Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2, 9 January 1908, Page 24

Interprovincial

We have received the sum of 10s 6d for the • Eva ' - of ' The Nation ' fund from Mr. P. Hennessy, Foxton. Mr,. T. F. Leihy, .poultry grader in the Agricultural Department, has been transferred to Auckland in place of Mr. R. W. Pounsford, -who goes to Christ church. ' Proceed ' was the brief message which Mr. Andrew Carnegie cabled to Mr, Craigie, Mayor of Timaru. His ' Worship had written- as! ing Mr. Carnegie to say whether the plans for a public library at T.imaru .were approved, as a condition precedent ..to a gift of £3000. , _ • The Customs Department at Wellington has refused to allow a -deaf arid dumb man, who came over from S3'dney 'by, the 'Moeraki' to remain, in. the Dominion (says a Press Association telegram), and the Union -Company sent him back. Monday was the hottest day experienced in AsKburton for many years past. At 10 a.m. the temperature in the shade was, 90. -At 1.45 p.m. it had risen to 100, and was seemingly still rising. The heat will have disastrous effects on the pastures of the country, and iears are expressed that if it continues" a disastrous series of grass fires must result. The Otira correspondent of the ' Grey Argus \ s<»ys : ' Very few of us can grasp how great an enterprise is the boring vof-the Otira tvnnel. The mere preparations are dtsmaying;. Think of a job so big that it takes you nearly a year to collect your tools and get your apron straight before you can begin. Think of 25,000 tons cf cement, and all other commodities on a like scale, and you- begin to get the measure of this thing that we are going to do. So far, they are merely building workmen's houses. ,- . . The Wanganui ' Chronicle ' has the following • During the past week the ' uhro'nicle ' advertised -for a stone hand. This advertisement was perfectly intelligible toall who have been connected wiih the newspaper world, but judging by some of the applications (which were received from all parts of the Dominion) the term ' stone hand ' has had many interpretations placed upon it. For instance, a monumental mason thought- he was applying for congenial employment, while others who arc used to the pick and shovel expressed themselves quite , willing to work among stones. Needless to say, a man - accustomed to the manipulation of type and the 'makeup ' of a newspaper received preference. The Friendly Societies held , their twelfth annual gathering at Foxton on New Year's Day in fine weather (writes our Palmerston North correspondent). There was a considerable falling off this year, no doubt attributable to the previous evening, being very wet and the morning opening up very cloudy. The local branch of the H.A.C.B. Society supplied the following officers for the events in conjunction with the other societies •; Bro. T. J. Fake, starter ; Bro. "McLean, judge ; Bros. C. •McGrath and T., Norris, linesmen. The half-yearly meeting, of the Hibernian Society will be held on January 7, and the general Communion of the members takes place on Sunday, January 12. A record shipment of cheese (says the * Dominion ') was taken by the Shaw, Sa\ill and Albicn Company's steamer lonic, .which" lef»t Wellington for London, via way ports, on Friday night. Jn all " llic*re were 17,471 packages, vjaluod \at! £'65,516, about? 0000 coming from - Patoa, 3000 from Wellington, 100 from Auckland, and the balance was " consigned f com southern ports. The value of the butter shipped was £106,885, making a total of £172,351 for the cheese and but tor carried by the lonic. „, -j Some months ago, when the Otago Vcclimatisation Society liberated a number ol owls in Earnscleugh and other districts with a view to minimising the small bird nuisance, doubts were expressed - concerning the wisdom of the step. The following -letter, which has been received^by the secretary of the society from a resident of Earnscleugh- district, explains itself :. — ' I have aai orchard of fruit trees, and in some fir trees which 1 planted as a breajkwind the birds were very numerous until last year, and ate 'all^ the buds off my fruit trees, not -leading me a case of fruit.i Since the owls were liberated by your ra<nger I have had a fairly good- crop of fruit, and I consider that this is due to .the work of the owls in exterminating the birds.