NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9492, 23 April 1894, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Sti George's Day. Election of school committees to-night. A severe winter is predicted in Central Otago, Tasmania m sending heavy exports of fruit this year to London. A Victorian factory is tinning as many is 6000 pairs of rabbits a day. It is feared that tuberculosis is increasing among cattle in South Australia. There are ab present forty-four male and four female prisoners in the Napier gaol. A farmer at Ida Valley (Otago) has obtained this (season from his crop of oats 90 * bushels to the acre. Three hundred volumes of new books were added to the lending department of the Free Library on Saturday. Some Southland farmers are desirous that a duty should be put) upon horses imported from the Australian colonies. Steps are being taken to continue the work of prospecting for coal at the site of the recent discovery at Brightwaber, near Nelson. The balance-sheet of the Queensland Rugby Union shows that the gross profits of- the year have been £430, while the overdraft has been reduced by £275. A number of New South Wales squatters having holdings near the Queensland border have of late been discharging all their white hands and taking on black fellows. A schoolboy named James Pianti, whilst walking in the Whipatick scrub, Bendigo (Victoria), the other day, found a piece of quartz weighing lib, and containing gold worth £40. Notwithstanding the low price of sHyer and the expense of working, the British Broken Hill Company has a credit balance of £42,000, represented principally by cash. To-day is St. George's Day, and is a bank holiday, and is also observed by the insurance companies. In Auckland there is no special function, but there are races in the Waikato. The seventh concert of the series of popular winter concerts under the direction of Mr. A. H. Gee will be held on Wednesday evening in the City Hall. There will be further novelties. The Queensland Meat Export Company has applied for a grant of £'26,500 from the Meat and Dairy Produce Board, as ib is the intention of the Company to double tho capacity of its works at Townsville and Brisbane. A nest made of feathers and grass, in which were an old rat and tight young ones, was found in the top of a large walnut tree in Nelson. The largo rat jumped out when the man approached the nest, but the young vermin were secured. This is the first instance recorded, of rats having nests at the top of trees. An accident occurred on board the steamer Barrabool on her last trip from Adelaide to Sydney. A few gentlemen were practising with a pistol at a mark— a. bottle swung at|the sterner the vessel. One gentleman fired and struck the bottle, when a splinter of glass rebounded and struck Dr. Smith, of Kedhill, within half an inch of the eye, inflicting a wound about an inch long. In connection with the re-erection of the Victoria Bridge in Brisbane, the contract time for the first half of the bridge is '21 months, and for tho second half nine months. The entire structure is to be completed in 30 months. The time allowed for the completion of the abutments and approaches is the same as for the piers and superstructure. All the labour in connection with the bridge has to be done in the colony. __________-..«.