NEWS IN BRIEF.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 2 April 1901, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Health Officer to she Borough Council stited at Monday night’s meeting of tho Council that Timaru is now in a bettor sanitary condition than at any previous time since ho had been in Timaru, and to this ho attributed the lack of disease.

The Ben Lomond Run will when completed (says tho Lake Wakatipn Mail) undoubtedly prove one of the prettiest and most favoured walks in the district. Tho huge panorama of lake and mountain scenery which is disclosed to the eye at certain spots is trully grand. The only thing to be regretted is that it was not available during the tourist season just over.

An old man named “Taffy” Williams dropped down dead at Kurow, Oamaru district, last Saturday, while discharging coal. During the clays of the Crimean War lie was in the British Navy, and had seen active service there. Dea/h was due failure ot the heart’s action. Tcrnuka ratepayers have decided to recommend the Council to obtain an estimate of tho cost of a water supply and drainage scheme for the town, and submit the matter to tho ra epayers. Tho cost is roughly estimated at ,LTOSC, The back of the harvest in Canterbury (says the Press) is broken. Farmers have managed to secure the bulk of the crop, and fine weather, with but a few interruptions, is now being experienced in threshing. Many of the wheat yields are disappointing in quantity as compared with the weight of straw. Tho Southland Farmers’ Co-operative Association, with headquarters at Gore has been established. At a meeting the other day, Mr James presiding, it was stated that 7-59 shares had been applied for.

The crops in Sandon districts are now nearly all saved, and many have been threshed. They have been found very much better than was anticipated early in the season. The average yield has been moderately good. The building trade in Goro is reported unusually brisk at the present time, and dw'ellingbonses are springing up plentifully in every part of toe town. It is almost impossible to rent residences at present-, and the carpenters are all busy coping with the increase in their trade. Now that labourers are so scarce (suggests the Tapanui Courier) Government m’ght institute assisted immigration on a moderate scale from the agricultural tricts of Great Britain.

A recent visitor to Cheviot, with the

greater part of which bo is thoroughly familiar, tells the Poverty Bay Herald that the prospects of success are assured, in the case of fully 90 per cent. of.the settlors there. The boss test of their position is, perhaps, that they would not bo willing to sell out except at a considerable premium. Sawmill hands are bard to obtain in Southland, and in some pares of the colony there is a shortage of farm hands. The increased prosperity of the colony, and the withdrawal of so many young men to South Africa must account for the altered conditions. As Timaru boys were not taking very well to the Id per rat oifered by the Borough Council for all rats killed, the price has been increased to 2d. The Auckland Harbour Board’s revenue for 1900 was the largest collected in the history of the Board, and exceeded (hat of 1899 by £4,676 18s 7d, exclusive of interest. The expenditure was £lo,Stills 7d beyond that of 1890. The Postmaster-General (Hon. J. G. Ward) will shortly entertain at his residence (lie heads of the Post and Telegraph Department and the Executive of (lie Post and Telegraph Officers’Association. The gathering is to he in connec-

tion with the presentation which was made to Mr. Ward by the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department when the universal penny postage system was inaugurated. It is stated by the Napier Daily Tele, graph that last year the Westport Coal Company declined to accept an order for 0000 tons unscreened coal to be delivered by it in Napier at 22s 0J per ton. Our contemporary points out that if unscreened coal is worth only 10s lOd ton at Westport as stated by the General Manager of the Westport Company before the Coal Commissioner, and freight to Napier is only 10s ton, the Company, by accepting the Napier offer, would have received lsßd per

on (a total of £180) more than it states i

has been receiving at the ports of shipment. At first sight our contemporary seems to make out a good against the company, but there may have been reasons apart from fho price that made delivery impossible.

Mr E. M. Smith, M.11.Tl , delivered one of bis characteristic ironsand addresses at Now Plymouth on Monday evening. Ho is going Homo, along with the Hon. A. J. Cadman, and probably with a couple of influential Auckland gentlemen, to tempt English capital with Taranaki iron, lime, and coal. Mr Smith advocated a railway from Sentry Ilili through Mokau, tapping rich mineral ro .sources, and stated that there was not a creek on the way that could not bo jumped ; also that with the assistance of the Auckland members the Sentry Hill line would yet be completed before the Stratford line. Inter alia, Mr Smith is going to disabuse Home audiences as to the Sir George C’Ericn’s charges, and says that the people of London w mid be surprised if they saw the native landowners driv ing into New Plymouth iu their buggies.. The proprietor of the Woodville Examiner has appealed to the Minister of Justice to remit the £'s fine, with costs, recently imposed on the petitioner for publishing an advertisement relating to a Melbourne art union. The grounds are that the advertisement was immediately withdrawn, and that on similar offenders’ nominal fines have been imposed. The profitable nature of the stone crushed at the Britannia Gold Mining Company’s claim, which is situated iu Waimangaroa at an altitude of 2000 ft, may he gathered from the fact that since Christmas the stone treated has yielded £8 per ton. At present the company are considerably hampered through the lack of a track over which to carry mining requirements, and the miners are put to a lot of trouble in getting their provisions up to the claim. We trust that the County Council will sec that the track is made without delay, because apart from these considerations mentioned there is a possibility of coming across other rich leads.

Bylaws relating to the leasing and licensing of refreshment rooms on the New Zealand railways arc published in this week’s Gazette. These specify that the leasing of any refreshment room in connection with a railway shall be by public tender or public auction in every case where tho premises to be let exceed or are likely to exceed an annual rental ot £2O. Tho lease shall be in such form and for such term (not exceeding seven years’*, and-contain such provisions and stipulations as the Minister thinks fit.

In view of the danger which exists in paying out lines from dredges working in swift-flowing rivers, Mr Thomas Shore, dredgemaster of the Alpine Consols dredge has invented and patented a simple appliance which should do a very great deal to promote safety in what is admittedly a dangerous part of work. The invention consists of a suitable drum or barre l , which is mounted in the boat used for running tho lines, and an arrangement of fail-leads designed after the pattern of rani’s horns. The line which has to bo run is first coiled on the drum and paid out as required, the speed being regulated by a powerful band-brake requlated by screw gear.