NWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10410, 7 April 1897, Page 6

NWS IN BRIEF.

tiELUMEKT opened. Anglian gone South. Mamari arrived from London. Mail steamer left San Francisco fiftyfour boors late. , .... The Mamari has a large quantity of Machinery for the goldfieldß. .... A large quantity of ice was sighted by the Mamari in the Southern Ocean. A child named Blair was drowned in an andergroand tank at Plattsburg, New South Wales. There were 65 births, 45 deaths, and 28 marriages registered in Wanganai for the last quarter. .... A vegetable marrow four feet in circumference,"and weighing 801b, has been grown it Hastings. There were in the lock-up last evening two men and three women on charges of drunkenness. The codlin moth has done great injury to the apple crop in the Tapanui district, Otago, this season. At Brunswick, Victoria, a boy named James Griffin fell into an abandoned clay pit, and was drowned. The Masterton Agricultural and Pastoral Association has a balance of £861 3s 7d in assets over liabilities. The Napier Harbour Board are reducing •ipenses, and have given notice to four of their principal officers. . Th# cost of labour for working the Union Company's boats at the port of Napier is about £1200 per annum. A " drunk " at Masterton swore that he became intoxicated through drinking a dozen bottles of elderberry wine. The Stratford batter factory is the largest In New Zealand. Upwards of 4000 gallons of milk are put through per day. A man named Dwyer was lost for eight days in the bush at Gippsland, Victoria. He had subsisted on young ferns and the pith of fern trees. No rain has fallen at Berrigan, New South Wales, for some months, and a water famine has set in. The Government are being asked to run water trains. The Victorian Royal Commission on old age pensions has decided to obtain all available information from other countries where the system is in operation. There is some probability of the disused freezing works of Messrs. Nelson Brothers, at Clarkesville, Otago, being taken over shortly, and utilised as a rabbit-tinning factory during the winter. The other morning Mr. H. Elliot, of Hawera, was riding to work when bis bicycle collapsed, the frame parting in two pieces. The rider had a bad fall, was much cat about the body, and lost two teeth. Writing from Calcutta, Mr. W. Wilson says that at present the Indian market is flooded with Australian horses. The Indian Government has ceased buying, and there is no demand outside, so that horses have to be sold at prices that do not realise the charges for freight. A peculiar occurrence happened in Victoria lately. A woman named Mrs. Cole was driving through Maffra, when a swarm of bees alighted on the horse's head. • The animal, which was an old one, immediately lay down and took matters philosophically. A man came to the rescue, and securing a pail of water, douched the bees, and thus frightened them away. Whilst going from Moawhanga to Mat.ton on Thursday, Messrs. P. Murray and Burgees, of Wanganui, in driving across the Rangitikei River, were carried down by the force of the current. They jumped out in the water up to their armpits, and they had a great struggle in reaching the bank, which they eventually succeeded in doing. The horse was drowned, aud the trap washed away.