NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10129, 12 May 1896, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Burecmbbet detained South. Waihora arrived from South. Tarawera arrived from Sydney. Bobbery on board the Tarawera. Richmond expected frdm the islands to day. Two English mails arrived from Sydnej yesterday. Feilding is proposing to borrow £3000 foi lighting the town by electricity. The revenue of the colony of West Ans tralia is still increasing at a rapid rate. The spread of the weed known as "stink wort" is causing much concern among the farmers at Albury. Yesterday George Smart, gentleman, ol Auckland, was adjudged a bankrupt on a creditor's petition. For New Zealand it is estimated that 7*72 bushels of wheat are required for food per head of population. The Queen of the South has lately taken S6OO sacks of peas from Picton to Wellington for shipment to England. The export of coal from Newcastle the week before last was 62,747 tons, a record Bince the close of the 1888 strike. A hunt club has been formed in Danevirke, and has decided to purchase the bounds of the late Wairarapa Hunt Club. An Ashburtou boy has joined the Navy nnder the now regulations, and has been instructed to report himself on H.M.s. Rapid at Lyttelton. The milk suppliers between Campbelltown and Kiama are agitating for an increased price for the milk forwarded to Sydney companies. The New South Wales Minister for Mines and Agriculture predicts that the largest area ever placed under crop in that colony will be sown this year. The contractor for the Apiti Bridge is endeavouring to sink the cylinders without an air lock, the men working up to tbeir Waists in water, two hour shifts. x It is stated that the oat crop between the Rangitikei and the Otaki Rivers will not realise one-half the amount estimated by the farmers whilst the crop was growing. The other day some excitement was caused at Leichhardt, New South Wales, by the collapse of a two-storied building in the Parramatta Road. No one was injured. An Oaraaru man, who bad to ask for concessions from his creditors in 1885 in consequence of having met with financial difficulties, has now paid the whole of his debte.

By advertisement in another column, shareholders in the National Insurance Company are notified that the dividend recently declared by the directors is now payable at the branch office, Queen-street. A prisoner who had only five weeks to serve of a sentence of three years was working on the Rocks Road, near Nelson, a few days age, when some rocks fell on him, the Result being a compound fracture of the leg. The freezing of rabbits alone this year at the Mataura Freezing Works will increase the company's income by fully £500. No extra labour or motive power is needed to carry on this work in addition to the sheepfreezing. Investigations of the affairs of the New South Wale? Colonial Secretary's Public Instruction and Mines Departments are now being made by the Public Service Commission. Several changes of importance are contemplated. A boy named George Maddox had his band crushed in a printing machine at Wellington on Thursday. Dr. Faulke was tailed in, and with .Mr. FitzGerald's assistance sewed up the injuries. It will be two months or more before the lad is able to resume work. Some of the settlers on the Stats farm at levin have recently been ordered to leave their comfortable quarters at the farm and proceed to the railway works in the Hunterville district. This has naturally incensed the men, and one has written a stronglyworded letter to the Levin paper. . An immense sunfish was stranded near the Spit Bridge in the inner harbour at Napier a few days ago, and it has been secured for the Museum at Wanganui. It weighed about two tons, and it took a waggon to take it to Napier for exhibition purposes. In colour it was something like a shark, a greyish-blue, and it had fully three inches thick of blubber, and measured 12 feet from snout to tip of tail.