NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9182, 11 October 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Perth- (W.A.) Stock-Exchange was formally opened the other day. Heavy deposits of native silver have been found in the reef of the Waratah claim at Croydon (Q,) The men employed on the Great Southern Railway in West Australia are on strike for higher wages. Beer, wine, and spirits are stated to be smuggled in very large quantities from Victoria into New South Wales.

The bulk of the stone at Kimberley (W.A.) is said to run from 2ozs to 6ozs of gold per ton, and there is plenty of it. A 66-feet frontage to Adelaide-street, Brisbane, has been sold at £300 a foot. It was bought two years ago for £145 a foot. The sentence passed on E. B. Holt, exmanager of the Sydney branch of the Bank of New Zealand, will expire about a year hence. The total number of deaths at Broken Hill since January 1 was 264. Of that number typhoid has been the cause of S6, and pneumonia 89. The Tasmanian revenue for the nine months of the present year is £455,365, against £416,070 of the corresponding period of last year. Several deep-sea vessels that have recently arrived from Europe at Melbourne have reported very heavy gales, and in some instances loss of life has occurred.

The prospects of the mining season in Tasmania are said to be steadily improving in tin. gold, silver, and coal, and there is every sign of a busy and profitable year. Joseph Levy Schindler, a Melbourne pawnbroker, has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for conspiring to defraud the public by means of false pawntickets.

The Broken Hill Silver Age advocates a " systematic, intelligent, and persistent agitation and separation from New South Wales and join the Barrier to South Australia."

Mr. East, geologist, accompanying the Central Australian Exploring Expedition, says that the supposed rubies found in the interior are unquestionably only garnet pseudomorphs. The " hairless mare " which was on board the steamer the other day, on its way to Barnum, in America, was exhibited in Sydney. She is 15f hands high, and is a native of Cooper's Creek, Queensland. Andrew Strachan, a butcher, was fined £6 and costs at the Water Police Court, Sydney, the other day for having on his premises "a dead horse, unfit for human consumption." Notice of appeal was given. In a review of the educational exhibits in a recent exhibition supplement of the Melbourne Age, it is stated that " New South Wale# takes the lead of the Australian colonies in the matter of technical education." It is reported from Cooktown that the miners who have gone to Cape Sud-Est are well satisfied with their returns. They have averaged 15 to IS ounces per man in IS days. The climate is good, and water abundant. The police of Queensland, by order of the Colonial Secretary, have now permission to meet and appoint delegates, and to take any other action they may think necessary to bring their grievances before the Civil Service Commission. It is stated that Mr. S. Vaile intends to pay the Waikato a visit towards the end of this week. It the Railway Reform League will take the initiative, Mr. Vaile will be prepared to hold a public meeting on the question of railway reform. An outbreak of diphtheria is reported from Davlesford, Victoria. Children are supposed to have contracted the disease from cats, a number of which are dying in the neighbourhood. The patients are progressing favourably under blue-gum treatment. The shearers at Bogamildi station, near Warialda (N.S.W.), refused to continue work unless five Chinamen were discharged. As they would not agree to compensate the Chinese for having to leave the shed, all the men were paid off, and work was stopped. The Sydney Evening News says : —An indication of the effect produced by the land mania in Melbourne is seen in the size of both the leading journals. They claim to be the largest ever published in Australia, and there seems to be some, doubt whether they are not the largest in any part of the world.