NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 10, 6 March 1902, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

The Premier will be entertained at a banquet and conversazione in Dunedin on Monday evening. Thk ratepayers of Mosgiel have decided against the proposal to rate on unimproved values. The Waimate County Council has paid £350 for birda' heads and eggs this season. The Triad for the current month is a very good number, its value being enhanced by a music supplement. The South Island battalion of the Ninth Contingent will leave Port Chalmers on the 12th inst. The State Premier of Victoria has cabled to the Government that a Royal Commission on shops and factories is coming to New Zealand to make inquiries. The many friends of the Very Rev. Dean Mahoney (says the Nelson Colonist) will learn with regret that he has had another bad turn of illness, and though at the present time (last week) he has recovered somewhat, he still suffers considerably. A BLOCK of 53,602 acres of Crown land at K^whia, which was to be offered on March 18 under cash, occupation with right of purchase, and lease-in-perpetuity systems, has been withdrawn in order that it may be offered on April 8 under the lease-in perpetuity ey stem only. At the meeting of the Senate of the New Zealand University the Rev. Augustine E. J. A. Keogh, 8.A., of the Royal University of Ireland was admitted as a graduate of the New Zealand University with standing similar to that at the Royal University. Included in the 11 successful male candidates from Napier who passed at the recent Civil Service Examination was Frank P. Cleary of the Marist Brothers' School, who occupied the honorable position of sixth on the local list. The Dunedin Retailers Section of the Otago Employers' Afsociation have passed the following resolution : — The members will not subscribe to any bazaarp, sports, picnics, or prize funds ; nor will they advertise on programmes, tickets, or publications connected with the above, theatres and entertainments included. The following is the complete list of successes gained by the pupils of St. Francis Xavier's Academy, Wellington, at the recent Junior Civil Service examinations : — Florence Moran, Madge Pollock, Gwendoline Darnell, Marion von Printzen, Martha Slattery, Iva Westrupp, and Nellie Hickey. The following passed the Matriculation examination : — Florence Moran and Madge Pollock. The Minister of Lands absolutely denies the statements attributed to him that the juiges sided with the land-owners, with whom they were in sympathy, and gave them too big a price for their properties. Mr. Duncan siys that in the course of conversation with a stranger he merely remarked that the experience of the Government was that, as a whole, it was compelled by the court to pay more for land than it had been valued at by their experts. The Agricultural Department has been advised that there is a profitable market in South Africa for 40,000 head of poultry per month. Fowls were recently selling at Johannesburg at 16s per pair, and eggs were fetching from 3s fid to 4s 6d per doz n. During the present season the Agricultural Department Bold 20,000 eggs for breeding purposes, and was unable to supply the demand. THE Cabinet has decided to take the necessary steps to have the Westport-Cardiff mine declared a State coal mine. Mr Hayes, inspecting engineer to the Mines Department, has been instructed to report as to the best means of opening up the mine, laying tramways, etc. No expenditure beyond the £1000 voted last session will be undertaken until the new Parliament's authority has been obtained. It is expected that it will be a year before the mine will be able to supply coal. The many friends in Dunedin, Chriftchurch, and Wellington of Mr. J. Sarsfield Lacy will be interested to hear that he has severed his connection with the Prisons Department, and is about to take over the Mangawahu Family Hotel, Patea district. As a Governmentemployeefor many years Mr. Lacy brought to bear on the discharge of his duties an intelligence and a conscientiousness which gained for him the respect of thoss in authority, and we have no doubt that he will display the same qualities in his new sphere, in which his friends hope he will be eminently successful.

w TTo,T H o, DunediD retailers have decided to observe Monday, March. 24, as a holiday, in connection with the anniversary of the The following is the list of successful candidates with marks from St. Oolumbkille'a Convent, Hokitika, at the examination in music held last -November by Mr. Mistowski :— Senior pass.—Singmg—M. Greeue, 67 Intermediate pass.— Piano— Eily Daly, 69 ; Rose Healy, 69 ; violin-Ruby Burns, 66 Junior pass.— Piano— i*?}* C ° 1 I tlnan . 80 ! A-nme Macn O nald, 75 ; Eva Murphy, 72 ; Nellie M«r»TwJiV<u "r Jr 1 ' Pre Paratory.-Violin-Shiela Mac Donald 84 ; violin-Maud Wilson, 83 ; piano-Crißsie Erickson, 74 , Una Sullivan, 77 ; Elsie Kidd. 75 ; May Sullivan, 73 ; Ivy Cullen 70 ; violm-Mary A. Johnson, 69 ; piano-Winnie Jack, 67 ; Maud hellers, 66 ; Noro Moye, 74. w^JS* Jiel ? ° f heat and oafc9 is not likely fco be so ereat in Worth Otago (says the Oamaru Times) as was estimated a fortnight or three weeks ago. Many crops that promised well then are threshing out disappointingly. The grain in many cases is undeveloped, and in others is full of eecond growth. Caterpillar has been a eerious pest, and has accounted for a considerable diminution in some localities. In one large crop of oats that was very proraising considerable damage has been done while the crop has stood in the stook, the heads after a few days being found lying in scores on the ground just where the sheaves stood. North of the Waitaki Kiver liessun fly has done a lot of damage, and the settlers on Waikakahi have felt; the loss rather severely. On the whole the yields, too, are somewhat below expectations.