LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9840, 5 September 1903, Page 1

LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

♦ — (Per Press Association.)' AUCKLAND, last night The proposal to adopt the gorse clauses of the Noxious Weeds Act in the county of Waitemata was discussed by the County Council this morning in accordance with the notice of motion.; Mr Kerr Taylor moved that the gorse clause oi the Act be adopted as from October Ist next. Mr Macky moved as an amend inent that the adoption of the Act be deferred for 12 months, and expressed the opinion that the Council had better couiiue its attention to blackberries for the present,, and not subject settlers to hardships and heavy fines. The amendment was carried by four votes to three. NAPIER, last night. A five-roomed house hi Dickens street, owned and occupied by Denis Muruane, was burned to-night. The fire is supposed to have occurred through a large hanging lamp falling from jts fastenings wlkile the members of the family were working outside. ' Practically nothing was saved. The house was insured for £200. At a meeting of the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society to-day it was resolved : "That this Society views, with alarm the fact that within the last few months there have been no less than five known cases of anthrax in the Auckland district, and one in Southland, and that Sir William Russell and the other members for the district be written to,' requesting them to arrange for concerted action to be taken by members of Parliament interested in urging the Government to prohibit the importation, sale and distribution of infected bonedust until the sterilising works are- completed, the outbreaks of anthrax being directly traceable to the use of imported bonedust, as stated by the Chief V eterinary Officer in liis report to the Minister for Agriculture in 1901, and repeated again in 1902.; and also urges that the Government take steps to proclaim land infected with anthrax as infected land and subject to such .regulations for occupation as shall be deemed best by the Chief Veterinarian of the colony, and that fair compensation he allowed to the owners." It was mentioned that the steamer which brought a ; large cargo of bonedust from Calcutta T~ .last year was due in Auckland to-nior-irow, presumably with another cargo, and it was decided to point out the necessity for immediate action being taken with regard to this cargo. The annual ram fair will be held on Friday, January 29th. The golf championship meeting -was continued to-day, the . third round of the New Zealand amateur championship being played. Great interest centred in the game between . Nicolaus (Palmerston North) arid Arthur Duncan (Wellington), which, after really good play on both sides, was won by the former. The others remaining in are K. Duncan, McEwau, I'itzherbert, C. Gillies, H. Peacock, K. Tareha, and Hooper. It is thought the championship will be between Nicolaus, O. Gillies, Hooper and Tareha. WELLINGTON, last night The Secretary of the Education Department has recommended to the Parliamentary Education Committee the establishment of training schools for teachers at each of the four cities in the colony. The w net additional cost to the present system " would be £7200, though it is not supposed it would exceed £5000 per annum for the firet few years. It is suggested i that the schools be started at Wellington and Auckland at once, allowing present arrangements at Dunedin and Cliristchurch to continue for another year. The proposed schools would bo open to teachers from all parts of the colony, and be directly under the control of the Department. INVERCARGILL, last night The trial of Guiseppe^ Valli for setting fire to a stack of O'Dowd, settler, at Nightcaps, was concluded this afternoon., the jury returning a verdict of guilty. The assumed reason for the crime was that O'Dowd had 'countermanded an agreement outered into with one Reid that his mill should thresh stacks, when he fouud that Valli was Reid's partner, and that the act Mas one of revenge. Detective Mclnveney, in reply to Mr J. F. M. Eraser as to the prisoner's character, said that for 10 years he had been u scourge to the district. No man had given more trouble to the police. Time sifter time mills and stacks had been ii turned, and he (the detective) could ary- rive at no other conclusion than that the : yriaower had caused them. There had bewt many other acts of mischief, such :n.s cutting saddlery, mutilating horses' ■tails and manes, and these acts hud been .•almost directly traceable to prisoner, who Jjttd also been suspected of theft. Prisoner fc-aid he had not been guilty of any of ttlwee things. The Judge said he would not attach so much weight to the statejiifnts of the police as to the general aspect of the crime. ' The sentence would i>e three years. The Invercargill Licensing Committee Huh afternoon, by a majority, provisionally granted a license for the White Swan Hotel, closed under the reduction vote, to Mrs Bond, whose present house, the Civscent, has been acquired for offices. It was impossible to grant a transfer, because, although practically in the same street, the two houses were a few yards over a quarter of a mile apart. The method of procedure was that Mr Blackham, ex-licensee of the White Swan, applied for a license for the Crescent, and Mrs Bond for a transfer of Blackham's license for the Crescent to the White Swan. In announcing the decision Mr McCarthy, S.M., Chairman, said that "through causes oVer which Mrs "Bond has no control she has been compelled to relinquish possession of the premises, and we have considered the position of Blackham. The Committee, when reducing the houses, anxiously discussed the matter, and it was only because the house having been endorsed must perforce be reduced. The majority are of opinion that under these circumstances, to take advantage of the position forced upon Mrs Bond would be an unrighteous abuse of power, and have therefore determined that if Mrs Bond abandons the license which she holds we will grant the application of 'Blackham in respect of the White Swan, subject to certain conditions. Sumo doubts are expressed as to the legality of the Committee's action.