NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10020, 6 January 1896, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

MoNowAilefb for Sydney. Crusader sailed for London. Rotomahana from Sydnay lata to-nighb. More dredging required in the harbour to the westward of Queon-stroeb Wharf. An ordinary meeting of the Harbour Board will be held to-morrow. Business: Ordinary. During the quarter ended September only BO cases of typhoid occurred in Sydney ana suburbs, the deaths numbering six. The cargo of the ship Rorrowdale, which Bails for London to-day, includes 3300 bales of wool. The value of the cargo is about £60,000. , „ _ „ A Culls resident named H. Snell was nearly drowned in the Raacitikei River a few flays ago, being rescued in an exhausted condition. , . . Hemlock, a poisonous weed, has been found growing in the Uralla district. It had not previously been known to exist in New South Wales. The freights between Coolgardie and the head of the railway, 40 miles distant, aro still about £12 to £14 per ton. More teams are urgently required. A lady who had a ticket on First Result) at the .Ashurst races was robbed of her purse, containing upwards of £30, a very abort time afterwards. The Victorian Railway Commissioners have withdrawn the circular requiring porters and others to provide themselves with two uniforms a year. The Falmerston North Borough Council Waterworks Committee have recommended the Council to engage a qualified engineer to report on a waterworks scheme. The total quantity of potatoes shipped from the north-wosb coast of Tasmania last season was 46,400 tons, the largest on record. The bulk of these went) to Sydney. On Sunday week last a little girl at Wellington picked up a handkerchief containing fifty sovereigns. With the money was a receipt, which enabled the owner to be traced. Two brothers named Holley, employed shunting coal trucks at Darling Harbeur for the Metropolitan Coal Company, sustained serious injuries through falling in front of a truck. A young man named Alfred Herbert, whose mind appears to be affected by drunkenness, committed suicide at Ballarat North by shooting himself with a revolver. Deceased was 24 years of age. At Nathalia, Victoria, a farm lad jokingly presented a gun at the youug daughter of his employer, Mr. Andrew Black. Tho gun went off, and the charge lodged in the girl's nose and eyes. Her recovery is doubtful. The new town well at Coolgardie is making 6000 gallons of fresh water daily, and the local Water Department has suggested thah this *\ipply be used for dotL«,: ki c purposes, and that a fresh well be lunk for die use of the fire brigade. Tho first compound locomotive built in the colony was completed in the Addington Workshops a few days ago. The engine is of the four-cylinder Vauclain system, and consists of two high-pressure and two lowpressure cylinders. The boiler is of steel throughout, and is pressed to 1801b per square inch. Travellers who have lately passed through Hawke's Bay all speak of the intense heat experienced there. All the grass is burnt to a cinder, and men ore employed burning the grass on the railway lino to avsrt possible loss. On Boxing Day in Waipawa the thermometer read 98 in the shade.

A Masterton firm of auctioneers (saya a local paper) sold some ducks the othei day. In the gizzard of one of the birds was found a nugget of gold nearly as large as a pea. The auctioneers, knowing from whence tho ducks were procured, intend taking out a prospector's license. On New Year's morning two members of the Wellington Star Boating Club—Messrs. F. Harcourt and H. G. Lewis— for the Pilot Station in a double sculling boat, which swamped as she was crossing Evans' Bay. The yacht Rona made an ineffectual attempt to rescue the occupants, bub eventually they were picked up by the Mab. Bith men lost a quantity of personal belongings. Shark catching is developing into quite an industry in Sydney harbour, thankf to a liberal scale of rewards paid by the Fisheries Commission. The prices paid are as follow:— 5s for sharks from 7 feet to 10 feet long, and 10s for sharks 10 feet long and upwards. Since last November the commission has paid for the destruction of 27 sharks by one man alone, the sharks ranging up to 13 feet in length.