NEWS AND NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 14 November 1901, Page 3

NEWS AND NOTES.

A plague of flies has been very bad at Mol any (N.S.W.) lately; A church meeting at that place had to bo abandoned on account of dead flies falling thickly from the ceiling on to the people. In Naples there exists a race of cats which live in the churches They are kept and feed by the authorities on purpose to catch the mica which infest old buildings there. The animals may often bn seen walking about among the congregation or siaing gravely before the altar during time of mass. Two Victorian boys got an empty oil drum, half-filled it with water, plugged the hole securely, put it on a fire, and then stood close by to watch the result. The pressure of the stream burst the drum, the boiling tvater leaping into the faces and over the bodies of both badly scalding each. It is thought probable that one of them will lose his eyesight. One dairy factory in Taranki district last year handled the milk of ninety-six suppliers, and exported butter and cheese to the value of £36,000. As the present lime that factory is producing a ton and a-half of bu'ter a day, and at the height of the season the output will, it is expected, reach two tons. Snake structure is enormously curious. The vertebras range in number from 300 to 30, but are invariable in each species, that is to say, a snake of a certain sort Gft long has exact!* the same number of ribs a- a snake of similar species only Ift long. Snakes crawl by moving forward each pair of ribs which is attache! to a powerful cross scale on the belly. Says the Southland Daily News: —“ As instancing the vicissitudes of fortune in mining speculatign, we are informed that one Dunedin investor, who made from £IO,OOO to £12,000 in a few months in a dredging venture on the Molyneux, has since lost all in other “good things,” and is now in search of a billet. Others whose cheques for four figures would have been unhesitatingly honored 12 months ago are now practically penniless. The Cromwell Argus says that Mr Huddleston e, late of the Alexandra branch of the Bank of New South Wales, and now of Invercargill, drew the third prize of £1125 in Tattersall’s consultation on the Oaufield Cup. A man named Dellow met with a painful accident near Walker’s station on Friday (says the Nelson Colonist), While engaged preparing the fuse for a charge of dynamite the charge suddenly exploded, blowing the fingers of the right hand off and shattering the hand itself terribly. An Auckland clerk, who had to seek the protection of the Bankruptcy Court, explained that he had got in the bands of the money lenders, and had been paying interest at the rate of no less than 63 per cent. Fourteen of his creditors were money-lenders.

A man was fined 20s and costs at Wanganui recently for boarding a train while in motion. The man had a narrow escape of being run over. A porter tried to stop him, and was knocked down. The man then grabbed the rails of the carriage, but slipped down, and was rescued by other passengers.

The Marine Department has been advised that on the trip which the Hincmoa lias just made to the Kermadecs both the provision depots established for shipwrecked sailors were found untouched. Mr and Mrs Bell, who witli their family are the only human beings belonging to Sunday Island, have come on to New Zealand by the steamer. The Hineraoa will visit the lighthouses on the West Coast before she returns to Wellington. Carters in Auckland arc at present very indignant at the actio a of several of the suburban local bodies in imposing a wheel tax on heavy vehicles passing through their districts, says the “New Zealand Herald.” They state that if the system is continued, and comes into operation in more districts than at present, the effect on the price of carting scoria from Mount Roskill to the city comes through six districts, and if all the districts impose the wheel tax, the result will bo to increase the price of scoria by 6s per load. The carters contemplate taking action to secure redress, as the system having got a start, is is probable that the districts which do not at present impose the wheel tax will not long be content to lose the revenue which their neighbours are deriving. Mr W. J. Napier, M.H R„ is travelling to Auckland through the interior. Enquiries which he made in connection with the Makohino viaduct led him to the conclusion that no waste of material had occurred, and that everything was being carried out in a most satisfactory manner. He is convinced that the whole of the iron work of the viaduct will be placed in position and bolted by the 31st December, and that the riveting will bo completed in three months from date.