News and Notes

Southern Cross, Volume 7, Issue 35, 25 November 1899, Page 6

News and Notes

The wheat and flour sent_ from the country districts of "Victoria to the seaboard up to Hov. 17 was 3,400,000 hags, or nearly three times as much as at the same date last year. The advance in wool means an additional li millions to the annual wealth of the colony. Mr J. E. Gunn, secretary and dispenser of the Southland Hospital, has been granted leave of absence owing to ill-health, and left on Tuesday for a trip to Queensland. He was presented with a purse of sovereigns by a number of friends, with best wishes for a speedy recovery. The steamer Patria caught fire in the ISTorth Sea, and was run ashore, 150 of the passengers being landed at Dover. The crew, mostly Americans, suffered greatly in fighting the fire.

The meteoric showers were not seen in Great Britain, but were noticed in New York and in Spain and Austria.

Civil war is raging among the natives of New Guinea and the New Hebrides.

We have to acknowledge receipt of the first number of the Morning Post, a new daily paper published at TimIt is owned by a company, and the manager is Mr J. F. Wilson, formerly part proprietor of the Southern Cross. At the beginning of the eighteenth century people were hanged in Great Britain for the illicit manufacture of salt. There are 1,200 names on the Invercargill Municipal roll. Motor cars are to be placed on the streets of the principal towns of the colony, beginning with Wellington. A good Arabian horse can canter in the desert for twenty-four hours in summer and forty-eight j ..hours in winter without drinking.^paj^^^^p^y^yn A young’ man named Noah Keen, ■who was working at Mr Fleck’s threshing mill in the Western District, accidentally stepped into the drum-hole, his leg being so badly hurt that it had to be amputated. This is the second accident of the kind within the last few weeks. Owing to ill-health Oapt. Bussell will not be able to take part in the election campaign. Victoria won the intercolonial eight-oared race, with N.SW. second. The flax industry is booming in the North Island, and a number of new mills are being started. While indulging in horse-play at the Christchurch Club recently Mr Dascelles broke his leg. He was apparently getting on well "when he complained of a pain at his heart and died. Divers do not care to work at a greater depth than one hundred feet.

The parcels post system is to be introduced between the United States and New Zealand, and will probably be in working order by February next. *"*"

According to the Rimu correspondent of the Southern Standard, Mr Raymond, at the close of his address as a candidate for the Mataura, thanked the electors for their orderly conduct, which was more than he expected. All persons are born happy, but in order to continue so to, the end they must die young. Mr Gr. Clare, who recently returned ' from Australia greatly benefited in health, and who has since left for the North Island, was on Monday last the recipient of a very handsome address, and of a purse of sovereigns from his associates in the Lands and Survey Department, with which he had been connected for many years. The truthful fisherman always knows where to draw the line.

Arrangements are being made for holding a draughts championship meeting in Invercargill at Easter.

Treat a dog kindly and be will not desert you when your money is gone. A Home paper states that some surprise was expressed that Sir George White should have been named for a command in South Africa inferior to Sir Redvers Buller. It is a matter of seniority ; Sir Redvers is a step higher ; he is a general, while Sir George is but a lieutenantgeneral. On the other hand, Sir George has had vastly more military experience. He has commanded in India over a quarter-million of men, while Sir Redvers Buller has never had more men under command than the 20,000 or 30,000 at .Aldershot. In 1,000 ounces of our gold coinage there are 900 ounces of pure gold, 10 ounces of silver, and 90 of copper. At the Invercargill Police Court on Monday a boy named Jas Dawes, charged with the theft of a parcel of clothing at Grasmere, was committed to an industrial school. At the same sitting a young woman named Margaret Rose Hixey pleaded guilty to stealing a jacket, and was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment.

Lady Salisbury, wife of the Marquis of Salisbury, died on Tuesday. Considerable damage has been done in the Phoenix confectionery works, Dunedin, through an outbreak of fire on the 21st.