NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 64

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Twelve indie* of snow have fallen at Dalgety, New South Wales. Shepherd ran 660 yards in 82sec at New York. The body of the late Dr Koch has been cremated. Irish blight has broken out in the Fish Creek district of South Gippsland, Victoria. The estate of the late Mr Larke, Canadian Commissioner, has been sworn at £7679. The total Victorian revenue for 11 .months is £212,000 more than for the corresponding period last year. The New South Wales revenue for the past 11 months was. £12.763,137, a comparative increase of £332,106. A Cossack .girl named' Kudasheff rode from Kharbin to St. Petersburg astride a Mongolian pony. Her only companion was a St. Bernard dog. The Free Church of Scotland has appointed the Rev. D. M'Lean, of St. Colombo Chur,oh, Edinburgh, as their deputy to visit Australia next Easter. The late Sir E. Pavson Wills's astate has been sworn at £2,531,207. The bulk of it is divided between his seven ctukfcen. Severe earth tremors were experienced at Kiandra and Cooma, New South Wales, on the Ist, accompanied by a loud rumbling. Houses were shaken, but no damage was done. The Bank of Adelaide has decided to increase its capital by £IOO,OOO, making the total half a million. The new shares will be offered at £2 premium. General French, speaking at a review at Montreal, said that the rifle used by the Canadian Militia was a weapon unsurpassed for range ancl power. After making increases in the number of State bursaries at the high schools, the New South Wales Minister of Education intends that the size of the faimilies fron which the students come will be a factor in awarding th-em. The Labour Congress has decided to start a Labour daily paper at Perth, with a capital of £30,000, in shares of £1 each. The paper will bo managed by a oommiittee of 12.

TKn Rov S-cou.';s movement is sweeping

j over America. There is a prospect of half | : a million members before 1911 • By an explosion in the coal bunker of : the Victorious at the Nore, England', four ! stokers- were- severely burned. The' Hon. J. H. Wickersham, the United States Federal Attorney-Genera!, is initiating an action to dissolve the Sugar Trust. The British Admiralty has given a trial order for 25,0001 b of tinned rabbits to the Country Freezing Company, Sydney. i A powder mill at Rumeriohl (Westphalia) ! was struck by lightning and blown to pieces. Many hc-u.ses were damaged. The workmen were absent, it being Sunday. Mr Henry Frick, of the United States j Steel Trust, has purchased for £60,000 j Rembrandt's picture of "' A Polish Rider," which will shortly be exhibited in the Carfax Garlevy. The Labour Congress at Perth adopted as j a fighting platform Legislative Council reform, taxation on unimproved land values, the Initiative and Referendum, and the right to work. It is understood that the Royal Mail Steamship Company are purchasing the whole of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's share capital at par. Canada has ordered the reservation, with a view to forest reproduction, of 14,400 square miles, being a strip from ten to fifty miles in width along the eastern slope | of the Rockies. ■ Hwr Dernburg, German Colonial Secre- | tary, has resigned, owing to the Reich- i stag's decision to compel the diamond companies to contribute towards the cost of quelling the Herreros rebellion. The fettlers and williers employed in seventy woollen mills in Yorkshire have decided to tender their notices on the. 16th unless increased wages and better working conditions are meanwhile conceded. A strike would throw 20,000 people idle. Tine Mayor of Whitehaven, in acknowledging New Zealand's kindly and very gaierous donation of £IOOO, said it was a satisfaction to find that those who were far removed by distance were brought. f-> near by trouble that they could' joia their kinsmen at Home in assisting the sufferers. Captain Holford, who was convicted in April on a charge of obtaining a quantity of jewellery by false pretences, has been bound over and released. The recorder took into consideration the prisoner's detention in custody and also his distinguished career. Dr Bell, Director of Geological Survey in New Zealand, delivered a lecture before a representative gathering of members of the Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers at Mount Morgan. Amongst those present was Mr Blow (Under-secretary of Mines in New Zealand).. Dr Bell described in detail the great Waihi and the Waihi Grand Junction mines. The New York Herald's Yokohama correspondent says that a. Japanese lieutenant named Shirafe is organising an expedition, which embarks in August on a 150-ton schooner, with a crew of 15 and some Manchurian ponies for sleighing, for the South Pole, via King Edward's Land. A resolution _ carried by the Wagga Labour League iiL_fa.vour of substituting a Federal lottery for "Tattersalls" was submitted to Mr Fisher, the Federal Premier, who replied that he had more important matters to deal with, and that it was not worth while bothering about such a proposal. The servioe at the Coleraine Presbyterian Church, Victoria, was brought to a sudden close owing to the continuous noise made by laughing jackasses who were perched on the roof. The preacher stopped his sermon, and, the report adds, when the birds had exhausted themselves the congregation were not in a mood to receive his further exhortations. The total quantity of wheat and flour afloat for the United Kingdom is 3,845,000 quarters, and for the Continent 1,500,000 quarters. The Atlantic shipments were 141.000 quarters, and the Pacific 15,000 quarters. The total shipments were: From Europe, 950,000 quarters; Argentine, 69,000 quarters; ■lndia, 169,000 quarters; and Australasia, 93,000 quarters. King George and Queen Mary, at Marlborough House, received the _ bluejackets who drew the gun carriage which bore the late King's coffin to Windsor, and presented the officers with the Victorian Order _of the fourth class and the men with Victorian medals. An open square was then formed, and the King, in. a. short speech, formally presented the gun carriage to the navy. Queen Alexandra afterwards reviewed the bluejackets at Buckingham Palace. Speaking .at Whitfield's Tabernacle on Sunday afternoon, Mr Ramsay Macdonald. M.P., said that Germany was ahead of England because German brains were trained and scientific. Instead of biographies of Bismarck and Moltke, the British people should read the German philosophers and poets to discover the origin of German unity and greatness. German workmen, had asked him to tell Englishmen that they, too, were fighting those elements in Germany which sought for war.

