come reports of new finds and' enthusiastic utterances regarding the value of the fields already found. In this area, Lieutenant Parer is to conduct an air service which, for the nominal amount of £10 of £15, will transfer one' from the const inland to the mines, and back again at a reduced rate, Over 30, 000 oz. of precious metal have made its way into this country, and pros sectors who have arrived back in Australia to recuperate state that they have not commenced digging out yet. Altogether, with the aid of aeroplanes, the prospect of the New Guinea field proving most beneficial to Australia appears bright. Transport is the main diflcity, and, next to transport, the capital to employ labour and withstand days and months of non-payable work. Western Australia also reported a, "find," but, like the mine mentioned in the Northern can be learnt of, 8 the initial labour necessary to open the mine barely hes commenced work, The Good Old Days 'A reversal to what have been called the good old days, when sheep thieves were in the country, bushrangers and ticket-of-leave men [were said to roam the countryside, has taken place in one of our finest raising lands, the Riverina. The trial of the alleged thieves is! to take place in about a month's time. According to reports at hand, the owner of a mob of 700 sheep suspected a well-to-do neighbour of stealing sheep. The police set} 4 trap, catching a number of men with a large mob on their hands, and then, raiding the suspected Nand-owner, found some more of the missing sheep. In these days of telegraph and railroads it seemed improbable that sane business men should attempt auch a larg rested wi spected citizen of the countryside and one of considerable years' residence. "Rumours of cattle thieving by attaching other People's stocks to yours when drove ing along the route and then lesing Some as you proceed along, so thnt their rightful owners will be able to collect them, and fall under the impression that their stocks have only strayed and they may find the balance later on, have been frequently made. But to calmly take Inrge numbers and place them on your property, claiming them as your own, has' not been done since the bad old days, 'A well-known case in Queensland in the beginning of the present cen-|¥ tury was one in point. owner stole a neighbouring owner's calves, which, were what is termed "clean skins," that is to say, they had not been branded. He staunchly held that the calves were his own and proved it by producing cows as their mothers. The magistrate, who was also a breeder of stock, demanded the calves to be brought. He separated them from their alleged mothers, placed the one farmer's cows on one side of the paddock and the claimant's cows on the other side. Magistrate and interested spectators watched the calves seek cut their mothers. The holder of the calves was given a term of Prironment to convince him that "mother love" was not yet dead,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.