INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7367, 15 November 1898, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

(pee pbess association.) WELLINGTON. November 15. Mr Weddel, senior partner in the wellknown colonial produce firm, of London, is now on a visit here. He deprecates the idea of any butchers' ring interfering with the sale of frozen meat, and says that the riog is a n-.yth. In his opinion, the main thing to be done to improve the trade and prevent sheep suffering after arrival is to have a sorting shed into v.hich a ship's cargo could be discharged at once, and the carcases conveniently sorted. Mr Weddel is confident that this wviuld save a great deal of damage, and also show whether the meat was injured on shipboard or not. Ho intends to interview the Premier on the subject. DUN £DIN. November 15. At the Police Court', Vf il'iam Lyndhurst and Wiiliam Mitchell, young men, were each sentenced to a month's imprisonment for savageiy assaulting a constable. AUCKLAND. November 14. The schooner Aotea brought up from the East a wharepuni, or Maori housa, 70ft long, for the exhibition. The multiple switchboard system has been inaugurated at the Telephone Exchange. The present capacity for 1500 subscribers can be increased to 4900. Jame3 Hartley, a second-hand dealer in Wellesley street, left Motatapu in a sailing boat for Auckland alone a week ago, and has not turned up since. At the first annual meeting of the Leyland O'Brien Timber Company it was reported that the year's operations gave a profit of LIO.OOO. It was resolved to place L3OO to the reserve fnnd and pay an interim dividend of L 1490 The balance will be carried forward to next year. L 1320 was paid a3 damages in connection with the StellaWaitemata collision Sophia flunter, a single woman, 84 years of age, who lived alone, was found dead in her house. She leaves some property, and, ,-is it is snpposed that she has no relatives in the colony and has left no will, the Public Trustee has taken charge.

BLENHEIM. November 14. John Hodson, a child 16 months old, son of a settler at Okaramio, was accidentally drowned yesterday in a tub of water while playing in the backyard.