NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3149, 22 July 1914, Page 38

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The question of school hostels is under, consideration by the Hon. James Allen, Minister of Education. New South Wales and Western Australia propose spending £500,000 each on reinforced grain elevators. The Anglican Diocesan. Synod, of Wellington adopted a resolution urging the desirability of establishing a Board of Missions. ‘ There are 150 applicants from many countries for the position of director of the New South Wales Conservatoriura of Music. The present value of hops grown in the Nelson district is said to be about £50,000 per annum. About £12,000 a year is paid for picking. The growers are alarmed over tj#c possibility of national prohibition being carried. Eight cases of smallpox were reported at Sydney during the past week, and one at Morcc. A woman died at the quarantine station, making the third death since the outbreak. Complaint is made by the president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce that established commercial relations with the Pacific Islands have been seriously injured by the curtailment of the steamer service, and representations are being made to the managing director of the Union S.S. Co. on the subject. Ex-inspector Syrao has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for libelling Sir Edward Henry, the London Pohco Commissioner. Mr Justice Coleridge paid a high compliment to the scrupulous fairness of the higher police authorities. The Tourist Department has engaged Mr Conrad Kain, the chief guide to the Canadian Alpine Club, to teach the younger guides the finer points of alpine work, and to aftorwardls assist Chief Guide Graham in the work of high climbing. Mr Kain has

a fine record in the European Alps and the Canadian Rockies. Mary Hammon, middle-aged, wife of Daniel Hammon, proprietor of the Huimani Boarding-house at Whangarei, was found in her kitchen before 6 o’clock on the morning of the 21st with the blade of a small axe buried to the haft in the left side of her skull. Her screams brought the boarders on the scene but the woman was then unconscious. She was removed to the hospital, where she died. Her husband was found hiding among some timber on the wharf, and was arrested, charged with murder, and remanded. The couple had a family of three sons and. one daughter, the eldest child being- 14 years.