William Glen (30), who has worked on the No Town dredge, on the West Coast, ever since she started, fell overboard at 3 a.m. on the 7th and was drowned. The body ba.s been recovered, but no explanation has been given as to the cause of the accident. His parent* reside in Greymouth. Mrs Augusta Elizabeth. Stock, wife of an Ashburton, resident, died with startling suddenness at the Christoburch Theatre Boval on Monday evening while attending the first performance of the Marlow Dramatic Company. About 10.40 she suddenly collapsed, Calling on her daughter-in-law's shoulder. "She was removed and medical aid summoned, but life was found to be extinct. The deceased was 55 years of age, and had been in bad,' health for some time. __ _, At Wellington on May 28 Messrs W. M. Bannatvne and Co. we're fined 10s and costs for selling adulterated nepner. For the defence it was contended there was no sale to the inspector and that the pepper was the balance' of old stock. At the Auckland criminal sittings at the end of May, a young man named WilJiam John Frederick Moore, found guilty of a. grave assault on a girl, was sentenced to 14 years' hard labour and two floggings, Mr Justice Chapman saying it was scarcely possible to conceive a. worse case for foulness and crudity. Alfred John Capner was sentenced to three years' im-p-risonmen.t for indecent assault, and to one year for using indecent langunore. the sentences to run concurrently. William Robertson was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on two charges of criminal assault on a child of 12 years, his Honor remarking that the offence evidently resulted from over-indulgence in liquor. The jury acquitted a youth named Albert Taylor, who was charged with a. criminal

offence on a girl of 14 years. The jury urged that the attention of the Minister for Justice be ..drawn to the startling state of juvenile immorality disclosed by the evidence in the case, and that legislation be introduced so that children whose parents wilfully or ignorantly ignore their responsibilities may be controlled. _ _ At the Wellington criminal sittings, Henry Gordon, an absconder from Burnham Industrial School, was sentenced to nine months' confinement in the Inyeroargill Reformatory Gaol. Albert Wm. l<oot-e, his companion, also an absconder, was remanded. In the case of Eberhardt Ferdinand Renncr. charged with arson at Wadestown. in which a jury failed to agree in February, the jury at the re-trial afso failed to agree, but on the second re-trial he w-ais found guilty. He was admittsd to probation. At the seoord trial of Alice Mary Constance', charged with having committed' an illegal operation, the jury found there was not sufficient evidence to- convict, and this was accepted as a verdict of " Not guilty." At a meeting held at Wellington on May 31, attended by several members of Parliament and University professors, it was resolved to form a University Reform Association.

At, a meeting of auctioneers held at Wellington on May 31. it was decided to prepare a number of amendments to the Auctioneers Act and circulate the amending bill, after which delegates from the various parts of the Dominion will meet and, after agreeing to the amendme'nts required. denut"t'onise the Premier. Sir J. G. Ward informed a deputation that waited on him at that the Government had not ceased its efforts t,r> bring out domestic helns. but New Zealand had to compete ao-ainst Canada and the United States, the fares to which nlaoes were sometime® as 'bw as £l,. Whether the Government would offer free passages was another question. He would bring the whole subject before Parliament.