NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 374, 25 March 1902, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND.

Per Press Association. ASUCKLAND, last night. 'A' fire on the , premises of Aickin, chemist, and Ivil, tobacconist, Queen street, was speedily suppressed. The roof and a small portion of the stock were burned. A large quantity of stock was damaged by water. The building was insured in the New' Zealand Office and the stock in the National and Phoenix.

A meeting ol tiie Barrier Reefs Gold Mining Company resolved to voluntary wind up,

THAMES, last night Mr McGowan, Minister of Mines, lias arrived at the Thames, and makes a tour of the electorate, commencing at the Thames to-morrow. ;.■? HAi'iisß,- last night. George Henry Smith and Frederick Herbert Howard pleaded guilty at the Court to breaking and entering a Chinaman’s residence at Taradale and stealing £2B. Accused were remanded to Wellington for sentence. WANGANUI, last night.

An inquest was held tiiis morning on the body of a young girl named Hilda Campbell, found in the river yesterday. A verdict of suicide whilst temporarily insane was returned, The evidence disclosed that she was"engaged to a trooper who left with the Ninth Contingent from Auckland and this weighed on her mind. John Lund, an old offender, was remanded at the Court this morning on a charge of theft this morning in a boarding house. A search of his swag, found hidden under a bed, revealed a miscellaneous collection of articles,

including a gold watch and chain, gold breast pin, wearing apparel, and house hold linen, A number of charges are pending. ' * A prospective marriage to have been conducted by the registrar on Saturday was frustrated by the brother of the bride-elect, who suddenly appeared from Wellington, and took his sister away, The bridegroom had taken a house" and partly furnished it, and was on his way to the Registrar’s office to meet the. bride, when he was informed that the bird had flown. It transpires that the girl was recently from the old country, and the bridegroom was just out of gaol, having served twelve months for serious offences.. WELLINGTON, last night. The Ventura, with Brindisi mails of. March Bth, left San Francisco Tor the port of- Auckland on the 20th inst., at ten p.m., that being the due date. The" Arbitration Court has delivered its award in the cooks’ and waitresses’ case, fixing a graduated scale for the unions and classifying the work. It declined to give preference of employment to unionists, but directed that no discrimination be made against .union--IStSi CHRISTCHURCH, last night.

James Hicks, an old age pensioner, over 70 years of age, dropped dead in Sydenham last night. . WESTPORT, last night, The daughter of Edward Patton, of Murchison, was stuck up by a man on the Matikitiki road, and robbed with violence. , . ~ , HOKITIKA, last night. Mr McKenzie, curator of Kaneri Lake Hatchery, has been experimenting for the past few months with whitebait, and has succeeded in securing a small quantity of ova. He is sending specimens to the New Zealand Institute,-

THE CABLE, (Per Press Association,) AUCKLAND, last night. Previous to leaving for Doubtless Bay in the Tutanekai Sir Joseph Ward received a cable message, reporting the arrival there of the Anglia, all well, WELLINGTON, last night. The complete control of the Doubtless Bay cable station will be left to the Cable Board, so that the staff Mr Reynolds brought out will work land as. well as ocean lines. The nomination of superintendent for the station was left to the New Zealand Government, who have.appointed Mr Hertzlett, chief clerk at Greymouth, several officers senior, to him having declined, A BIG LAND SLIDE,

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night.

An extraordinary phenomenon has occurred on the Wangaehu road, 9 miles east of Masterton, where about 50 ac. of splendid hillside land, owned by Mr Donald McKenzie, with a gradient of about 1 in 25, has moved forward, casting itself into a ravine below, and cutting off communication between Wangaehu and Masterton. The nature of the soil is clay on papa rock, and the cause of the slide is attributed to a disturbance at the base of the hill by the waters of the river and the construction of a road, assisted by denudation of the forest and foliage. The value of the land is estimated at front £8 to £lO an acre. To re-estab-lish the road communication will cost £IOOO. The slide is of such proportions that during a period of drought it is regarded by, engineers as most remarkable,