LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8705, 20 August 1906, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The exports from Fiji increased in value from £226,528 in 1885 " to. £702,362 in 1905. Sugwr increased from £20,920 to £539,594, copwi from £108,986 to £125,891, and green fruif from £5189 to £28,995. J; J The Onakune correspondent of the "Wangaaui Chronicle" write* :— " We are still isolated, and we do not know - when we to& te in proper oonununication with the outside world. I believe we are as isolated as Siberia or Alaska. Necessaries of life are nearly double the ordinary prices." A shocking story of the depths to which a person will descend when enslaved by the .drink habit was shown to.^ the city coroner at Melbourne recently. A young woman, Mary Ann Gray, for the last eleven months had been drinking methylated spirits. Latterly «h« purchased the spirits by the half -pint, and ultimately a dose of the horrible stun 1 killed her. ■ ' , „ ?-v 4 'i In! urging the parties in ihe grocer* 1 dispute to arrange for a conference forthe "settlement or their differences. Mrv Justice Chapman, president of tlie Arbitration Court, said this morning that the Court had been greatly pleased.' with the manner in which the parties had been conferring and; settling their dif- . f erences in Canterbury. It had been quite a marked feature of the sitting. The " Napier Telegraph " reports that, through the fact of the upper of his boot tearing away from the sole, a youth named Hanwell had a lucky escape in Napier on Wednesday front being kicked to death by a horse. Hanwell, who is employed as a, riderout by Mr John Higgins. was mounting 3iis horse in Hastings Street wheel the animal suddenly swerved an<i .he w*s hung up by the stirrup. Thd horse dragged the young man to the opposite side of the street, and he was being severely kicked when the leather of his boot ripped and lie managed i<y wriggle /free- Hanwell sustained) " some nasty bruises and a, severf out . above the e^r-*. .. _

Jj-r VI G. 3>ay held a Juvenile Court sitting this afternoon, when an illegitimftte child, six months old. whose parents were indigent, was committed {» the Christchurch Receiving Home. Mr Colin Cook was nominated today »6 a candidate for the position of reprelentative of the borough of Lyttelton -■ f>n the Lyttelton Harbour Board, re» (tared vacant by the deatli of Mr F. H Barns. A sitting of the Lyttelton Police Court was held this morning, Messrs B. R. Webb and W. Radcliffe being the Justices on the Bench. A male first offender was convicted of drunkenness ■nd discharged with a caution. A prohibition order was i«sued against a man on the application of his wife.