LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9460, 23 June 1902, Page 1

LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

(Per Press Association.) ■ WANGANUI, last night. At a. meeting of the Wanganui branch of the Farmers' Institute on Saturday a resolution was passed in favor of the proposal to erect in Wellington a distributing depot for fitrmers' produce. It also decided* to ask the Government to ■\ repeal sections of the Public Works Act which make it compulsory for a country owner, on selling land or cutting the same up, to widen the existing road to one chain. It was pointed -out by one speaker, who is Chairman of the County Council, that it would take all the revenue of the Council to meet claims for compensation by owners. PALMERSTON N., last night. At the meeting of the A. and P. Com- ■•-. mittee on Saturday the prize schedule was increased by £270, making the total value of the prizes to be given away over - £1400, the largest jn the colony. The prizes for horses have been increased by . £70, cattle by £70, and sheep by £50. A new art and industrial class has been added, for which prizes are given valued a| £50. ASHBURTON, last night. The hotelkeepers of Ashburtou. and Tin- . wald have decided to close their premises during Divine service on Coronation Day, . from 10.30 to 12.30.

The souvenir cards which are being presented by the Government to school children throughout the colony are nine inches long and six inches wide, and bear a bril-liantly-colored emblematic design. In the centre are portraits of the King and Queen, surmounted by the Royal Crown, and alonfj the top are eleven Union Jacks bearing the names of leading British colo- " nies and Egypt, as well as a similar flag ornamented with the Southern Cross to represent New Zealand. A scroll inscribed "Long live our King and Queen," and shields bearing the Royal Arms and the Union Jack comQ^te the upper portion of the card. Below is the inscription, "Souvenir of the Coronation of King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra, June 26, 1902. From the Government of New Zealand to , attending school." A sword, orb, aud sceptre complete the design. The department expects that 200,000 of the cards will be required in order to give one to every school child in the colony. ~* Mr Herries, M.H.R. for the Bay of Plenty, speaking in his electorate recently, said! there was a strong feeling, even among Government supporters, that the system of making the Ministry mainly representative of the Soutli Island required alteration, Messrs McGowan and Carroll beings- the only North Island representatives in the Government. In the event of Mr Seddon not returning to the colony (which was quite within thebounds of possibility) and the Acting-Premier becoming the party leader, a general reconstruction of the Ministry would be necessary, and would probably be in the direction of inclfiding more STorth Islanders. Mr Herries also said that the idea had been mooted that at Coronation time ' the Imperial Government bring forward a scheme for the formation of a Colonial Board of Advice (similar to the Indian Board) to which the Canadian Premier (Sir W. Laurier), Mr Barton, of the Commonwealth, and Mr Seddon would be appointed. The members' of the Board would luive seats in the House of Lords, in this particular differing from the Indian Board, the members of which have not this right.

The Hon. Mr Wise, of Ne\v South Wales, when in Melbourne lately, made a statement to the Age as to the general position in his State with respect to the drought. "I question," said Mr Wise, "whether the appalling nature of the calamity which has overtaken New South Wales and Queensland is fully recognised by the residents./of the southern States. Large figures are very difficult to estimate, imd the bare statement that in New South Wales alone between 15,000,000 and 20 000,000 sheep have already died does not at first carry home to the'mind of , the man who hears it a conviction of the awful catastrophe. But thin is not the whole of the tale of suffering caused. In addition to the loss of full-grown sheep, there must be reckoned the loss of almost the entire lambing. All through New South Wales the throats of the lambs are being cut in order to save the ewes; and it is expected that there will be practically no natural increase. In figures this means that while we started the year with 42,000.000 sheep, which, m ordinary circumstances— allowing for natural Increase and decrease-should have given us at the close of the year about 50.000,----mO aheen, we shall wind up the period X, probaMv not more than 20.000.000 sheep Queensland is in even a worse client At one of the stations in Xew South .Wales £2000 a week has been spent for the last three months in the purchase, of wheat, maize ,a.nd hny for food, the daily allowance being Jib of liay and £lb (if srrain peri H b- o .i<p— lt |- vioudv a starvation allowance, just sufficient to "keep the sheep alive; whether such expenditure is profitable depends on the 'prif-e of alieep and the fe-rm of the drought It is estimated that the sheep that live to September will be worth from 20s to 30s a head. • „

A resident in the northern territory of Australia whose homestead is adjacent to a section of the overland telegraph line between the Katherine and Daly water stations, explains in a recent letter the most frequent causes of delay in the transmission of messages as follows:—"At present (Ist May) there is a frequent but brief loss of current taking place, which has caused much annoyance and baffled the authorities, because it occurs mostly in the morning and evening. Operators sent from the two stations to investigate have discovered that parrots jgahlahs), which frequent a pool of water near the spot where the leakage is located, perch on the top telegraph wire, and parrotlike, use their beaks upon the second/i'but only for a moment; with a shrill cry they take flight. In the meantime, however, the current has escaped, and if a message were going through its continuity was broken. Frogs also are a frequent cause of interruption. On every insulator a pendant wire from the main wire hangs to within an inch of the iron telegraph pole to act as a lightning conductor. Frogs climb up the poles until they reach this pendant, and their bodies filling up the inch space -complete the circuit, und kill the frog. The dead body causes a leakage until it is removed by the line repairers. Wasps, too, build their nests at this critical point, with the same result. The galilahs have done us good service, for they have been the means of bringing us a mailbag by the telegraph operator from the Katherine.'