INTERPROVINCIAL,

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3625, 24 August 1901, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL,

Per Press Aaiociatlon.

AUCKLAND, August 23. The "Star's"' Raratonga correspondent states that an audit of the Government accounts showed a shortage of £llOO. Mi R. W. Gossett, Postmaster and Collector of Customs, is £627 short; and Mr F. C.

Goodwin, secretary and treasurer, is £460 short. Goodwin was killed by the ex- • plosion of a rocket. Gossett pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to two years' hard labour. Colonel Gudgeon, uncle o! the prisoner, refunded £SOO of the money embezzled. Colonel Gudgeon also had the unpleasant position of presiding over the Court which sentenced his own nephew.

PALMERSTON NORTH, Aug. 25. The annual meeting of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce was held last evening. The president, in his address, dealt with the Liberal and Labour legislation of the present Government, stating that it had gone far enough. It had done good work and corrected abuses, but there was indication of the pendulum taking too far a swing. . Moreover, a labour demand made under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act revealed much as to the scope of labour expectations, and the Factories Act Amendment Bill held out a menace that'might well frighten capital and enterprise from the country. Every Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand should watch the present trend of class legislation, and strenuously withstand it, when partial, unjust, or prejudicial to the interests of the country.

WELLINGTON, August 23.

William Draper was committed for trial on a charge of breaking and entering. The Executive Council, at a meeting l?st night, decided that the sentence of death passed upon Alexander McLean, for the East Eyreton murder, shall be carried out. The Government have accepted an offer by the" Canadian Government of 300,000 Pacific salmon ova. They will arrive here in January, and be hatched at Hakateramea. An order has . been sent to England for 150,000 Atlantic salmon ova. The Education, Department have agreed to issue free railway passes to teachers attending drill and technical instruction classes.

It has been, ascertained by Mr Gilruth that the disease which has been affecting a number of cattle at Opitiki, Bay of Plenty, is anthrax. Measures have been taken, for the isolation of the herds, and stamping out the disease.