Council, has informed the Rate- I ■ payers Association that ho cannot see his ' I way to be nominated for the mayoralty this The forty-first anniversary of the Kaikorai Presbyterian Church congregation ! ami the opening of the new church was i celebrated on tho sth inst. h v a soiree, sale , of work, and congregational meeting. The I Chairman (the Rev. R. R. if. Sutherland) I mentioned that tho total cost 'of tho new j building, etc.. was £3045. Towards this !Sc i receivecl or had been promised | ±^(db, leaving a debt of a little over £300 I j During the e\o n ing Mr Sutherland was presented by the ladies of the congrogaI t'°" th a ricll "'lk ottoman pulpit gown. ; i Mr William Dow, the only remaining mem- \ I her whose name was on tho first com- • . m " n 'on roll, was printed with a bound j Biblo as a token of re6pect and affection j of the members of the congregation. f A very successful sale of work was held i , in the Trinity Methodic Church Hall last i , wopk to raise funds to a«ist in sending a ! lady missionary to help in the spiritual and !' I phy-ical oaro of tho Maori women of the ; North I-Liul. Among tlie bpoakers was >.eho Hemi, PapaJ-akura. a Natne mis- ; fcionary, and Uip Rev. W. Skde. The , taking ar>ir-um«.d H -omrthinsr over £30. I Win!- tho Bluff Harbour Board is put if** 11 as having borrowed £10,400 frorrr tho Government, as a matter of fact TP- lias not obtained any «uch loan. The £10.400 referred to is part of tho accumulated sink- ( ing fund*, and is in charge of tho Public Trustee, ami what the board has dono is to borrow it, own money through the Publio Trustee. j While in Auckland the Primo Minister I was urged to reduce tho railway faros be1 tween Onohunga and Auckland from 19 , ' second and Is 6d first class white the tram 1 fare was only 9d return. Sir J. (1. Ward admitted the anomaly. If the Government ! could lower the Onehnnsra rates without ' doing tho same in other places it would / I bo only too crlatT to do «o. ! Mr VI E F^fark, elertrital engineer to , the Dnnodin Cit\ Council, ha-> .submitted an ostuoaie foi completing the equipment i of the capacity of the electric generating

plant at Waipori up to 4COO kilowatts. The hydraulic portion, which includes two dams, lie estimates will cost £29,780, the electrio portion he estimates at £17,806, or c grand total of £47,596. The Loch Loudon dam he estimates would givo 1000 acre feet storage, and Lake Luella 6000 acre feet storage. The construction of the tunnel necessary, he advises, should extend over a period of at least five years. The American Steel Trust have dismissed 50,000 hands since the financial panic began. The University of California is endeavouring to arrange a visit of a Rugby team to New Zealand next year. The Special Court closed nine hotels in Broken Hill under the Local Option vote in New South Wales. One hundred and forty-one actors and • actresses were arrested at Kansas City for breach of the Sunday observance law. Evei sacred ooncerts in New York are inhibited. Twenty-one sailors at Vladivostock %aye been sentenced to death and twentj-four, to penal servitude for beinz concerned in the recent mutiny. Four loyal natives in North Yryheid*, Natal, captured and asseigaid a rebel. Before the latter died he stated that fee and others had been entrusted with a special mission, but he declined to say by whom. Owing to the bill to Germanise Poland, many Warsaw firms are boycotting German goods. Several Russian physicians claim that radium ;urcd General Poehl of cancer, and the general has signed a certificate to that effect. A kite, invented by Mr Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, lifted Lieutenant Selfxidge, at Halifax, 100 ft in the air. John Brown, an inmate of the Liverpool Asylum, New South Wales, has juat died at the age of 119. He arrived in the State 87 years a^p, and in hi 6 younger days hat" served in the navy. An Italian electrician employed in the San Carlos Theatre, Lisbon, who had been. arrested, committed suicide after the discovery, under the flooring of the royal box, of two bombs, which were connected by wires reaohinjr behind' the stage. One of the brigands who kidnapped at Salonika, Turkey, a son of Robert Abbott, a British merchant, and was paid £13,000 by way of ransom, has been sentenced to 15 years penal servitude, another to 12 years, and eight to 10 ye&TS. Mr Keir Hardie, M.P., although favour* ably impressed by what he has so far seen in Australia, has not yet been able to pick up any points for his own f&rty. Labour parties in England, he considers, are more highly organised than in Australia and more comprehensive. An attempt was made to dynamite * train conveying 1 Sir A. HL Fraser, LieutenantGovernor of Bengal, and Lady Fraser, be- ' twecn Warayan'gar and Bena^ur, in India. Several sleepers were blown to fragment*, and a biff hole was made in the ground, but the engine was not derailed, and no one wae hurt. Sharp, a swagger, 66 w ycars old,, wae burned to death in a hut at- Kirwee, Canterbury, on Monday night. • •• * At the criminal sittings at Invercargill the Grand Jury returned no bill in the case of Alexander Ferrier," who was charged with manslaughter. The facts were that c ■ horse took fright at Ferrier's traction engine, and backed" over an embankment, ' killing a young woman who wu drivingthe animal. A verdict of "Not guilty was returned in the case' against Charles"" 1 Froggatt, a youth, charged witfi having improper relations, with her consent, with" a girl under 16 years. At the Dunedin Police Court a hvbourcf named John Kerr was fined 20s for obstructing a conductor on an electric tnmcar by refusing to remove his arm, which blocked ingress and egress to the car. For assaulting the conductor he was fined 60s, and ordered to pay £4- J» costs. In connection with the Brooklyn tram accident, a special jury awarded £250 damages to Richard Elliott, t. baker, one of the passengers injured. A new trial U to be moved for on the ground that the damages are excessive. Mr D. Cuddie, Dairy Commissioner, leaves Wellington on Friday for Great Britain, where he is to inspect dairy* produce as it arrives from New Zealand, and to follow it to tho warehouses of those handling it, and see for himself how it carries and defrosts for sale. Mr Cuddie will visit various manufacturing centres of rival countries, and generally acauire all knowledge and information reaarding the industry which may prove useful and profitable to the New Zealand producer. Mr C. J. Reakes, Assistant Chief Veterinarian, leaves for Britain on Friday to inaugurate the Home inspection of Yew Zealand meat.