In nearly every case (says the Clutha Leader) the house where the outbreak occurred was either connected with a drain without a proper trap, or else in close proximity to accumulations of house drainage that is diverted on to street ditches.
To provide a system of drainage is an expensive matter, and the council has now decided to prohibit the discharge of house water and slops on to the streets.
• Cabinet has decided to issue seal-fishing licenses for the outlying islands, and regulations in connection therewith are gazetted.
The licenses (says our Wellington correspondent) will be issued by public tender in respect of the Snares, Auckland, Campbell, Antipodes, and Bounty Islands, and will be for 10 years, without any right of renewal.
No female seals are to be killed, nor any bull seal under 12 months old, and a sufficient number of full-grown bulls must be left for breeding purposes.
The licensee and his employees must travel to and from the islands included in the license by a Government steamer, which will bring back the skins, and he will pay a royalty of 10s on each fur seal and of 1s on each hair seal taken.
Not more than 4500 fur seals and 4500 hair seals shall be taken by the licensee during the first year of his license on the Snares.
Auckland, Antipodes, and Bounty Islands, and not more than 500 fur seals and 500 hair seals shall be taken during the first year by the licensee on Campbell Island.
In succeeding years the numbers that may be taken shall be fixed by the Ministry.
• A special meeting of the Lawrence-Roxburgh Railway League was held at Roxburgh on Monday, there being some 17 or 18 gentlemen present. Mr Bennetts presided.
It was decided that a petition be presented to the Government asking for the resumption of the Teviot and Ormaglade Estates for cutting up for closer settlement.
It was also decided to petition the Otago Land Board to have Mount Benger Station (of which it was stated the lease expires in 1911) relet in small lots so as to further settlement.
It was further decided to telegraph to the Minister of Public Works asking when he intended to carry out his promise to go over the country to be served by the Lawrence-Roxburgh railway. - ODT, 24.7.1909.
