INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTERCOLONIAL BREVITIES

Mr. R. E. O'Connor has been appointed temporarily to the Supreme Court Bench of N.S.W. The Victorian Railway Commissioner has recommended the construction of a railway to Mildura at a cost of £301,400. It is probable that a compulsory Arbitration and Conciliation Bill will be introduced in the New South Wales Parliament. Two gentlemen were conducted from the New South Wales Assembly gallery recently for applauding during a debate. During September there were 1042 deaths in Sydney and the suburbs, being 446 in excess of the births. Between two and three ton» of hay to the acre are being obtained in the district irrigated by the Pera bore, N.S..W. Active preparations are being made in Brisbane for the trial of officials in connection with the Queensland National Bauk. At Walla Walla station, N.S.W., a number of unengaged shearers rushed the huts and helped themselves to food. Mr. Bernard Ingleby, of Mount Kosciusko Observatory, has had a perilous experience through being lost on the mountain. There is a difficulty in Tasmania owing to the fact that the two Judges of the Full Court dt«agroe on a law point, and there ia no final authority. In reply to a deputation, Mr. Hogue, Minister for Education in New South Wales, promised shortly to introduce an Early Closing Bill. A man named Wheadon, against whom a breach of promise action was recently decided, committed suicide at .Willochra (S.A.). Reports from the outlying districts at Narrabri, N.S.W., state that the sheep are dying by hundreds, and that every vestige of grass and herbage has disappeared. The total quantity of Australian apples shipped to London during the last season amounted to 140,000 bushels, the greater quantity being from Tasmania.' It is believed, from the strata being pierced in the Diamond Exploration Company's workings (near Inverell, N.S.W.), that true diamonds will soon be met with. The New South Wales Minister for Mines has issued a notification to mine-owners that the provisions of the Coal Mines Regulation Act with regard to weighing must be observed. In the New South W^.os Legislative Assembly a resolution w? carried for tho appointment of a Select Committee to enquire into mining accidents and the relief of distress caused thereby. At an inquest in Sydney, it was shown that a woman had died through eating chocolates which she had carried in her pocket for some time with phosphorus matches. Wilfred Arthur Hardy has been sentenced to four months' imprisonment for sending a number of false telegrams, calculated to boom the market in the No. 1 North Norseman ahares, W.A. A young man was found by the police on the outskirts of Ararat, Victoria, actually suffering' from starvation. He had walked all the way from New South Wales looking for work. The weights of the prize wheat exhibits at the Temura Shovr, Now South Wales, were: — First prize sample, 67^-lb ; second prize, 6olb ; t,hird prize, 64£-lb ; fourth prize, 64jlb ; fifth prize, 631b. A plot of ground comprising five acres in the Royal Park, Melbourne, has recently, with a view of encouraging the silk industry, been planted by the Victorian Government with white mulberry trees. The Presbyterian minister of Maryborough (Victoria), with' a debt of £500 faciug him, abolished the system of collecting, and announced that he would trust to voluntary contributions. The debt was immediately wiped off. From the returns of the Queensland Registrar- General, the area under crop for grain in 189t! was 35,831 acres, and in 1897 59,875 acraa. The yield for 1897 waa 1,009,293 bushels, but to supply the wants of the colony 1,550,319 bushels of wheat, or its equivalent iv flour, had to be imported. The President of the Synod of Greece, in a letter written from Athens, thanked the Rev. W. I. Carr-Smith for his interest and assistance to the members of the orthodox Greek Church in their efforfco to erect a church in Sydney, and pointed to the friendly relations existing between the Anglican and Greek Communions. Mortality duo to tick fever, continues to be reported amongst the cattle in the Kimberley District, West Australia, 12 deaths having occurred out of 24 head of affected cattle at the Goose Hill Reserve. The Inspector of Stock anticipates great mortality in the district if the runs get heavily ticked. While the steamer Chingtu was in Melbourne, a Customs officer was astonished to pee a metal tenpot flying through the air from the vessel's deck to tho pier, whero the catch was cleanly taken by a coloured man evidently standing there for the express purpose. The te.ipot was found to contain 51b of tobacco. The Rev. W. M. Dill Macky, a prominent New South Wales Presbyterian clergyman, used for years to preach against the other denominations ; but he has given up that style of eermon, and would, ho enys, be sorry to desecrato his pulpit with any such polemical outbursts. Ho adds, however, good- hum ouredly, that if all that is good in other Churches could be amalgamated a Church would be produced very liko tho Presbyterian Church. Something liko 20 miles in longfch of tho basaltic plains adjacent to tho Loddon River, Victoria, has lately been secured for alluvial mining. One large corporation, owning several extensive claims, hay decided to ereot a big electric plant, which will generate power for all mining purposes for tbree mines. The most careful investigations were made in America, England, and on the Continent before deciding upon this now departure— substituting electricity for steam power. Tho Queensland Government has upont £3G0,000 in coping with the rabbit pest, while a sum of £270,000 has been raised for the Bame purpose from private individuals by local taxation. Efforts havo been to a large extent directed towards fencing the rabbita out, and to this end a fence nearly 6400 miles iv length has been erocted along the border botweon Queenslaud and New South Wales at a cost of £138,205, while, since its erection, £21,000 has been apeut in maintenance. A few weeka ago a cable message was received by the Victorian Minister of Agriculture from Capetown intimating that butter not of Australian origin was boiug imported into that colony from London iv Victorian buttor-boxea, and Hold as best Australian. A cable inossage was sent to tho Agent-Gem rul asking him to have enquiries made in London. The Minister of Agriculture received recently a letter from Sir Andrew Clarke saying that the Imperial Customs authorities had shown soino reluctance about giviug *uy information. Mr. Taverner has in con&equeuoe asked the Piemier to write through the Administrator of the Government to tho Secretary of State for tho Colonies, and represent to him how important it is that the Victorian Government should receive assistance from the Imperial authorities in endeavouring to protect the export trade of the colony.