NEWS IN BRIEF.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 320, 5 January 1907, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bain is badly needed in Canterbury. The Adelaide builders on strike have resumed work. A settler named J. Coffee was found drowned near Stratford. A big railway accident occurred near Altabesta, Texas. Many lives were lost. By a fire at Portsmouth damage estimated at £250,000 was done. The body of Eobt. Griffith, fireman of the s.s. Pukaki, was found floating in Lyttelton Harbour. The barquentine Elverland foundered at the Three Kings on Saturday last. AU the crew landed safely. The output of gold from New Zealand last year was considerably over £2,000,000. A consignment of Australian eggs to London realised from lOd to Is Id per dozen. A shocking story of torture to induce the confession of a political suspect comes from Moscow. Attendance at the New Zealand Exhibition to date has totalled nearly threequarters of a million people. Only 1000 out of 4000 Turkish troops recently in Central Arabia have returned alive to Constantinople. Mildura (Victoria) is no longer a prohibited settlement, the first license having come into operation at the beginning of the year. The Meikle Commission, sitting at Wellington, has adjourned until Monday, when the evidence of the Minister for Lands will be taken. The N.Z. Government have not renewed the San Francisco mail contract, and are simply paying the company for any mails carried. A fireman on s.s. Aotea named Campbell, was fined £3, or seven days, at Gisborne, for assaulting the chief engineer. In connection with the recent rains in Queensland, the average fall throughout the cane area is estimated nearly five inches. A serious fire at Portsmouth destroyed the whole camp equipment of the Southtern command, estimated at many thousands of pounds. During Sir Joseph Ward’s five months’ absence from the colony, the Hon. W. Hall-Jones will be installed as actingPremier. The crew of the Byde lifeboat, which capsized in a gale off the Isle of Wight, drifted / throughout the night, holding life lines. They suffered terribly. Three wolves, on the Boumanian frontier, devoured a clergyman and his servant, who were sleighing to a neighbouring town. Many others were attacked and injured. Already Mr J. F. Fitzgerald, of Kaiwarra, and Mr F. T. Moore, of Johnsonville, have intimated their attention of contesting the new Wellington suburbs at the next election. In connection with the distribution of the ordinary vote for school' buildings throughout the colony this year, Auckland’s share will be about £12,250. The votes for all schools total £55,000.