NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9807, 30 April 1895, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

■ w The Wellington Amateur Gymnastic Club is in a flourishing condition, and has 200 active members on its roll. The South Australian revenue from July 1, 1894, to April 13, 1895, amounted to - £398,562, or £15,481 less than for the corresponding period of the previous year. The hop-picking season in Tasmania is now a thing of the past. The crop has nob been a heavy one, and will nob exceed 7001b to the acre. This, coupled with the very low prices ruling, will mean ruin to a good many growers. A peculiar accident is reported from Back Creek, Bendigo, a Mrs. Smith (80 years of age) sustaining a painful wound on the neck, owing to the explosion of a rifle cartridge which was being burned in a rubbish heap. The Rangitikei Advocate states that the other day a splendid view of Ruapehu was obtainable from Marton, and immense volumes of steam or smoke could bo seen coming from a western spur about half way up the mountain. The Kumara Times says that during the sham fight at the Greymouth volunteer • encampment, one company was about to fire on an attacking party when the officer in charge discovered that ball had been served out with the blank cartridge. A sorious shooting accident happened at Bright, Victoria, the other morning, to a lad named Walter Shoebridge. Shoe' bridge and a lad named James McFarlane were handling a saloon rifle, when the latter accidentally discharged the weapon, the bullet entering Shoebridge's forehead. The plan now in use in Victoria for ' killing rabbits and preparing them for export is to kill them at the place where they are trapped, and after they have been ' cleaned to send the carcases to Melbourne. A trial that was made of sending the 1 animals alive to the market was not found 1 to answer. '

The valuation of property in Melbourne for tho current year is lower than it was before the "boom" period. In 1577, and for several years previously, the valuation had remained stationary at £1,831,000. Since then ib had undergone a gradual augmentation as the boom fever grew, and a more rapid decline as the period of inflated values vanished. The valuation of 1895 is £1,200,000.

" Considerable difficulty is being experienced both in city and country," says the Adelaide Advertiser of the Bth instant, "in persuading women who were enfranchised under the Adult Suffrage Act cf last year to register their votes. Scored have declined to accept even service of the papers, while many mora have shown a great disinclination to fill them up." A wedding party had rather a trying "experience during the recent floods in the Wellington district. Arriving at the parsonage, tho bride had to be carried from the carriage into the house upon the shoulders of tho bridegroom, through three feet of water, and when the ceremony was over the return trip had to be similarly performed. Their troubles were not then at an end, as the bridegroom gob an involuntary bath before he reached home.

The Christchurch Press says that ab a meeting of the committee of the Acclimatisation Society, a letter was read, stating that the application to the Government for a free pass on the railways for the curator of the Society could not be granted. This simply means, as pointed out by several members, that the Society will have to suspend all their efforts in the matter of putting fish into the various rivers.

The following is the state of Her Majesty's prison, Auckland, for week ending April 27 On remand, 3 males; awaiting trial, 6 males; boys, 2; penal servitude, 33 males, hard labour, 6S males, 12 females; imprisonment, 1 female; default of b«dl, 2 males, 1 female; debtors, 1 male ; received daring the week, 12 males, 4 females; discharged, 13 males, 2 females total in prison 115 males, 14 females.