NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Customs authorities at Sydney seized £6OO worth of opium on the China, steamer Changsha. . • There is a serious outbreak of Irish blight in the Hunter River district, N.S.W., where a large area of potatoes has been destroyed. Mr E. W. O'Sulliva.n, member of the NewSouth Wales State Assembly for Newcastle, died' last week. Mr Alexander Gordon. K.C., has been. appointed to the vacant Supreme Court judgeship in New South Wales. Frosts have killed the early fruits in ten of the American States. The northern, central, and the middle west are the States affected. Five Bengali youths were convicted of political dacoity at Haludbari, India, four being sentenced to eight years and one to seven years. A gale wrecked the" new army experimental airship at Aldershot, England. The envelope was ripped from end to end. Good rains, the result of thunderstorms, have fallen over a large portion of New 1 South Wales. Reuter's corre.spondrnt .reports that t.ae airship Zeppelin No. 2 dragged har anchors at Limburg, and was completely wrecked. The Victorian Cabinet has adopted' a scheme dealing with unemployment whereby all the police stations in the country districts will be made labour offices. M. Isvolsky. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, is at Biarritz. It is understood that he meets King Edward: to-day. The steamer Tofua has made a record! run from Fiji to Sydney, covering the distance in 5 days 52 minutes'. At the Hawkesburv Agricultural College, New South Wales, Mr W. E. Long. of Onehunga. has been awarded a first. ■year certificate' and Mr H. B. Lang a full dairy certificate. The Rev. Gerald Sbarpe was consecrated' Bishop of New Guinea at the ProCathedral, Queensland. Ai-chbishop Don-ald-eon performed the ceremony. The railway and tramway revenue of New South Wales for the March quarter was £86,618 above the corresponding quarter of last year. «> ■ A plagued rat was caught in Clarence street, Sydney, near the harbour.. This ia the> first nlagued rat caught since June, last. The underwriters have received advice of the fire aboard the German steamer Sonneberg, at Aden. It was, however, extinguished. Mr Henniker Beaton expressed extreme disappointment over Mr H. Samuels statement refusing penny postage with Francs'. The Prince of Wales has donated £SOO to the Archbisboo of Canterbury's Western' Canadian Church Fund. Already £14,228 has been raised in subscriptions. The directors of the Mercantile Bank Assets Company notify their intention of redeeming the outstanding balance of debenture, stock during the month of May. At the inquest in London upon J. Kaiser, who committed suicide', it was proved that he was formerly an architect. and builder, and had lived in Brisbane. Mr Moore, Premier of Western Australia, said' in the course of an interview in London that he- saw no signs of British) decadence. He warmly praised English methods of conducting business. _ At Mr Henniker Heaton's instance a recital will be given in London early in June of representative specimens of vigorous poetry and songs'of the newer States of the Empire. In, the House of Commons Mr Haldane was asked if the cavalry were trained on rocking-horses. He replied, amid laughter: " They are trained en dummies on rockers." Hallev'e comet is clearly visible to t!ne naked eye in Malta. Its tail is sloped up aS an angle of 4-0 degrees, and its apparent length is twice the moon's diameter. Owing to the cost, amounting to £550, the London County Council declined Sir E. Shackleton's suggestion to enable school children to visit the vessels of the Antarctic expedition. A man and a. woman, were discovered at the foot of a cliff' at Dovsr, England. The woman was unoon.-cicus. and the mani seriously injured. He said that they were blown over by the wind. The Prince of Monaco, having arranged to deliver a scientific lecture, is at laresenfc the guest of King Emanuel. The Vatican. theaefore, to mark its displeasure, notified the Prince that he. is no longer persona grata. Germany has offered to sell this, cruiser Blueher to T-urkev for £2,000,000, though she cost 1,372,000 Turkish pounds, but the Turkish Admiralty prefers to persist in ordering a new armoured cruiser of moderate displacement in Britain. The. German Reichstag agreed to a bill granting - -pensions to a.ll veterans who have taken, part in- a campaign wherein the Empire or the States partook prior to 1870, although the Government protested there were no funds available. In the battleship manoeuvres in the North' Sea the Blues, under Admiral Ba-ttenburg, vanquished the Reds, under Admiral May, by capturing a battleship, some cruisers, and destroyers. The Forth Bridge was taken, and the Rosyth naval base destroyed. The tote! quantitv of wheat and flour afloat for the United Kingdom is 4,380,000 quarters* ud for the Continent 1,910,000 quartern. ihe Atlantic shipments were* 44-A'O qua. -■■-. and the Pacific 15,000 quarters. Tlk> toi-.d shipped for Europe was L,275,000 quarters, including the Argentine

and Uruquay 148,000 quarters, Black Sea 620,000 quarters, India, 132,000 quarters, and Australasia 180,000 quarters. Several questions are being asked in the House of Commons regarding the Japanese tariff, which the Diet is now considering, and which comes into operation in July, 1911. The duties on textiler are said to average from two and a-half to threefold above present rates, and will be prohibitive to many Lancashire and Yorkshire articles. Mr T. M'Kinnon Wood told the House that the Board of Trade were consulting the Chambers of Commerce. Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., at Hokitika, convicted and fined a Greymouth bookmaker (C. Noel') £2O and costs for betting at the Westland A. and P. show, holding that racing events held in connection therewith did not constitute a race meeting within the meaning of the Gaming Act. At Palmerston North A. F. M'Minn, for assault in connection with the R ro^| dim f 5 during Powelka week, was ned £5, the magistrate pointing out that ordinary oitipens were not entitled to use firearms or even threaten their use. ~ Anthonv Reuben Anderson (who gave his age as 15) and Reginald Lawson (22) appeared before Mr Justice Williams to receive punishment for 15 charges of housebreaking and theft. Both youths were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and declared to be habitual criminals. His Honor ordered that they be committed to the prison at Invercargill, .where the discipline is really reformatory Harry Joseph Hand, Years, was brought before Mr Justice Williams on Tuesday for housebreaking and stealing offences in the Tokomairiro district. On the representations of Mr Cumming his Honor did not pass a sentence, but placed the boy under the charge of Mr Cumming to give him a chance of leading an honest and industrious life. James Henry Garlick Wilson (20) and Robert Brittain Shepherd (20) were to have come up for sentence on Tuesday. Their joint offence was that on December 31 they stole a letter containing four money orders of the total value of £7l. Shepherd received a letter apparently addressed to him containing the money orders, but really intended' for a young man from 'America. He went to the money order office, and was surprised to find that the orders were cashed, Wilson identifying him as Robert Shepherd. They became frightened at what they had done, and left I>unedin. making for Australia. They spent the monev, but subsequently surrendered themselves to the police. His Honor made an order that the prisoners come ud 'for sentence when called upon, this calling "not to be made so long aseach anan pays £1 a fortnight to the registrar until the sum of £77 be pa.;d, this including the costs of the prosecution. The P.O. Department declined to make good the monev to the real Shepherd on the ground that he was negligent.