BRIEF MENTION.

Evening Star, Issue 11456, 25 January 1901, Page 6

BRIEF MENTION.

Tho -workmen at tire Government Workshops at Petone arc taking up the. proposal to make a presentation to the Hon. Mr Ward in acknowledgment of the recent increase in wages, and a, scheme is being prepared by which each railway employe throughout New Zealand will be given an opportunity of making a sixpenny contribution to Mr Ward's presentation fund. Apart from this, it is the intention of the Petone men to organise a banquet to Mr Ward, at which the presentation will probably be made. Messrs Fisher and Wilford, M.H.R.s, will ako be presented with tokens of esteem on that occasion. Mr W. Eraser, member for Wakatipu, has been in communication with the Minister of Marine in connection with the regulations TR engine-drivers' certificates on dredges. Mr Eraser drew attention to tho hardships that would be entailed nn many persons, and also to the manner in which the dredging industry would be hamprrexl. A petition urging some modifications of the regulations was also sent to the Minister, with the result (says the (' Cromwell Argus') that he has promised to go inUi tho whole question. Mr Petrie, chief inspector of the Auckland educational district, and Inspectors Goodwin, Crowe, Gricrson, Mulgan, and Purdio have left for Wellington to attend the conference of school inspectors, meeting there on the 28th inst. The Minister of Mines is visiting del. "'*- 'lliltetf'a f»i' t iif 52 ntat* srl T \ A young maj-ried woman, named frroily Macdonald, poisoned her child, aged about eighteen months, and then made a determined attempt to commit, suicide on January 17, a.t Sydney. With her husband, she resided in a house at Redfern, occupied by her sister-in-la.w. She had recently been "very much worried by family matters, and this gave rise to periods of deep depression. Matters reached a climax on the date in question. It is alleged that she. gave tho child a drink of -water which contained the heads of a box and a-half of wax matches. This took place abont noon, and the child lingered till six o'clock at night. Sho then dissolved Ihe heads of two more boxes of matches in water and drank the mixture. Fearing that the poison would not do its work, she jumped off the balcony to the roadway, a distance of about 14ft, and although no bones were broken she was severely injured by the fall. She lies in the. Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.