NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10036, 24 January 1896, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

TTmsco mail steamer from Sydney to-day. An English mail, consisting of 46 baps, arrives by the Monowai from Sydney toGladstone, which lies about eight miles from Masterton, is fast assuming the form da township. Two dairy cows, recently slaughtered at Albury, were found to be extensively affected with tuberculosis. Since the Karori Cemetery, Wellington, was opened, four years ago, 1653 burials have taken place there. An elderly woman named Mrs. Comber was drowned in a storm-water channel at Moonee Ponds, Victoria. Farmers near Napier are complaining of tho drought, and much loss of stock is feared unless rain soon falls. Three children were bravely rescued from a burning cottage at Plattsburg, New South Wales, recently, by a miner named William Piatt. A severe frost occurred at Yass the other morning during the present spell of hot weather, and did considerable damage to tho crops. Tho insurances on Mr. W. A. Marriner's Btoro at Mangawhare are a3 follow South British, £1290; Northern Assurance Company, £200. A resident of Brunswick, Victoria, has made a claim against the Council for £3000 for neglecting to arrest all tho stray dogs in the district.

The New South Wales Department of Public Works is now spending about £50,000 a month on the construction of roads, bridges, and other works. The Official Visitor of the Lunatic Asylum acknowledges with thanks receipt of areola of illustrated papers from Mrs. Moss Davis and Mr. P. A. Philips for the patients. Grass seed (cocksfoot) has been found to be ripening very unevenly this season at Norsewood, although that ripe, where not already beaten out by the wind, proves to be Tery full. It is believed that the shell deposits at Nukumaru will ultimately prove of inestimable benefit to tho local bodies on the coast, and also prove a source of revenue to the railway lines. While out shooting ab Havilah, New South Wales, a young man named Arthur Welsh was killed by the hammer of his gun becoming caught in a wire fence, causing the weapon to explode. A single man named John Norman was admitted to Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, with his throat cut. He said that he inflicted tho injury to prevent his mother upbraiding him for stopping out at night. At Richmond station, in the Mackenzie country, it is stated that only some 500 Bheep were shorn out of about 20,000; but at Mistake station, very close to Mount Cook, the loss was not much more than 50 per cent. While walking; along tho bank of the Parramatta River, the Rev. J. K. Turner saw a boy disappear in the water. Without stopping to remove any of his clothes, the clergyman plunged into the river and saved tho boy's life. Haraua is the new name gazetted for Hawera, one of the Forty Mile Bush settlements, altered in compliance with the Designation of Districts Act, of 1894; and Campbelltown, Manawatu, will in future be known as Rongotea. A cricketer at New Plymouth had a bit of bad luck the other day. He was struck in the face rather violently with the ball, and just as he was recovering another ball caught him on the back ot the neck, and he had to be carried off the field.

The Timaru Herald has been drawing attention to the rapidly increasing use of tobacco by small boys in Timaru, and doubts whether in any other part of the world juvenile smokers Are more numerous in proportion to population than there. It is stated that 150 sharks have been captured off Bondi during the season, an average of often 15 sharks a night being caught. There is no bonus for killing sharks of! the coast, although shark catchers in Sydney harbour are rewarded. Several cases of pocket-picking are reported to have occurred among the crowd that assembled at the circus at Wellington on Saturday night. One man lost a purse containing, among other things, fifteen sovereigns, while two others lost £6 and £1

respectively. An accident, fortunately without loss of life, took place near the Teremakau on Tuesday. One of the employees on the Hokitika-Grdy railway was riding along on one of the bicycle trollies, when nearing a bend he caught sight of a coming train, and barely had time to jump off,, when the train dashed up and smashed the trolly.