INTERPROVINCIAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13803, 14 January 1909, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL.

Per Press Association. NELSON, Jan. 13. For some time the local Customs official- and police have suspected opium smoking by Chinese at Stoke. Last night the premises of Ngan Lee, market gardener, were raided and a Chinaman named Ah Sing was arrested on a charge of having opium in the form suitable for smoking in his possession. A small quantity of the drug was seized, with the smoking'apparatus. About eleven Chinamen were found in the building, which reeked of the fumes of opium. All .Sing was found lying across a bed with the pipe in his hand and a small quantity of opium. Informations have been laid against the other Chinamen found on the premises. WANGANUI, Jan. 13. The question of the erection of a cottage- hospital at Taihape has been before the Wanganui Hospital Board for a long time past. Settlers offered £-300 towards the cost of erecting a. building, and an annual sum of £IOU towards maintenance. The Board today decided that upon this offer being put in writing by persons whose guarantee is satisfactory to the Board, steps shall be taken to erect a cottage hospital at Taihape without delay.

WELLINGTON, Jan. 13

The Department of Industries and Commerce have received from the British War Office forms of tender for the .supply of frozen meat, in bulk, to J lis Majesty's forces at Gibraltar, to be delivered at the War Office at "\\ hitehall, London, on noon ol tne U.tii April, 1909. The High Commissioner has sent a cable to tne Marine Department that half a million Atlantic salmon ova selected by Mr Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries for New Zealand, has been shipped by the Turakina, and that a. liirtuer supply will be brought out by -Ur Ayson nmisclt a little later o».. Tlie Department has arranged to hatch out, tne ova at Lake Xe Anal!, and to liberate the fry in that lako. Mr McLaren, M.l'., secretary of the New Zealand Waterside- Workers' who returned from Sydney to-ttav, brought a draft of the proposed agreement lor the federation of tne waterside workers of Australia and New Zealand, winch will be dealt wuu at an early date by the New Zealand Federation.

CHRISTCHUItCH, Jan. 13. The plague of caterpillars in North Cauteruury is quite Egyptian in its virulence. The wholes or the districts luivc been attacked from the Cheviot clown' to Aniberley, the caterpillars attacking the grain stalks just below the cars, which tall over and fail to ripen. Farmers are in many instances getting in the crop prematurely to save it from absolute destruction. Grass it attacked as well as grain, the caterpillars moving in dense masses from one paddock to another. The small brds, hitherto supposed to feed on these insects, appear to leave them severely alone, at any rate wliat they eat has no appreciable effect in reducing the pest. Only starlings seem to busy themselves eating the caterpillars. The position is very serious and the loss to the farmers affected is enormous. No such virulent plague has been experienced in the district within the memory of the oldest farmer.

DUNEDLV, Jan. 13. The staff officers of the City Corporation presented the Mayor, Mr J. McDonald, with a case of cutlery as a marriage gift. The City Councillors to-night presented His Worship with a silver tea and coffee, service.

At a conference of delegates representing local bodies to-night, Wednesday was selected for the weekly halflioliday. ' '• '*