INTERPROVINCIAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8409, 7 January 1899, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL.

[Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON. To-day. Up to date 142 applications have been received here under the Old Age Pensions Act. Tbia is practically the number for a week only. The machinery for printing the last issue of stamps made by the New Zealand Government is now on its way to the colony,' and the Government Printing Office anticipates being able to start priutirig here by the end of February. A copper-plate expert, who has been engaged in London for printing the stamps, ie expected to arrive by the next San Francisco steamer. All the stamps of the new issue will in future be printed at tho Government Printing Office. Parliament has been further prorogued by Gazette till March 9th. The books of the Government Life Insurance Office have just closed for 1898, and show a prosperous year was experienced. The new business amounted to £712,000, while the voids have fftllcn to £408,000, the lowest figure for years past. So far 70 out of 900 cattle in the Hutl Valley have been condemned. The tuberculosis percentage, which at first was so high ns to be alarming, lias been very much reduced in the herds examined latterly. AUCKLAND, To-day. A Melbourne syndicate ale interesting themselves in copper deposits in the Auckland district. Reports from experts on the most eligible properties will lie obtained. Charles Edward Madden, solicitor, was committed for trial on n charge of forging mi order. Bail was allowed. A Chinaman named She Quin was fined £5 and costs for working a. horse with a sore shoulder. His Chinese employer paid the fine, The Magistrate, Mr Hutchison, said if he heard of them working the horse before it was better he would send them to gaol. . The residence of Mr Aubrey Portmrtti, nenr Partia Bay, has been burned down with its contents. It was insured for £100 in the Alliance. Mr« Emma Baker, on n charge of msoii, Was discharged. The Magistrate said the case was one of suspicion only. PALMERSTON NORTH. To-n.w. The man Thomas Kell) alias Patrick Murphy, charged with the murder of his mate Ernest Nicklin on the 24th December, was committed for trial at the next sittings of the Supreme Court in Wellington in February. OHRISTCHURCH. To-day. Rust has made its appearance in s>omc of the crops in Canterbury owing to the humid and foggy weather of late.