NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10008, 20 December 1895, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

PcBUO schools break up for the holidays to-day. Anglian from Sydney to-day with an Inglish mail. A Female Foresters' Court) has been Opened at Masterton. To Koa arrived from Wellington to load frozen meat for London. It if said that Invercargill pays Over £10,000 a year as fire premiums. Actions with regard to the rabbit pest in the Ormondville district are pending.^ The Auckland Weekly News Christmas Number is published at the extremely low price of 6d. The contract for reclamation at Freeman's Bay has been extended for a further term of six months. A party of Maoris from Masterton caught 900 crayfish off the rocks at UastlepoinC the Other day in three hours. _ . Shearing operations are once again in full swing at Greytown, and shipments are arriving daily at the local station, A girl dressed in boy's clothes has been Tiding a bicycle about the streets of Sydney during last week, Very few people noticed

it. . The drought in Victoria does nob appear to affect the butter export trade, as the average up to the present keeps apace with last year. The Rev. J. Hobbs, Anglican minister nt Hastings, has decided to disband his choir, owing to the lack of interest by the members. The prize stories in the Christmas Number of tho Auckland Weekly News are more interesting than any that have hitherto appeared. On Thursday evening Mr. W. Waugh, of Stoney Creek, received some severe cuts and bruises through his horse bolting while proceeding homewards. At Pahiatua the police applied for three prohibition ordors nt a sitting of tho Court Inst week. One man admitted having spent £700 in one year in drink. A nest of black rats was discovered the other day in a tree at Otaki by a boy, who in securing them fell to the ground and BQstained rather serious injuries. It is authoritatively stated that Mr. Bray's hotel, Onehunga (the Railway Terminus), will be taken over by Mr. Roberts, formerly of tho Royal Mail, Auckland. The week's favourable weather ha! given the farmers a chance to harrost their hay, and in Carterton and tho neighbourhood the pork is being carried on early and lata. Ballasting operations aro completed on the railway now as far as the Mangatainoko River, and the ironwork for Scott's bridge contract is being conveyed by rail to the bank of the river. The harbourmaster is to report upon best means for carrying out recommendations of committee "for making all timber rafts anchored in the harbour to exhibit a light at night. A recent hailftirm which visited the Upper plain, Wairarapa, cut the fruit rather badly, tho apples in some orchards being much damaged, and pumpkins looked as if ehot at with a gun. A Melbourne sporting writer says:—" I *vas present for a time at the cycling on the Melbourne Cricket Ground last Saturday, and I saw more stiff running than I have seen on a racecourse for six months." Two stained glass windows have been placed in St. Bridget's Church, Feilding, by Father Patterson, making seven in all. The subjects of the last two windows ate St. Barbara and St. Dorothea, Martyrs. Mr. Osmond W. Handley, who had been tin the literary staff of the Sydney Daily Telegraph for nine years, and editor of the Bathursc Times has been appointed editor of the Nelson Mail vice Mr. J. F. Dundas resigned. Mr. F. G. Ewington, Official Visitor to the Lunatic Asylum, acknowledges with thanks receipt of some packs of cards from Mr. P. A. Philip 3, and a large bundle of Graphics from Rev. Mr. Lush for the patient^ A three-year-old daughter of Mr. E. H. Brider narrowly escaped drowning in the Wansranui river. The little girl was rescued just in the nick of time by Mr. lrhorpe. who plunged into the river with all !iis clothes on.

For the right of ad Terming on stations on she Wellington section of the New Zealand railways £136 ha? been pail, and a similar mm for the Wanganui section, whilst £100 was paid for the same right) in the penny time-tables. The City of Melbourne Bank (in liquidation) has been ordered to refund £3109 to the Prahran City Council. The money was entrusted to the bank for payment of Interest in England, but the bank closed its doors shortly afterwards. The Marlborough Express states that the first prize mare at an agricultural and pastoral show recently held not a hundred miles from Blenheim, was a gelding ! At Wanganui not so many years ago, the prize glut in the pointer class was a dog 1 An attempt to let some of the Sounds land (in Wallace and Fiord Counties, Southland) ha; failed. Fifteen runs ranging from 2000 to 76,000 acres did not attract a bidder even at the ludicrously low up?et of £7 per annum for the largost. While returning from church on Sunday last, the Misses Taylor, of Carnarvon, met with an awkward incident. The animal in the trap they were driving suddenly fell down dead. Both shafts of the trap were broken, but tho occupants escapod with a I severe shaking. ! The heavy and continuous rains of lato have seriously interfered with the potato crops in the Otaki district, and in many places the potatoes have rotted in the ground. So great has been the damage in a few cases, that the crops are hardly worth tbe trouble of digging. Last week Miss Amy Redwood, narrowly escaped drowning in the Opawa river, Marlborough. She missed har footing stepping Into a Rob Hoy canoe, and was carried out 160 yards into the stream with Mr. L. Borne, who went to he? rescue. A rope -was thrown to the pair by Mr. Redwood, and they were rescued in an exhausted condition. A son of Mr. K. B. Ferguson, of Waitati, was badiy gored by a bull at the PalmerEton South Agricultural find Pastoral Show last week. He was leading ono of his father s animals when it rushed him and tossed him over the fence among some trees. When the animal was beaten off, it was found that young Ferguson had an agly 85 ' 1 on one of his thighs, and that the wound bled freely.