NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10035, 23 January 1896, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

IFire st Kaipara, H.M.p. Goldfinch in dock. Herald Summary to-morrow. ■Richmond for the Islands to-day. Brooklet won the Wellington Cop. Auckland Regatta entries last night. Ruahine leaves Wellington for London on Saturday. A Prospecting Association is being formed at Charleston. An eel weighing 107|lb was recently laptured at the Brnnner. Wool sales yesterday were largely attended, but prices were easier Half a ton of rabbits are daily consigned to Melbourno from Harcourc, where tho pest still flourishes. The work of securing a duplicate telegraph line to Western Australia is being pushed on from South Australia. A man named J. Casey died in the Adelaide Hospital frm injuries received in a fight. His dying depositions could not be taken. The Chief Inspector of Stock is to inspect) the country between Blenheim and Christchurch to note how the rabbit pest is being Coped with. Harvesting is in full swing on all farms on the Upper Plain, Wairarapa. Farmers press themselves thoroughly satisfied frith the prospects of a good yield. The Department of Agriculture, in Queensland, anticipating a shortage in seed requirements, has arranged to import) 2000 bushels of wbeab from New South Wales.

A good deal of damage to crops around Danevirke baa been worked by the lato heavy winds, and a number of gardens have been almost ruined through the same

agency. The hottest day 30 far experienced in the Norsewood district was the 29th December, when the thermometer readings were 146 degrees Falir. in the sun, and 86 degrees in tho shade.

Gruesome accounts are to hand from some of the Wilcannia stations that there is hardly any feed, and stock are perishing for want of nourishment, Rabbits are dying in thousands,

The body of Harry Mclntyre, a wellknown resident of lviinma (Queensland), has been found in a billabong of the Diamantina, with the throab cut and an open razor lying close by. On Saturday night the sum of £7, wrapped up in packets of 20s each, was itolen from a chest of drawers in the bedroom Mr. D. McDonald, Jicenßee of the Star Hotel, Wellington. Several cases of typhoid fever have lately broken out at Waimate, Canterbury, and nearly all have been traced to one locality. The presumption is that bad water has been the cause of the outbreak.

The only prisoner in the lockup last evening was a young man named Bertie Jones, in remand from Dunedin to Coromandel on I charge of larceny of £4 13s, the property if his employer, John Lynch. Numerous cases of sheep-stealing are reported in the Rangitikei. Tho Advocate says sheep-stealing is a comparatively safe occupation in that district, and advises the appointment of a special stock detective. A hearties? case of bigamy is reported to Tiave occurred at Gore. A young man is laid to have been married to a girl at Balclutha, and then within the same week married another girl at Gore. He has since disappeared. It has been decided by the committee of the Nelson Institute to make application to the Government to set aside the 2000 acres authorised by the Act of last session, by way of endowment for the Nelson Institute and Library. The Telegraph Department has a number of men employed erecting a new copper wire to connect Wellington with Auckland direct. The route is by way of Wairarapa, Forty-mile Bush, Hawke's Bay, and along the East Coast through Taupo. A couple of old miners from Victoria, who have been spending a day or two in Shannon, having been prospecting, and have found some good colours, and are lure from the indications that gold will yet be found in payable quantities in the ranges. The highest price (lOd per lb) realised for wool at any auction sale in the colony for Bome years was obtained at Wellington last week, for 20 bales of greasy crossbred wool from the flock of Mr. W. McLaren, of the Bush Gully run, behind Martinborough. The Government Biologist, Mr. T. W. Kirk, who has been on an official visit to the Wairarapa district, reports that the crops in that district are very free from disease of all kinds-Hessian fly, smut, and rust included. The crops generally are good, but in some parts of the district there is rather much straw in proportion to the ear.