NEWS AND NOTES.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 320, 5 January 1907, Page 6

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Bank of New South Wales has decided that its new premises in Wellington, which are to arise from the shell left after the flames had swept through its ornate interior, is to have a concrete flat roof. It will also have breize concrete floors, concrete partitions, and shuttered windows. With such provisions, adequately carried out, the new bank premises should be as nearly fireproof as it is possible to make a structure.

The Melbourne Age asserts that “ the English Labour man, Mr J. R. McDonald, has made the name of Labour smell very badly in reference to his attack on colonial autonomous government. His defence of Lord Elgin’s interference in Natal shows what he would do with colonial rights if they were left to. him.” Mr Smith, the Iveneperu Sounds centenarian, will celebrate his 104th birthday in February. He says he feels fit for a good many years yet, and attributes a small snuff of sulphur, which he has constantly taken for as many years as he can conveniently remember,' as one of the main causes of his sustained health and vigor. He was in Picton last week, looking hale and hearty.

While he was in the North recently Mr T. E. Donne visited some underground caves about twenty miles from Rotorua, towards the East Coast. It is supposed that these excavations were made by old-time Maoris, 11 escapees from Hongi’s massacres or something of that sort," says Mr Donne. He found ten of these caverns, which were cut out of soft rock, evidently by Maori chisels, for the walls were all scored with chisel marks of various sizes. The largest of these ancient habitations is about 12ft long and Bft wide. Only one relic of the old dwellers, a stone lamp, was found. The caves are interesting ethnologically, states Mr Donne, but are of no great value from a general tourist point of view. They are too far away from Rotorua, and the way to them is rather arduous.