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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3014, 7 November 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

The first modern newspaper was published in England in 158 S. The highest altitude ever reached by n balloon was seven miles. A. plan for tha destruction of the small birds has been used for Homo tune with great success (says tho Lyttolton Times) on Mr John Urign's Longbeach Estate; The system is one which has beon employed at Home with nuccess, and ha? boen introduced into Canterbury by Mr Powell now an employee on tho Longbeach estate. The ordinary method of poisoning gniin is by steeping, and the strychnir.o permeating every corn and making it bitter the birds are apt to reject it. In the process used at Mr Grigg's the application is dry, and the kernel of the wheat is not affected in taste. It hae so immediate an effect that the birds are picked up in thousands on the spot whero the poisoned grain has been laid, and a small quantity of poison suffices, So great has been the destruction of small birds at Longbeach that the adjoining road boards have applied to Mr Giigg for supplies of grain thus prepared, and are coasing to purchase the heads and egga. as they find that wholesale slaughter results from the use of the grain prepared by tho new method. Mr Powell has secured a provisional protection order pending a patent being granted for his method. So far as can be judged at present (the Wellington Post says) tho railway revenue for the current year is likely to show unexpectedly favourable results. There has been a marked improvement since the first quarter of the current financial year, and the Commissioners are sanguine that if, as appears probable, the wheat harvest is an early one, a considerable portion of grain traffic may come into this year's returns. The failure of the crops in so many parts of Europe may be expected to bring about high prices for New Zealand wheat, and tho farmers have already been warned not to lose the favourable market, as they did once before, by holding on too long. They will, therefore, almost certainly " rush " iu their corn with all possible celerity, and a considerable quantity may be carried before the 31st March. This will tell heavily on the railway receipts. Then again, the Otago Central line, although open bo short) a time, and not yet to a properly "payable point," is showing surprisingly good returns. It was fearod by experts that this line would not nearly pay even working expenses until it should be extended many miles farther. But we are glad to learn that it ie net only paying all working expenses but also yielding a balance of net profit-* small though it be—toward interest on cost. This is very satisfactory. The Evening Post says: —Captain Home, formerly Sergeant-nt-arms to the House of Representatives, and now Governor of the Public Works Prison at Trial Bay, New South Wales, arrived from Sydney on a short holiday visit by the Waihora, accompanied by Mra Home. The Trial Bay Penal establishment if the place where an interesting experiment in prison discipline is being carried on, viz,, the employment of convicts upon public works under circumstances of comparative freedom, together with partial payment for their work. Long sentence prisoners who have behaved themselves well while kept in the ordinary gaols, uredraftedoff|to Trial Bay lor a maximun period of two years towards the close of their term of imprisonment. They are allowed to wear working clolhes, as distinguished from prison gurb, and are paid at varioue rates up to 2s per day, onethird of which they are allowed to draw and spend as they please, while the balance remains to their credit, and is paid over on their release. The hours of llabour are 48 per week, end for the rest of their time the

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