GENERAL NEWS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8789, 17 April 1907, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Reference is made in the Me bourne Argus to the theft of articles from tram oars:—Conductors are not the sole finders of lost property in trams. On one occasion a lady was strongly suspected of bearing away forgotten trifles under a roomy cape she wore. The conductor and

another passenger put their heads together. The passenger deposited a parcel on the seat, and departed without it. The lady “trawled" for it and retired at the next stopping place. The parcel contained a brick cunningly concealed in wrappings. The same joke has been performed at the same woman’s expense upon several occasions, until now she would scorn to touch the most enticing-looking “left behind."

A- Southland resident, who has just returned after spending some months in Australia, states that he has collected some absolutely reliable information in regard to the value of land m the Commonwealth, as indicated by the producing power. Some of the most fertile lands are on river flats in New South Wales and South Queensland, and in certain districts in Victoria. There he found a farm of seven acres given over entirely to the cultivation of onions. The onion crop in this district averages 15 tons per acre, and the return from seven acres was £762. Bacchus Marsh is one of ths most fert le districts in Victoria. Here one acre of lucerne fed—in hay, ensilage, and green food, according to the seasons—sis cows and 12 horses, and kept them in excellent condition for the whole year. Stock were not allowed the run of the field, but the crop was'eut and given to the stock. In the best districts the lucerne crop can be cut six times in a season. In North Queensland the value of river flat land suitable for dairying is from £2 an acre to between £lO and £ls. In the extreme north, of Victoria, where the average New Zealander imagines there is nothing but sandy parched wastes, there is magnificent whsat lane, with a mean annual rainfall of from 20in to 25in.

The Otago Daily Times says : An instance of how rigidly the provisions of the Licensing Act are sometimes observed by publicans is given by a medical man of this city. Quite recently an elderly woman suffering from English cholera was ordered champagne, which has been found to te most effective in its curative powers. The wine giving out, a second bottle was ordered by the medical man, and the husband wont to a loading publican on Sunday in order to procure it, but nothing would induce the publican to supply the wine. The husband again consulted the medical adviser, who on ringing up the police was informed that an order from him would be sufficient, and that under the circumstances no prosecution would follow. I bis assurance, however, was not sufficient for the hotelkeeper, who still refused to supply the wine. The medical man in attendance then gave the order required, knowing it was essential that the wine should be obtained; but even this order failed to move the publican, and the champagne was then obtained from a private source. Champagne, it may be mentioned, is not procurable from a chemist. Some time ago an Australian magazine asked a number of Australian editors if the leading article had lost its value, and also what class of news most interested the average Australian reader. The list of editors included five Australian and six New Zealand journalists, and, with two exceptions, nil agreed that the leading article was still an intellectual force in moulding pub ie opinion, Of the exceptions, one, Mr J. M, Saunders, editor of the Australian Star and Sunday Sun, Sydney, admitted that the leading article had soma value left; but, whatever value it had to the pi’esent generation cf newspaper readers was completely overshadowed by the stupendous machine for news collecting, which day by day taxed to the uttermost limits the skill, the ingenuity, and the resources of the editor of a great daily metropolitan journal. The majority of the editors agreed that the essentials of a leading article were honesty, charity, brevity, and decisiveness, end three out of five placed “ sport ” as the chief item of interest to the average reader.

The Suevio is not the first steamer to have her nose blasted off in order ! to save her body. The Australasian Insurance and Banking Record for March reports that in the same locality (near the Lizard) a smart piece of salvage work has been performed on the Nelson liner Highland Fiing. Several attempts had been made to tow her off the rocks by powerful tugs, and her cargo of cement had been partly jettisoned and partly discharged into lighters, without avail. The London Salvage Association had the case in hand, and on finding that the fore part of the steamer was so firmly fixed on the rocks that there was practically no hope of saving her whole, cut her in two, with the aid of dynamite, the cutting being assisted towards the conclusion by a heavy swell. Threequarters of the ship was towed into Falmouth. The remaining quarter has since gone to pieces.