NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Federal bank note issue has passed the six millions mark. Lord Curxon has been elected president of the Royal Geographical Society. The weather in New South Wales is bitterly cold, and there is snow on the high lands. Captain Barron, formerly well known m the New Zealand ti-jde, is dead. South Australia has an excellent display at the Grocers' Exhibition at Southport, England. iue police vaided five , alleged betting shops in Brisbane, and made numerous arrests, including a number of prominent citizens. Oswald Water!.ouse was sentenced.at Sydney to three years' hard labour for stealing o';iium from a Chinaman. The British Admiralty has contracted wit'i Glasgow Grins for a supply cf 10,000,000 gallons of oil annually. A naphtha well which has been bored at Daiimskij on an island in the Caspian Sea, yield*-1.'000.0C0- pints of oil daily. The Australian Full Court, in deciding an anneal, declared that opium, although prohibited property, could be made the subject of larceny. The Coronation celebrations in Sydney include the illumination of the public buildings of the city on the night of June 22 and the two following nights. Owing to the ravages of phylloxera, the production of wine in Victoria has fallen from 2,822,263 gallons in 1907 to 991,941 gallons last year. The New South Wales Government .has received a cable from Mr Edison stating that his moulded house invention has not quite reached the commercial stage. The British Government has, made a friendly protest against the refusal of the Congo authorities to grant land to British missionaries. Edmund Burke, who is at present appearing as Mephistopheles with Madame Melba a* Covent Garden, London, will accompanv her to Australia. The German potash syndicate and the American buyers have signed a settlement of the long standing dispute which arose out of the tariff. It is expected that the receipts from the Australian Federal land tax will confirm the Treasurer's estimate that about one million sterling will be realised. _ While moving a ladle of molten metal at the Middk&borough Steel Works, England, the axle broke, and six men were terribly, scalded. One of them has since died. The German liner Prinz Waldcmar was admjitted to pratique at Sydney. The vessel's surgeon is> of the opinion that no cases of smallpox occurred on the steamer. The motor cars and other/motor vehicles imported into Australia, last year aie..valued at £856,000, New South Wales paying £2,82,000, and; Victoria £225,000 as their respective shares. Thorneycroft, a tailor, was sentenced in London to four months' imprisonment, and Barry, an engineer, to" two months, for cheating, by means of the confidence trick, Eric Ebery, a Victorian stockman, who jjiob them on the s.s. Orontes. A discovery of gcod alluvial gold is reported from Carrabin, Western Australia. Pieces of gold ranging up to ounces have been unearthed, and the indications point to the existence of a deep lead of considerable length. A rrsh has started. The' Australasian banking averages for the March quarter show that the excess of deposits over advances increased from £25,500,000 to £28,500.000. The total deposits were £164,762,167--an increase for the year of £14,744,585. The late Sir Joseph Duveen's daughter Florence was thrown from her horse in Rotten row, London, and fractured her .skull. Her condition is serious. The King, who was riding past at the time, has inquired as to her condition. George Meltony, a land-owner at Tikany, in Hungary, surprised his wife with his best 'friend, a man named! Paul Beikleair, a. quarry-owner. Meltony chastised Beklean, who thereupon threw a dynamite cartridge into Meltony's room, wrecking the house and mutilating and killing Meltony. During the censure debate in the New South Wales Assembly Mr Storey, leader of the Independents, announced that hie party objected to scmo of the Government's proposals, but it was willing to give them a show.' He appealed for the creation of a moderate party drawn from both sides of the House to carry on the Government. At Denver two passenger trains collided head on on the Burlington route. Nino of the passengers were killed outright, and 20 injured. The South Wales miners' delegates have resolved to ask the National Conference of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain to declare a national stoppage, of work over the minimum wage question, or else to allow a general stoppage throughout Wales.

A woman who was earning" a precarious livelihood in Paris making cigarettes from Government tobacco, thereby irifrinu-insr a monopoly, \v»s fined £4762, in default two yea re' i m p r i 90 n m e.iiifc. A mrty of Greek brigands on ijha Olym I mis R-ir.tr-e kidnapped the German archfeo-! loipist. Professor Edwa.rd Richter, after kill- ' ing a corporal of the gendarme. The brigands then escaped. Renter's Rome correspondent advises that a P»pal Encyclical, addressed to all bishops throughout the world, stronedv ! denounces Portugal's measures against tho Church, and' describes the separation of j Church, and Stat" as null and void in thio j presence or tb" Church's invio'able riorhts ' The newly-eleehcd Hawke's Bav Central Rivers. Board has appointed Messrs M. I Eilliott (engineer to the Tiicri Drainage Board:) and D. Kennedy (Napier) to repo r rfc on the rivers question. The Ooverirment is to appoint a third.' The Hon. J. D. Ormond was elected cha.irman. A sum apnroximatina' £2OO has been subscribed in the Nanier district for the Home Rule for Ireland Fund. I Rope and Twine Company's .net r»ro p t for the past y>ear amounted £3505 17s lid. A dividend of 7 per cent, for the year was declared! at tho annual (

mooting, absorbing £1645. The sum of £6OO was written off the plant account last year. Missis W. Gow and J. L. Passmore, the. retiring directors, wore reelected.