NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

j The price of butter has been reduced in Sydney by 10s per cwt. j Soutli Australia has prohibited the importation of potatoes from blight-infected j States. i The Austrian-Hungarian army has had Rontgen rays apparatus fitted up in the held waggons. The brother of the present Shah of ! Persia (Mohammed Hassan) has been ap- , pointed heir-apparent. The head of a Japanese cattle-breeding ■ establishment is visiting Great Britain to , purchase stock, especially Ayrshires. | The losses of English underwriters by , shipwreck during the month of August I are estimated at, £1.000,000. The Commonwealth Postmaster-General states that £1,833.000 will be required to bring the telegraph and telephonic services up (o date. French vignerons arc highly favourable to the proposal to issue S^ate labels for revenue purposes for wine. Steaiv«rs from St. Petersburg conveyed : cholera to Rotterdam. Several fresh cases are reported. M. Lopukhin, foimeily Chief of the Russian Police, who was sentenced to exile I for high treason, has started for Yakutsk, the place of his exile. His wife and | brother-in-law accompany him. The Mackay-Beniiett cable ship towed to , sea an iceberg 160 ft in length which was resting on the shore end of the Newfoundland cable. The cable was thereupon repaired. A cage containing 30 men fell to tho bottom of the pit at the.. colliery, Penverag, Glamorganshire;- through the breaking of the cable. Six were killed and 16 injured severely. Th-e Kildonan Castle has arrived at, Southampton with the largest shipment of ?old as yet sen! from South Africa in one vessel. The total value of the gold is The Imperial Government has arranged a scheme for national horse-breeding, to be worked out by the Board of Agriculture and the War Office The State premiums will involve an outlay of £30.000 annually. Japan is constructing three 5000-ton cruisers. Mr S. F. Cod\, the British army expert, aeroplaned eight miles in 9Jmin at Aldershot at a height of 100 ft. It is officially stated that the total loss of lift* through the collision between the Colombia and the Schleisen in the harbour at Monte Video was 60. Swan, Hunter, and Richardson, of Wallsend, are hi- tiding a 20.000-ton Cunarder. She will be 600 ft long, 70ft wide, and faster than the Mauretani i. On his return trin from Berlin Count Zeppelin was compelled to descend at Buelr.ig. near Wittenberg. The two fore propellers of his airship broke, and pierced the envelope, causing the gas to escape. Eecles. the wireless operator, and hero of the Ohio disaster, was a native of Almonte, near Ottawa. The Canadian Government has already started to commemorate his heroism. The total quantity of wheat and flour afloat for the United Kingdom is 2,035.000 quarters, and for the Continent 1.245,000 qua; tors. The Atlantic shipments were 228,000 quaiters, and the total shipments to Europe for the wopk 875,000 qu.-.t"!*. As a result of the flood in the Korang district (Victoria) many hou-.0-, vro uninhabitable, and number* ha\ p collared One family is living on a straw stark. Five thousand acres of crop are rumed. Tboi-p are similar reports from Erhura M Kille.-and. K.-onoh MinKt-M- of Woiks, interviewed at thf clcso of tbp a\iation week at Rheim.% said hp was fon\:ncod that there was a great future for aeroplanes, psnec<ally in regions where, as in South Algoria and Asia, roads were wanting, for ••lie transport of mails. He addr>d that •"tations would bo necessary to enable aeroplamsts to replenish their petrol supplies. The adherents of the faction formerly l<?d by Saravoff shot Sandansky at midnight in tho centre of Salonica (Turkey), severely wounding him in the chest. The Daily Mail says that Sandansky was responsible for the most horrible outrages during the Macedonia atrocities, and that 3000 oeoulfl had been murdered by hi.-> orders. Tt is al*o said that Sandansky had romknitted 300 murders with his own hand Th-e number cf mates employe] in Nf>w Wales factories la^ veai wis 67,617 nvn r^d 21.431 females Th<» \.-ilue of the machinery and plant was £9,654. 0C0. For the previous year the figure* were: 65.933 males, 20,514 females, and £9,0W,C0Q value of plant. There Ls a growing demand for Australian-mads in place of imported goods. A$ o\erflow cf tli3 rivers carsed pnovrao'.i-- damage in Northern Mexico. Fiftht hundred- people perished i Mcnteroj alone, and 15,C0C are homclo.«. TJia damage is estimated at about 12,00Q,00CJ0l Many bridges a:r.d 100 mi Ire of railway track in the States of Ncui€'lccn and Coapirla hv.-o Itc-ti dest roved. The Mexico Smc't-np and Lead Company'? losses ar. placed at ' 3.000,00C<101, a^.d those of th? Monterey rie°] Comp.-r.v al 1,00C,000d0l Half of the city is inundated. Tbere are 1200 ut-d and

f 15.000 homelest at Monterey, and the ' damage, is four millions sterling. Over 17m of rain fell on Friday, Saturday, and Sun- ' day. The greatest looses wers on Saturday, when tbe greac buildings began to crumble , and fall. Many of the. roofs were crowded with hundreds of people, most of whom disappeared Ninety women and children took 1 refuge ir a schcolhoura. The rising water ' drove them from Boor to flcor, and at last, , while two priest-3 were blessing them, tho j walls colUp c ed, and all were drowned. Th\. Ma.rylebone Cricket Club, m the rei tun match against the AustraLans, scored I 188 in their first intiings. The Australians ] have made 118 for the loss of ona wicket. ! A staong syndicate is reported to have acquired the Orepu'ci Shale Works, and intend? to commence operations shortly. At the criminal sittings of the Supreme I Court at Invercargill, on Tuesday, a pair of white p loves was presented to Mr Ju&tico I Williams, as there were no criminal caseo foi- trial. The s-ame thing happened in i 1901 and 1906, when similar presentations wer? made to Mr Justice Denniston. | Sydney Claxon, an elderly man, was sentenced bj Mr Widdowson, S.M., at Dunedin, on Tues-daj , to six months' imprisonment for using obscene language at a galherj ; ng of the Salvation Army at Cargill's Monument, Custom House square. The man attempted to justify his conduct by stating that he had been refused work by ■ army officers because he toolc a glass pf beer occasionally. ! The business of ihe criminal sittings of j the Supreme Court at Wellington was de- ! laved for some time 'ast week owing to the non-appeaii-anee- of two persons charged with offences who were out on. bail. The bai) was estreated, but as the men. were able to explain tc th* satisfaction of the court that there had been a complete misunderstanding as" to the date of the ease-coming on in one instance, while in the other the man wa; temporarily absent owing to th« receipt oi news of the death of his brother, the order estreating the recognisances yti^s rescinded ' There is every reason to fear that Donald M'Lear has lost nis life in the snow in the back-cou.nt.ry between Jollies Pass ,-nd the Clarence River, Hanmer, North Canterbury. M 'Lean's horse* arrived at As Clarence accommodation house with the saddle turned underneath, one of the stirrups gone, and the bridle hanging over the horse's ne-ok. Large seaach partie' went out on August 18, and made as thorough search as the deep snow permitted, while tht Clarence River in the locality where M'Leaji is supposed !o have beer lost .\as dragged, but no traoe of the man wa^ found. Furthei search has been made, aw parties are still out. ,