NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9990, 29 November 1895, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

11 Mana?odei for Sydney to-day. Richmond due from the Islands. Italian warship goes to the Islands. - Mail steamer from Sydney this evening. Technical school annual meeting this evening. The banks all close to-morrow — St.

Andrew's Day. By a blasting accident at Block 11 mine, Broken Hill, Charles Herreen and William Daly, miners, were killed. Included in the cargo of the R.M. 8, Miowera, which left Sydney for Vancouver last week, were 3000 bales of wool. A record carpet snake, which ii said to have been 17 foot in length, has been killed near Maclean, New South Wales. A light draught horse, much exhausted, and evidently a castaway from a ship ab sea, has swum ashore at Mitchell's Island, Croki. v A shipment of 1000 tons of wheat has been made from San Francisco for Sydney, and further shipments of 5000 tons are pending. . , A new woman advertises in Wellington " That she won't be responsible for any debt hor husband may contract without her

authority." The wool fleet at present in Port Jackson consists of nine steamers, with an aggregate of 34,535 tons, and 27 sailers, representing j!4,596 tons. Up to the present, the Dunedin Land Board have] received 91 applications for relief under tho Pastoral Tenants' Relief Act of last session. Three thousand five hundred acres of land ab Lake Brunner, which belonged to Mr. Clarko, has been accepted by the Government at 22s 6d per acre. Tho sheds on the Devonport West wharves, Tasmania, were completely destroyed by fire the other night, The sheds were filled with produoe. The Union Company intend running two excursions to the Sounds. The Tarawera Trill be despatched from Dunedin on the 22nd January and 31st January. The district of Masterton, under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1875, has been divided into two, to be callcd the Mauriceville and Masterton districts respectively. Mrs. John Williams died at Reefton on Tuesday week last, It appears that deceased "was dragged over a sideling on Specimen Hill by a goat and sustained internal injuries, which proved fatal. The man McDonald, who personated a Government official and victimised farmers by pretending to secure them exemption from the land tax, has been sent to gaol for twelve months at Grafton, New South Wales. At the Newtown Court, Sydney, Arthur Brownfield and Lucy Machan were committed for trial, charged with bigamy, in having married each other while tho husband of the woman and the wife of the man were alive. At Denniston on Monday last Mr. C. Brown, a well-known footballer, met with a nasty accident. He was at work in the Westporb Coil Company's mine when a prop gave way, injuring his head and shoulder.

A curiosity in the shape of a foal with three legs arrived in Greymouth by Tuesday's Midland train. The little animal appears to be quite strong and ambles along in a remarkable manner considering its deformity. The last term of the Thames School of Mines for the present year terminates on the 7th proximo, and during the following week the annual examinations take place, after which the school will be closed for the Christmas holidays. In the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Michael Joseph Kean, «•-secretary of the Stock Exchange of Melbourne, sued John Neil, a broker at Perth, for slander, claiming £2009 damages. A verdict was returned for plaintiff with £20 and costs. A sad drowning fatality took place at Bay, in the Murrumbidgee River. A number of youths were bathing, when one named Leslie Terry gob out of his depth and sank, his companions being unable to rescue him. The deceased was nearly 15 years old. One Sunday afternoon recently, three men were sleeping in a tent at the rear of the Club House, Hotel, Quirindi, and during a storm a large limb of a tree crashed through the tent, killing John O'Neil, a travelling tinsmith. The limb is supposed to have broken the man's neck. The other two men in the tenb were uninjured. Thousands of acres of tussock in the Waitaki Valley are completely killed out —no sign of lifo left in the dead stumps of grass—and whole hillsides of bare earth, moro like the desert than New Zealand hills. This valley has been burnt up with drought of late yesrs, and last winter seems to have •put the finishing touch on it. The number of sheep per acre the country will in future winter will be largely reduced.