BRIEF MENTION.

Evening Star, Issue 9582, 31 December 1894, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

The latest bulletin regarding Lord Randolph Churchill is that he is in a less comatose state and that the immediate danger has diminished. H.M.S. Crescent has arrived in Sydney yfkh relief crews. She returns io England with 600 time-expired officers and men. It is reported in Washington that China is willing to pay an indemnity to Japan in silver obtained from the United States. The New Zealand Grand Lodge of Masons have now 100 lodges under their jurisdiction. At the request of the Marquis of Salisbury, the Marquis of Lome has consented to act as one of the judges to decide the best scheme for an Imperial Customs Union, for which the 'Statist' offers a prize of 1,000 guineas. Governor Langshan, of Indo-China, has been dismissed from office on the ground of having divulged official documents. . Mount Cook has at last been conquered. Messrs Graham, Clarke, and Fyfe topped tho Mount from the Hooker side on Christmas Day, the ascent having been made via Green's saddle. The time from the Hermitage was fifteen days. Mr Banfield, railway storekeeper at Dun(sdin, retires from the Bervice. A saw-mill, the property of Mr John Perry, Situate at Rankleburn Bush, near TapaAui, *as destroyed by fire on Saturday night. The fire was caused by sparks from a bush fire blowing on to the roof of the mill. The building was uninsured} and the owner estimates his loss at &00. An extraordinary case has been before the Melbourne Courts, in which the Rev. Mr Clarke, an Anglican clergyman, sought a writ of habeas corpus against his mother-in-law to regain possession of his wife. The applicant alleges that while he was conducting divine service certain persons broke into his carriage and carried off his wife, he subsequently being committed to a lunatic asylum on the evidence of his mother-in-law and a medical man, but was released after a detention of seventeen days. The wife in her evidence denied that she had blen abducted, and stated that she left of her own free will, and was proceeding for divorce against Clarke on the ground of cruelty. The court dismissed the application. Next year the Russian War Department will carry 10,000 troops to Vladivostock.